Mbuye's Reviews > AnandMath

The real difficulty with 'Anandamath' for a non Bengali reader is the absence of a later translation than the 1941 one by Basanta Koomar Roy, titled 'Dawn Over India.' Wikisource names two others, one in 1906 by Nares Chandra Sen Gupta. This translation has the alternate title of 'Abbey of Bliss'. The third is the 1909 Aurobindo - Barindra Kumar Ghosh's 'Anandamath.' The earlier versions have a tendency to literal translations, which may sometimes confuse the reader not acquainted with Indian speech patterns.

So much for the translations. As far as Anandamath the novel is concerned, it has sunk so deep into the collective psyche of Indians that it is hard to be objective and critical about it. Set in the eighteenth century, when the East India Company was powerful enough to control an army of British soldiers, but not yet in a position to handle the equally powerful local rulers, 'Anandamath' is a revolt against Mughal rule in India, whose landlords were bleeding the populace dry, while the British, eager to ingratiate themselves with the oppressors, afforded them military support.

At a period of actual famine, some people banded together to form an ascetic warrior clan, abandoning wives and children to fight the British and the Mughals. There are scenes of great violence as the militant rebels, the 'Children', as they call themselves, exact vengeance upon their enemies.

Nonetheless, 'Anandamath' was a deeply inspirational book, with its concept of a united India, and its twin goals of self restraint and self sacrifice in the cause of a mother country. Despite its austere leadership, two young women join the group to support their husbands. One of them actually joins as a disguised militant, in men's attire, thereby becoming one of the first feminists of India. All the men wish to outperform each other in deeds of daring to proclaim their devotion to their principles and ideal. The group engages in a terrible battle, in which despite the many casualties on their side, the Children destroy Mughal rule in Calcutta, where the vacuum was soon filled by the East India Company. But that is another story.