Imagining a Hindu Nation Hindu and Muslim in Bankimchandra's Later Writings

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Imagining a Hindu Nation: Hindu and Muslim in Bankimchandra's Later WritingsAuthor(s): Tanika SarkarSource: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 29, No. 39 (Sep. 24, 1994), pp. 2553-2561Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4401824 .Accessed: 25/07/2011 06:56

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Imagining a H i n d u N a t i o nHindu and Muslimin Bankimchandra'sLaterWritings

Tanika SarkarThe author explores the location of the Muslim and the Hindu nation in Bankimchandra'sworks as an interlinked

formation that has to be situated simultaneouslywithinhis novelistic and his discursive prose. The two set up an internaldialogue and self-interrogation that moved across his earlier, relatively open-ended and often radical phase and latermoredogmaticand recognisablyrevivalist work. Thepaper is centrallyconcernedwiththeprofoundbreaks in thinkingand expression as well as with thefundamental continuities thatwerepreserved through certain narrative tropes anddevices by which Bankimcontinuedto destabilise his seemingly unambiguousagenda of a triumphalistHindupeople.The ocus is on Bankim's lastfive years whenhe composed three historical novels on Hindu-Muslimantagonismand two polemical essays on an authentic and reinvigoratedHinduismto be attained througha disciplinary regimethat Bankimspelt out in some detail.I

BANKIMCHANDRA CHATTOPADH-YAYA (1838-1894) was thereal founderofthe Bengali novel as well as of seriousdiscursive literature n political theory.Hetook the infant prose to new heights andwrote originally and acutely on worldreligions, on class and gender relations inBengal,on thehistoryof nationsand on theabsence of bothhistoryandnationhood nHindu traditions.He was also a brillianthumoristand satirist who laughedat mosttraditions, gendas nd ocial ypes.Generallyregardedas the most powerful formativeinfluenceon 19thcenturypolitical thinkinginBengal,heis a difficultauthor o readwithany absolute certainty since he seems tostraddleverydifferentpositions with equalfelicity at different imes:'and also becausehe seems to mock at convictions andresolutions hathe himselfhad constructed.2Scholars generally regard Bankim as acrucial force in the making of both anationalist imagination and a Hindurevivalist polemic. A particularly strikinginstanceof this dual mpact s his celebratedhymn o theMotherland-'Bande Mataram'(salutation o the Mother),3which becamethe most potent patriotic slogan at peakpoints in 20th century mass nationaliststruggles4 s well as the Hindurallying cryin momentsof HinduMuslimviolence.5Thedualuse has itsdangers.Nationalism,whichmanyinfluential scholarstend to treatas anon-historicised, ndifferentiatedmonolithiccategory,maybe read,rather oo easily andquickly,as avariantof Hinducommunalismandvice versa,bothcomposing a hardanda soft face of the same phenomenon andboth produced by western epistemic andontological operations.6 Elsewhere,Bankim'sworkhasbeensplitup ntodifferentcomponents which are isolated from oneanother ndhisconceptof Hindunationhoodis then read on its own as an exercise innationalist maginingwithoutanyreference

to the Muslim in the discourse.7 Finally,Bankim' polemical eferences o theMuslimare sometimes detached from his novels.They can then be seen as a seamless whole,without internal shifts. The communalimpulse is then related o his nationalismasits displaced and disfigured form.'I would like to explore the location of theMuslimandof the Hindunation n Bankim'sworks as an interlinked ormationthat hasto be situated simultaneously within hisnovelistic and his discursive prose.Thetwocot up an internal dialogue and self-interrogatioii hiatmoved across his earlier,relatively penendedandoftenradicalphase9and later, more dogmatic and recognisablyrevivalist work. I would be centrallyconcerned with the profound breaks inthinkingandexpression as well as with thefundamental ontinuities hatwerepreservedthrough ertainnarrativeropesanddevices,throughwhich,Ibelieve, Bankimcontinuiedto destabilise his seemingly unambiguousagenda of a triumphalistHindupeople. Myfocus will be on his last five yearswhen hecomposedthreehistoricalnovels on Hindu-Muslim antagonism: and two polemicalessays on an authentic and reinvigoratedHinduismwhichneeds o beattainedhroughadisciplinary egimen hatBankimspeltoutin some detail."'In sharp contrast to his prolific earlierprodi.ction,Bankimwrote much less in thisperiod.There s little use of satire,caricatureor humour.For the firsttime in his life, hisprose remains uncompromisingly solemn,weighty andponderous,all of which, at leastovertly, seems to embody a single andauthoritarian olemicalthrust ather hananargument that continuously poses newquestions and issues to itself. One of theessays, in fact, is written in the form of agurupreachingo hisdisciple."Theauthorialvoice is intrusiveand cast as that of a self-proclaimed proselytiser-cum-pedagogue.It is this phase that is considered to be adecisive component of Hindu revivalism.

And Hindu revivalistic- concerns andargumentshad, in their turn, been a vitalpolitical resource for the contemporaryHindutva phenomenon and its RashtriyaSwayam Sevak Sangh leadership.I preferto treat this phase of Bankim more asconstitutingthe link between 19thcenturyHindurevivalism in Bengal whose Hindusupremacist gendawas notprimarily urnedagainst the Muslim or Islam: andthe hard,aggressive Hindutva politics that startedorganising itself from the 1920s on anexclusively and explicitly anti-Muslimplatform.'2Apart from this role within theideological lineage of aggressive Hindutva,Bankimhasamoredirect maginativebearingon the RSS combine. His 'BandeMataram'hymn is, for this combine, the authenticnational anthem, a truerone than the 'JanaGana Mana' of Rabindranathwhich is theaccepted version for the Indian state. Thehymn is daily sungin its entirety(includingall the Bengali passages) at RSS andRashtrasevika shakhas.'3 Any change orabbreviation s strictly forbiddensince thesong symbolises the undivided, inviolatebody of the pre-partitionMotherland,and,hence,anabridgement mounts o asymbolicmutilationof the sacredbody, a repetitionof the partition.As soon as the BharatiyaJanata Party, the electoral front of thecombine,cameintopowerin Delhi after hestate elections of 1993, it made the songcompulsory n all state-run choolsof Delhi.I would, however, be as concerned withwhat wasnot taken from Bankim's thinkingon the Muslim and the Hindunationas withwhatwas taken:andalso withhowdifferentlythe themes were negotiatedeven when thebroadconclusions seemto pointin thesamedirection.

IIIt is importantto recall that till the endof the 1870s, Bankim had very boldly andthoroughly probed the specific forms of

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caste, class and gender oppressions withinpre-colonial Indian traditions. He hadoccasionally questionedthe need for self-rule andnationhood or Hindus,given theseintemaland tructured owerrelations,whichmighteven be loosened up some-whatunderforeign rule.'4In Samya (Equality), whichwas published n 1879,he movedwell beyondthe modest confines of the notion ofcompanionate marriage that the liberalreformers would advocate for the new,educated woman. He also made startlingsuggestions about her future economicindependence and about sharing ofhouseworkbetween he sexes. He questionedthe supreme emphasis that reformers,revi\alists and the colonial state equallyplaced upon the absolute chastity of theHindu wife who was situated within aframework of male polygamy.' He sawcaste, class and gender hierarchies asinterlinked acets of a systemthatembodiedthe most absolute form of inequalityanywhere in the world.'6

Even in Samya,however, certainkinds offreedomandoppressionaredealt with in arathercursorymanner.British rule and thenotion of progresshad been questioned inrelationto peasant poverty,'7but the entirequestionofforeignruleandpolitical reedomhad been rendered a lesser priority bycouterposing to it the issue of internalstratificationandoppressionwithin Indiansociety.Thepeasant,moreover, s theobjectofenlightened ocialengineering utpoliticalinitiative is obviously beyond him. In hishistorical novels, too, political change isinvariablyinitiatedby kings and ascetics;whentheordinary olk initiatedirectaction,it degenerates nto mob rioting.'8Demandsforfreedomandwelfareforvictims of socialoppression are powerfully articulated butthe agenda is left without an agent.'9It isthe colonial statewhich, after all, is askedto assume a corrective role.In the70s, when Bankim was writinghissocially aware and courageous prose, theabsolute vulnerabilityof all categories oftenants on issues of rent increase, illegalcesses and the arbitrary owers of evictionthat the landlordenjoyed had hardlybeenbreached.20 rom 1880 onwards, however,plans orsubstantive mendmentsntenancylaws had been set afoot2' and the state,moreover,wassystematically ompilingandclassifying information about low castes,with a view to intervening n improvementmeasures n thenearfuture.This was in thecontext of rethinking in official policiesabout social groupsafter 1857, when therewas a markedsuspicionaboutuppercastesin general among government officers.Bankimwas, in fact,selectedby H HRisleyin 1881 to assist in the preparationof anEthnographic lossarywithdetailed esearchon castes and ribes or hedistrictof Howrahwhere he was then posted.22 t also became

increasinglydifficult to regardpeasants hewayBankimhadportrayedhem-as passivevictims. Since the mid-70s powerful formsof peasantself-organisationandmovementagainst arbitrary andlord exactions hadbecome a central feature of the agrarianscene. The spread of the commercialcultivationof jute, moreover,benefited thesmall peasants of Muslim or low castecategories rather than the rentier groupswho constituted he base of the new middleclass.23 Moreover, the failure of Bengalientrepreneurshipo find space for itself inthe higher rungs of trade, business andindustries was definitively established bythe70s.24Therewas a keensense ofexclusionfrom the commanding heights of the civilsociety forBankim's own class. His earliercritique of the oppressive privileges of aparasitic upper caste-middle class nowseemed to require a furtherdeepening ofthese processes of exclusion, leading,conceivably to a partialreversalof powerrelations rather than the benevolent andresponsible paternalism of upper castelandownersthat Bankim had prescribed nthe 70s. There was now a real problem ofchoice.After the late 70s Bankim would neverreturn o the themesof peasantpoverty andcaste oppression.He wouldrepudiate amyaand refuse tobringout a new edition.25 venwithoutnecessarily mputingnarrowmotivesto this choice, we have to reckonwith thisabsence and the implications his holds outfor a possible radical social agenda at atime of limited but real social change. Wehave to recognise that the choice was madeand exercised through a silence, throughcertainexcisions fromhis earlierconcerns.It is also afact of considerablesignificancethat the definitive transition from a pre-dominantly liberal to a markedly HindurevivalistdiscoursewasmadewithinBengalaround the same time and against thiscontext. Sumit Sarkarhas already pointedout a somewhat similarpredicament n the1920s that partly enabled a turn towardsorganised communalism.26The posing of the problemof power andexploitationwas, therefore,unambiguouslyradicalbutBankim's adicalmagining ailedor refused to construct a resolution thatcould be adequateto itself. If the peasantor thedispossessed low caste was notto bethe subject of his own history, then theimmediately realisable and convincingagency for self-improvementwithin Indiansociety-an agency that,moreover,alreadyseemedactivated-could bethemiddleclasswith its western education, liberal valuesanda reformistagenda.If reformof Hindupatriarchywas the majorconcern for thisgroup,Bankim,too, had his own critiqueofHindu domestic normswhich, if anything,was far sharper han that of the reformists.Bankim, however, was relentlesslycritical

of its aspirationsandmethods of work. Hesaw its dependenceon colonial legislationfor initiating improved family laws as abasicmoral law sincethis neithergenerateda will for change within wider society,without which reform would be doomed,nor did it make 'men' of modem Hindusbyvesting them with independence of effortand hegemonistic capabilities. Anydependence on foreign rulers perpetuatedandexemplified for him, the lack of a willto freedom andnationhoodwhich hadkeptHindus subjected for centuries. Bankimsparednoeffort atmockingthisdependenceon alien legislation27 as well as theemasculation t produced.He also mockedthe surrenderof the new middle class toOrientalist forms of knowledge on India,althoughheretainedgreatrespect orstrandswithin mainstream western social andpolitical philosophies.28Since he saw it as a class that was bomretarded,Bankim refused the middle classitsdemands orpoliticalfreedomandrights.He made himself extremely unpopularbysupporting British moves to muzzle thevernacular press to suggest that it wasbehaving irresponsibly and that it neededcontrols.29He used the entireand ormidableresourcesof hissatireandcaricatureo makefun of the politics of associations andorganisations,of the mimicryof importedpolitical models that was involved in suchexercises andthe ridiculousmisadventuresin handlingthem.30He, therefore,undercutprecisely the struggle for democraticandpublic spaces where Indians could growthrough debates and experiences oforganisationand protest. Neither a radicalnor a liberal form of democracy wascompatiblewiththe heroicagenda hatheldhisimagination. nfact, fBankimprefiguresthetrajectory f some featuresof Hindutva,he also powerfully embodies some aspectsof a far softerandpluralistic orm of liberalindigenism.The atter,.out f its commitmentto a non-'alienated' authenticpolitics, anditssuspicionof liberalrightsor radical ocialprotest hatderive some of their terms fromthe post-Enlightenmentpolitical radicalismand democratic raditions, inds itself in thesamespaceasaggressive, ntolerantHindutvain itscritiqueof seculardemocraticpolitics.This, in the final analysis, emerges as a farmore consistent andpowerfulstrain han tscritiqueof Hindutvawhich is sporadicandmilder.3'The thrust owardsapureandauthenticallyHindu site for generating he social will forchange complicatedhis social concem, hissharp riticismof thetraditional, re-colonialform of Hindu domesticity and his daringimaginingof the non-domesticated, trong,passionate woman that hadearliercreateda marked distance between him and thecontemporaryHindu evivalist-nationalist.32While he grew intellectually through a

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simultaneous nd nteranimatedmbibingofEnlightenment universalism and Hinduphilosophical resources and used theresourcesof both to interrogateboth-andhere lies the ineptness of the notion ofhybridity hat misses out on the criticalityand the mutually transformativenature ofthis ntellectual ncounter-the compulsionto opt for a pure site of exclusively Hinduknowledge triumphedafter his exchangeswith Reverend Hastie.33In 1882, Reverend Hastie of the GeneralAssembly wrote a tract that was brutallycritical of Hinduism. Bankim, who hadalways idiculedOrientalist retensions boutscientific knowledge on India, preparedalong, careful and angry reply. It was afterthis that he repudiatedSamya and, in hisdiscursive prose, became exclusivelypreoccupiedwith he hemeof a reconstructedHinduform of knowledge and leadership.The anger was probably fuelled by thechanging political environment since themid- and late-70s. The post-Mutinyrepression, clearly racist in nature, hadinitiated erious elfdoubtamongtheBengalimiddleclass that hadbeen entirely loyal in1857. The escalation in discriminatorycolonial policies during Lytton's era34wasfollowedbytheviolent racistbacklashat thetime of the IlbertBill agitation.Apartfromtheexposure o the most extreme andnakedformof whiteracism na concentrateddose,the middle class was also troubled by areversal f trends hathad promiseda milderclimateat the time of Northbrooke's,andlater, of Ripon's liberal policies35whichwereon thepointof opening upa few minorbutrealopportunities f incorporationwithinthecolonialdecision-makingprocess.36Thisled to an intensificationof both liberalandHindu revivalist forms of anti-colonialcritiques and organisation. Liberalnationalists formed secular, openorganisations for self strengthening andformulatedconomiccritiquesof thecolonialdrain of wealth, Indian poverty anddeindustrialisation that remained thefoundational concepts for all nationalisteconomic hinkingdowntoGandhi.37 indurevivalists, on the other hand, used theiranti-western rhetoric to close off allinterrogation nd transformationof powerrelationswithin the Hindu communityasfalseknowledge ontaminated yalien ormsof power knowledge.38 t thus assumed amarkedlyundamentalist ind of defensive-ness. Faced with this crisis of conscience,Bankimreactedby repudiatingSamya andby excisingthe frontal ontestationof Hinducaste,class andgenderhierarchies romhisprose.Theexcision, despitehis bestefforts,remained omewhatncompleteandBankimreinserted some of his earlier critiquesinsidiously in his later novels.39Historicaldevelopmentsas well as certainearlierpolitical choices, then, blocked off,

forBankim,any inclination to consider theliberal reformers as a vehicle for Hinduself-improvement. As class, caste andgender abruptly disappear in his work ascentralconcerns, their absence is filled upin the 80s by a new and coherentproblematic: What constitutes authenticHinduism, what possibilities exist withinHinduism of the past and in the re-authenticatedHinduism of the future fornation building, what precisely was theculpability of the Muslim in Indianhistoryand how and why had Hindu powercapitulated o it. It is not that hese problemswere not reflected on in his earlier prose,but there they had locked horns with anequally powerful set of social concerns.4"Their centralitynow becomes absolute anduncontested. Bankim looks for an ethicoreligious site for the Hindu people whosedominantpriority s not what s socially justbut whatis truly indigenous-i e, Hindu.4'With the reoriented problematic, theobviousagency could now be restored o thebrahmanicalorms of knowledge anduppercaste social leadership. This, however,presents quallypowerfulproblems.Bankimcontinues to believe that past traditionsofHinduismhadnot generatedany impulseforfreedomand nationhood. f, then,these newchanges need to be improvised, then oldforms of knowledge or rule will notautomaticallyyield them. Even in this laterdiscursivephase,he continued opolemiciseagainst certainforms of Hinduknowledgeand devotion, as earlier he had criticallyreviewed Sankhyaand Nyaya traditions.42At no phase had he shown muchsympathyfor the Vedic-Vedantist philosophies,perhaps because their quietist, reflectivemodes were inappropriateor a politicallymilitant, even violent heroic agenda, andalso because these were resources thatBrahmo reformers had celebrated.43Heconducted a relentlesspolemic against thedominant Bengali form of devotion-Bhakti,especially its Vaishnav formwhichworshipped Krishnaas a figure of greaterotic excess.44 He chose the Puranictraditionand put together from them thefigureofa heroic,vindictive,wilyandviolentsaviour figure. He used as his modelmythical--epic dimensions of the later lifeof Krishna when he was no longer theshepherd boy or the great lover, but whenhe hadgrownupintotheking,thepolitician,the warrior.45 hroughouthis life he heldlively arguments with the orthodoxrepositories of brahmanicalknowledge-the panditsof Bhatpara.46 e cast doubtonthe learning of the doyen of the Hinduorthodoxy of his times-Pandit SasadharTarkachuramani.47 The criticality andintellectual and polemical energies whichcontinued to shape his writingseven of thelater period, would be something thatcontemporaryHindutva entirely eschews.

Even intheDharmatattva, hegurupreachedto a well read,argumentativedisciple. RSSpedagogic principles,on the otherhand,areentirely exhortative and rhetorical, andinternaldebates and productivedifferencesfind no space there. It is not fornothingthatthey select recruits romveryyoungchildrenwho lack the capacity to argue.48The existing representativesof the oldHindu ruling groups-the upper castelandowners and rentiers who opposed thenew western learning, the leadersof Hindureligious establishments, the pundits-failed to convince him as in any waydeserving of their privileges or as offeringpotential for active leadership. In his laternovels hereturned o his sharpsatiricalbitein portraying the classic figure of thetraditionalHindupatriarch-the upper asteparasitic landlord p-aterfamilias.49Thevirtuous founder of a Hindu power that heimagined in Sitaram could sustain neitherhis virtue nor his power,11Contemporarysexual and financial scandals about theMohunt f thecelebratedShaivitepilgrimagecentre at Tarakeswar hat rockedBengal in187351 and the earlier scandal about theMaharajaoftheBallabhachariectinGujaratprobably made him unable to imagine thepresent epresentatives f organisedreligionassaviours.EventheasceticsofAnandamath,thequintessentiallymilitantpatrioticnovel,astonish the ordinary devout Hindu whokeeps on asking them what kinds ofVaishnavs or sanyasis they are.52It is notablethatin this phase, as earlier,virtue, activism and heroism are moreeffortlessly embodied by the woman asalmost a characterological rait.53Bankimhad stopped polemicising against thesubordination f womenand hebold eministof Samya had buried himself. InKrishnacharitra,n fact, he devoted muchspace to justify an act of force committedby Arjuna n abducting hesisterof Krishnaon his advice. Krishnaconvinces Arjuna,andBankimtries to convince us, that maleguardians can and should override thequestion of the woman's consent in theinterestsof herown largerwelfare thattheynecessarily comprehend better.54 Thedisproportionatelyarge pace hathedevotesto justify this, ratherminor incidentin thelife of Krishna, owever, ellsus howdifficulthe found it to persuade himself. InDharmatattva eoverturns isearlierimagesofconjugalityas theequalandmaturemutualpassion between two adults that haddeconstructed the revivalist nationalistcelebration of non-consensual infantmarriagebetween a polygamous male andanutterly monogamouschild wife.55At thesametime,even in the aterphase, hewomanremained he locusof thenation n a farmoreactivist way than the passive, iconic roleascribed oher by revivalistnationlllits whosaw in her submission to I\tsric

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prescriptions and in her total insulationfrom new alien norms a measure of hersymbolic capacity to embody and sustainthe nation.56n Bankim, however, the onlyapproximation of the figure of SaviourKrishna is the figure of the dacoit queenPrafulla who earns this capacity not bybeing faithful to Hindu domesticprescriptionsbut by surviving outside herhousehold and by fighting against Britishforces. Even though the pedagogic trainingfor the new Hindu that Bankim filled outin Dharmatattva is imparted to a maledisciple, it is the dacoit queen of the novelwho is shown to be actually undergoingthe training.57n Sitaram, too, the womancauses virtuous action, the woman tries tosave Hindu power and the woman iswrongfully riedandhumiliated n a strikingparallel with and an implicit critique ofRam's trial of Sita.58The woman's activism, however, isoccasional and exceptional even when itsustains some of the critical energies of theearlier Bankim. It is certainly not a signof an investiture of the woman withleadershipof the patriotic agenda. It is alsosomething thathappensentirely withinhisfiction. In the directly polemical prose, onthe other hand, the critical energy is wellcontained,andeven the feminine figurationof the Motherland that Bankim achievedin Anandamath is absent. The new Hinduis emphatically a Hindu man with adifference. He is the embodiment of arigorous, disciplinary schedule that willeventually transpose discipline from anexternal ethico religious authority to theself monitoring ethical agent who hasinternalised reinterpreted concepts ofHinduknowledge and devotional practices(Bankim's explanation of Bhakti andAnushilandharma). It is the process oftraining which incorporates knowledge,dispositions, physical capabilities anddevotion and which replaces privileges ofbirthand ritualexpertise, thatmarkoutthenew brahminwho is the ideal patriot andnation builder from the old, unreformedHinduauthorities. nheritedand normativecontrol are replaced with hard earnedleadership and brahmanical authority isrevived. as intensively cultivated hege-monistic aspirations.A returnon a higherplane, maybe, but a return, nonetheless.The imagined Hindu nation cannot, eveninimagination,be madeandruledby agentsthat are not male and not upper caste.59

IIILet us now turn to some specificdimensions within the constructionof thenewHindu.Weshallbeginwith athemethatwe touchedonin the firstsection: the BandeMataram hymn. We shall use it as anillustration f the imaginativeandrhetorical

devices with which a militant Hindu formof patriotism is constructed. Bankim hadoriginally composed this as a song in 1875.Later, when he had finished the highlyinfluential novel, Anandamath,he insertedit within the story and vested it with highlysignificant narrative unctions.6" he song,on its own, would have made an originalmove towardsa deificationand fetishisationof the country. That sense was furtherheightened by other resonances within thenovel which pentmucheffortn constructinga sequentialised imagery of the deifiedMotherland.6' part rom that, he narrativeframing, acquired from the novel's plot,endowed it with additional and very newproperties. The hymn, subsequently, wasdetached rom the novel and achieved a lifeof its own as a slogan in mass nationalistrallies,and ater, n communalviolence. Thenovel, however, remained ontainedwithinthesloganas mplied esonances, ssociationsand emotions and providea referencepointfor larger messages.

The song begins in Sanskrit, then turnsinto Bengaliandends with Sanskritpassagesagain. It begins with an evocation of thebounteous, lovely land that generouslynurtures its children. Then bounty andphysicalrichness urn ntoan mageof latentstrength,derivedfromthe image of Durga,the demon slaying goddess, from thenumerical strength of the population,compiled from Census statistics, andfromthesupreme acred ignificance hatBankimascribes to herwithin the Hindupantheon:"It is your image that we worship in alltemples".62 he land, for a while, is at onewiththe icon of Durga.Theimageof Durgathenquicklyand nsidiously ransformstselfinto that of Kali, another manifestationofthe Mothergoddess, but as a destructive,angryforce. Itends with a reiteration f theoriginalsenseof bountyandnurture, nd anexhortation to her children to enrich herstrengthwith theirown. In between, thereisjustasuggestionofherpresentweakness-"with such strength, why are youhelpless?"-but the overwhelmingsense isone of power.Thepower s undifferentiatedand flows back and forth from the motherto the sons, though it certainly originateswith the mother.The song encapsulates, nanunbrokenmusicalflow, thethreedistinctimages of the nurturingmotherof the past,the dispossessed motherof the presentandthetriumphantmotherof the future hat aredevelopedat muchgreater engthwithin thenovel.63Laternationalistsclearly saw thedemonslayer as pitted againstthe colonialpowerand used the song as an abbreviatedhistoryof thegrowthof colonialexploitationand thepatriotic truggl-eor liberation.TheRSS, on the otherhand, certainlytook it toimply a 'historical' struggle against theMuslim,since from heir nception, heyhadstayed away from the anti-colonial

movements and had devoted themselves toanexclusivelycommunal genda.As a matterof fact, in the song itself, the demon isnonspecified and is eclipsed by the imageof the armedMother.What s of importanceis the reiteration that the patriotic son isquintessentially a soldier at war.The novel itself is ambiguousaboutwhomthe Mother is fighting. It is set in thetransitionalhistorical moment of the late18th century, against the backdropof thefamine of 1770 and the armed combat bymarauding scetics of NagaDasnamiordersagainst the puppet Muslim Nawab and theindirect control of the British in Bengal.'MBankim makes no mention of the role ofMuslim akirswho also led plunderingbandsof starvingpeople. Even though he sanyasiswere from Saivite orders, here they areworshippers of Vishnu, with a brand ofmilitant,war-likebhakti ftheirown.Leadersare recruited from Bengali, upper caste,landed origins and they have transformedthemselves with devotional and rigorousphysical and martial training, with thevocation of ascetic celibacy for the durationof the struggle, which is ment to restoreHindurule.Eventhough hey do accomplishthe ouster of the puppetNawab, they alsoare instrumental n ushering in direct andcomplete British dominion.A divine voicetells the supreme leader that this isprovidentialsince Hindusneed apprentice-ship in modemforms of power.The leader,however, remains disconsolate andunreconciled and considers the historicalmission of santans-the ascetic leaders-aborted ince oneforeignruler s exchangedforanother.Nationalists ookthisbitternessas a call for struggle against the colonialpower,while to theRSS brigade, hedivinecommandwould ndicate anction orstayingaway from the anti-colonial struggle, sincethe divine purpose is stated to be theeliminationof Muslim power.Within the novel, the song initiates anumberof politicalbreaksandinnovations.It is meantto be a sacred chantor 'mantra'.Yet, chants are compulsorily composed in'debbhasha'Sanskrit-the languageof thegods-to which women and low castes donot have access. They are aslo enunciatedwithin a prescribedritualsequence, alwaysin front of the deity and always by thebrahmanpriestor the initiatedbrahminmalehouseholder.The novel ascribes t to anactof worship. Yet it is first heardduringtheaftermath f abattlebetweentheBritish-ledtroops of the Nawab and the Santans wholead a mob of villagers. The hymn, then,enters the emergent cultic order of a newform of Motherworshipas a chantthatisunconventionallydetachedfromthe sacredritual sequence and that can also functionas a song on its own, as congregationaldevotional music that s accessible to all inVaishnavite gatherings. Yet, unlike those

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In a crucial and conclusive part ofDharmatattva,Islam is dropped from theexplicit comparativescheme and there is anew triangularcontest for virtues amongHinduism, Buddhism and Christianity."IfJesusorSakyaSinghahadbeenhouseholdersandyet leadersof world religions, then theirsystems would have been more complete.Krishnaasideal man s a householder.Jesusor Sakya Singha are not ideal men".76 fHinduism coresover the two otherreligionson this ground, then there is also a third,unmentionedpresence, another eader of aworldreligion who, too, was a householderandwhoyet transcended ismundane ies-that is Mohammad. Islam, or rather, thefigure of the Prophet, s the sunkenmiddletermin the diagram.If he implicity sharesthe honour of having founded a perfectedreligion with Krishna, he has the furtheradvantageof being so within the acceptedhagiography f Islam, and n the universallyacknowledged version of Islam as well.77Bankimwas, however,painfullyawarethathis ideal type Krishnawas an appropriationand constructionsolely of his own heroicintellectual efforts, and that here he wasgoing againstthe grainof dominant Hinduinterpretative chemes.78Bankim's Krishnais ahouseholder-king, warrior, politician.Heis overwhelmingly manofaction,strongenoughto bewily in ahighercause,to resorttoseeminglyamoral trategies orthehighergood of his people. He is entirelyunlike themorallypureof philosophicallyquestioningChristor Buddha.He is equally unlike thefigureoftotal ove andplaythat s celebratedinVaishnavitehagiography.Ofall the worldreligions that Bankim knew about, hisKrishna tandsas the closest approximationto Mohammad.Infact, the silent influenceon Bankim's construction is so exact inparticular eatures as well as in the totalconception, that one may even be temptedto speculate if Bankim's Krishna is not,indeed, modelled on the biography ofMohammad.79If the discursive prose of later yearsobliquelydrawsuponwhatBankimregardedas the enviable resources and energies ofIslam,andif he did not engage in sustainedpolemic against Islam in his essays onreligion, he certainly evolved a mode ofextremely denunciatory speech aboutMuslim rule in India in his novels. Whilehis notions of ideal Hinduism informed19th century Hindu revivalism, theparticular anguagethathe, more thananyothercontemporary,developed to describetheMuslim, certainly nflected therhetoricand the aspirations of violent Hinducommunalism of the next century.Bankim bestowed on the Muslim anunprecedented centrality in his historicaland political scheme, thereby starting atradition. The revivalist climate of thetimes was shaped far more decisively by

anti-reformist and anti-missionary propa-ganda and there were even a few clasheswith missionaries n the early 90s.8"' uringtheAge of ConsentBill agitationof the 80sandearly 90s, Muslims were written aboutas fellow sufferers and victims ofcolonialism.8 The natio'nalistvernacularpressusually ookcare o distinguish etweenthe ntegrated,ndigenisednature f "Muslimrule"andwhat heydescribedas the entirelyalien nature of the colonial government.82Thisis not to say thatBengalwas completelyimmune from the communal violence thatwas sweeping acrosspartsof'northern ndiainthe 1890s.83Muslimshadrecentlygaineda few educational concessions, Hunter'sthesis on Muslim backwardnesspromisedmore, andwith Muslim self-modernisationmoves of the Aligarhvariety, hepossibilityof sharpenedcompetition in the sphere ofthe new educationand obs, whereBengaliHindus hadso farenjoyed a decisive edge,seemed imminent.84 o far, however, thatremained rathermarginalworryandHindurevivalism hadnotyet targeted heMuslimas the main enemy.85Bankim bequeathed a set of historicaljudgmentson the natureandconsequencesof Muslim rule in Bengal: "Howdoes ourMuslim rulerprotectus? We have lost ourreligion, our caste, our honour andfamilyname, and now we are about to lose ourvery lives ...How can Hinduism surviveunless we derive out these dissoluteswine?"86These ideological moves do notneed properhistorical authentication incethey are posed in a fictional space: the

pseudo historical comments, however,carry an inmmenseweight of conviction,nonetheless, particularly ince Bankimwasknown for a highly historicist thrust n hisdiscursive prose. They are, therefore,insidiously authenticated and then theyjustify political rallying cries of extremevirulence: "Kill the low Muslims"87s therefrain that is repetitively raised inAnandamath. Even though Bankim nevermadeuse ofthe recent heoriesofthecolonialdrainof wealth, he used the same motif todescribe the flight of moncy from Bengalto Delhi in the form of a heavy revenueburden in Mughal times.88Perhaps he mostsignificantwayinwhichBankim served as a bridge between 19thcenturyHindurevivalismandthelater,anti-Muslim, violent politics was by providingan immensely powerful visual image ofcommunal violence and by giving it thestatusof anapocalypticholywar.Hestampedthe image indelibly on the imagination ofcommunalpolitics by fusing theimpulseofcommunityviolence and revenge with thespectacle of a feminine body. In his lastnovel Sitaram, Gangaram, the brother of theheroine Shree is unjustly charged andsentenced to execution by a tyrannicalMuslim fakirand aQazi.Unableto stopthismockeryof justice, Shreegoes to the placeof execution where a big crowd, includingmany Hindus, had gathered to watch theevent. In despair, Shree tries to rally-themto save a fellow Hindu,to instil a sense ofbrotherhoodand mutual responsibility byevoking the fact that a man of their

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community is being killed by anothercommunity. hreedoesnot nvoke the themeof justice, nordoes she try to rally subjectsagainst tyranny and misrule. Quitespontaneously, he words that rise to hermouthare words of community solidarityand violence. "Then Gangaram saw agoddess-like igureamong the green leavesof the huge tree. Her feet resting on twobranches, he righthandclutching a tenderbranch, he left handswirling her sari, shewas calling out: Kill, kill..." Her long,unbound resses were dancing in the wind,herproudfeet were swinging the branchesup and down, up and down, as if Durgaherself was dancing on the lion on thebattlefield. Shree had no more shame left,no consciousness,no fear,no rest. She keptcalling out-"Kill, kill the enemy...Theenemyof thecountry, heenemyof Hindus,my enemy... kill, kill the enemy... Thatstrainingarmwas such a lovely arm... suchbeautynher wollenlips,her laringnostrils,sweat drenched tray ocks falling across aperspiringforehead. All the Hindus keptlooking at her and then streaming towardsthe battlefield with 'glory to MotherChandike'on their lips".In an instant, Shree had transformed ascatteringof Hinduswho had no previoussenseof mutual onnectedness, nto anarmywith a single violent purpose, into acommunity-for-itself hat can be realisedonlythroughnvocation fvengeanceagainstanother. t is as if, to imagine a communityof Hindus, Bankim can only imagine aspectacleof violence,of war.That s theonlypassion hatbrings hecommunity ntobeing.Butthespectacleof violence is derived romthe image of a passionate feminine bodywhich literally gives birth to the violence.If political passion is produced throughafeminineagency,there s littledoubt aboutthe kind of image in which this passion iscast. The woman's body moving "up anddown, up and down"... the "strainingarms,the swollen lips, the flaring nostrils, thesweat drenched locks and the perspiringforehead"-all arewellrememberedlassicalconventions ordescribing he womanatthemoment of sexual climax. The super-imposition of the icons of Durga and ofChandika, hegoddess of war,on this bodyprovidesa sacred ramethat ightlycontrolsyet obliquely heightens the flow of sexualenergyfromwhichthevisual imagederivesits power. The beginnings of a violentlycommunalised maginationmay, then,havesomething to do with a kind of malefantasising hatencompassessexualpassionandpoliticalviolence in a single impulseofpleasure.

VYet the consequencesof such imaginationdo notentirely xhaust he ogic of Bankim'

discourseon the Muslim. We have alreadyseen thathisseriousdiscursiveprosereferredto Islam with.respect. In his novels, too,Bankim had beenwritingabout HindusandMuslims,and heir elationswithoneanother,all his life. They are ranged side by side,against one another, n dramaticand tenseencountersbetween man and man,man andwoman,womanandwoman,ascommunities,nations, armies,as loving, fighting,makingpeace, arguing,negotiating.If all the novelson this theme are taken o compose a singlenovel, and he arrangements etweenpeopleof the two religions are relations betweentwQ omposite ndividuals, hentheobvioussimile is that of a conjugal or wildlyemotional, dangerously fluctuatingsexualrelationshiphatmay simultaneouslyncludegreat ntimacyalong with great violence. Afarcryfromthe waywhitepeopleencounterIndiansnhis novelswhichprovidemomentsof sheer comicality,x9here is invariablymaterial for high dramaor for tragedy.In his firstnovel Durgesh Nantdini hereis a striving for an almost mechanicalsymmetryof virtuesandvices onboth sides.The aim is to establish a shared code ofconduct, be it for the heroes, the heroines,thevillainsorthecowards.Neither reHindusand Muslimstwo monolithically ntegratedpeoples and political alliances andexpediencycut acrossreligiousboundaries.9"Interestingly, Bankim, who experimentedboldlywith ratherransgressivepossibilitiesin sexual relationships beyond Hindudomestic andconjugal prescriptions, oundin the Muslim woman,unboundedby normsof beingfaithful oonly one man nan entirelifetime,aproductiveground orplayingonutterlynew registersof sexualmoralityandcommitment.From the third novel, Mrinalini, thepossibility of a shared enterprisevanishesand theMuslimbecomesthegreathistoricaladversaryof the Hindu. Battles betweenindividualsare now loadedwithdestinyfornations.InRajsinzgha,he Muslimadversaryis not just an adversarybut a hated anddreaded enemy-no less a man than thefanaticalAurangzeb."He was born to hatethe Hindus, he found Hindu offencesunpardonable..." here are references o allhis well thumbed ins in theopening chapteritself-jeziya, temple wrecking, cowslaughter, orced conversion.This seems atypical case of stereotyping. Yet, let usremember the first appearance of thepresumedenemy of Hindus. We meet anelderly man in white, quiet, dignified,assured, respecting strengthin an enemy.All the characteristic istoricalassociationshad been revived and refamiliarised n thefirstchapter.Gradually,however, over theentiretext, the stereotype s defamiliarised,redeemed and humanised, especially byAurangzeb's gentle, melancholy love for aHindu serving maid. It is no monsterbut a

greatadversary hathadbeen defeated n thehistoricalbattle and herein ay the truegloryof Mewar. Unlike the anonymous, facelessEnglish troops, Muslim adversaries, eventhe worst of them, wear human aces wherecomplex emotions are often delicatelysketched in.It is in Sitaram, the last novel, that theMuslim combatant s largely an abstraction,an absence; yet battles with him fill up theentire novelistic space. Has Bankim, then,at the end of his life, managedto formulateandcongeal an agendaat the pointof blindhatred, when the enemy sheds his humanfeatures and is reduced to a simple figureof hatred? I think that Bankim found itimpossible to form and celebrate anagendawith sustained conviction even in his last,dogmatic, markedlyauthoritarian hase. Iftheagenda eemstobe coherent nd omplete,he then proceeds to fracture t fromwithin,to dissolve his own statementof conviction.Sitaram s defeated by his own innerflaws.The Hindu eader, whethera commander,aking,a brahmin rapatriarch, emainsweak,treacherous, greedy and cowardly acrosshistorical and social differences. The mostsignificant hing about he last novel,I think,is Sitaram's rutality gainstHinduwomen-which is conventionally ascribed to thestereotypicalMuslim.WhenSitaram'sHindukingdombreaksup,Hinduwomencelebratetheevent withvindictive glee. An erstwhiletolerant Muslim fakir leaves his kingdom,vowing never to live underHindurule. Thestereotypednotion of Muslimintolerance sturnedupside down, for it is Sitaramwho,byhisownvillainy,had orcedthis onclusionon hIm.The novel, chargedwith shrill intensity,ends with uncharacteristicbathos. Bankimhad never before used the device of achoruscomposed of ordinarypeople. Here we findtwo commonmen, RamandShyam, havingthe last words."Ram: 'How goes it, brother?Have youheard any news about Mohammadpur?[Sitaram's kingdom].'Shyam: 'Different people say differentthings. Some say theking (Sitaram)and thequeencouldnotbecaptured...The wretchedMuslims executed a false king and a falsequeen.'

Ram: '...Thatsounds like a Hindufiction,a mere novel.'Shyam: 'Well, who knows whose storyis a fiction. Yourstorymaywell bea Muslimtale. Anyway, we are ordinary people, allthisdoesn'tconcernus. Let usenjoyasmokein peace.'Let Ramchand and Shyamchandenjoytheir pipe of tobacco. We shall end ournarrativeat this point."An uncharacteristicna-rrativelosure forBankim who had always been intenselyconcerned about historicity, with problemsof political bias and partisanshipvitiating

Economic and Political Weekly September24, 1994 2559


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historical ruth.All his familiarconcernsareblownawaywith a few puffsof smoke, withrumoursecounted y two ignorant ndratheruninterestedmen who dismiss all historyasultimatelyunknowable, s equallyuncertainversions,and, inally,as supremelyrrelevantto the ikes of them.Whatexactly is involvedin this untypicality, his major departure?One can only speculateat several levels.It can denote a final failureof hope in theheroic, edemptivexercise, nthe possibilityof nation builnbg. It may be a criticism ofthe Hindumasses who have foreverstayedaway at decisive moments in wars, havenever dentified hemselveswiththe nation.Itcan,on theotherhand,ndicatea recognitionof the autonomyof the imaginativedomain.The Brechtianalienationdevice, the under-liningof the fictionalnatureof the workbytalkingabout"novelsand ictions"may pointto the constructedness of all writings,historicaland fictional.Or is it, aftera longgap,and aftermany changes,a return o thethemeofSamyawhich, nthemeantime,hadbeen overtakenby dreamsof Hindu glory?Does it question the materialityof notionslike politicalfreedomand nationhood n thecontext of the everlasting peasantproblemandgroundthe failureof the nation in thedisjunctionbetween the two?Bankim thus formulates and fills out aviolent Hindu agenda and immediatelyproceeds to deconstruct it. He powerfullyprojectsreligious militancy as a resolutionto the problem of colonisation. He has anequallypowerful ertainty bout ts untenablefuture. It is inevitable, then, that he has tosimultaneously underscore the agenda inintenselyheightenedcolours, to proclaim tsmessage with a brutalstridency thatnearlyreaches a breakingpoint in the last novel:and immediately counterpose to it analienation evicethatdrags he shiningvisionof Hindu triumphinto the realms of idlerumourand gossip.

NotesI In the recent iterature n Bankimin English,the shifts in stance have hardly beenrecognised,andBankim's writingsaretreatedas a monolithicwhole. An exception to thistendency is Tapan Raychaudhuri, EuropeReconsidered: Perceptions of the West inNineteenthCenturyBengal. Delhi, 1988.2 Tanika Sarkar, 'Bankimchandra and theImpossibility of a. Political Agenda: APredicament f Nineteenth CenturyBengal',article orthcomingn KaulandLoomba eds),

OxfiordLiteraryReview.3 Amales Tripathi,The ExtremistChallenge:Indiabetween1890and1910, Calcutta,1967.4 Sumit Sarkar,The Swadeshi Movement inBengal: 1903-1908, New Delhi, 1973.5 It was used as a slogan in the riots of 1926.I owe this reference to PradipKumarDatta.6 This slant is marked n Gyan Pandey, TheConstr-uctionf Communalism n NorthernIndia, Delhi. 1990.7 'The Myth of Praxis: The Construction ofthe Figure of Krishna in Krishnacharitra',

Nehru Memorial Museum and Library,Occasional Papers on History atndSociety,First Series, L.8 Partha Chatterji has completely ignoredBankim's novels as important ways ofnegotiatingwith political themes. Even thereadingof the discursive prose is severelylimitedbyaliteralreadingof texts n completedisregard f his literary trategiesanddevicesthat were significantly deployed here. SeeNationalistThoughtandthe Colonial World:A DerivativeDiscourse,Delhi, 1988. SudiptaKaviraj, naseriesof unpublishedmonographson various texts of Bankim,has also chosento read each text as a fairly isolated.autonomousunit, although he is extrenvml5sensitive in his reading strategy.9 TanikaSarkar,op cit.10 Anianidarmnthfirstpublished1882, fifth andfinalversion,1892);DebiChoudhurani, 884;Sitaraim, 887.Thetwodiscursiveessays are,Krishnzacharitra,892;Dharrnatattva, 888.Two incomplete manuscripts wereposthumouslypublished:his commentaryonShli-nadbhagavatGita n 1902andDevatattvaO Hindudharma, 1938. Since both wereincomplete and since Bankim extensivelyrevisedhis writingsbeforethe final publica-tion, I have not madeany use of them here.11 Whereas in DT(ibid), the master and thedisciple proceed through arguments andcounter-arguments,in RSS daily trainingsessions, small boys are told stories whichhave the rightmessages. Since stories needa suspension of disbelief and questions by

their very form, listeners get used to silentand implicit acceptance.12 Basu, Datta, Sarkar,Sarkarand Sen, KhakiShortsand SaffronFlags: A Critiqueof theHindutRight, Delhi, 1993.13 Myinterviewwith RashtrasevikaeaderAshaSharma in Delhi, December 1990.14 Bharatbarshe wadhinataEbongParadhinata,Vividha Prabandha, p 244, BankimRachanabali, Vol 2, Calcutta, 1954.15 Samya, ibid.16 "Our country is the land par excellence ofinequalities,anykindof discriminationpringsinto life and flourishes as soon as the seedis sown", ibid, p 399.17 This theme is especially developed in

BangadesherKrishakfirstpublished,1875),Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 2, ibid.18 See Anandamath and Sitaram, Banki,nRachanabali, Vol 1, Calcutta 1953.19 Bangadesher Krishak, ibid. It is interestingthat although he asks the foreign rulers toprotect the tenants, he refused to seek theirhelp thatreformerswere demanding, or theprotectionof women.20 B B Chowdhury, 'AgrarianEconomy andAgrarianRelationsin Bengal, 1859-1885' inN K Sinha (ed), The History of Bengal, 1757-1905, Calcutta, 1967, pp 241-43.21 Ibid.Seealso SugataBose,PeasantLabourandColonial Capital: Rural Bengal since 1770,CambridgeUniversityPress, 1993,Chapter .22 SekharBandyopadhya,CastePolitics and theRaij:Bengal, 1872-1937, Calcutta1990,p 33.23 Ibid, Chapter2.

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24 SabyasachiBhattacharya,Traders ndTradein Old Ccalcutta', Sukanta Chaudhuri ed),Calcutta: heLivingCity,Vol 1,Calcutta1991.25 Jogesh Bagal, 'Introduction', BankimRachanabali,Vol 2, op cit.26 SumitSarkar,op cit.27 See his argument against the strategy ofVidyasagar in 'Bahuvivaha' in VividhaPrabandha,op cit.28 Satiricalpieces in Lokrahasya (1874) makefun of the English educated Babu quitemercilessly.BankimRachanabali, ol 2,opcit.HecriticisedIndologists like Max Mueller nBangalirBahubol.PrabandhaPustak.1879.He wasextremelysarcasticaboutdependenceon westernreflectionson IndianhistoryandreligionnDharmatattva,ankimRachanabali,Vol 2, op cit. At the sametime,his affiliationto western political theories, especially thatof radicalutilitarian ndFrenchrevolutionaryand socialist thinkerswas openlyasserted,notjustinSamyabuteven inDharnatattva, p cit.29 Bagal, 'Introduction',BankimRachanabali,Vol 1, op cit.30 See,for nstance,ByaghracharyaBrihallanugulin Lokrahasya, op cit.31 This thrustwas particularlywell developedby AshisNandy n TheIntimateEnemy:Lossand Recoveryof theSelf underColonialism,Delhi, 1983. The framework s extended byGyan Pandey n Constructionof Communa-lism, op cit, and by ParthaChatterji,TheNationandItsFragments:Colonial and Post-Colonial Histories, Delhi 1994.32 I have explained this term in 'Rhetoricagainst Age of Consent:Resisting ColonialReasonand he Deathof aChildWife' inEco-nomicandPolitical Weekly,September1993.33 TapanRayChaudhuri, uropeReconsidered,op cit.34 See Anil Seal, Emergence of IndianNationalism:Competition ndCollaborationin the Later Nineteenth Century, CambridgeUniversityPress, 1968, and S Gopal;BritishPolicyinIndia,1858-1905, Cambridge,1965.35 S Gopal, The Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon,1880-1884, London, 1953.36 See Seal and Gopal, op cit.37 Bipan Chandra, The Rise and Growth ofEconomic Nationalism in India: EconomicPolicies of Indian National Leadership,1880-1905. New Delhi, 1966.38 Seemy'Rhetoricagainstthe Age ofConsent',op cit. Dipesh Chakrabartyhas recentlyreiterated the logic and politics of thisrevivalism in the same terms in his critiqueof contemporary secularfeminists' in 'TheDifference Deferral of (A) ColonialModernity:PublicDebate on DomesticityinBritishBengal' inHistory Workshop, pecialIssue, Autumn, 1993.39 SeemyBankimchandra nd theImpossibilityof a Political Agenda, op cit.40 Themes of Hindu history and nationhoodwere takenup in PrabandhaPustak, op cit.Manyof the concerns of Dharmatattva andthe form of its presentation had beenanticipatednGaurdasBabajirBhiksharJhuli,VividhaPrabandha(1874). Krishnacharitrawasoriginallywritten o formapartof VividhaPrabandha,but was later much alteredandextended. Bagal, 'Introduction', BankimRachanabali, Vol 2, op cit, p 21.41 This is explicit in both Krishnachalritra-andDharmatattva.The latter, n fact,begins

with the theme of poverty aniidhunger-adeliberate invocation of his earlierconcerns. Then the guru persuades thedisciple that both can be overcome by thecultivation of the right Hindu dispositionand knowledge. He thus relocates theroots of these problemswithin the individualdisposition and mindset-away fromsocial structures. Dharmatattva, BankimRachanabali, Vol 2, op cit, pp 585-86.42 'Sankhyadarshan' n VividhaPrabhandha,op cit.43 -"Vaidic religion lacks the concept ofdevotion... there are only propitiatorysacrifices to attain one's earthly desires".Dharmatattva,BankimRachanabali, op cit,p 623. Itpolemicisesagainstall majorHindureligiousphilosophies o assert hecorrectnessof the reorientedbhakti.44 See his strong repudiationof this form inKrislititicharitrai,p cit. He was also criticalof the quietism of Kali-baseddevotion thathiscontemporaryaintRamakrishnareached.See Sumit Sarkar, 'Kaliyuga, Chakri andBhakti' in Economic and Political Weekly,July 18, 1992.45 Krishnacharitra,op cit.

46 See Shyamali,'Bankimchandra BhatpararPanditsamaj',Baromash, Autumn number,1988.47 See myBankimchandraind theImpossibilityof a Political Agenda, op cit.48 See Basu, Datta, Sarkar, Sarkar and Sen,Khaki Shorts, op cit.49 This isembodied nHaraballabh's atriarchalinhumanorthodoxy and lack of a sense ofhonour and dignity in Debi Chaudhurani,BankimRachanabali, Vol 1, op cit.50 Sitaram, op cit. Also see below.51 See reports n Bengalee and the Statesman,1873.52 Dialogues between Mahendra and Santanleaders nAnandamath,BankimRachanabali,Vol 1, op cit, pp 724-37.53 This is trueof all the threenovels. See Shantiand Kalyaniin Anandamath,Prafulla, Dibaand Nishi in Debi Chaudhurani,and Shreeand the Sanyasini and Nanda in Sitaram,BankimRachanabali,Vol 1, op cit.54 Krishnacharitra, pcit, BankimRachanabali,Vol 2, pp 498-504.55 Dharnumtattva,p cit, BankimRachanabali,Vol 2, p 620.56 See my Rhetoricagainst theAge of Consent,op cit.57 Prafulla in Anandamath,op cit.58 Sitaram,op cit, BankimRachanabali,Vol 1,pp 944-48.59 See theconcealedyetveryrealMaharashtrianbrahminoriginsof the RSS in KhakiShorts,op cit.60 Bagal, 'Introduction',BankimRachanabali,Vol 1, op cit, p 23.61 Anandamath, op cit, BankimRachanabali,Vol 1, pp 728-29.62 Ibid, p 726.63 Ibid, p 728.64 Ibid, p 726.65 lbid.66 Ibid, p 768.67 This was especially evident in the way theVishwa Hindu Parishad ideologuessimultaneouslyvoked he iguresofthesereneand theangryRain.See PradipKumarDatta,'VH4P'sRam: The Hindutva Movement in

Ayodhya' in Gyan Pandey (ed), Hindus andOthers: The Question of Identity in IndiaToday,Delhi, 1993. Theother,veryimportantpoint this articleestablishes is the way Ramis invoked as a role model. In bhaktiphilosophies, however, the deity's life is anobject of contemplation for the devotee, it isnot for emulation. Here, too, Bankimmakesthe crucial transition, by insisting thatKrishna's ife provides thedesiredpattern orall Hindus.68 Anandamath, op cit, p 726.69 In his interview with the VHP mohunt atAyodhya, P K Datta was told that thismovement is the essence of Rambhakti.Datta, op cit.70 Anandamath, op cit, p 751..71 For a discussion of these themes at the timeof thefoundingof theRSS, see SumitSarkar.72 Theagendaofthe warwiththe Muslimalwaysoccurs only in the novels.73 This is the concluding note and message ofAnandamath, Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 1,op cit, p 787.74 "By imbibing these principles... the Hinduwill be... as powerful as the Arabs in thedays of Mohammad...", Dharmatattva,

op cit, p 647.75 Ibid, p 648.76 Ibid.77 This is the image of Mohammad n a verywell knownwesterntext thatwas muchusedinBankim's time. SeeTPHughes,Dictionaryof Islam.Firstpublished1885,Indian dition,Rupa Publishers, 1988.78 Krishnacharitra, Dharmatattva andAnandamathhave to argue hardagainstothermodels of bhakti.79 By asserting that with a correctapplicationof bhakti, Hindus will be transformed intoMuslims of Mohammad's time, (see above)Bankim hoped that the reinterpreted ife ofKrishnawill play the same historic role asthe original pattern.80 There are references to an attack onmissionaries at Tarakeswar n 1891. DainikOSaniacharchandrika,April 19, 1891.Therewere otherminor attacksthatwere reportedfrom Calcuttaand Bankura. See ReportonNative Paper.s, Government of Bengal,Januaryto March 1891.81 Ibid, see also RNP, Bengal 1890.82 Anandamath,BankimRachanabali,Vol 1,opcit, p 727.83 Ibid, p 784.84 Bangalar Itihash, Vividha Prabandha,Bankim Rachanabali,Vol 2, op cit, p 332.85 Sitaram,BankimRachanabali,Vol 1, op cit,p 881.

86 See Chandrasekhar, for instance, for theencounter between Saibalini and Forster,BankimRachanabali, Vol 1, op cit, p 405.Also see MuchiramGurerJibancharit,or theencounterbetweena peasantand Meanwell,BankimRachanabali, Vol 2, pp 126-27.87 See Durgeshnandini,his first novel, 1865,BankimRachanabali, Vol 1, op cit.88 Ayesha in Durgeshnandini (above), ZebUnnisa in Rajsingha (1882) and Dalani inChandrasekhar(1875) wil be very strikingand diverse examples. See BankimRachanabali, Vol 1, op cit.89 Rajsingha, ibid, p 664, pp 672-74.90 Sitaram, BankimRachanabali, Vol 1, op cit,pp 957-58.

Economicand Political Weekly September24, 1994 2561

Imagining a Hindu Nation Hindu and Muslim in Bankimchandra's Later Writings

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