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ANANDAMATH
TRANSLATED FROM BENGALI BYBASANTA KOOMAR ROYPREFACE BYDR. WILLIAM J. JACKSON
BANKIM CHANDRA CHATTERJI
 
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Contents
Preface by Dr. William J. JacksonMulk Raj Anand s Conversationwith Rabindranath TagoreTranslators IntroductionAnandamathGlossary
 
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Preface
irad C. Chaudhuri, known for his causticcriticism and his refusal to flatter anyone forthe sake of mere convention, wrote: 'Bankim ChandraChatterji... besides being a genius in imaginativeliterature, was certainly the most powerful intellectproduced by India in the nineteenth century, and oneof the greatest of Hindu minds, perhaps equalled in thewhole of the Hindu past only by the great Sankara.'What higher esteem could Chaudhuri have expressedfor an original thinker who made great contributions toIndia's culture?The context in which this statement was written wasa discussion of the colonialist British failure tounderstand the Hindu mind. The Englishman'sknowledge of India, Chatterji had explained, was asituation like that of an owner of a large, abundantorchard being incapable of either eating its fruits orenjoying them. Yet there are complicating factors inChatterji's assessment of the British. Take for examplean incident in his Bengali novel Anandamath, firsttranslated into English as Abbey of Bliss, The story, setin eighteenth century India, concerns a sanyasi revoltagainst the Muslim rule. In the last chapter, amysterious physician speaks of the English presence asa necessary phase of reform, a helpful prelude to 'arevival of the True Faith' of Hindu culture. It wouldseem that even if Chatterji did see the British intellectas narrow and unable to do justice to the realities of
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