Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra

(1838–1894) Bengali writer and Indian
nationalist who was one of the major
figures in the nineteenth-century
revival of Bengali literature and in
making the area a hotbed of opposition
to British rule. As a young man,
Chatterjee perceived how the influence
of English language and culture was
superseding that of Indian culture
among educated Indians. He sought to
reverse this through his writing and
political activism by encouraging
Indian intellectuals to rediscover their
classical culture. He became a seminal
figure in both literature and politics,
paving the way for the poet Rabindranath Tagore and political activists
Aurobindo Ghose and Subhash Chandra
Bose. Chatterjee’s most famous novel,
Anandamath, focused on the late
eighteenth-century Sanyasi Rebellion,
in which bands of militant ascetics,
both Hindu and Muslim, fought with
the British East India Company for
control of Bengal. Although historical
inquiry attributes this conflict to social
and economic tensions in contemporary Bengal, Chatterjee portrays it allegorically as a struggle by Mother India’s
loyal children to expel the British
invaders. Chatterjee also wrote the
words to “Vande Mataram” (“Homage to
Mother [India]”), a patriotic song often
described as the unofficial Indian
national anthem.