Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was one of the most prominent novelists, essayists, poets, and journalists who wrote more than 17 novels and many essays. Initially, he wrote romantic novels infused with strong feelings of nationalism, and gradually, he started writing political novels strengthening the calls for Indian freedom struggle against the foreign rule. In 1882, he published his most popular novel Anandmath in Bengali which was soon translated into English as The Abbey of Bliss. The first translation was by Naresh Chandra Sengupta in 1906. In 1909, another translation by Shri Aurobindo Ghosh and Barindrakumar Ghosh appeared, and in 1941, Basanta Koomar Roy published his translation of Anandmath as Dawn Over India. The recent translation of Anandmath by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was published by Julius J. Lipner in 2005 and was titled Anandmath, Or The Sacred Brotherhood.
The novel is a historical fiction that fictionalizes the Sanyasi Rebellion of the late 18th century (1770-1777) and mixes it with two love stories. Anandmath is considered one of the most important novels in the history of Indian literature as it certainly strengthen the Indian freedom struggle. The novel is also known for one of its poetic songs of it titled Vandemataram (Hail to Motherhood) which was later adopted as the national song of India by the Indian National Congress in October 1937. On January 24, 1950, the Constitution Assembly of India declared Vandemataram as the national song of the Free Indian Republic.
Characters: Mahendra is a wealthy landlord of the high class living in his village Padachihna with his wife Kalyani and daughter Sukumari. Mahendra and Kalyani deeply love each other but they face troubles as persistent famine forces them to see days of struggles. Unable to sustain in the village, the couple venture into the nearby city of Calcutta to find ways to earn a living. Mahatma Satya is a leader of Sanyasis struggling against the atrocious government headed by Muslim rulers (Mir Jafar) aided by the British East India Company that got the right to collect taxes. While the general populace of Bengal was suffering extreme hunger and poverty due to persistent famine, the rulers were competing to collect more taxes from those who could barely feed their family members. In a cruel move, Muhammad Reza Khan, the king’s revenue officer, thinking to show how important he was, at once increased taxes by 10 percent, and great was the lament in Bengal. This not affected general people, but also created troubles for sanyasis who were dependent on the alms offered by common people to them. They raised their voices against the cruel taxation system and hence came directly in conflict with the East India Company, which had the right to collect taxes through atrocious means. The drastic situations also raised rates of crimes and the number of dacoits, and it became difficult to distinguish between a sanyasi and a dacoit. Bhavan is a brave disciple of Mahatma Satya who leads the ascetics in his absence and dies while fighting against the British soldiers. Jiban and Shakti are the other loving couple in the novel. Jiban is a young man who marries a poor orphan girl Shakti as he loves her. However, considering the situation of society and the condition of people in general, he decides to leave his family and join the forces of Mahatma Satya for the independence of his nation. Shakti, being a woman is left with Jiban’s elder sister Nirmala or Nimmi. However, Shakti finds it difficult to stay away from Jiban and decides to join the Ascetic forces disguised as a male soldier. Later on, her disguise is turned out and Mahatma Satya decides to send her back. But, she with her bravery and strength, proves that though she is a woman, she is no less a soldier than any man and becomes an integral part of the ascetic army against the British forces.
Summary of Anandmath: The Abbe of Bliss Or Sacred Brotherhood
Anandmath is a romantic story of two loving couples who meet and struggle for a common goal as fate brings them on the same path. The novel is divided into four parts. The first part introduces Mahendra, who is the leader of his village. He finds it difficult to collect and pay taxes to the British tax collectors because at heart, he is a benevolent person who cares for his village members. Because of famine, all lands are dry and people are dying of hunger. In such a situation, he finds it difficult to sustain living in the village and decides to go to Calcutta with his wife Kalyani and daughter Sukumari to earn means of living. During their journey to Calcutta, they witness the extreme effects of famine. Hunger has turned some people to take the path of crime as they have become robbers trying to rob anything they can get from others. Situations have turned so drastic that some man-eating robbers just catch and eat any animal or human they see. The famine compelled the people of that area to feed on the flesh of other humans.
As they move forward, they are attacked by a gang of robbers and as they run for their life, Mahendra and Kalyani get separated. Sukumari is with her mother while Mahendra tries to look for them but fails. Meanwhile, Kalani keeps running with Sukumari in her arms and collapses near a river while man-eating dacoits are hunting for her. Suddenly an ascetic, Mahatma Satya comes to her rescue and saves her against the dacoits. He then takes her and her daughter to his Ashrama where there are many other ascetics and Sanatanas. Sanatana' are not ascetics or Sanyasis, but they are those ordinary men who have joined the groups of Sanyasi to fight against the atrocious tax-collecting regime of the Muslims and British rulers. One of them is Jiban, a bright, brave young man, and another one is Bhavan, who is the leader of Sanatanis.
Meanwhile, Mahendra also comes face to face with another band of Sanyasis and Mahendra takes the Sanyasis for robbers. He says, “But a bad job! Banditry no less!” However, Sanyasis try to convince him that they are not robbers, rather, they try to save people against such psychologically ill people who have turned inhuman and are robbing and eating other people. The Sanyasis then say that their aim is to fight against the cruel taxation regime that has forced humans to turn against other humans. Mahendra feels a strong emotion of humanism, nationalism, and a sense of duty in those ascetics and he thinks of joining them. The Sanyasis take him to the Ashrama. Kalyani is also in the same Ashram but Mahendra is unaware of her presence. The Sanyasis describe their goals and ideas to Mahendra in more elaborative terms and explains how India was before the British and Muslim invaders came, how India is while suffering the plundering of foreign invaders, and how India will be in future when their motherland will be freed of foreign invaders. Mahendra gets inspired and decides to join the forces of monks to achieve the common goal of freedom in the Motherland. Mahatma Satya says that if he has to join their forces, he must leave his family. Kalyani observes him from a distance while he isn’t aware of her presence and decides to not become an obstacle in his dream of fighting for and serving Mother India. She takes some poison and offers it to her daughter Sukumari to drink and then she drinks the poison herself, thereby relieving Mahendra of his worldly duties. At the same moment, British soldiers, who were trying to catch the rebels attack the ashram and arrest Mahendra and Satya while other ascetics try to run away and save themselves. In the conundrum, one of the ascetics sings a song informing others whereabouts of Sukumari and Kalyani to save them. When Jiban and Bhavan listen to his song, they run to save Kalyani and Sukumari. Jiban finds Sukumari who is taking her last breaths as she has taken poison. He gets a herbal antidote and saves her life. He then takes her to his sister Nimmi’s home to keep her in safety. Bhavan finds Kalyani and saves her too with the same herbal antidote. However, he is too impressed by her beauty and feels a strong force of affection towards her.
The second part describes the love story of another couple, Jiban and Shakti. Shakti was an orphan Brahmin girl whose mother died at an early age. Her father taught her mathematics, philosophy, and literature but he died too before she could stand on her feet. When Jiban meets this poor orphan girl, he falls in love with her and marries her. However, the situation of society forces him to think of joining the rebellion group of Sanyasis to fight against the atrocious government. However, he must be free of worldly relationships to join the Sanyasi forces. Thus, he decides to leave Shakti at his sister Nimmi’s home and goes away to the Sanyasi Ashrama and becomes a Sanatani. Shakti finds it difficult to live without Jiban and decides to disguise himself as a man and joins the ascetic rebels to live near Jiban. One day, her disguise is revealed and she gets caught. Mahatma Satya orders her to leave the Ashrama but she resists and claims that she is as brave and strong as any man in the Sanyasi forces. She then lifts the mighty bow of Mahatma Satya which only Satya, Bhavan, or Jiban could lift. This impresses Mahatma Satya who allows her to stay and fight against the British forces as a female fighter. Jiban, Bhavan, and Shakti decide to arrack the British forces rescue Mahatma Satya and while doing so, they rescue Mahendra too. As he comes back to the Ashrama, he meets Kalyani. When Bhavan sees the devotion of Kalyani towards Mahendra, he finds himself full of guilt. In the third part, the ascetic forces continue to fight against British forces, and to safeguard themselves against British attacks, they decide to make a small fort of bricks. In the fourth part, The British army in full force decides to attack the brick fort of Sanyasis and end the rebellion once and for all. The brick fort is on the other side of a river with a bridge in between. The shrewd British commander first orders his army to march towards the brick fort on the other side and as the British soldiers reached the bridge, he orders them to retreat and hide. The untrained and inexperienced Sanyasis feel elated as they see British soldiers retreating and running away. In their excitement, they come out and try to catch the British soldiers. As soon as a huge number of Sanyasi rebels get on the bridge to cross it, the British army throws fire canons on the bridge and thus killing a huge number of Sanyasis in one go. It creates havoc in the Sanyasi camp but some attentive Sanyasi soldiers including Bhavan, Jiban, and Mahendra capture some of the cannons and turn the fire back onto the East India Company lines. The East India Company forces are forced to fall back, the rebels winning their first battle. Bhavan while fighting bravery gets martyrdom. In the end, Mahatma Satya says that the fight for freedom will continue with new soldiers and faces and decides to follow his Guru to the Himalayas for penance. Shakti too suggests to Jiban that they should lead a life as saints and visit the Himalayas and he agrees. Mahendra and Kalyani decide to make a new home and give a proper education and life for their kid Sukumari and the novel ends.
Bankium Chandra Chatterjee was a known Hindu Vaishnavite Nationalist. He introduced certain elements in his fictional drama that appear inspired by Vaishnav stories. When Mahatma Satya explains the purpose of Ascetic rebels to Mahendra, he shows him three temples with three different idols of Mother India. The first one is of Goddess Parvati, Jagaddhatri, Satya says that this is what Mother India was, and the second one is Goddess Kali, Satya says that this is what Mother India has become, and we Sanyasis are her Ganas. The third idol is Goddess Durga in all her beauty and wealth. Mahatma Satya says that this is what Mother India would be in the future. Again, when Shakti is caught as a woman disguising as a man to be with ascetic rebels near her husband Jiban, she resists the decision of Satya to make her leave the Ashram and shows her strength by lifting up a mighty bow that only a few could use and reminds of Goddess Sita who could easily lift and use Pinaka, the bow of Shiva as a child. Seeing her strength, Satya allows her to stay in Ashrama and be a vital soldier in the fight against Muslim and British invaders. Mahatma Satya himself reminds us of Krishna, guiding the rebels fighting for the establishment of Moral Order (Dharma) against the immoral and inhuman tax regime led by Muslim and British forces.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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