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CHATTERJI, BANKIM CHANDRA [BANKIMACHA...

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 10 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHATTERJI, BANKIM CHANDRA [BANKIMACHANDRA CHATTARADII-YAYA] (1838-1894) , See also:Indian novelist, was See also:born in the See also:district of the Twenty-four Parganas in See also:Bengal on the 27th of See also:June 1838, and was by See also:caste a See also:Brahman. He was educated at the See also:Hugli See also:College, at the See also:Presidency College in See also:Calcutta, and at Calcutta University, where he was the first to take the degree of B.A. (1858). He entered the Indian See also:civil service, and servedas See also:deputy See also:magistrate in various districts of Bengal, his See also:official services being recognized, on his retirement in 1891, by the See also:title of rai bahadur and the C.I.E. He died on the 8th of See also:April 1894. Bankim Chandra was beyond question the greatest novelist of See also:India during the 19th See also:century, whether judged by the amount and quality of his writings, or by the See also:influence which they have continued to exercise. His See also:education had brought him into See also:touch with the See also:works of the See also:great See also:European See also:romance writers, notably See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott, and he created in India a school of fiction on the European See also:model. His first See also:historical novel, the Durges-Nandini or See also:Chief's Daughter, modelled on Scott, made a great sensation in Bengal; and the Kapala-Kundala and Mrinalini, which followed it, established his fame as a writer whose creative See also:imagination and See also:power of delineation had social been surpassed in India. In 1872 he brought out his first never novel, the Bisha-Brikkha or See also:Poison See also:Tree, which was followed by others in rapid See also:succession. It is impossible to exaggerate the effect they produced; for over twenty years Bankim Chandra's novels were eagerly read by the educated public of Bengal, including the See also:Hindu ladies in the zenanas; and though numerous works of fiction are now produced See also:year by year in every See also:province of India, his influence has increased rather than diminished. Of all his works, however, by far the most important from its astonishing See also:political consequences was the See also:Ananda Math, which was published in 1882, about the See also:time of the agitation arising out of the Ilbert See also:Bill. The See also:story deals with the Sannyasi (i.e. See also:fakir or See also:hermit) See also:rebellion of 1772 near Purmea, See also:Tirhut and See also:Dinapur, and its culminating See also:episode is a crushing victory won by the rebels over the See also:united See also:British and Mussulman forces, a success which was not, however, followed up, owing to the See also:advice of a mysterious " physician " who, speaking as a divinely-inspired See also:prophet, advises Satyananda, the See also:leader of the See also:children of the See also:Mother," to abandon further resistance, since a temporary submission to British See also:rule is a See also:necessity; for See also:Hinduism has become too speculative and unpractical, and the See also:mission of the See also:English in India is to See also:teach See also:Hindus how to reconcile theory and See also:speculation with the facts of See also:science.

The See also:

general moral of the Ananda Math, then, is that British rule and British education are to be accepted as the only alternative to Mussulman oppression, a moral which Bankim Chandra See also:developed also in his Dharmatattwa, an elaborate religious See also:treatise in which he explained his views as to the changes necessary in the moral and religious See also:condition of his See also:fellow-countrymen before they could See also:hope to compete on equal terms with the British and Mahommedans. But though the Ananda Math is in See also:form an See also:apology for the loyal See also:acceptance of British rule, it is none the less inspired by the ideal of the restoration, sooner or later, of a Hindu See also:kingdom in India. This is especially evident in the occasional verses in the See also:book, of which the Bande Mataram is the most famous. As to the exact significance of this poem a considerable controversy' has raged. Bande Mataram is the See also:Sanskrit for " See also:Hail to thee, Mother!" or more literally " I reverence thee,. Mother!", and according to Dr G. A. Grierson (The Times, See also:Sept. 12, 1906) it can have no other possible meaning than an invocation of one of the " mother " goddesses of Hinduism, in his See also:opinion See also:Kali "the goddess of See also:death and destruction." Sir' See also:Henry See also:Cotton, on the other See also:hand (ib. Sept. 13, 1906), See also:sees in it merely an invocation of the " mother-See also:land " Bengal,' and quotes in support of this view the See also:free See also:translation of the poem by the See also:late W. H.

See also:

Lee, a See also:proof which, it may be at once said, is far from convincing. But though, as Dr Grierson points out, the See also:idea of a " mother-land " is wholly See also:alien to Hindu ideas, it is quite possible that Bankim Chandra may have assimilated it with his European culture, and the true explanation is probably that given by Mr J. D. See also:Anderson in The Times of See also:September 24, 1906. He points out that in the 11th See also:chapter of the 1st book of the Ananda Math the Sannyasi rebels are represented as having erected, in addition to the See also:image of Kali, " the Mother who Has Been," a See also:white See also:marble statue of " the Mother that Shall Be," which " is apparently a See also:representation of the mother-land. VI. la The Bande Mataram hymn is apparently addressed to both idols." The poem, then, is the See also:work of a Hindu idealist who personified Bengal under the form of a purified and spiritualized Kali. Of its See also:thirty-six lines, partly written in Sanskrit, partly in See also:Bengali, the greater number are harmless enough. But if the poet sings the praise of the " Mother " " As Lachmi, bowered in the See also:flower That in the See also:water grows," he also praises her as " See also:Durga, bearing ten weapons," and lines ro, 11 and 12 are capable of very dangerous meanings in the mouths of unscrupulous See also:agitators. Literally translated these run, " She has seventy millions of throats to sing her praise, twice seventy millions of hands to fight for her, how then is Bengal powerless?" As S. M. See also:Mitra points out (Indian Problems, See also:London, 19(38), this See also:language is the more significant as the Bande Mataram in the novel was the hymn by singing which the Sannyasis gained strength when attacking the British forces. During Bankim Chandra Chatterji's lifetime the Bande Mataram, though its dangerous tendency was recognized, was not used as a party See also:war-cry; it was not raised, for instance, during the Ilbert Bill agitation, nor by the students who flocked See also:round the See also:court during the trial of Surendra Nath Banerji in 1883.

It has, however, obtained an evil notoriety in the agitations that followed the See also:

partition of Bengal. That Bankim Chandra himself foresaw or desired any such use of it is impossible to believe. According to S. M. Mitra, he composed it " in a See also:fit of patriotic excitement after a See also:good hearty See also:dinner, which he always enjoyed. It was set to Hindu See also:music, known as the Mallar-Kawali-Tat. The extraordinarily stirring See also:character of the See also:air, and its ingenious assimilation of Bengali passages with Sanskrit, served to make it popular." Circumstances have made the Bande Mataram the most famous and the most widespread in its effects of Bankim Chandra's See also:literary works. More permanent, it may be hoped, was the wholesome influence he exercised on the number of literary men he gathered round him, who have See also:left their impress on the literature of Bengal. In his earlier years he served his See also:apprenticeship in literature under Iswar Chandra See also:Vidyasagar, the chief poet and satirist of Bengal during the earlier See also:half of the 19th century. Bankim Chandra's friend and colleague, Dina Bandhu Mitra, was virtually the founder of the See also:modern Bengali See also:drama. Another friend of his, Hem Chandra Banerji, was a poet of recognized merit and See also:talent. And among the younger men who venerated Bankim Chandra, and benefited by his example and advice, may be mentioned two distinguished poets, Nalein Chandra Sen and Rabindra Nath Tagore.

Of Bankim Chandra's novels some have been translated into English by H. A. D. See also:

Phillips and by Mrs M. S. See also:Knight.

End of Article: CHATTERJI, BANKIM CHANDRA [BANKIMACHANDRA CHATTARADII-YAYA] (1838-1894)

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