Originally written in 1882, by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee Anandamath takes the reader back to Bengal in the clutches of the famine, the backdrop of the pre-independence struggle and the turmoil of human lives caught in this frame of time. The plot of the novel reveals the various dimensions of life in the backdrop of the Sannyasi Rebellion—such as the plight of the people wrecked by lack of food and hunger that drove them to the brink of cannibalism, the militant rebels, and women’s participation alongside their husbands. It is considered one of the most remarkable works of Bangla language and Indian literature. The rebellion was fought by the sannyasi’s or monks and the common multitudes who took up arms against the tyranny of the British colonisers and their excesses, especially taxes in such a time of privation.
Bankim also gave us the song ‘Vande Mataram’ which became the rallying call for rebels. The first two stanzas eventually became the National song of India.
One of the gems of Indian Literature, ‘Anandmath’ carries a deep sentiment of nationalism which was the essence of the freedom struggle.
Author info
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (27 June 1838–8 April 1894) was an Indian writer, poet and journalist. He was the composer of ‘Vande Mataram’, originally in Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring the activists during the Indian Independence Movement. Chatterjee wrote thirteen novels and many 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.
One of the many novels of Bankim Da that are entitled to be termed as historical fiction is Rajsimha (1881, rewritten and enlarged in 1893). Anandamath (The Abbey of Bliss, 1882) is a political novel which depicts a Sannyasi (Hindu ascetic) army fighting the British soldiers. The book calls for the rise of Indian nationalism. The novel was also
the source of the song Vande Mataram which, set to music by Rabindranath Tagore, was taken up by many Indian nationalists.
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