Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya (Chatterji)

In 1894, in an obituary message that he wrote on the passing away of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya (1838–1894), Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) quite aptly remarked that Bankim had given his countrymen a language, a literature, and a nation. Bankimchandra contributed significantly toward the creation of a modern Bengali prose, freed from its earlier dependence on Sanskrit literary styles. In his opinion, it was only a modern prose that could effectively propagate modern ideas and values. He successfully developed the literary form of the novel, soon emerging as the first major novelist in the Bengali language. By 1872, Bankim had entered the world of Bengali journalism, editing popular journals like the Bangadarshan widely read in Bengali homes and to which the most gifted Bengali literary figures of his day contributed. His writings were also instrumental in articulating a healthy provincialism and thoughts about the nascent Indian nation. The song “Bande Mataram,” first appearing in his novel Anandamath (1882), was an evocative expression of this nationalism and is today acknowledged as the “national song” of independent India. However, even such deservedly high praise conceals some other distinctive features of his life that were not unimportant. Bankimchandra was one of the two graduates to first come out of a modern Indian university; he formulated new conceptions of God and religion thereby contributing to what modern scholarship calls “neo-Hinduism,” and yet he kept an abiding interest in rational interrogation and science. By the close of the 19th century, his life and work were often identified with much that characterized middle-class Bengalis: their private emotions, intellectual interests, political ambitions, and aesthetic preferences. In his time, Bankimchandra was probably the man most familiar with the social and political discourse of contemporary Europe but also deeply rooted in the indigenous tradition. Evidently, he read deeply into the intellectual resources of both India and the West to obtain a better understanding of these cultures. In so doing, Bankim also creatively negotiated modernity and tradition, seeking meaning and relevance in both. As an officer of the subordinate civil services he ably served the Bengal government for as many as thirty-three years. The government conferred on him the titles of “Raibahadur” in 1892 and the C.I.E. shortly before his death in 1894. Prima facie, such titles were meant to acknowledge a life of dedicated service rendered to the state and society. But that apart, they also represented deserving honor conferred upon an extraordinarily gifted individual.