Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay

(1838-94)
His most famous novel was
AnandaMath (Sacred Brotherhood),
published in 1882, which contains the
famous song Vande Mataram.
Anandmath depicted an army of
Brahmin ascetics fighting Indian
Muslims in the pay of the East India
company.

 Bankim

had originally composed

this as a song in 1875. Later,
when he had finished the highly
influential novel, Anandamath, he
inserted it within the story and
vested it with highly significant
narrative functions.
The hymn, subsequently, was
detached from the novel and
achieved a life of its own as a
slogan in mass nationalist rallies,
and later, in communal violence.

Why has India been a subject nation for such a

long time?
Lack of compelling desire for liberty
Lack of strong belief that independence is
better than subjection
Lack of solidarity in Hindu society

National solidarity/Hindu solidarity is

dependent upon two attributes:
Conviction

that what is good for

every Hindu is good for me.
That every Hindu should ensure that
his opinions/beliefs and actions are
consistent with every other Hindu.
Single minded devotion to the
interests of ones own nation, even
at the cost of other nations.

 According

to Bankim, Hindus have

lacked these feelings and therefore
national solidarity is completely
absent.
He says, if only Hindus desire liberty
and convince themselves of the
value of liberty they can achieve it.
According to him, only after coming
in contact with the English that
Indians learnt the values of liberty
and national solidarity.
His explanation of subjection of
India is in terms of culture.

 According

to him, cultural attributes

of Europeans equips them to achieve
power and progress.
Indians cultural attributes has led
them to their downfall and remain in
subjugation.
For English: knowledge is power
For Hindus: Knowledge is salvation
English are devotees of power
Indians are negligent towards power
English are thus victorious and
advanced
Indians are thus subjugated.

The present state of the Hindus is a product of

this excessive other-worldliness. The lack of
devotion to work which foreigners point out as
our chief characteristic is only a manifestation of
this quality. Our second most important
characteristic fatalism is yet another form of
this other-worldliness it is because of this otherworldliness and fatalism that in spite of the
immense physical prowess of the Indians, this
land of the Aryans had come under Muslim rule.
And it is for the same reason that India remains a
subject country till this day (Sankhyadarsan:
222).

For him the subjection of India has been for seven

centuries, starting from the first Muslim invasion of
India and culminating in the establishment of British
rule.
The theoretical position implied in Bankims discussion
involves the following line of reasoning:
Force or power is the basis of the state
The liberty or subjection of a nation is ultimately a
question of force or power
But power is not something that is determined by
material (environmental or technological) conditions
Power can be acquired by the cultivation of appropriate
national cultural values.

How can these national cultural values be imitated?

One way is to imitate those who have demonstrated their
capacities as powerful and freedom loving nations.
But does imitation of others culture not lead to depletion
of ones own culture, which then is contrary to
nationalistic sentiments?

He found an answer later in life:

The

superiority of the West was in the materiality of its

culture (science, technology etc),

But

life,

culture did not exist only in the material aspect of

 There

was spiritual aspect too, and here the West had

little to contribute,

The

East was superior in the spiritual aspect and hence

undominated,

So

the need is to create a cultural ideal in which the

industries and the sciences of the West can be learnt and
emulated while retaining the spiritual greatness of
Eastern culture. This should be the national cultural
project for India

For Bankim the self awareness of a people consisted of

the knowledge of its own history.
To him a nation existed in its history
Thus, his distress at what he saw as the ignorance of the
Hindus of their own history.
He was angered at the falsifications of Hindu history at
the hands of foreign (including Muslim) historians.

My patriotism is both exclusive in the sense

that in all humanity I confine my attention to
the land of my birth. But it is inclusive in the
sense that my service is not of a competitive
or antagonistic nature. I want to identify
myself with everything that lives.
My idea of nationalism is that my country
may become free- free that if need be the
whole of the country may die so that the
human race may live. There is no room here
for race hatred. Let that be our nationalism.

Gandhi and Hind Swaraj

Gandhis work will run into nearly ninety thick volumes.

Yet, there exists few texts in which he can be seen

attempting a systematic exposition of his ideas on state,
society and nation.

Hind Swaraj is one of those few texts which he wrote

on a voyage from England to South Africa in 1909.

It contains a statement of some of the fundamental

elements of Gandhis politics and the basic ideals
on which the future constitution of India
should be based.

It was banned by the colonial government in 1910 for

fear of sedition.

For Gandhi India is a subject nation because of moral

failure.
He wrote the English have not taken India; we have given
it to them Recall the Company Who assisted the
Companys officers? Who was tempted at the sight of their
silver?... History testifies that we did all this When our
Princess fought among themselves, they sought the
assistance of Company It is not then useless to blame the
English it is truer to say that we gave India to the English
than that India was lost.

For Gandhi, it is precisely because Indians were seduced

by the glitter of modern civilization that they became
subject people.
Modern civilization according to him has two unethical
principles at its very core:
might is right & survival of fittest

According to him,
as long as Indians continue to harbor illusions about
the progressive qualities of modern civilization, they
will remain a subject nation. Even if they succeed
physically in driving out the English, they would still
have English rule without Englishman, because it is
not the physical presence of the English which makes
India a subject nation; it is civilization which subjects.
According to him, modern imperialism/civilization as in
the West is based on the limitless desire for everincreased production and ever greater consumption, and
the spirit of profit and ruthless competitiveness. It is for
profit that the West seeks colonial possessions which
they can exploit for economic purposes.

Rejecting industrialization and mechanization as evils in

a labour abundant country he writes:
mechanization is good when the hands are too few for the work
intended to be accomplished. It is an evil when there are more
hands than required for the work as is the case in India The
problem with us is not how to find leisure for the teeming millions
inhabiting our villages. The problem is how to utilize their idle
hours spinning and weaving mills have deprived the villagers of
a substantial means of livelihood. It is no answer in reply to say
that they turn out cheaper, better cloth, if they do so at all. For, if
they have displaced thousands of workers, the cheapest mill cloth
is dearer than the dearest khadi woven in the villages.

He advocated Non-violent Nationalism that requires

modern/western civilization be driven out and Indias
pristine condition be restored but through ahimsa &
Swadeshi.

For him Self-rule can be achieved through selfcontrol and passive resistance (satyagraha): that is
soul-force or love force.

Non-violent Nationalism he said should be compatible

with ethos of inclusivity and moral universalism.
According to him, true nationalism will generate a
want in people to organize itself and find full selfexpression for the benefit and service of humanity at
large.

Nationalism - moral status self control resistance to

lure of modern civilization/imperialism importance to
swadeshi method adopted should be ahimsa and
satyagraha.

His swadeshi aimed at reviving charkha and khadi, to

restore the identity of largely impoverished Indian
peasants within their own indigenous culture.

Charkha, depicted at the centre of the flag of the

independence movement, was the symbol of unity and
non-violence of the Indian people, but it was also
another expression of his faith that the real India is in
villages.

To construct the village economy he introduced idea of

Panchayat. Through the entity called panchayat, he
envisioned tenant farmers organizing unions and striking
as a form of non-violent non-cooperation. Through this
Gandhi thought of decentralization of power, such that
every village is a fundamental unit of politics. He said
that Independence must begin at the bottom. Thus, every
village will be a republic or Panchayat having full
powers.
Gandhi dismisses all historical objections to his project
of freeing India, not by the strength of arms but by the
force of soul, by saying,

To believe that what has not occurred in history will not

occur at all is to argue disbelief in the dignity of man.

He does not feel it necessary to even attempt a historical

demonstration of the possibilities he is trying to point
out.

Indeed, he objects that the historical mode of reasoning

is quite unsuitable, indeed irrelevant, for his purpose.

History, he says, is built upon the records not of the

working of the force of the soul but of its exact opposite.
It is a record of the interruptions of peace.

For Gandhi, history does not record Truth. Truth lies

outside history; it is universal, unchanging. Truth has no
history of its own.

Gandhi introduced a New Civilization and explained it

as Ram Rajya:
It can be religiously translated as kingdom of God on
earth. Politically translated: it is perfect democracy in
which, inequalities based on possession and nonpossession, colour, race or creed or sex vanish. In it land
and state belong to the people, Justice is prompt, perfect
and cheap and, therefore, there is freedom of worship,
and of speech and the press- all this because of the reign
of the self-imposed law of moral restraint. Such a state
must be based on truth and non-violence and must
consist of prosperous, happy and self-contained villages
and village communities.
His nationalism thus included economics, culture and
spirituality and not just appeal to superiority of Indian
culture.