Vande Mataram debate: The novel in which the poem appears is a cry for freedom – but from whom?

Today, we are flooded with information (and misinformation) about Vande Mataram, India’s national song, a song that has been valorised and weaponised, a song around which the government felt it was imperative to conduct a ten-hour discussion in Parliament last week. But there is utter silence regarding the core message of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Anandamath in which the song Vande Mataram is embedded.

Vande Mataram was written in 1875 and published in Bangadarshan, a Bengali literary magazine started by Chattopadhyay and later revived by Rabindranath Tagore. In 1882 it was inserted in Anandamath.

Anandamath is set in the latter half of the eighteenth century. It deals with the sufferings of the Bengali people during the famine of 1770. The Nawab of Bengal, a puppet ruler under the British East India Company, was obliged to extort heavy land taxes from the peasantry. The Nawab and his officials, rather than the British, became the visible face of oppression.

The novel also draws inspiration from the sanyasi rebellions of the time. The sannyasi and fakir rebellion between 1760s and 1800 was a widespread uprising in Bengal and Bihar against British East India Company rule. It was led by Hindu monks and Muslim fakirs protesting heavy taxes, the plight of famine victims and restrictions on religious practices.

They were joined by impoverished peasants, artisans, and disbanded soldiers.

But in the novel, the Santans, as the rebels were called in the novel, were not traditional monks but were recruited from the common people who were ready to take part in a violent struggle, even rob and loot the oppressor, to free the beloved motherland, described so evocatively in Vande Mataram.

Anandamath is often described as a rallying cry for freedom – but from whom? And by whose help would it be gained? Though there are at least two good English translations available on the net, one by Aurabindo Ghosh and his brother Barindra Kumar Ghosh and the other by Nares Chandra Sen-Gupta, very few people seem to have actually read the novel.

The concluding paragraphs of Anandamath reveal the author’s ambivalent attitude towards the British. They are a dialogue between Mahatma Satyananda, the leader of the rebels, and a mysterious saintly doctor, Chikitsak, who acts as a mouthpiece for Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s ideas on education and the role of the British in India’s ultimate rise to greatness.

Saint: “Unless the English rule this land, there is no chance of the renaissance of the eternal religion. Listen patiently. I shall explain to you as it has been seen and understood by the ancient sages. The worship of three hundred and thirty million deities is not the eternal religion; that is an inferior popular religion. Under its influence, the true religion, as the Mlechhas call it, is lost.

The true Hindu religion is based on knowledge, not on action. That knowledge is of two kinds; – secular or external and spiritual or internal. The inner spiritual knowledge is the chief part of true religion. But unless secular knowledge about the outside world comes, the other knowledge about the inner world cannot grow. Unless one knows what the gross is, one cannot arrive at the knowledge pertaining to the subtle. For a long time this esoteric knowledge has been lost in this country – so the true eternal religion is also lost.

In order to restore the eternal religion, at the outset knowledge of the material world must be preached. There is not much material knowledge in the country now; there is none capable of teaching it. We are not adepts in spreading popular education. So the necessary knowledge has got to be brought and introduced from other countries.

The English are past masters in the knowledge pertaining to the material world. They are adepts in the art of teaching. So we shall make the British our rulers. Through English education our people attaining knowledge of the material world will also be made capable of understanding inner knowledge.

There will then be no obstacle against preaching the true eternal religion. True religion will, under the circumstances, grow spontaneously. So long as that does not happen, so long as the Hindus do not become wise, worthy and strong, British rule will endure. The subjects will be happy under the British control. They will pursue their religious life without hindrance. So, О wise one! Desist from fighting the British and follow me.”

Satyananda said, “O noble-hearted one! If our purpose was to put the British in control over us as our rulers, if British rule was considered beneficent for our country, then why did you engage us in this heartless fighting?”

The Saint said, “The English are now merchants, they are busy earning money, they do not care to undertake the responsibility of government. Under the pressure of this Santan rebellion they will be compelled to undertake the responsibility of governing this country. Because without that the financial resources of the country cannot be explored. The Santan rebellion has come only to put the British on the throne. Come now with me, you will understand things yourself after attaining knowledge.”

Satyananda: “O Noble-hearted one! I don’t crave after knowledge, I have no use for it. I shall fulfil the vow that I have taken. Bless me so that my devotion to my Mother remains unshakable.”

The Sage: Your vow stands fulfilled – you have achieved the well-

being of your Mother – you have helped to establish British Rule. Give up fighting, let people engage in cultivation, let the earth become fruitful with crops, let the people of the country become prosperous.”

As if sparks flew from Satyananda’s eyes. He said, “I shall drench the mother earth with the enemy’s blood and thus make her fruitful.”

The Sage: “Who is your enemy? Here is hardly any enemy. The British are our ally and friendly power. Besides none has the requisite power to be victorious in the long run in a war against the British.”

Satyananda: “If we haven’t got the power, I shall give up my body before this image of my Motherland.”

The Sage: You will die in ignorance? Come, attain knowledge first. There is the Mother’s temple on the peak of the Himalayas, from there I shall reveal and show you her true form.

(Translated by Nares Chandra Sen-Gupta)

For a country that is in proud denial of its colonial past, the above revelation, the core message of the novel, is quite startling. The Motherland has to be colonised first under the British to become great again.

Almost two decades before Anandamath was published, Nandashankar Mehta’s historical novel, Karan Ghelo: Gujarat’s Last Rajput King, written in Gujarati, was published in 1866.

In an uncanny way, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s historical fiction seems to echo more forcefully and explicitly the sentiments expressed in the closing paragraphs of this Gujarati novel.

“Since Karan Vaghela’s death, 550 years have elapsed. Much has changed since those times. Those Rajputs, those Muslims, those Marathas – where are they now? What has become of them? Who would believe that the indolent, weak and decadent Rajputs of today are descended from the valiant race that once ruled the land? Who would believe that the weak, starving, illiterate Muslims of today have descended from the Muslims of those times? And as for the Marathas, no trace of their former glory survives. All have been subjugated by the white man.

The bhats and charans who once graced the courts of kings, now wander the hills and jungles. The whole of Gujarat is under British control. But by God’s grace, this province will once again flourish and achieve greatness in a different way, and learning, art and social reform will spread over this beautiful land. May it once again become a garden of paradise, the abode of Lakshmi, the storehouse of all virtue. Astu! Astu! So be it.”

Aban Mukherji is a translator and freelance writer.