Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

He was the composer of Vande Mataram, written in highly Sanskritised Bengali, personifying India as a mother goddess. Chattopadhayay wrote fourteen novels and many serious, serio-comic, satirical, scientific and critical treatises in Bengali. He is known as Sahitya Samrat (Emperor of Literature) in Bengali.

Chattopadhayay is widely regarded as a key figure in literary renaissance of Bengal as well as the broader Indian subcontinent. Some of his writings, including novels, essays and commentaries, broke away from traditional verse-oriented Indian writings, and provided an inspiration for authors across India. Chattopadhayay was born in the village of Kanthalpara in the town of North 24 Parganas, Naihati, in an orthodox Bengali Brahmin family, the youngest of three brothers, to Yadav Chandra Chattopadhayay and Durgadebi. His Grandfather Shiv Narayan Chatterjee. His ancestors hailed from Deshmukho village in Hooghly District. His father, a government official, went on to become the Deputy Collector of Midnapur. One of his brothers, Sanjib Chandra Chattopadhyay was also a novelist and is known for his book "Palamau". Bankim Chandra and his elder brother both went to Hooghly Collegiate School and Midnapore Collegiate School (then Governmental Zilla School), where he wrote his first poem. He was educated at the Hooghly Mohsin College and later at Presidency College, Kolkata, graduating with a degree in arts in 1859. He later attended the University of Calcutta and was one of two candidates who passed the final exam to become the school's first graduates. He later obtained a degree in law in 1869. Following his father's footsteps, Bankimchandra joined the Subordinate Executive Service. In 1858, he was appointed a Deputy Magistrate (the same type of position held by his father) of Jessore. After merging of the services in 1863, he went on to become Deputy Magistrate & Deputy Collector, retiring from government service in 1891. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was the first in-charge (Sub-divisional magistrate) of the Arambag subdivision in its earlier days. The ruins of a fort at Gar Mandaran provided the setting for Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Durgeshnandini, published in 1865. His years at work were replete with incidents that brought him into conflict with the colonial government. He was, however, made a Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (CMEOIE) in 1894. He also received the title of Rai Bahadur in 1891. He held pro-British and anti-Muslim stance. Having accepted the legitimacy of the British rule, he supported English education. In his writings, he used fictional characters to represent Muslims as oppressive and Hindus as victims. He concluded that Muslims will rule over Hindus if the British left South Asia.

Chattopadhyay's earliest publications were in Ishwar Chandra Gupta's weekly newspaper Sangbad Prabhakar. He began his literary career as a writer of verse before turning to fiction. His first attempt was a novel in Bengali submitted for a declared prize. He did not win and the novelette was never published. His first fiction to appear in print was the English novel Rajmohan's Wife. Durgeshnandini, his first Bengali romance and the first ever novel in Bengali, was published in 1865. His essay 'Shakuntala, Miranda ebong Desdemona' (1873) is considered as the first attempt of comparative analysis of different literatures in Bengali and is studied closely in school of comparative literature of Jadavpur University. One of the many novels of Chattopadhyay that are entitled to be termed as 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 a British force. The book calls for the rise of Indian nationalism. The novel was also the source of the song Vande Mataram (I worship my Motherland for she truly is my mother) which, set to music by Rabindranath Tagore, was taken up by many Indian nationalists, and is now the National Song; ultimately, however, he accepted that the British Empire could not be defeated. The novel first appeared in serial form in Bangadarshan, the literary magazine that Chattopadhyay founded in 1872. Vande Mataram became prominent during the Swadeshi movement, which was sparked by Lord Curzon's attempt to partition Bengal into a Hindu majority West and Muslim majority East. Drawing from the Shakti tradition of Bengali Hindus, Chattopadhyay personified India as a Mother Goddess known as Bharat Mata, which gave the song a Hindu undertone. Bankim was particularly impressed by the historical Gaudiya Vaishnava cultural efflorescence of the 14th and 15th centuries in Bengal. Chattopadhyay's commentary on the Bhagavad Gita was published eight years after his death and contained his comments up to the 19th Verse of Chapter 4. In a long essay on Sankhya philosophy, he argues that the central philosophical foundation of the overwhelming part of religious beliefs in India, including even Buddhism, lies in the philosophy of Sankhya. He was a critique of the philosophy in the sense of its emphasis on personal vairagya (renunciation) rather than political and social power.

Bankim was highly educated and influenced by Oriental thoughts and ideas. Ramakrishna in contrast, did not have knowledge of English. Yet, they had a nice relationship. In their first and perhaps only meeting, Ramakrishna humorously asked Bankim why his body was bent (as Bankim in Bengali meant bent) and Bankim remarked that it was due to the kicks of the British. Perhaps knowing Bankim's fondness for the Sankhya philosophy, Ramakrishna evoked Krishna and Radhika as the Purusha and Prakriti of Sankhya..

Chattopadhyay's debut novel was an English one, Rajmohan's Wife (1864) and he also started writing his religious and philosophical essays in English.