Anandamath - Bengali nationalist novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838–1894) wrote this novel.
- It takes place in Bengal in the eighteenth century, during the so-called Sanyasi Rebellion, which included Hindu and Muslim militant ascetics.
For dominance of the area, both factions battled the British East India Company.
- The origins of this war, according to historical evidence, were severe socioeconomic tensions in Bengali culture, especially changes in land ownership patterns and the devastation caused by the Great Famine of 1770–1771.
- Chatterjee was an outspoken Indian nationalist who depicted the Sanyasi Rebellion as a battle between Mother India's faithful children and the parasitic British invaders.
- Anandamath is clearly allegorical and nationalistic, and it is seen by contemporary critics as Chatterjee's way of symbolizing the need to continue the struggle against British imperialism in the mid-nineteenth century, despite the novel being set in a previous era to avoid problems with the British authorities.
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
Be sure to check out my writings on religion here.
