Term Paper

On
Exploitation of Religion "Tree Without Root"- A Critical Analysis

Acknowledgment

First of all, I would like to express my heartiest gratitude to Almighty Allah for his great kindness
to us. I want to give special thanks to madam *******, *****, Department of English, Govt.
Titumir College, to agree to be my supervisor of the term paper and I also express my heart full
gratitude and indebtedness to madam for her scholastic guidance, instructions and constant help in
carrying out this research work very successfully.

Thanks is also due to the librarians, of the library of the permanent campus, of Govt. Titumir
College, Dhaka. The Cooperation of the librarians, which was found valuable to this study and all
the teacher of the Department of English and all the friends who gave me precious time and
provided date for this study.
 Introduction

Tree Without Roots is translated English version of a classical novel of Lal Shalu which is written
by Syed Waliullah. He portraits a nice picture of the rural Bangladeshi village from very artistic
point of views. In this novel, he focuses on vital social factors, religious fundamentalism,
superstitions, domination of patriarchal society, subject to the ravages of nature. It is a good
combination of existentialism and modern thinking of the novelist. The protagonist of the novel is
Majid, comes from the remote village, a devout Muslim background. He declares an old grave as
a majar (Mausoleum), he is the Pir (The Muslim Saint), covers it with red cloth and begins to
ritualistic activities. Then he is playing a psychological game based on religious point of views of
the uneducated villagers. Then the people believe that he has some spiritual power and majar is
the source the power. Then they come to the Majid and devoted lots of valuable things for the
majar.By this way, he opens an illegal business and playing a dominating role in the society. His
first wife is Rahima and she was always feared about her husband. He treats the women as a slave
for the men and sexual pleasant elements. When he heard another Pir came to another village then
he felt existence problem. He tried his heart and soul to prove that he is fake and cannot do anything
for the villagers. Because if the Pir can make an image on the villager’s mind he cannot continue
his business. In fact, Majid is a great reflection of human character. He has negativity and positivity
both. Though he makes business but he always feels inferiority and existence problem. Rahima is
a dedicated and loyal wife to her husband and loved him very much. She is an image of typical
Bangladeshi woman for her simplicity. She always feared about god and his mysterious system.
In fact, it was implemented by the Majid. He has given auto suggestion to her mind that “A women
is born for men’s slavery and satisfied to the god”. Jamila is a symbol of freedom and against all
superstitions and fundamentalism. At last she spit to the Majid but metaphorically against to the
social ignorance. When Majid kept her in the majar her feet touched the majar which symbolize
that she likes to be free and don’t care about religious blindness. Khalek Bapari is always flattered
to Majid. He is blind on religion, he things that eternal world is nothing. Majid seems to him as a
lord and his speech is law. So he divorced her wife for a lame reason. Some minor characters like
Amana Bibi, Hasunie’s mother and Tanu Bibi both have different features. They are confined by
the social and religious codes, which make themselves “A person without hopes”. Novelist wanted
to make it clear that world is ruled by someone but he might be unreachable and mysterious. Poor
people always searching their luck and they only remember god when they fall in problems. At
the end, we can understand that “Save the existence is an ultimate target for a human”. And
Villagers were treated by the Pirs as a commercial product and they are the owner the shop. Most
of the cases, they cheat with the people based on religious superstitions and beliefs.