(Bengali: বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায় Bôngkim Chôndro Chôţţopaddhae) (26 June 1838 – 8 April 1894) was a Bengali writer, poet and journalist. He was the composer of India’s national song Vande Mataram, originally a Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring the activists during the Indian Freedom Movement. Bankim Chandra wrote 13 novels and several ‘serious, serio-comic, satirical, scientific and critical treaties’ in Bengali. His works were widely translated into other regional languages of India as well as in English.
Bankim Chandra was born to an orthodox Brahmin family at Kanchrapara, North 24 Parganas. He was educated at Hoogly College and Presidency College, Calcutta. He was one of the first graduates of the University of Calcutta. From 1858, until his retirement in 1891, he served as a deputy magistrate and deputy collector in the Government of British India.
Chatterjee is widely regarded as a key figure in literary renaissance of Bengal as well as India. Some of his writings, including novels, essays and commentaries, were a breakaway from traditional verse-oriented Indian writings, and provided an inspiration for authors across India.
When Bipin Chandra Pal decided to start a patriotic journal in August 1906, he named it Bande Mataram, after Chatterjee's song. Lala Lajpat Rai also published a journal of the same name.
The only novel of Chatterjee that can truly be considered historical fiction is Rajsimha (1881, rewritten and enlarged 1893). Anandamath (The Abbey of Bliss, 1882) is a political novel which depicts a Sannyasi (Hindu ascetic) army fighting the soldiers of the Muslim Nawab of Murshidabad. The book calls for the rise of Hindu nationalism to uproot the foreign Turko-Afghan Muslim rule of Bengal and put forth as a temporary alternative the East India Company till Hindus were fit for Self Rule. The novel was also the source of the song Vande Mataram (I worship the Motherland as Mother) which, set to music by Rabindranath Tagore, was taken up by many Indian nationalists, and is now the National Song of India. The novel is loosely based on the time of the Sannyasi Rebellion, however in the actual rebellion, Hindus sannyasis and Muslim fakirs both rebelled against the British East India Company. The novel first appeared in serial form in Bangadarshan.
Yet Today Very Few People Remember "Vande Mataram" And Forget To Honour The Legend And The Poet Who Wrote For Mother India And Not To Welcome Some Britisher.......
No comments:
Post a Comment