Review- Anandamath

Anandamath

Translated by Basanta Koomar Roy

The novel “Anandamath” is considered one of the greatest novels in Indian literature. The novel was published in 1882.Originally written in Bengali, the novel became so popular that it was later translated into various languages including English. The author of the novel, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, is considered one of the gems of Indian and Bengali literature. The novel is a literary marvel in terms of how the author created and used new words. The novel’s main hymn “Bande Matram” became so popular with the folk and the freedom fighters that at the time of independence, the song was selected to be the ‘National Song’ of Independent India. The novel is also considered the first political novel of India. Anandamath is not only important for its literary features but also for extra-literary reasons especially how the ideas presented in the novel influenced the nationalists movements in Bengal and later in other parts of the country. This novel established Bankim Chandra’s skill as a novelist and was a piece of historical fiction imbued with the spirit of nationalism and selfless patriotism. The song is said to have inspired equally the Mahatma Gandhi pacifists and the Aurobindo Ghose revolutionaries. Today in India the novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterji is known as the emperor of Bengali literature — Sahitya Samrat.

About the popularity of the novel, R.C. Duttin Encyclopaedia Britannica has quoted ‘Of all his (Bankim's) works, by far the most important for its astonishing political consequences was Anandamath.’

Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate, once quoted about the novel ‘Bankim Chandra’s Sanyasis are fabulous men, rather like characters in the Mahabharata — where God Krishna appears as a character among Princes, Princesses, sages, heroes, noblemen, evil courtiers, soldiers! So this novel is a legend of the struggle for freedom against John Company's extortionate rule of the 18th century...’

The novel is set in Bengal at the time of the famine of 1770’s, the novel reflect tensions and oppositions within Indian culture between Hindus and Muslims, ruler and ruled, indigenous people and foreign overlords, jungle and town, Aryan and non-Aryan, celibacy and sexuality. The translation by Basanta Koomar Roy is very much the same. The novel is basically about the nationalist movements that are being started in the areas of Bengal. Through this novel, Bankim Chandra has tried to give a way of hope to the nationalist that even the untrained and the unskilled people, when united by the spirit of giving everything for their country, can beat the trained and skilled bayonets and canons of the British Empire. The plot revolves around the Order of the Children, a fictitious group of men under the leadership of a Hindu saint, which tries to liberate the country of the British rule. The novel is divided in four parts.

The first part deals with the story of Mahendra, a landlord in a town of Padachina. Famine has struck the areas of Bengal which has caused the people of villages and towns to migrate to bigger cities like Kolkata. The novel starts with the scene of Mahendra’s home, where his wife Kalyani is packing to leave the house and leave for Kolkata (then known as Calcutta). While on their path to the city, they are being departed from each other by man-eating robbers. The famine has compelled the people of that area to feed on the flesh of other humans. The description of the hunt by the author has struck the mind of readers with the reality of life. This also represents how the need for food can make a human do inhumanly things. Mahatma Satya, who is the leader of the Order of the Children, rescues Kalyani and her child from the robbers and takes her to the Ashram where she is later reunited with Mahendra. Concurrently, Mahatma Satya had invoked the patriotic feelings in the mind of Mahendra by giving him glimpse of how the country was, before the arrival of the British rule, how the country is, under  the British rule and how the country will be, if it is allowed to be so. When Mahendra is told that if he wants to join the Order, then he has to leave his family, he quits. While leaving the ashram, Kalyani makes their child drink poison and then she herself drinks it so as to clear the path of Mahendra for joining the Order. Mahendra joins the Order but he and Mahatma are arrested by the officials of the British rule.

The second and the third part of the novel deals with the stories of the main fighters of the Order. Jivan is the main protagonist in these parts, while Bhavan plays a side role. Jivan rescues the daughter of Mahendra and gives her to his sister. There, he meets with his wife, Shanti. They start recalling the old days and their family time. Meanwhile, Bhavan rescues Kalyani and attracted by her beauty, he became willing to leave the Order. During these parts, the battles between the Children and the British armies are also depicted. The battles also give a hope, that we should fight till the end and should not lose hope. The joining of Shanti to the Order is very dramatic.

In the fourth part, the decisive battle between the British armies and the Order is depicted. In the end, Jivan and Shanti walk in hand and hand singing “Bande Matram”.

The novel depicts how the untrained and unskilled people can be trained to follow strict rules to form an army and fight against tyranny.

This novel creates a sense of nationalism in the minds of the reader and also invokes the patriotic feelings in the hearts of the reader. Anandamath is one of the novels that can be considered a guide so as to how people should behave in adverse times. The novel is favored towards the nationalists as in all the battles the Order has emerged victorious.

In my views, the novel is the literary marvel in terms of the new words and new syllables used.