Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay: Sage who gave us the Vande Mataram mantra
By Priyadarshi Dutta
175th birth anniversary of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay: The sage who gave us the Vande Mataram mantraJune 27 marks the 175th Birth Anniversary of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838-1894). He is recognised as the author of the novel Ananda Math and the composer of Vande Mataram that appears therein. The enduring popularity of Vande Mataram is a post-Bankim development. One owes it to the revolutionary movement in Bengal, occasioned by the partition of the province in 1905 by Lord Curzon. Vande Mataram captured the imagination of the nation. The revolutionaries and the Congress, otherwise diametrically opposed, were united in acknowledging it as the anthem of nationalism.
It is doubtful whether Bankim would have preferred his laurels to rest solely upon Ananda Math. He wrote some 14 well-known novels in Bengali beside numerous essays. He was a novelist, the first Indian writer of literary fiction. The rise of ‘novel’ refers to a sea change in literary scenario of India. It was made possible by prose displacing verse as the standard form of literature in India. Until the advent of English, hardly any prose literature existed in any Indian language. Raja Ram Mohun Roy (1772-1831), is believed to be the first Indian practitioner of prose. He was a prolific essayist, journalist and polemicist. If Roy readied the language for quality non-fiction, Bankim did the same with fiction.
Bankim’s first novel Raj Mohan’s Wife (1864) was in English. But soon, he shifted over to Bengali producing Durgesh Nandini (1865). Set in 1590s, against the backdrop of Akbar’s Rajput commander Man Singh trying to subdue Pathan rulers of Bengal, it is a historical romance. It deals with the love triangle between Jagat Singh (son of Man Singh), Tilottama, daughter of a Bengali feudal lord and Ayesha, daughter of a rebel Pathan leader. Its publication heralded a new era, creating a sensation amongst Bengali readers.
Durgesh Nandini, a historical novel, did something more. It introduced the themes of Rajput chivalry into Bengal and later carried forward by RC Dutt, Tagore and DL Roy arguably preparing Bengal for revolutionary movement. Bankim develops the theme of Rajput chivalry in his eponymous novel Raj Singha (1882). Raj Singh was the grandson of iconic Maharana Pratap.
Bankim perhaps needed to return to history repeatedly, because he was dying to find heroism amongst his contemporaries. Bankim chisels out the Hindu tradition of chivalry in his novels. He made no secret of his extreme dislike for Muslim tyranny. He makes it evident in Ananda Math (1882), a fiction based on amalgamation of several historical leads. Though his band of patriotic monks prevails against the Muslims, they fail to dislodge the British. Bankim pontificates that the destruction of Muslim hegemony was liberation for the Hindus. Hindus must pass through the experience of British rule that a brutalised Hinduism might be reinvigorated.
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Anand Math (1952) – Vande Mataram Sujlam Suflam
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But Bankim did not overlook the ills of the Hindus. He was keenly aware of the malpractices and abuses in contemporary Hindu society of Bengal. This comes across in his novels like Bishbriksha (Poison Tree) and Devi Chaudharani and many more. Bankim depicted the moral profligacy and illicit relations in the society. But he never conferred moral legitimacy upon them.
Bankim was also an accomplished essayist. Between 1872 and 1876, he edited the magazine Bangadarshan, which set new standards of scholarship. He showed that essays need not be combination of certain facts and theories. They can be products of profound philosophy, understanding of historical perspective and literary excellence. Bankim’s essays and literary criticism also featured in magazines like Bhramar, Nabajiban and Prachar. These essays were later compiled in two volumes of Vividha Prabandha (collected essays).
Bankim was a product of the 19th century Bengal Renaissance. The developments in Bengali literature set standard for other Indian languages. The works of Bankim had been translated into nearly all Indian languages. But it is a pity that Bankim’s legacy was later trimmed down in his home province by the Leftists. In the 20th century, Tagore’s universalism grew upon Bengali psyche more than Bankim’s conservatism.
Sri Aurobindo, in his book Bankim, Tilak and Dayanand, described Bankim was a Rishi (Seer) who gave the nation a mantra — Vande Mataram. Aurobindo puts Bankim amongst the nation-builders. Bankim, Aurobindo feels, had divined the political needs of his nation. “He, first of our great publicists, understood the hollowness and in-utility of the method of political agitation which prevailed in his time and exposed it with merciless satire in his Lokarahasya and Kamalakanter Daptar. But he was not satisfied merely with destructive criticism, he had a positive vision of what was needed for the salvation of the country. He saw that the force from above must be met by a mightier reacting force from below,- the strength of repression by an insurgent national strength. He bade us leave the canine method of agitation for the leonine. The Mother of his vision held trenchant steel in her twice seventy million hands and not the bowl of the mendicant.”
