Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (26 June 1838 - 8 April 1894) was a Bengali writer, poet and journalist. He was the composer of India's national song Vande Mataram, originally a Bengali and Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring the activists during the Indian Independence Movement. Chattopadhyay wrote thirteen novels and several '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. Born to an orthodox Brahmin family, Chattopadhyay was educated at Hooghly Mohsin College founded by Bengali philanthropist Muhammad Mohsin and Presidency College, Calcutta. He was one of the first graduates of the University of Calcutta. From 1858, until his retirement in 1891, he served as a deputy magistrate and deputy collector in the Government of British India. Chattopadhyay is widely regarded as a key figure in literary renaissance of Bengal as well as India. Some of his writings, including novels, essays and commentaries, were a breakaway from traditional verse-oriented Indian writings, and provided an inspiration for authors across India. When Bipin Chandra Pal decided to start a patriotic journal in August 1906, he named it Vande Mataram, after Chattopadhyay's song. Lala Lajpat Rai also published a journal of the same name.

By focusing on the socio-political ideas of the nationalist Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950), the book is an analytical dissection of his ideational vision which is still a relatively under-studied area of nationalist thoughts. During the perod, 1893-1910, Ghosh radically altered the texture of Indian nationalism by dwelling on how nationalism flourished in different parts of India, particularly, Japan, Italy and Ireland. conceptually different from the prevalent form of nationalist voice, it was he who clearly charted out a new course for anti-British campaign that fully unfolded with the appearance of Gandhi (1869-1948) on the Indian political scene. So, Aurobindo's politico-ideological vision ushered in a new era in the nationalist battle for India's political emancipation. Not only is the book therefore an intervention in the nationalist thought, but also devised new conceptual parameters for comprehending the radicalization of politico-ideological voices while simultaneously mobilizing those who were ready to make supreme sacrifices for the cause.

Anandamath is a Bengali novel, written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and published in 1882. Set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in the late 18th century, it is considered one of the most important novels in the history of Bengali and Indian literature. Its importance is heightened by the fact that it became synonymous with the struggle for Indian independence from the British Empire. The novel was banned by the British. The ban was lifted later by the Government of India after independence. The national song of India, Vande Mataram, was first published in this novel.

Describes authors, works, and literary terms from all eras and all parts of the world.

Compared to how it looked 150 years ago at the eve of the colonial conquest, today’s India is almost completely unrecognizable. A sovereign nation, with a teeming, industrious population, it is an economic powerhouse and the world’s largest democracy. It can boast of robust legal institutions and a dizzying plurality of cultures, in addition to a lively and unrestricted print and electronic media. The question is how did it get to where it is now? Covering the period from 1800 to 1950, this study of about a dozen makers of modern India is a valuable addition to India’s cultural and intellectual history. More specifically, it shows how through the very act of writing, often in English, these thought leaders reconfigured Indian society. The very act of writing itself became endowed with almost a charismatic authority, which continued to influence generations that came after the exit of the authors from the national stage. By examining the lives and works of key players in the making of contemporary India, this study assesses their relationships with British colonialism and Indian traditions. Moreover, it analyzes how their use of the English language helped shape Indian modernity, thus giving rise to a uniquely Indian version of liberalism. The period was the fiery crucible from which an almost impossibly diverse and pluralistic new nation emerged through debate, dialogue, conflict, confrontation, and reconciliation. The author shows how the struggle for India was not only with British colonialism and imperialism, but also with itself and its past. He traces the religious and social reforms that laid the groundwork for the modern sub-continental state, proposed and advocated in English by the native voices that influenced the formation India’s society. Merging culture, politics, language, and literature, this is a path breaking volume that adds much to our understanding of a nation that looks set to achieve much in the coming century.

Each Of The Fourteen Papers Collected In This Volume Throws In Some Way Or Other New Light On The Different Aspects Of Bankimchandra`S Genius. Contributors Include, Gopikanath Roy Chowthury, Arabinda Paddar, Ashok K. Ghosh Among Others.

Asking what Indian readers chose to read and why, In Another Country shows how readers of the English novel transformed the literary and cultural influences of empire. She further demonstrates how Indian novelists writing in English, from Krupa Satthianadhan to Salman Rushdie, took an alien form in an alien language and used it to address local needs. Taken together in this manner, reading and writing reveal the complex ways in which culture is continually translated and transformed in a colonial and postcolonial context.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya is well-known as the creator of India's national song, 'Bande Mataram', and as a novelist who pioneered the art form in India with acclaimed classics like Ananda Math, Bishabrikha and Devi Chaudhurani. As critics have recognized, few writers in world literature have been so accomplished in both philosophy and art. So extensive was his output on religion and Hinduism, and so erudite his articulation, that Aurobindo Ghosh called him a rishi, while Nirad C. Chaudhuri believed that Bankim had 'one of the greatest Hindu minds, perhaps equalled in the past - whole of the Hindu past - only by the great Samkara'. Many Threads of Hinduism brings together some of Bankim's important writings on religion, Hinduism in particular, and includes his thoughts on the Vedas, nationalism, the origins of religion, the conflict between one god and many gods, and the need for mass education. There are also pieces comparing the Brahmins of yore to India's colonial masters at the time, the British, and excerpts from his translation of and commentary on the Bhagavadgita, which remained incomplete when he died. Beautifully translated by Alo Shome, this is an introduction to a different facet of a celebrated novelist and an important addition to the corpus of books on religion.