Asif Currimbhoy believes in the fact that literature is meant to represent the society.

As a

social critic, he exhibits his excellence in portraying the social condition as prevailing in the

contemporary time. Jr. Martin C. Caroll has also commented that the chief function of

literature is “to reflect with meaning the totality of the contemporary human condition.”1 We

see that an artist brings out social truths and that literature is a reflection of social process.

Thus the literature influenced by its milieu reflects the contemporary social structure. Asif

Currimbhoy is a close follower of the above mentioned view. Each play has a touch of reality

due to its connection with some major event or incident of the past or the contemporary time.

He targets the impact of the social issues over the lives of people.

Currimbhoys plays are concerned with the problems of man everywhere. He lends breath to

his thought…even when he deals with India; he becomes the voice of universal revolt and

anguish screaming itself hoarse at the seemingly immovable societies around the world.

The plays of Currimbhoy are based on the issues related to the society, politics, religion,

human life and relations etc. He takes up particular incident happened in the country and

presents it in a realistic way. As the plays Inquilab, The Refugee, The Hungry Ones are based

on any particular issue in the nation and its impact on the society. The Bengal Trilogy by Asif

Currimbhoy includes Inquilab (1970), The Refugee (1971), Sonar Bangla (1972). It has been

named as The Bengal Trilogy because the plays in it deal with Bengal and its problems at

different points of time.

The play The Refugee, a one act play, presents the miserable condition of the refugees from

East Bengal on one hand, and on the other, the play throws ample light on the effects of the

refugee problem in the social life in India. During 1971, about 9 million refugees from East
Pakistan entered into India to take refuge and to save themselves from the cruel atrocities of

the West Pakistan armed forces. In addition to bringing a heavy burden to the Indian

economy, these refugees created other social and political problems.

The play The Refugee very successfully dramatizes all those problems. The story of the play

begins shortly after March 25, 1971 when talks between the 3rd president of Pakistan,Yahya

Khan and a politician and statesman, Sheikh Mujib fail which led to the partition of East

Pakistan and influx of Bangladesh refugees in India.

It not only created bitterness in Indo-Pak relations but also put a heavy burden on Indian

economy. On May 24, 1971, addressing Indian parliament, Mrs. Gandhi expressed a great

concern over the influx of the refugees to Indian territories:

We all felt our country was poised for rapid economic advance and a more determined

attack on the age-old poverty of our people. She said in a pensive mood. Even we

were settling down to these new tasks, we have been engulfed by a new and gigantic

problem, not of our making…so massive a migration in so short a time is

unprecedented in history. Three and a half million have come in the last eight weeks.

On the present estimates, the cost of relief to the government of India may exceed Rs.

180 crores for 6 months.5 (the lines are taken from the Speech of Indira Gandhi in the

parliament ‘Address to Parliament’, May 24, 1971.)

Currimbhoy focuses on all sections of society. In his plays, he tries to depict the people from

the lowest to the highest strata of society. He believes that each political incident has a far-

reaching effect on society. This play presents the problem of refugees because of political

incidents in 1971.
In the play The Refugee, the chaos in the society is due to the heavy influx of Bangladesh

refugee in India, which led to the dissatisfaction among the common masses. Sen Gupta, one

of the major characters of the play, has great warmth for the refugees.

The plot centres round Yassin, a young intellectual, who flees to India from East Pakistan

after having miraculously escaped the machine guns at the notorious 'intellectual massacre' of

university scholars by the Pakistani military ruler Yahya Khan. He is welcomed to the

household of Sen Gupta, who himself was a refugee 24 years earlier and had been the

childhood friend of Yassin's mother Rukaiya Sen Gupta looks back with nostalgia upon his

home town of Comilla in East Bengal and cherishes sweet memories of Rukaiya, his young

love, though he is now the father of two children Mita and Ashok. He is genuinely touched by

the sad plight of the East Bengalis and his family shares his sympathy. But as days go by, the

number of refugees swell they occupy the open fields, idle sewerage pipes, and even Sen

Gupta's garage. Sen Gupta's idealism wanes and now he looks upon the refugees as a threat to

his own home and community.

He says that he is ready to welcome refugees as long as there is food to share and place to

live in his house. His daughter Mita works very hard day and night in the refugee camps and

his son too devotes himself to the cause of the refugees. As the number of refugees increases

day after day, the warmth of his heart begins to decrease. The rising number of refugees

creates a serious concern in the people. Sen Gupta remarks:

No. of course I feel sorry for the refugees outside, but look at what a filthy mess they’ve

made of things. Where is my open field and coconut palms and pond? They...they’re

encroaching. How long are they going to stay there? When will they return…anti social? And

they are growing in numbers all the time. We’ve called an emergency meeting of the town

elders. This can’t go on. We will seal the borders.18

of the refugees. India at that time was ceaselessly striving for self reliance. After a long

period of depression, Indian economy was looking up. The people of India were looking for a

better life but the refugee problem shattered all those hopes and dreams. In this connection

Dr. D. R. Mankekar remarks, “The financial and economic strain with the resultant socio

economic tensions in the affected region flung a spanner into the government of India‟s

ambitious development plans.”

Thus the heavy influx of refugees created social discontent at many places. Affected by the

changed situation, India herself was struggling against unemployment and poverty. The

addition of nine million refugees to the population of India added to her difficulties. The

refugees were given a number of facilities which the common masses was devoid of. It was

another major cause of restlessness in the society. Sen Gupta refers to the problem thus, “The

refugee, with this minimum rations, is better fed than the local unemployed. Some thing‟s

going to explode soon.”

The spirit of unrest in the society is further brought out when Prof. Mossin says that he has

provided Yassin with a job, which has caused resentment among other unemployed persons

of the city. He tells Sen Gupta, “I don’t know how longer he can hold on to it. It has naturally

created some resentment amongst the other unemployed…besides, the