Imagining a Hindu Nation: Hindu and Muslim in Bankimchandra's Later Writings Author(s): Tanika Sarkar Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 29, No. 39 (Sep. 24, 1994), pp. 2553-2561 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4401824 Accessed: 17-07-2017 15:10 UTC

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This content downloaded from 202.41.10.3 on Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:10:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Imagining a Hindu Nation

Hindu and Muslim in Bankimchandra's Later Writings

Tanika Sarkar

The author explores the location of the Muslim and the Hindu nation in Bankimchandra's works as an interlinked formation that has to be situated simultaneously within his novelistic and his discursive prose. The two set up an internal dialogue and self-interrogation that moved across his earlier, relatively open-ended and often radical phase and later more dogmatic and recognisably revivalist work. The paper is centrally concerned with the profound breaks in thinking and expression as well as with the fundamental continuities that were preserved through certain narrative tropes and devices by which Bankim continued to destabilise his seemingly unambiguous agenda of a triumphalist Hindu people. The focus is on Bankim's last five years when he composed three historical novels on Hindu-Muslim antagonism and two polemical essays on an authentic and reinvigorated Hinduism to be attained through a disciplinary regime that Bankim spelt out in some detail.

I to the Muslim in the discourse.7 Finally, And Hindu revivalistic- concerns and Bankim' s polemical references to the Muslim arguments had, in their turn, been a vital BANKIMCHANDRA CHATTOPADH- are sometimes detached from his novels. political resource for the contemporary YAYA (1838-1894) was the real founder of They can then be seen as a seamless whole, Hindutva phenomenon and its Rashtriya the Bengali novel as well as of serious without internal shifts. The communal Swayam Sevak Sangh leadership. I prefer discursive literature on political theory. He impulse is then related to his nationalism as to treat this phase of Bankim more as took the infant prose to new heights and its displaced and disfigured form.' constituting the link between 19th century wrote originally and acutely on world I would like to explore the location of the Hindu revivalism in whose Hindu religions, on class and gender relations in Muslim and of the Hindu nation in Bankim's supremacist agenda was not primarily turned Bengal, on the history of nations and on the works as an interlinked formation that has against the Muslim or Islam: and the hard, absence of both history and nationhood in to be situated simultaneously within his aggressive Hindutva politics that started Hindu traditions. He was also a brilliant novelistic and his discursive prose. The two organising itself from the 1920s on an humorist and satirist who laughed at most cot up an internal dialogue and self- exclusively and explicitly anti-Muslim traditions, agendas and social types. Generally interrogatioii thiat moved across his earlier, platform.'2 Apart from this role within the regarded as the most powerful formative relatively open ended and often radical phase9 ideological lineage of aggressive Hindutva, influence on 19th century political thinking and later, more dogmatic and recognisably Bankim has a more direct imaginativebearing in Bengal, he is a difficult author to read with revivalist work. I would be centrally on the RSS combine. His 'Bande Mataram' any absolute certainty since he seems to concerned with the profound breaks in hymn is, for this combine, the authentic straddle very different positions with equal thinking and expression as well as with the national anthem, a truer one than the 'Jana felicity at different times:' and also because fundamental continuities that were preserved Gana Mana' of Rabindranath which is the he seems to mock at convictions and through certain narrative tropes and devices, accepted version for the Indian state. The resolutions that he himself had constructed.2 through which, I believe, Bankim continuied hymn is daily sung in its entirety (including Scholars generally regard Bankim as a to destabilise his seemingly unambiguous all the Bengali passages) at RSS and crucial force in the making of both a agenda of a triumphalist Hindu people. My Rashtrasevika shakhas.'3 Any change or nationalist imagination and a Hindu focus will be on his last five years when he abbreviation is strictly forbidden since the revivalist polemic. A particularly striking composed three historical novels on Hindu- song symbolises the undivided, inviolate instance of this dual impact is his celebrated Muslim antagonism: and two polemical body of the pre-partition Motherland, and, hymn to the Motherland-'Bande Mataram' essays on an authentic and reinvigorated hence, an abridgement amounts to a symbolic (salutation to the Mother),3 which became Hinduism which needs to be attained through mutilation of the sacred body, a repetition the most potent patriotic slogan at peak a disciplinary regimen that Bankim spelt out of the partition. As soon as the Bharatiya points in 20th century mass nationalist in some detail."' Janata Party, the electoral front of the struggles4 as well as the Hindu rallying cry In sharp contrast to his prolific earlier combine, came into power in Delhi after the in moments of Hindu Muslim violence.5 The prodi.ction, Bankim wrote much less in this state elections of 1993, it made the song dual use has its dangers. Nationalism, which period. There is little use of satire, caricature compulsory in all state-run schools of Delhi. many influential scholars tend to treat as a or humour. For the first time in his life, his I would, however, be as concerned with non-historicised, undifferentiated monolithic prose remains uncompromisingly solemn, what was not taken from Bankim's thinking category, may be read, rather too easily and weighty and ponderous, all of which, at least on the Muslim and the Hindu nation as with quickly, as a variant of Hindu communalism overtly, seems to embody a single and what was taken: and also with how differently and vice versa, both composing a hard and authoritarian polemical thrust rather than the an themes were negotiated even when the a soft face of the same phenomenon and argument that continuously poses new broad conclusions seem to point in the same both produced by western epistemic and questions and issues to itself. One of the direction. ontological operations.6 Elsewhere, essays, in fact, is written in the form of a Bankim's work has been split up into different guru preaching to his disciple. " The authorial II components which are isolated from one voice is intrusive and cast as that of a self- another and his concept of Hindu nationhood proclaimed proselytiser-cum-pedagogue. It is important to recall that till the end is then read on its own as an exercise in It is this phase that is considered to be a of the 1 870s, Bankim had very boldly and nationalist imagining without any reference decisive component of Hindu revivalism. thoroughly probed the specific forms of

Economic and Political Weekly September 24, 1994 2553

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.3 on Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:10:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms caste, class and gender oppressions within increasingly difficult to regard peasants the of its aspirations and methods of work. He pre-colonial Indian traditions. He had way Bankim had portrayed them-as passive saw its dependence on colonial legislation occasionally questioned the need for self- victims. Since the mid-70s powerful forms for initiating improved family laws as a rule and nationhood for Hindus, given these of peasant self-organisation and movement basic moral flaw since this neither generated intemal and structured power relations, which against arbitrary landlord exactions had a will for change within wider society, might even be loosened up some-what under become a central feature of the agrarian without which reform would be doomed, foreign rule.'4 In Samya (Equality), which scene. The spread of the commercial nor did it make 'men' of modem Hindus by was published in 1879, he moved well beyond cultivation of jute, moreover, benefited the vesting them with independence of effort the modest confines of the notion of small peasants of Muslim or low caste and hegemonistic capabilities. Any companionate marriage that the liberal categories rather than the rentier groups dependence on foreign rulers perpetuated reformers would advocate for the new, who constituted the base of the new middle and exemplified for him, the lack of a will educated woman. He also made startling class.23 Moreover, the failure of Bengali to freedom and nationhood which had kept suggestions about her future economic entrepreneurship to find space for itself in Hindus subjected for centuries. Bankim independence and about sharing of the higher rungs of trade, business and spared no effort at mocking this dependence housework between the sexes. He questioned industries was definitively established by on alien legislation27 as well as the the supreme emphasis that reformers, the 70s.24 There was a keen sense of exclusion emasculation it produced. He also mocked revi\alists and the colonial state equally from the commanding heights of the civil the surrender of the new middle class to placed upon the absolute chastity of the society for Bankim's own class. His earlier Orientalist forms of knowledge on India, Hindu wife who was situated within a critique of the oppressive privileges of a although he retained great respect for strands framework of male polygamy.' He saw parasitic upper caste-middle class now within mainstream western social and caste, class and gender hierarchies as seemed to require a further deepening of political philosophies.28 interlinked facets of a system that embodied these processes of exclusion, leading, Since he saw it as a class that was bom the most absolute form of inequality conceivably to a partial reversal of power retarded, Bankim refused the middle class anywhere in the world.'6 relations rather than the benevolent and its demands for political freedom and rights. Even in Samya, however, certain kinds of responsible paternalism of upper caste He made himself extremely unpopular by freedom and oppression are dealt with in a landowners that Bankim had prescribed in supporting British moves to muzzle the rather cursory manner. British rule and the the 70s. There was now a real problem of vernacular press to suggest that it was notion of progress had been questioned in choice. behaving irresponsibly and that it needed relation to peasant poverty,'7 but the entire After the late 70s Bankim would never controls.29 He used the entire and formidable question of foreign rule and political freedom return to the themes of peasant poverty and resources of his satire and caricature to make had been rendered a lesser priority by caste oppression. He would repudiate Samya fun of the politics of associations and couterposing to it the issue of internal and refuse to bring out a new edition.25 Even organisations, of the mimicry of imported stratification and oppression within Indian without necessarily imputing narrow motives political models that was involved in such society. The peasant, moreover, is the object to this choice, we have to reckon with this exercises and the ridiculous misadventures of enlightened social engineering but political absence and the implications this holds out in handling them.30 He, therefore, undercut initiative is obviously beyond him. In his for a possible radical social agenda at a precisely the struggle for democratic and historical novels, too, political change is time of limited but real social change. We public spaces where Indians could grow invariably initiated by kings and ascetics; have to recognise that the choice was made through debates and experiences of when the ordinary folk initiate direct action, and exercised through a silence, through organisation and protest. Neither a radical it degenerates into mob rioting.'8 Demands certain excisions from his earlier concerns. nor a liberal form of democracy was for freedom and welfare for victims of social It is also a fact of considerable significance compatible with the heroic agenda that held oppression are powerfully articulated but that the definitive transition from a pre- his imagination. In fact, if Bankim prefigures the agenda is left without an agent.'9 It is dominantly liberal to a markedly Hindu the trajectory of some features of Hindutva, the colonial state which, after all, is asked revivalist discourse was made within Bengal he also powerfully embodies some aspects to assume a corrective role. around the same time and against this of a far softer and pluralistic form of liberal In the 70s, when Bankim was writing his context. Sumit Sarkar has already pointed indigenism. The latter,.out of its commitment socially aware and courageous prose, the out a somewhat similar predicament in the to a non-'alienated' authentic politics, and absolute vulnerability of all categories of 1920s that partly enabled a turn towards its suspicion of liberal rights or radical social tenants on issues of rent increase, illegal organised communalism.26 protest that derive some of their terms from cesses and the arbitrary powers of eviction The posing of the problem of power and the post-Enlightenment political radicalism that the landlord enjoyed had hardly been exploitation was, therefore, unambiguously and democratic traditions, finds itself in the breached.20 From 1880 onwards, however, radical butBankim's radical imagining failed same space as aggressive, intolerant Hindutva plans for substantive amendments in tenancy or refused to construct a resolution that in its critique of secular democratic politics. laws had been set afoot2' and the state, could be adequate to itself. If the peasant This, in the final analysis, emerges as a far moreover, was systematically compiling and or the dispossessed low caste was not to be more consistent and powerful strain than its classifying information about low castes, the subject of his own history, then the critique of Hindutva which is sporadic and with a view to intervening in improvement immediately realisable and convincing milder.3' measures in the near future. This was in the agency for self-improvement within Indian The thrust towards a pure and authentically context of rethinking in official policies society-an agency that, moreover, already Hindu site for generating the social will for about social groups after 1857, when there seemed activated-could be the middle class change complicated his social concem, his was a marked suspicion about upper castes with its western education, liberal values sharp criticism of the traditional, pre-colonial in general among government officers. and a reformist agenda. If reform of Hindu form of Hindu domesticity and his daring Bankim was, in fact, selected by H H Risley patriarchy was the major concern for this imagining of the non-domesticated, strong, in 1881 to assist in the preparation of an group, Bankim, too, had his own critique of passionate woman that had earlier created Ethnographic Glossary with detailed research Hindu domestic norms which, if anything, a marked distance between him and the on castes and tribes for the district of Howrah was far sharper than that of the reformists. contemporary Hindu revivalist-nationalist.32 where he was then posted.22 It also became Bankim, however, was relentlessly critical While he grew intellectually through a

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This content downloaded from 202.41.10.3 on Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:10:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms simultaneous and interanimated imbibing of for Bankim, any inclination to consider the Even in the Dharmatattva, the guru preached Enlightenment universalism and Hindu liberal reformers as a vehicle for Hindu to a well read, argumentative disciple. RSS philosophical resources and used the self-improvement. As class, caste and pedagogic principles, on the other hand, are resources of both to interrogate both-and gender abruptly disappear in his work as entirely exhortative and rhetorical, and here lies the ineptness of the notion of central concerns, their absence is filled up internal debates and productive differences hybridity that misses out on the criticality in the 80s by a new and coherent find no space there. It is not for nothing that and the mutually transformative nature of problematic: What constitutes authentic they select recruits from very young children this intellectual encounter-the compulsion Hinduism, what possibilities exist within who lack the capacity to argue.48 to opt for a pure site of exclusively Hindu Hinduism of the past and in the re- The existing representatives of the old knowledge triumphed after his exchanges authenticated Hinduism of the future for Hindu ruling groups-the upper caste with Reverend Hastie.33 nation building, what precisely was the landowners and rentiers who opposed the In 1882, Reverend Hastie of the General culpability of the Muslim in Indian history new western learning, the leaders of Hindu Assembly wrote a tract that was brutally and how and why had Hindu power religious establishments, the pundits- critical of Hinduism. Bankim, who had capitulated to it. It is not that these problems failed to convince him as in any way always ridiculed Orientalist pretensions about were not reflected on in his earlier prose, deserving of their privileges or as offering scientific knowledge on India, prepared a but there they had locked horns with an potential for active leadership. In his later long, careful and angry reply. It was after equally powerful set of social concerns.4" novels he returned to his sharp satirical bite this that he repudiated Samya and, in his Their centrality now becomes absolute and in portraying the classic figure of the discursive prose, became exclusively uncontested. Bankim looks for an ethico traditional Hindu patriarch-the upper caste preoccupied with the theme of a reconstructed religious site for the Hindu people whose parasitic landlord p-aterfamilias.49 The Hindu form of knowledge and leadership. dominant priority is not what is socially just virtuous founder of a Hindu power that he The anger was probably fuelled by the but what is truly indigenous-i e, Hindu.4' imagined in Sitaram could sustain neither changing political environment since the With the reoriented problematic, the his virtue nor his power, 11 Contemporary mid- and late-70s. The post-Mutiny obvious agency could now be restored to the sexual and financial scandals about the repression, clearly racist in nature, had brahmanical forms of knowledge and upper Mohunt of the celebrated Shaivite pilgrimage initiated serious selfdoubt amongthe Bengali caste social leadership. This, however, centre at Tarakeswar that rocked Bengal in middle class that had been entirely loyal in presents equally powerful problems. Bankim 187351 and the earlier scandal about the 1857. The escalation in discriminatory continues to believe that past traditions of Maharajaofthe Ballabhachari sect in Gujarat colonial policies during Lytton's era34 was Hinduism had not generated any impulse for probably made him unable to imagine the followed by the violent racist backlash at the freedom and nationhood. If, then, these new present representatives of organised religion time of the Ilbert Bill agitation. Apart from changes need to be improvised, then old as saviours. Even the ascetics of , the exposure to the most extreme and naked forms of knowledge or rule will not the quintessentially militant patriotic novel, form of white racism in a concentrated dose, automatically yield them. Even in this later astonish the ordinary devout Hindu who the middle class was also troubled by a discursive phase, he continued to polemicise keeps on asking them what kinds of reversal of trends that had promised a milder against certain forms of Hindu knowledge Vaishnavs or sanyasis they are.52 climate at the time of Northbrooke's, and and devotion, as earlier he had critically It is notable that in this phase, as earlier, later, of Ripon's liberal policies35 which reviewed Sankhya and Nyaya traditions.42 virtue, activism and heroism are more were on the point of opening up a few minor At no phase had he shown much sympathy effortlessly embodied by the woman as but real opportunities of incorporation within for the Vedic-Vedantist philosophies, almost a characterological trait.53 Bankim the colonial decision-making process.36This perhaps because their quietist, reflective had stopped polemicising against the led to an intensification of both liberal and modes were inappropriate for a politically subordination of women and the bold feminist Hindu revivalist forms of anti-colonial militant, even violent heroic agenda, and of Samya had buried himself. In critiques and organisation. Liberal also because these were resources that Krishnacharitra, in fact, he devoted much nationalists formed secular, open Brahmo reformers had celebrated.43 He space to justify an act of force committed organisations for self strengthening and conducted a relentless polemic against the by Arjuna in abducting the sister of Krishna formulated economic critiques of the colonial dominant Bengali form of devotion- on his advice. Krishna convinces Arjuna, drain of wealth, Indian poverty and Bhakti, especially its Vaishnav form which and Bankim tries to convince us, that male deindustrialisation that remained the worshipped Krishna as a figure of great guardians can and should override the foundational concepts for all nationalist erotic excess.44 He chose the Puranic question of the woman's consent in the economic thinking down to Gandhi.37 Hindu tradition and put together from them the interests of her own larger welfare that they revivalists, on the other hand, used their figure ofa heroic, vindictive, wily and violent necessarily comprehend better.54 The anti-western rhetoric to close off all saviour figure. He used as his model disproportionately large space that he devotes interrogation and transformation of power mythical--epic dimensions of the later life to justify this, rather minor incident in the relations within the Hindu community as of Krishna when he was no longer the life of Krishna, however, tells us how difficult false knowledge contaminated by alien forms shepherd boy or the great lover, but when he found it to persuade himself. In of power knowledge.38 It thus assumed a he had grown up into the king, the politician, Dharmatattva he overturns his earlierimages markedly fundamentalist kind of defensive- the warrior.45 Throughout his life he held of conjugality as the equal and mature mutual ness. Faced with this crisis of conscience, lively arguments with the orthodox passion between two adults that had Bankim reacted by repudiating Samya and repositories of brahmanical knowledge- deconstructed the revivalist nationalist by excising the frontal contestation of Hindu the pandits of .46 He cast doubt on celebration of non-consensual infant caste, class and gender hierarchies from his the learning of the doyen of the Hindu marriage between a polygamous male and prose. The excision, despite his best efforts, orthodoxy of his times-Pandit Sasadhar an utterly monogamous child wife.55 At the remained somewhat incomplete and Bankim Tarkachuramani.47 The criticality and same time, even in the later phase, the woman reinserted some of his earlier critiques intellectual and polemical energies which remained the locus of the nation in a far more insidiously in his later novels.39 continued to shape his writings even of the activist way than the passive, iconic role Historical developments as well as certain later period, would be something that ascribed to her by revivalist nationllli sts who earlier political choices, then, blocked off, contemporary Hindutva entirely eschews. saw in her submission to I\tsric

Economic and Political Weekly September 24, 1994 2555

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.3 on Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:10:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms prescriptions and in her total insulation devices with which a militant Hindu form movements and had devoted themselves to from new alien norms a measure of her of patriotism is constructed. Bankim had an exclusively communal agenda. As a matter symbolic capacity to embody and sustain originally composed this as a song in 1875. of fact, in the song itself, the demon is the nation.56 In Bankim, however, the only Later, when he had finished the highly nonspecified and is eclipsed by the image approximation of the figure of Saviour influential novel, Anandamath, he inserted of the armed Mother. What is of importance Krishna is the figure of the dacoit queen it within the story and vested it with highly is the reiteration that the patriotic son is Prafulla who earns this capacity not by significant narrative functions.6" The song, quintessentially a soldier at war. being faithful to Hindu domestic on its own, would have made an original The novel itself is ambiguous about whom prescriptions but by surviving outside her move towards a deification and fetishisation the Mother is fighting. It is set in the household and by fighting against British of the country. That sense was further transitional historical moment of the late forces. Even though the pedagogic training heightened by other resonances within the 18th century, against the backdrop of the for the new Hindu that Bankim filled out novel which spentmucheffort in constructing famine of 1770 and the armed combat by in Dharmatattva is imparted to a male a sequentialised imagery of the deified marauding ascetics of Naga Dasnami orders disciple, it is the dacoit queen of the novel Motherland.6' Apart from that, the narrative against the puppet Muslim Nawab and the who is shown to be actually undergoing framing, acquired from the novel's plot, indirect control of the British in Bengal.'M the training.57 In Sitaram, too, the woman endowed it with additional and very new Bankim makes no mention of the role of causes virtuous action, the woman tries to properties. The hymn, subsequently, was Muslim fakirs who also led plunderingbands save Hindu power and the woman is detached from the novel and achieved a life of starving people. Even though the sanyasis wrongfully tried and humiliated in a striking of its own as a slogan in mass nationalist were from Saivite orders, here they are parallel with and an implicit critique of rallies, and later, in communal violence. The worshippers of Vishnu, with a brand of Ram's trial of Sita.58 novel, however, remained contained within militant, war-likebhakti oftheirown. Leaders The woman's activism, however, is the slogan as implied resonances, associations are recruited from Bengali, upper caste, occasional and exceptional even when it and emotions and provide a reference point landed origins and they have transformed sustains some of the critical energies of the for larger messages. themselves with devotional and rigorous earlier Bankim. It is certainly not a sign The song begins in , then turns physical and martial training, with the of an investiture of the woman with into Bengali and ends with Sanskrit passages vocation of ascetic celibacy for the duration leadership of the patriotic agenda. It is also again. It begins with an evocation of the of the struggle, which is ment to restore something that happens entirely within his bounteous, lovely land that generously Hindu rule. Even though they do accomplish fiction. In the directly polemical prose, on nurtures its children. Then bounty and the ouster of the puppet Nawab, they also the other hand, the critical energy is well physical richness turn into an image of latentare instrumental in ushering in direct and contained, and even the feminine figuration strength, derived from the image of Durga, complete British dominion. A divine voice of the Motherland that Bankim achieved the demon slaying goddess, from the tells the supreme leader that this is in Anandamath is absent. The new Hindu numerical strength of the population, providential since Hindus need apprentice- is emphatically a Hindu man with a compiled from Census statistics, and from ship in modem forms of power. The leader, difference. He is the embodiment of a the supreme sacred significance that Bankim however, remains disconsolate and rigorous, disciplinary schedule that will ascribes to her within the Hindu pantheon: unreconciled and considers the historical eventually transpose discipline from an "It is your image that we worship in all mission of santans-the ascetic leaders- external ethico religious authority to the temples".62 The land, for a while, is at one aborted since one foreign ruler is exchanged self monitoring ethical agent who has with the icon of Durga. The image of Durga for another. Nationalists took this bitterness internalised reinterpreted concepts of then quickly and insidiously transforms itself as a call for struggle against the colonial Hindu knowledge and devotional practices into that of Kali, another manifestation of power, while to the RSS brigade, the divine (Bankim's explanation of Bhakti and the Mother goddess, but as a destructive, command would indicate sanction for staying Anushilandharma). It is the process of angry force. It ends with a reiteration of the away from the anti-colonial struggle, since training which incorporates knowledge, original sense of bounty and nurture, and an the divine purpose is stated to be the dispositions, physical capabilities and exhortation to her children to enrich her elimination of Muslim power. devotion and which replaces privileges of strength with their own. In between, there Within the novel, the song initiates a birth and ritual expertise, that mark out the isjust a suggestion of her present weakness- number of political breaks and innovations. new brahmin who is the ideal patriot and "with such strength, why are you It is meant to be a sacred chant or 'mantra'. nation builder from the old, unreformed helpless?"-but the overwhelming sense is Yet, chants are compulsorily composed in Hindu authorities. Inherited and normative one of power. The power is undifferentiated 'debbhasha' Sanskrit-the language of the control are replaced with hard earned and flows back and forth from the mother gods-to which women and low castes do leadership and brahmanical authority is to the sons, though it certainly originates not have access. They are aslo enunciated revived. as intensively cultivated hege- with the mother. The song encapsulates, in within a prescribed ritual sequence, always monistic aspirations. A return on a higher an unbroken musical flow, the three distinct in front of the deity and always by the plane, maybe, but a return, nonetheless. images of the nurturing mother of the past, brahman priest or the initiated brahmin male The imagined Hindu nation cannot, even the dispossessed mother of the present and householder. The novel ascribes it to an act in imagination, be made and ruled by agents the triumphant mother of the future that are of worship. Yet it is first heard during the that are not male and not upper caste.59 developed at much greater length within the aftermath of a battle between the British-led novel.63 Later nationalists clearly saw the troops of the Nawab and the Santans who III demon slayer as pitted against the colonial lead a mob of villagers. The hymn, then, power and used the song as an abbreviated enters the emergent cultic order of a new Let us now turn to some specific history of the growth of colonial exploitation form of Mother worship as a chant that is dimensions within the construction of the and the patriotic struggl-e for liberation. The unconventionally detached from the sacred new Hindu. We shall begin with a theme that RSS, on the other hand, certainly took it to ritual sequence and that can also function we touched on in the first section: the Bande imply a 'historical' struggle against the as a song on its own, as congregational Mataram hymn. We shall use it as an Muslim, since from their inception, they had devotional music that is accessible to all in illustration of the imaginative and rhetorical stayed away from the anti-colonial Vaishnavite gatherings. Yet, unlike those

2556 Economic and Political Weekly September 24, 1994

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.3 on Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:10:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms occasions, it enters into public use at a whose nights are gorgeous with silvery yet close intimacy that the liminal space of moment of war, not of pietistic contemplation moonlight, who is decked out with trees that war offers would provide real and felt of the earthly sports of Krishna. Devotional bloom happily with flowers, whose smile is legitimacy for what had been mere custom music, loosened from its original chant form, beautiful, whose words are bathed in and prescribed power. The comprehensive sacralises a war through this transference of sweetness, who is the giver of pleasure, of training with which leaders approach the indicated use-and, simultaneously, the bliss...). The sensuousness of the soft, liquid work of organisation ensures that the hymn/song, which is also a battle cry, syllables is abruptly replaced with a quicker, continued exercise of power has a far more transforms the congregation of devotees into jagged rhythm, by an arrangement of harsh, secure base.7' the monolithic single body of a disciplined strident, strong words; 'saptakotikantha army; "Then, in a single, resounding voice, kalakala ninadakarale, dwisaptakotir- IV the thousands of santan soldiers... sang out bhujairdhritakharakarabale... bahubala- to the rhythms of the canon-Bande dharineem, namaami tarineem...' (seven We had used the hymn and its function Mataram".65 If a Hindu community-for-itself million voices boom out words of doom, 14 within the' novel as an entry point into the is being visualised, then, from the moment million arms wield the sharp swords.. .we rhetorical operations and a structure of of inception it is a people at war, unified salute the saviour mother, possessor of many feelings with which Bankim proceeded to by violence against a shared enemy. The kinds of strength).6" Classical rhetorical delineate the politics of the reconstructed ascetic figure of the Santan, who first conventions matched sounds with moods. Hindu. Since the old Hindu had suffered pronounces the words and who initiates Butthe Bankim went beyond them in the from the absence of a combination of physical act of worship, immediately merges into the dramatic art of juxtaposition, of shocking prowess and desire for self rule, the new tfigure of the military commander and and astonishing transitions within a brief Hindu will only have arrived when he proves strategist who leads the holy war. and continuous space. The rhetorical charge himself in a final battle that will There is. however, a crucial difference and power of the Hindutva project are very overwhelmingly establish his superiority between the older figure of the priest and often trivialised by assuming a simple over the Muslim, who had, in the past, the new priest-cum-commander. Unlike the transition from gentle quietism to violence. always defeated the Hindu.72 Since the former, the commander raises the song but The song, which remains a powerful British have something to impart to the he no longer remains in custody of the sacred imaginative resource for the Hindutva Hindu, Hindu empowerment, it seems, must ritual orchant. Others-including the motley project, complicates and widens the notion unfold within an overarching colonial army of villagers of all castes-enter into of a binary opposition between peaceful, framework. It is the Muslim, the vanquisher the act of singing and the hymn now moves traditional Hinduism and violent Hindutva. of generations of past Hindus, who will be inlto the vernacular. And, along with this, Bankim's a militant bhakti let go of nothing the great adversary of the new Hindu.73 lfurther transformation of purpose takes place. and its language was supple and inventive The Muslim was to be the adversary for First, a chant, then successively a song and enough to effect many movements between yet another reason. I would like to suggest a command, the hymn now passes into a opposites.69 that Bankim made a distinction between the hattle cry-and forms the first ever political In the process, a great transgression takes historical experience of Muslim rule on the slogan in the . The place-of inserting the profane vernacular one hand and Islam as an organised religion commander emerges as the political leader, and a political, modern purpose into a sacred and the Muslim as a personality type on the tlhe organiserparexcellence. The importance order of worship which violently transforms other. Muslim rule, he considered, brought ol'the enterprise to aggressive Hindutva lies its original nature and purpose. The neither material nor spiritual improvement in its explicitly political violence that can seemingly democratic extension of esoteric to India, and merely emasculated defeated express itself convincingly as a religious holy words to slogans and songs to be used Hindus. Yet, Islam, and the Muslim with his purpose. It is underlined in the novel when, by all, however, has its structured limits. The supposedly violent commitment to his inspired by santans, the mob begins to leader-mob distinction is carefully religion and his desire for power, had much airticulate an agenda that goes beyond simple underlined in the way in which each tomilitary teach to the Hindu.74 loot. "Unless we throw these dirty bastards encounter turns into chaos unless it is In his polemic on world religions, Bankim Ithat is, the Muslims] out, Hindus will be carefully calibrated by ascetic leaders. The seemed to grant a perfection to Hinduism ruined...When shall we raze mosques down leadeis, whether here, or in the later two only in historical times, whereas, through a to the ground and erect Radhamadhav's novels, are carefully trained in leadership series of oblique half statements, Islam is temples in their place?"66 qualities through a pedagogical scheme that endowed with perfection in historical times. The imaginative resources of a violent certainly is not available to or meant for the If universal love is taken to be the highest political agenda are immensely enriched, mass following, which joins up out of sheer human ideal, then, says Bankim, Hinduism however, precisely by the ability to starvation and mob instincts. It is true that has it in the largest degree. Yet, throughout simultaneously lay claim to gentle and the ascetic leaders give up caste codes in history, that has led to a dangerous quietism, peaceful images.67 The song is held in timesplace of war, and recruit soldiers from all to an inadequate comprehension of national by a tension between contradictory impulses social strata. But along with celibacy and dangers, to subjection and to degeneration which constitute a delicately poised unity. asceticism this is the last sacrifice that they of the community. As far as Islam and The tension and the tense unity are must impose on themselves until the final Christianity are concerned, they have both effected at the level of both sound and victory is achieved. It is also described as avoided that particular problem. Between meaning. The land is beautiful and the the most difficult of sacrifices.7"Presumably, the two, however, Islam went far ahead of mother is smiling, tender and youthful. Atwith victory, the restoration of the normal Christianity in attaining greaterunity within the same time, she becomes the ruthless order would absolve them of the pledge. The its own boundaries and emerged as a more warrior, triumphing in battle. Her loveli- point, then, is not to overturn the social successful political model. By combining ness, her smiles and grace are evoked in hierarchy, but to qualify it in times of war. the different sets of values, we can construct lush, flowing, elongated, rich sound Established leaders of Hindu society may a single uniform scale, wherein Islam effects; 'shubhrajyotsnapulokitayamineem thus renew and extend theircontrol by coming transcends the particular problems of both phullakusumitadrumadalashobhineem, closer to the ordinary folk and by actually Christianity and Hinduism even though, suhasineem, sumadhurabhashineem. sukha- leading them to victory in a violent war Hinduism and Islam are not directly daam baradaam mataram' (to the mother against a common enemy. The temporary, compared with each other.75

Economic and Political Weekly September 24, 1994 2557

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.3 on Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:10:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms In a crucial and conclusive part of anti-reformist and anti-missionary propa- pseudo historical comments, however, Dharmatattva, Islam is dropped from the ganda and there were even a few clashes carry an inmmense weight of conviction, explicit comparative scheme and there is a with missionaries in the early 90s.8"' During nonetheless, particularly since Bankim was new triangular contest for virtues among the Age of Consent Bill agitation of the 80s known for a highly historicist thrust in his Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. "If and early 90s, Muslims were written about discursive prose. They are, therefore, Jesus or Sakya Singha had been householders as fellow sufferers and victims of insidiously authenticated and then they and yet leaders of world religions, then their colonialism.8 The natio'nalist vernacular justify political rallying cries of extreme systems would have been more complete. press usually took care to distinguish between virulence: "Kill the low Muslims"87 is the Krishna as ideal man is a householder. Jesus the integrated, indigenised nature of "Muslim refrain that is repetitively raised in or Sakya Singha are not ideal men".76 If rule" and what they described as the entirely Anandamath. Even though Bankim never Hinduism scores over the two other religions alien nature of the colonial government.82 made use of the recent theories of the colonial on this ground, then there is also a third, This is not to say that Bengal was completely drain of wealth, he used the same motif to unmentioned presence, another leader of a immune from the communal violence that describe the flight of moncy from Bengal world religion who, too, was a householder was sweeping across parts of'northern India to Delhi in the form of a heavy revenue and who yet transcended his mundane ties- in the 1890s.83 Muslims had recently gained burden in Mughal times.88 that is Mohammad. Islam, or rather, the a few educational concessions, Hunter's Perhaps the most significant way in which figure of the Prophet, is the sunken middle thesis on Muslim backwardness promised Bankim served as a bridge between 19th term in the diagram. If he implicity shares more, and with Muslim self-modernisation century Hindu revivalism and the later, anti- the honour of having founded a perfected moves of the Aligarh variety, the possibility Muslim, violent politics was by providing religion with Krishna, he has the further of sharpened competition in the sphere of an immensely powerful visual image of advantage of being so within the accepted the new education and jobs, where Bengali communal violence and by giving it the hagiography of Islam, and in the universally Hindus had so far enjoyed a decisive edge, status of an apocalyptic holy war. He stamped acknowledged version of Islam as well.77 seemed imminent.84 So far, however, that the image indelibly on the imagination of Bankim was, however, painfully aware that remained a rather marginal worry and Hindu communal politics by fusing the impulse of his ideal type Krishna was an appropriation revivalism had not yet targeted the Muslim community violence and revenge with the and construction solely of his own heroic as the main enemy.85 spectacle of a feminine body. In his last intellectual efforts, and that here he was Bankim bequeathed a set of historical novel Sitaram, Gangaram, the brother of the going against the grain of dominant Hindu judgments on the nature and consequences heroine Shree is unjustly charged and interpretative schemes.78 Bankim's Krishna of Muslim rule in Bengal: "How does our sentenced to execution by a tyrannical is a householder-king, a warrior, a politician. Muslim ruler protect us? We have lost our Muslim fakir and a Qazi. Unable to stop this Heis overwhelmingly aman of action, strong religion, our caste, our honour and family mockery of justice, Shree goes to the place enough to be wily in a higher cause, to resort name, and now we are about to lose our of execution where a big crowd, including to seemingly amoral strategies for the higher very lives ...How can Hinduism survive many Hindus, had gathered to watch the good of his people. He is entirely unlike the unless we derive out these dissolute event. In despair, Shree tries to rally-them morally pure of philosophically questioning swine?"86 These ideological moves do not to save a fellow Hindu, to instil a sense of Christ or Buddha. He is equally unlike the need proper historical authentication since brotherhood and mutual responsibility by figure of total love and play that is celebrated they are posed in a fictional space: the evoking the fact that a man of their in Vaishnavite hagiography. Of all the world religions that Bankim knew about, his Krishna stands as the closest approximation APPOINTMENTS to Mohammad. In fact, the silent influence on Bankim's construction is so exact in particular features as well as in the total conception, that one may even be tempted to speculate if Bankim's Krishna is not, FOR IMMEDIATE APPOINTMENT indeed, modelled on the biography of Mohammad.79 If the discursive prose of later years Wanted one Research Assistant to work on Post- obliquely draws upon what Bankim regarded as the enviable resources and energies of Earthquake Housing Reconstruction and Training Islam, and if he did not engage in sustained Project. Minimum B.E./B.Tech in Civil Engineering polemic against Islam in his essays on religion, he certainly evolved a mode of plus one year work in construction industry. Gross extremely denunciatory speech about Muslim rule in India in his novels. While salary Rs 2500 to Rs 3000 per month depending his notions of ideal Hinduism informed on experience and qualifications. Non-smokers 19th century Hindu revivalism, the particular language that he, more than any only. Please send application with bio-data to: other contemporary, developed to describe the Muslim, certainly inflected the rhetoric and the aspirations of violent Hindu Director, communalism of the next century. People's Science Institute Bankim bestowed on the Muslim an unprecedented centrality in his historical 252 Vasant Vihar - 1, and political scheme, thereby starting a Dehra Doon - 248 006 tradition. The revivalist climate of the times was shaped far more decisively by

2558 Economic and Political Weekly September 24, 1994

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.3 on Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:10:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms community is being killed by another discourse on the Muslim. We have already great adversary that had been defeated in the community. Shree does not invoke the theme seen thathis serious discursive prose referred historical battle and herein lay the true glory of justice, nor does she try to rally subjects to Islam with. respect. In his novels, too, of Mewar. Unlike the anonymous, faceless against tyranny and misrule. Quite Bankim had been writing about Hindus and English troops, Muslim adversaries, even spontaneously, the words that rise to her Muslims, and their relations with one another, the worst of them, wear human faces where mouth are words of community solidarity all his life. They are ranged side by side, complex emotions are often delicately and violence. "Then Gangaram saw a against one another, in dramatic and tense sketched in. goddess-like figure among the green leaves encounters between man and man, man and It is in Sitaram, the last novel, that the of the huge tree. Her feet resting on two woman, woman and woman, as communities, Muslim combatant is largely an abstraction, branches, the right hand clutching a tender nations, armies, as loving, fighting, making an absence; yet battles with him fill up the branch, the left hand swirling her sari, she peace, arguing, negotiating. If all the novels entire novelistic space. Has Bankim, then, was calling out: Kill, kill..." Her long, on this theme are taken to compose a single at the end of his life, managed to formulate unbound tresses were dancing in the wind, novel, and the arrangements between people and congeal an agenda at the point of blind her proud feet were swinging the branches of the two religions are relations between hatred, when the enemy sheds his human up and down, up and down, as if Durga twQ composite individuals, then the obvious features and is reduced to a simple figure herself was dancing on the lion on the simile is that of a conjugal or wildly of hatred? I think that Bankim found it battlefield. Shree had no more shame left, emotional, dangerously fluctuating sexual impossible to form and celebrate an agenda no consciousness, no fear, no rest. She kept relationship that may simultaneously include with sustained conviction even in his last, calling out-"Kill, kill the enemy...The great intimacy along with great violence. A dogmatic, markedly authoritarian phase. If enemy of the country, the enemy of Hindus, far cry from the way white people encounter the agenda seems to be coherent and complete, my enemy... kill, kill the enemy... That Indians in his novels which provide moments he then proceeds to fracture it from within, straining arm was such a lovely arm... such of sheer comicality,x9 here is invariably to dissolve his own statement of conviction. beauty in her swollen lips, her flaring nostrils, material for high drama or for tragedy. Sitaram is defeated by his own inner flaws. sweat drenched stray locks falling across a In his first novel Durgesh Nantdini there The Hindu leader, whether a commander, a perspiring forehead. All the Hindus kept is a striving for an almost mechanical king, a brahmin or a patriarch, remains weak, looking at her and then streaming towards symmetry of virtues and vices on both sides. treacherous, greedy and cowardly across the battlefield with 'glory to Mother The aim is to establish a shared code of historical and social differences. The most Chandike' on their lips". conduct, be it for the heroes, the heroines, significant thing about the last novel, I think, In an instant, Shree had transformed a the villains orthe cowards. Neither are Hindus is Sitaram's brutality againstHindu women- scattering of Hindus who had no previous and Muslims two monolithically integrated which is conventionally ascribed to the sense of mutual connectedness, into an army peoples and political alliances and stereotypical Muslim. When Sitaram's Hindu with a single violent purpose, into a expediency cut across religious boundaries.9" kingdom breaks up, Hindu women celebrate community-for-itself that can be realised Interestingly, Bankim, who experimented the event with vindictive glee. An erstwhile only through invocation of vengeance against boldly with rather transgressive possibilities tolerant Muslim fakir leaves his kingdom, another. It is as if, to imagine a community in sexual relationships beyond Hindu vowing never to live under Hindu rule. The of Hindus, Bankim can only imagine a domestic and conjugal prescriptions, found stereotyped notion of Muslim intolerance is spectacle of violence, of war. That is the onlyin the Muslim woman, unbounded by norms turned upside down, for it is Sitaram who, passion that brings the community into being. of being faithful to only one man in an entire by his own villainy, had forcedthis conclusion But the spectacle of violence is derived from lifetime, a productive ground for playing on on hIm. the image of a passionate feminine body utterly new registers of sexual morality and The novel, charged with shrill intensity, which literally gives birth to the violence. commitment. ends with uncharacteristic bathos. Bankim If political passion is produced through a From the third novel, , the had never before used the device of a chorus feminine agency, there is little doubt about possibility of a shared enterprise vanishes composed of ordinary people. Here we find the kind of image in which this passion is and the Muslim becomes the great historical two common men, Ram and Shyam, having cast. The woman's body moving "up and adversary of the Hindu. Battles between the last words. down, up and down"... the "straining arms, individuals are now loaded with destiny for "Ram: 'How goes it, brother? Have you the swollen lips, the flaring nostrils, the nations. In Rajsinzgha, the Muslim adversary heard any news about Mohammadpur? sweat drenched locks and the perspiring is not just an adversary but a hated and [Sitaram's kingdom].' forehead"-all are well remembered classical dreaded enemy-no less a man than the Shyam: 'Different people say different conventions for describing the woman at the fanatical Aurangzeb. "He was born to hate things. Some say the king (Sitaram) and the moment of sexual climax. The super- the Hindus, he found Hindu offences queen could not be captured... The wretched imposition of the icons of Durga and of unpardonable..." There are references to all Muslims executed a false king and a false Chandika, the goddess of war, on this body his well thumbed sins in the opening chapter queen.' provides a sacred frame that tightly controls itself-jeziya, temple wrecking, cow Ram: '...That sounds like a Hindu fiction, yet obliquely heightens the flow of sexual slaughter, forced conversion. This seems a a mere novel.' energy from which the visual image derives typical case of stereotyping. Yet, let us Shyam: 'Well, who knows whose story its power. The beginnings of a violently remember the first appearance of the is a fiction. Your story may well be a Muslim communalised imagination may, then, have presumed enemy of Hindus. We meet an tale. Anyway, we are ordinary people, all something to do with a kind of male elderly man in white, quiet, dignified, this doesn't concern us. Let us enjoy a smoke fantasising that encompasses sexual passion assured, respecting strength in an enemy. in peace.' and political violence in a single impulse of All the characteristic historical associations Let Ramchand and Shyamchand enjoy pleasure. had been revived and refamiliarised in the their pipe of tobacco. We shall end our first chapter. Gradually, however, over the narrative at this point." V entire text, the stereotype is defamiliarised, An uncharacteristic na-rrative closure for redeemed and humanised, especially by Bankim who had always been intensely Yet the consequences of such imagination Aurangzeb's gentle, melancholy love for a concerned about historicity, with problems do not entirely exhaust the logic of Bankim' s Hindu serving maid. It is no monster but a of political bias and partisanship vitiating

Economic and Political Weekly September 24, 1994 2559

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.3 on Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:10:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms historical truth. All his familiar concerns are Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, their very form, listeners get used to silent blown away with a few puffs of smoke, with Occasional Papers on History atnd Society, and implicit acceptance. 12 Basu, Datta, Sarkar, Sarkar and Sen, Khaki rumours recounted by two ignorant and rather First Series, L. 8 Partha Chatterji has completely ignored Shorts and Saffron Flags: A Critique of the uninterested men who dismiss all history as Bankim's novels as important ways of Hindut Right, Delhi, 1993. ultimately unknowable, as equally uncertain negotiating with political themes. Even the 13 My interview with Rashtrasevika leader Asha versions, and, finally, as supremely irrelevant reading of the discursive prose is severely Sharma in Delhi, December 1990. to the likes of them. What exactly is involved limited by a literal reading of texts in complete 14 Bharatbarshe Swadhinata Ebong Paradhinata, in this untypicality, this major departure? disregard of his literary strategies and devices Vividha Prabandha, p 244, Bankim One can only speculate at several levels. that were significantly deployed here. See Rachanabali, Vol 2, Calcutta, 1954. It can denote a final failure of hope in the Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: 15 Samya, ibid. heroic, redemptive exercise, in the possibility A Derivative Discourse, Delhi, 1988. Sudipta 16 "Our country is the land par excellence of of nation builnbg. It may be a criticism of Kaviraj, in a series of unpublished monographs inequalities, any kind of discrimination springs on various texts of Bankim, has also chosen into life and flourishes as soon as the seed the Hindu masses who have forever stayed to read each text as a fairly isolated. is sown", ibid, p 399. away at decisive moments in wars, have autonomous unit, although he is extrenvml5 17 This theme is especially developed in never identified themselves with the nation. sensitive in his reading strategy. BangadesherKrishak (first published, 1875), It can, on the otherhand, indicate a recognition 9 Tanika Sarkar, op cit. Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 2, ibid. of the autonomy of the imaginative domain. 10 Anianidarmnth (first published 1882, fifth and18 See Anandamath and Sitaram, Banki,n The Brechtian alienation device, the under- final version, 1892); Debi Choudhurani, 1884; Rachanabali, Vol 1, Calcutta 1953. lining of the fictional nature of the work by Sitaraim, 1887. The two discursive essays are, 19 Bangadesher Krishak, ibid. It is interesting talking about "novels and fictions" may point Krishnzacharitra, 1892; Dharrnatattva, 1888. that although he asks the foreign rulers to to the constructedness of all writings, Two incomplete manuscripts were protect the tenants, he refused to seek their posthumously published: his commentary on help that reformers were demanding, for the historical and fictional. Or is it, after a long Shli-nadbhagavat Gita in 1902 and Devatattva protection of women. gap, and after many changes, a return to the O Hindudharma, 1938. Since both were 20 B B Chowdhury, 'Agrarian Economy and theme of Samya which, in the meantime, had incomplete and since Bankim extensively Agrarian Relations in Bengal, 1859-1885' in been overtaken by dreams of Hindu glory? revised his writings before the final publica- N K Sinha (ed), The History of Bengal, 1757- Does it question the materiality of notions tion, I have not made any use of them here. 1905, Calcutta, 1967, pp 241-43. like political freedom and nationhood in the 11 Whereas in DT(ibid), the master and the 21 Ibid. See also Sugata Bose, Peasant Labourand context of the everlasting peasant problem disciple proceed through arguments and Colonial Capital: Rural Bengal since 1770, and ground the failure of the nation in the counter-arguments, in RSS daily training Cambridge University Press, 1993, Chapter 3. disjunction between the two? sessions, small boys are told stories which 22 Sekhar Bandyopadhya, Caste Politics and the have the right messages. Since stories need Raij: Bengal, 1872-1937, Calcutta 1990, p 33. Bankim thus formulates and fills out a a suspension of disbelief and questions by 23 Ibid, Chapter 2. violent Hindu agenda and immediately proceeds to deconstruct it. He powerfully projects religious militancy as a resolution to the problem of colonisation. He has an equally powerful certainty about its untenable Concep future. It is inevitable, then, that he has to simultaneously underscore the agenda in intensely heightened colours, to proclaim its OUR IMPORTANT BOOKS ON message with a brutal stridency that nearly reaches a breaking point in the last novel: DECENTRALISED PLANNING & PANCHAYATI RAJ and immediately counterpose to it an alienation device that drags the shining vision - Decentralisation in Developing Countries of Hindu triumph into the realms of idle S.S. Meenakshisundaram Rs.200 rumour and gossip. -Decentralised Planning and Panchayati Raj (D.T. Lakdawala Memorial Symposium Proceedings) Notes Malcolm S. 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Publishers: 3 Amales Tripathi, The Extremist Challenge: India between 1890 and 191 0, Calcutta, 1967. 4 Sumit Sarkar, The Swadeshi Movement in CONCEPT PUBLISHING COMPANY Bengal: 1903-1908, New Delhi, 1973. A/15-16, Commercial Block, Mohan Garden 5 It was used as a slogan in the riots of 1926. New Delhi-I 10059 (India) I owe this reference to Pradip Kumar Datta. Cable: CONPUBCO 0 Phones: 5554042, 5504042 6 This slant is marked in Gyan Pandey, The Constr-uction of Communalism in Northern Show Room: Ph: 3272187 India, Delhi. 1990. 4788/23, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi - 110002 7 'The Myth of Praxis: The Construction of the Figure of Krishna in Krishnacharitra',

2560 Economic and Political Weekly September 24, 1994

This content downloaded from 202.41.10.3 on Mon, 17 Jul 2017 15:10:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 24 Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, 'Traders and Trade with the theme of poverty aniid hunger-a Ayodhya' in Gyan Pandey (ed), Hindus and in Old Ccalcutta', Sukanta Chaudhuri (ed), deliberate invocation of his earlier Others: The Question of Identity in India Calcutta: The Living City, Vol 1, Calcutta 199 1.concerns. Then the guru persuades the Today, Delhi, 1993. The other, very important 25 Jogesh Bagal, 'Introduction', Bankim disciple that both can be overcome by the point this article establishes is the way Ram Rachanabali, Vol 2, op cit. cultivation of the right Hindu disposition is invoked as a role model. In bhakti 26 Sumit Sarkar, op cit. and knowledge. He thus relocates the philosophies, however, the deity's life is an 27 See his argument against the strategy of roots of these problems within the individual object of contemplation for the devotee, it is Vidyasagar in 'Bahuvivaha' in Vividha disposition and mindset-away from not for emulation. Here, too, Bankim makes Prabandha, op cit. social structures. Dharmatattva, Bankim the crucial transition, by insisting that 28 Satirical pieces in Lokrahasya (1874) make Rachanabali, Vol 2, op cit, pp 585-86. Krishna's life provides the desired pattern for fun of the English educated Babu quite 42 'Sankhyadarshan' in Vividha Prabhandha, all Hindus. mercilessly. BankimRachanabali, Vol 2, op cit. op cit. 68 Anandamath, op cit, p 726. He criticised Indologists like Max Mueller in 43 -"Vaidic religion lacks the concept of 69 In his interview with the VHP mohunt at Bangalir Bahubol. Prabandha Pustak. 1879. devotion... there are only propitiatory Ayodhya, P K Datta was told that this He was extremely sarcastic about dependence sacrifices to attain one's earthly desires". movement is the essence of Rambhakti. on western reflections on Indian history and Dharmatattva, Bankim Rachanabali, op cit, Datta, op cit. religion in Dharmatattva, BankimRachanabali, p 623. It polemicises against all major Hindu 70 Anandamath, op cit, p 751.. Vol 2, op cit. At the same time, his affiliation religious philosophies to assert the correctness 71 For a discussion of these themes at the time to western political theories, especially that of the reoriented bhakti. of the founding of the RSS, see Sumit Sarkar. of radical utilitarian and French revolutionary 44 See his strong repudiation of this form in 72 The agendaof the war with the Muslim always and socialist thinkers was openly asserted, not Krislititicharitrai, op cit. He was also critical occurs only in the novels. just in Samya but even in Dharnatattva, op cit. of the quietism of Kali-based devotion that 73 This is the concluding note and message of 29 Bagal, 'Introduction', Bankim Rachanabali, his contemporary saint Ramakrishna preached. Anandamath, Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 1, Vol 1, op cit. See Sumit Sarkar, 'Kaliyuga, Chakri and op cit, p 787. 30 See, for instance, ByaghracharyaBrihallanugul Bhakti' in Economic and Political Weekly, 74 "By imbibing these principles... the Hindu in Lokrahasya, op cit. July 18, 1992. will be... as powerful as the Arabs in the 31 This thrust was particularly well developed 45 Krishnacharitra, op cit. days of Mohammad...", Dharmatattva, by Ashis Nandy in The Intimate Enemy: Loss 46 See Shyamali, 'Bankimchandra 0 Bhatparar op cit, p 647. and Recovery of the Self under Colonialism, Panditsamaj', Baromash, Autumn number, 75 Ibid, p 648. Delhi, 1983. The framework is extended by 1988. 76 Ibid. Gyan Pandey in Construction of Communa- 47 See my Bankimchandrai and the Impossibility 77 This is the image of Mohammad in a very lism, op cit, and by Partha Chatterji, The of a Political Agenda, op cit. well known western text that was much used Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post- 48 See Basu, Datta, Sarkar, Sarkar and Sen, in Bankim's time. See T P Hughes, Dictionary Colonial Histories, Delhi 1994. Khaki Shorts, op cit. of Islam. First published 1885, Indian edition, 32 I have explained this term in 'Rhetoric 49 This is embodied in Haraballabh's patriarchal Rupa Publishers, 1988. against Age of Consent: Resisting Colonial inhuman orthodoxy and lack of a sense of 78 Krishnacharitra, Dharmatattva and Reason and the Death of a Child Wife' in Eco- honour and dignity in Debi Chaudhurani, Anandamath have to argue hard against other nomic and Political Weekly, September 1993. Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 1, op cit. models of bhakti. 33 Tapan Ray Chaudhuri, Europe Reconsidered, 50 Sitaram, op cit. Also see below. 79 By asserting that with a correct application op cit. 51 See reports in Bengalee and the Statesman, of bhakti, Hindus will be transformed into 34 See Anil Seal, Emergence of Indian 1873. Muslims of Mohammad's time, (see above) Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration 52 Dialogues between Mahendra and Santan Bankim hoped that the reinterpreted life of in the Later Nineteenth Century, Cambridge leaders inAnandamath, Bankim Rachanabali, Krishna will play the same historic role as University Press, 1968, and S Gopal; British Vol 1, op cit, pp 724-37. the original pattern. Policy in India, 1858-1905, Cambridge, 1965. 53 This is true of all the three novels. See Shanti 80 There are references to an attack on 35 S Gopal, The Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, and Kalyani in Anandamath, Prafulla, Diba missionaries at Tarakeswar in 1891. Dainik 1880-1884, London, 1953. and Nishi in Debi Chaudhurani, and Shree O Saniacharchandrika, April 19, 1891. There 36 See Seal and Gopal, op cit. and the Sanyasini and Nanda in Sitaram, were other minor attacks that were reported 37 Bipan Chandra, The Rise and Growth of Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 1, op cit. from Calcutta and Bankura. See Report on Economic Nationalism in India: Economic 54 Krishnacharitra, op cit, BankimRachanabali, Native Paper.s, Government of Bengal, Policies of Indian National Leadership, Vol 2, pp 498-504. January to March 1891. 1880-1905. New Delhi, 1966. 55 Dharnumtattva, op cit, Bankim Rachanabali, 81 Ibid, see also RNP, Bengal 1890. 38 See my 'Rhetoric againstthe Age of Consent', Vol 2, p 620. 82 Anandamath, Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 1, op op cit. Dipesh Chakrabarty has recently 56 See my Rhetoric against the Age of Consent, cit, p 727. reiterated the logic and politics of this op cit. 83 Ibid, p 784. revivalism in the same terms in his critique 57 Prafulla in Anandamath, op cit. 84 Bangalar Itihash, Vividha Prabandha, of contemporary 'secular feminists' in 'The 58 Sitaram, op cit, Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 1, Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 2, op cit, p 332. Difference Deferral of (A) Colonial pp 944-48. 85 Sitaram, Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 1, op cit, Modernity: Public Debate on Domesticity in 59 See the concealed yet very real Maharashtrian p 881. British Bengal' in History Workshop, Special brahmin origins of the RSS in Khaki Shorts, 86 See Chandrasekhar, for instance, for the Issue, Autumn, 1993. op cit. encounter between Saibalini and Forster, 39 See my Bankimchandra and the Impossibility 60 Bagal, 'Introduction', Bankim Rachanabali, Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 1, op cit, p 405. of a Political Agenda, op cit. Vol 1, op cit, p 23. Also see Muchiram Gurer Jibancharit, for the 40 Themes of Hindu history and nationhood 61 Anandamath, op cit, Bankim Rachanabali, encounter between a peasant and Meanwell, were taken up in Prabandha Pustak, op cit. Vol 1, pp 728-29. Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 2, pp 126-27. Many of the concerns of Dharmatattva and 62 Ibid, p 726. 87 See Durgeshnandini, his first novel, 1865, the form of its presentation had been 63 Ibid, p 728. Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 1, op cit. anticipated in Gaurdas BabajirBhiksharJhuli, 64 Ibid, p 726. 88 Ayesha in Durgeshnandini (above), Zeb Vividha Prabandha (1874). Krishnacharitra 65 lbid. Unnisa in Rajsingha (1882) and Dalani in was originally written to form a part of Vividha 66 Ibid, p 768. Chandrasekhar (1875) wil be very striking Prabandha, but was later much altered and 67 This was especially evident in the way the and diverse examples. See Bankim extended. Bagal, 'Introduction', Bankim Vishwa Hindu Parishad ideologues Rachanabali, Vol 1, op cit. Rachanabali, Vol 2, op cit, p 21. si multaneously evoked the figures of 89the Rajsingha, serene ibid, p 664, pp 672-74. 41 This is explicit in both Krishnachalritra and the angry Rain. See Pradip Kumar 90 Sitaram, Datta, Bankim Rachanabali, Vol 1, op cit, -and Dharmatattva. The latter, in fact, begins 'VH4P's Ram: The Hindutva Movement pp 957-58. in

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