Author: Dr. Shyamal Das
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.70798/Bijmrd/03080032
Abstract: Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838–1894) occupies a foundational position in the intellectual genealogy of modern Indian nationalism. Among his most enduring interventions, Bande Mataram—originally composed within the novel Anandamath (1882)—emerged as both a literary artefact and a political idiom that shaped nationalist imagination, mobilization, and symbolic politics. This paper examines how Bande Mataram contributed to the ideological foundations of Indian nationalism by producing a culturally resonant language of nationhood rooted in affect, devotion, sacrifice, and moral community. Drawing on textual analysis and historical contextualization, the study argues that Bankim’s nationalist discourse fused cultural revivalism with a proto-political nationalism that framed the nation as a sacred motherland, enabling the translation of civilizational identity into political consciousness. The paper situates Bankim within nineteenth-century Bengal’s reformist and revivalist milieu, exploring how colonial modernity, print culture, and Hindu cultural symbolism interacted in constructing nationalist rhetoric. It further traces the transformation of Bande Mataram from a literary hymn into a mass slogan during the Swadeshi movement (1905–1908), demonstrating its capacity to unify resistance while also generating contestations around religious imagery and inclusivity. The paper concludes that Bande Mataram was not merely a song but a conceptual tool that produced a moral-aesthetic framework for nationalism, shaping both political communication and national identity formation, while revealing tensions intrinsic to cultural nationalism in a plural society.
Keywords: Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay; Bande Mataram; Indian Nationalism; Anandamath; Cultural Nationalism; Swadeshi Movement; Colonial Bengal.
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