Today we are celebrating the birth anniversary of veteran writer and journalist Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay who contributed to India’s freedom by motivating Indians through his writing skills. He was born on 27th June 1938 in Kanthalpara, Bengal. We memorize him with his remarkable National Song “Vande Mataram” and different novels that he wrote. Some of his wonderful publications are Kapalkundala (1866), Mrinalini (1869), Chandrasekhar (1877), Devi Chaudhurani (1884), Anandmath (1882), etc.
The writer was from orthodox family and completed his education from Hooghly Mohsin College. For higher studies, he went to Presidency College and in 1857 graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Law. After completing his graduation he served as a Deputy Collector for almost 32 years, just like his father in British reign. Further, he gets promoted as Deputy Magistrate and retired in 1891. Instead of working under Britishers, he was widely famous for his thoughts against the rulers that also can be seen in some of his novels.
His love for writing allowed him to follow his idol, Ishwarchandra Gupta. The first novel that he wrote for a writing competition was never got published as he didn’t win that competition. Later an English novel Rajmohan’s Wife results as his first publication, which was a failure as it was in the English language. This failure motivated him to write novels in his regional language that is Bangali. His first Bengali novel Durgeshnondini that he wrote in 1865 was also not a hit. And this motivated him to wrote the big publication Kapalkunda. Later, in 1869 and 1877 his Mrinalini and Chandrasekhar were published respectively where he made a successful attempt at changing his writing styles. He also published a monthly magazine named Bangadarshan in 1972 that mostly used to contain stories, humorous sketches, historical and random essays, religious and devotional articles, etc. In 1882’s publication named Anandamath, we can find the verses of our National Song Vande Mataram. Post this Vishabriksha (The Poison Tree) that was published in 1873 gave him fame all over the world. His other writing works were Lok Rahasya (1874), Bichitra Prabandha (1876), Devi Chaudhurani (1884), Kamalakanta (1885), Sitaram (1887), Muchiram Gurer Jivancharita, Krishna Charitra (1886), Dharmatattva (1886), etc.
Bankim married two times as his first wife to whom he married at the age of eleven died when he was 22 years old. Then he married to Rajlakshmi Devi and they had three daughters. Bankim ended his life with all these memorable works on 8th April 1894.
On this special and memorable day, we hope that India will get such Bankim ahead!
