Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

 

 

Birth Name: Ban Kim Chandra Chattopadhyay

Birth Date:     June 27, 1838

Birth Place:    Naihati, India

Death Date:   April 8, 1894

 

Early life:

 

Bankim Chandra was born into a wealthy Bengali family of four children. Family, his father, was a civil servant. Bankim was educated and brilliant, he read books during his leisure time. At the beginning of his life, he was interested in studying Hinduism. In 1858, Bankim Chandra was one of the first two students to earn a baccalaureate from newly founded Calcutta University. After that, he got a deputy collector job from the British government and for 33 years didn’t get promoted due to conflicts he had with the British government. He died at the age of 56 years with Diabetes.   Bankim is important in the history of India because he is the author of the country's national anthem.

 

 

Career:

 

Bankim chandras first novel, Rajmohan's Wife was written in English. It was not accepted as he expected because it was in English. After that, he started writing in Bengali.  His first Bengali novel, Durgeshnandini is said to have created a sensation in Calcutta because it was the first novel written in Bengali. Bankim chandra's stories were the first that gave them an extraordinary experience of their world in fictional form. He was writing romance at first then later he switched to writing on social issues. His first novel on social issue Vishavriksha, meaning poisonous tree talked about the anger and the desire for comfort found in every man. Most of his social novels talked about the extramarital affairs and marriage rearrangement for widows. At a point in India, people started accepting everything western including the religion Christianity. Bankimchandra then used his writings to advocate for Hinduism; He acknowledged some aspects of the religion is evil but still it is better and gives a direct connection to God. Besides novels, he wrote several volumes of essays, sketches and dissertations. Anandamath is one of his last political novels that described a strong Sanyasis, who revolted against the Moslem ruler of Bengali. The people of Bengali interpreted this as a call to fight against the British rule in the country. A long poem in this book later became the National Song of India,second to the National Anthem.