Mrittika Saha

Dept. Of Comparative Literature

UG/CL/Core/5.1B: Modern Bangla Literature in English Translation 1

24 December 2020

Ānandamath - A Nineteenth-Century Literary Text

The nineteenth century (1800-1899) is considered to be the ‘renaissance’ period in

Bengali literary history. With the establishment of Fort William in 1800, the initialisation of

education started and the advent of a class of Bengali people known as the ‘intellectuals’ and

‘Bengali Bābus’ who were Western-educated, for serving the British. On the other hand,

awareness for vernacular education arose along with reforms for female education and welfare.

One of the noticeable traits of this period was the revivalist strategy of reviving the old

and gold Sanskrit texts and literary works and translating them into vernacular. Revival became a

necessity due to the disturbances that the nation and Bengal had to face due to the Muslim rule in

the eighteenth century. The status of the vernacular became inferior as the Persian language and

culture took the centre stage (although at ground levels, the efforts of keeping the culture

altogether were pretty active). Also, later on, the colonial rulers denied that India could have had

a possible history and culture and they imposed their so-called civilisation propaganda on the

native people, promising them a proper history to tell and culture to show. Therefore, revival and

translating the old texts into the vernacular in the nineteenth century ensured the learning of the

glorious history and culture of the nation and Bengal through the Bengali language, which was

easily understood by the people. This is why this period is known as the ‘renaissance’ for

Bengali literature.
 The higher class educated and uneducated people, who were in close affinity to the

British, even though praised the efforts for introducing Western education, but somehow could

also see the fallacies and shrewd schemes of colonising the nation and soon enough the actual

reason behind all of this - the need of labour and work resource for the Colonial administration.

On one hand, there were employment opportunities and on the other hand, there was

underlying or rather proper exploitation on the people- there was a huge dilemma whether the

British were actually being beneficial to the nation or were just exploiting the ‘weakness’ of the

natives. Moreover, due to the growth of employment prospects, people were afraid to even

evaluate the negative side of it- that they were possibly being oppressed and exploited. The

peasants, on the neglected hand, were double exploited by the landlords or zamindārs (the native

exploiters) and by the colonial rulers (the foreign exploiters).

In this scenario, the Western-educated Bengalis engaged in literary endeavours such as

composing texts or publishing write-ups in a magazine or a newspaper or even books, which was

also a way to express their thoughts, in some cases, hatred towards colonial rule. This aspect also

increased the literary works of the Bengali language, thus proving that native people of India can

create literary works and do have a sense of art, literature and culture.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838-1894) was one of the popular writers of the

nineteenth century who was a Deputy Collector, later, a Deputy Magistrate of the British

administration. Born in a proper Brahmin family, he was educated in Western education and

became the first graduate of Calcutta University, which had a major impact on his literary works

as well. They had traits of the proper Brahmin culture (due to his upbringing) and the Western

perspective which he considered to be good enough and not as bad as it was interpreted to be.

His writings, even though they had a strong sense of nationhood, identity and unity of the
so-called Hindus, his writings never had a clear indication about them being against the British

administration. He favoured Western culture to save his job, as many interpret.

Ānandamath (1882) is a novel based upon the eighteenth century Sannyāsi rebellions in

Bengal, which is considered to be one of the earliest freedom movements. In this novel, the main

agitation of the characters was towards the Islamic rule along with the British looting Bengal

based on the Diwani laws. Thus, an āshram of sannyasis called ‘Ānandamath’, dedicated their

lives for the cause of the nation, that is, Bengal and lived an ascetic life to concentrate on the

cause and not on the worldly aspects. Of course, it can be easily said that since it was written by

a nineteenth-century author and published in the same century, therefore it is a

nineteenth-century text. However, there is more to it.

The very first element would be the love for the nation and nationhood, which was

expressed prominently. Every character acknowledged the love for their land and fought for it

dedicatedly. They worshipped their land, as ‘Mother’; considered her to be ‘Jagatdhātrī’ (the

mother of the world) who was then in the form of ‘Kāli’ (the destructor, because of all the

anarchy caused by the Islamic rulers and the British) and were on a mission to convert her into

‘Durgā’ (the form of ‘Shakti’ who rose from the devastation to glory). In the renaissance period,

rebels against British rule kept increasing and rebellions started to become common. One such

rebellion was Sepoy Mutiny in 1857. Since then, the idea of nationalism in the minds of the

people kept growing. They gathered courage and started to speak up against the injustice,

knowing that their lives were at risk.

‘Vande Mātaram’ (ode to the Mother) deserves a special mention. This Sanskrit poem not

only signified the revival strategy that people were going for but also, later on, became the

national song for India. This phrase was used by the sannyāsis during protests (in the story) and
outside of it, this phrase became popular among the ‘Swadeshis’ who protested against the

colonisers. The usage of the Sanskrit language signified the age-old Brahminical culture and

heritage associated with the language - ‘returning to the roots’.

Secondly, it contains a sense of glory and courage of the natives. The British commented

that the Indians were weak with zero military prowess and lagged industrially and

technologically; thus, the Western education would save them from distress and make them

civilised enough so that they can cope up with the West simultaneously. In this novel, the

sannyāsis courageously fought against the British and their advanced, trained military forces, sort

of, proving the entire comment wrong. This whole incident described that the Indians were never

a weak ‘race’; they could also give a tough competition to all the mighty weaponry and the

trained military. This sense of awakening was a necessity for Bengal at that time and this text

triggered the emotion of nationhood and courage beautifully. Renaissance was all about

awakening from the slumber. A little push was needed to remember their glorious past so that

they could counter the injustices on them and their land. This novel did that.

Thirdly, the women empowerment and the reforms for female education and their

livelihood and how their portrayal changed in the novels over the times. The ‘Sati’ demolition,

widow remarriage acts and female education in this era were some of the major happenings in

this period. Through the character of Shānti, Bankim showed that women were not as fragile as

they were thought to be. She was tom-boyish; and Jibanānanda, her husband, left her for the sake

of the greater cause of the nation. She could not live without him and her love for him made her

join the āshram in the guise of a guy named Nabin. She showed the military expertise equal to

the higher tier āshram members including the Guru and later on, she saved her husband during

the battle with the British, only to live a completely ascetic life with him forever. Kalyāni
(Mahendra’s wife) was the ideal companion one could ever ask for. She helped her husband in

every way possible, did household chores and took care of her daughter as well. The separation

from her husband did not break her and upon reuniting with him, she worked just like an ideal

wife should have. Nothing could take away her values from her. Even though Bankim showed

the cultural aspect of the Bengali women who were supposed to be loyal wives and mothers,

however, both Shānti and Kalyāni show the different aspects of the fact that women were capable

of a lot more than just servants to their families and husbands.

Fourthly, the male characters in the novel were honourable and faithful beings who were

dedicated to their duties, families and the Nation. Mahendra, a wealthy zamindār, is shown as a

dedicated husband who did not indulge in any extramarital affairs even after getting separated

from Kalyāni. He even spent his wealth to support and help the āshram as Mahātmā Satya

commanded. Jibanānanda also agreed to asceticism when Shānti suggested it. Every member of

the āshram fought bravely without any reluctance, till they could.

Fifthly, the dilemmas about colonial rule always ended with a positive note about them.

In this case as well, it ended with a positive note, talking about the fact that the whole nation was

under British rule, for better or for worse. This was Bankim’s style - even though he wrote about

agitations against the British, he added a positive note so that he and his texts could avoid getting

banned or punished to death.

Therefore, it can be said that Ānandamath not only contained nationalist sentiments in the

form of the Sannyāsi rebellions but it also supported them to some extent in the context of the

wrong done by the British government looting and exploiting the peasants based on their unjust

laws. Even though Bankim tried to disguise his literary works in favour of the British, the

nationalists looked up to it as a nationalist text which was against the British Government; it is
still considered to be one. Nevertheless, it contains all the elements that were majorly present in

most of the nineteenth century works by the Western-educated Bengali bābu writers and thus, it

can be concluded that Ānandamath is an appropriate nineteenth-century Bānglā literary text.

Works Cited

Chattopadhyay, Bankim Chandra. “Anandamath.” Bangadarshan, 1882.

Lipner, Julius J. Anandamath or The Sacred Brotherhood. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Wikipedia. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anandamath