Of crowds, agoraphobia and alienation

Sudhindranath Dutta, one of the major Bengalee poets of the decade of the 30s in twentieth century, was a perfectionist in his own realm of poetry. A section of critics discovers in him the sensibilities of a modern classicist. Unlike Bishnu Dey, he was not a 'pro-people' poet.
He was not people-unfriendly either. But in his poetry he developed a dread for the masses. On reading his famous lines "Sohena sohena jonotar Ei joghonnyo mitali" (No longer can I suffer the bonhomie of humans), one might be led to conclude that Sudhindranath had occasional seizures of demo-phobia or agoraphobia.
In the poet's youth, the prime period of his creativity, Kolkata was already a crowded, bustling city. Even, the great Tagore felt aghast at the urban stranglehold on the vast eastern Indian city. He felt claustrophobic at times in the confines of his residence.
Over eighty years have ticked away after that period. Kolkata is now a modern, remarkably disciplined metropolis. Its quaint environs have wonderfully coalesced into modern infrastructural marvels -- notably the metro rail and the lately constructed high-rises and flyovers. While walking by a spacious footpath, or having quick-lunch at a street-side snacks corner you'll not feel the revolting heat of the hundreds of pedestrians streaming by. Raised in a chaotic Kolkata, chocked by frenzied crowds of people, Sudhin Dutta would have been amazed  being in that city in the 21st century.
However, it may not have prevented him from composing the 'anti-people' lines. For, be they in Vancouver, Copenhagen, London, or our dust-laden Dhaka, there are many people who dread crowd. At one time or another, the modern (some would like to use 'post-modern') man subconsciously develops agoraphobia, the fear of crowd. The roots of this may lie in the fact that human beings are basically alone. The readers must be acquainted with the well-known line of a Bengali folk-spiritual song: "We have come to this world unaccompanied, that's how we will say goodbye to it".
The Western philosophers, notably Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, have amply dealt with the theme of the absurdist human existence, vis-à-vis 'alienation'. The twentieth century Existentialist writer-philosophers Sartre and Camus elaborated on the subject.
They have created immortal characters in their writings after the model of the 'Outsider'. Perhaps it was T.S. Eliot who had skilfully made use of the subject of urban alienation in his poems The Waste Land and The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock. In Bangla poetry the strange, unworldly feeling of solitude or that of being alone in a crowd recurs in the poems of Jibanananda Das.
In fact, the crowd and the lonely person go together; these two notions are complementary. If there is a crowd, then lonely persons have to be around. Also, if a given urban hub remains hostile to someone, he or she eventually dissociates themselves from it. These sensitive people feel repulsed at the sight of crowds. Then few of them can resist being attacked by agoraphobia.
In Bangladesh, with a population of over 160 million, one cannot but become afflicted with a feeling of demo-phobia. Wherever you set your foot, you feel choked by crowds. In the cities there are no easily accessible retreats where one can spend some moments in privacy. Large streets, lanes, narrow alleys, footpaths -- every space is filled with people. When out on the streets on foot, you get jostled, shoved into this or that side, or if tricked by ill luck, step into an open manhole.
In the bygone days, the exhausted city people used to make short trips to villages. The villages were then serene, with not many passers-by on the roads. Rustle of trees and bird-chirps and occasional moos of cows filled the air. You could hear the sounds of oars in the nearby river or the plaintive songs of boatmen, the faint noise of children coming from a distant orchard.
All this has long been devoured by the hideous monster called crowd. Like the big cities, Bangladesh villages have quietly been overtaken by people.   
An overview of the canvas presenting the country's current population scenario will lead many of us to ask, "Has 'family planning' been made a taboo subject in this country?"
shihabskr@ymail.com