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Writers of the Bengal Renaissance: an Overview

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The Bengal Renaissance was a broad social and artistic movement that started in the late 18th century and continued into the early 20th century. The first major figure of the movement is usually described as Raja Rammohun Roy, an influential social reformer; it is also usually described as having ended with Rabindranath Tagore. The movement can be described as a fusion of western thought and aestheics with largely Hindu*, high-cultural values and traditions, and it is fair to think of it as achieving a kind of intellectual and formal hybridity. That said, it is also much more than that, and to limit the poetry of Michael Dutt or the incredibly prolific output of writers like Bankimchandra Chatterjee or Rabindranath Tagore to "hybridity" would be seen as insulting to Bengali readers. 

* While the majority of authors typically associated with the Bengal Renaissance were from Hindu backgrounds, the "rebel" poet and novelist Kazi Nazrul Islam is sometimes associated with the movement. 

Rammohun Roy's thinking was influenced by his encounter with the British East India Company. He started working with a missionary named William Carey, and later became a moneylender in Calcutta. Between 1803 and 1815, Roy worked as a private clerk with the East India Company. Under the influence of Christian monotheism, he and Debendranath Tagore started the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, which would later become the Brahmo Samaj. Among other things, he supported the British colonial decision to ban Sati (widow burning) in 1830. (Wikipedia)

Michael Madhusudan Dutt (Dutta) (1824–1873): A poet and playwright who introduced the sonnet and blank verse to Bengali poetry. He converted to Christianity in 1843, and took the name "Michael" upon his marriage in 1848. Dutt was originally studying at Hindu College in Calcutta, before being forced to transfer after his religious conversion. His first major work was a long narrative poem called The Anglo-Saxon and the Hindu (1854); it is described as being highly derivative of Canonical European writers' works. Subsequently, he began writing in Bengali, including five plays between 1859-1861, and then narrative poems like Meghnad Badh Kavya. He also translated his own work from time to time, including Sermista (our version of that play is here)

Peary Chand Mitter [Mitra] (1814-1883) is thought of as the author of the first modern novel in Bengali, The Spoilt Child (literally in Bengali: The Spoilt Darling of an Ill-Regulated House). The novel was published in Bengali in 1854, and translated into English in 1893, where it was published by the Calcutta publishing company, Thacker, Spink & Co. The novel is closely in dialogue with social reform movements, including education reform, rights and freedoms for women, the problem of alcoholism, landlord/peasant relations, and more. See our version of the text here, and a detailed summary here.

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (Chattopadhyay) (1838–1894): The father of the modern Bengali novel. His seminal 1882 novel Anandamath popularized the song "Vande Mataram," which served as a major rallying cry during the independence movement. He was educated at Presidency College in Calcutta (Kolkata), and graduated with a degree in Arts in 1859. He also attended the University of Calcutta, and was among the school's first graduates. He later obtained a degree in law. Like Rammohun Roy, he served the British colonial government (1858-1891). Chatterjee's first  published novel was Rajmohan's Wife, written in English. However, most of his output was in Bengali, starting with Durgesa Nandini (1865). While Bankim's first three novels were historical romances, he took a turn to contemporary realism with The Poison Tree, published in 1872-3 in Bengali and translated into English in 1884. The Poison Tree is essentially a melodramatic love triangle type narrative, but it points to social problems in Indian life -- issues such as polygamy and widow-remarriage (though Bankim appears to be opposed to widow-remarriage as leading to immorality). Our version of the translation is here; a detailed summary of the novel is here.
Toru Dutt (1856-1877) is not usually considered as a central figure in the Bengal Renaissance, in part because she and her sister spent much of their young adulthood outside of India. She also wrote in English and French rather than Bengali. Her major works are Sita, A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876), Bianca, or the Spanish Maiden (1878) and Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (published posthumously in 1882). She died at age 21 of tuberculosis. Our version of Ancient Ballads is here; our version of Bianca can be found here.

Rabindranath Tagore (Thakur) (1861–1941): The monumental figure of the era, he became Asia's first Nobel laureate in Literature in 1913. (It is truly difficult to summarize his vast career in a few sentences, and readers are encouraged to look at the Wikipedia entry for a detailed biography.) Tagore was the son of Debendranath Tagore, mentioned above as a co-founder of the Brahmo Samaj, a key figure in the Bengal Renaissance. Tagore had the benefit of several highly accomplished and ambitious siblings, including one brother who was a philosopher and poet, another who was a musician and playwright,another who was the first Indian appointed to the elite (and previously all-English) Indian Civil Service, and a sister who was herself a novelist. Tagore did study law briefly in England before dropping out, to engage in independent study of English literature. He began writing in earnest in the 1880s and 90s, publishing many short stories and books of poems during that fertile period. In 1912, the English translation of Gitanjali piqued the interest of W.B. Yeats, who wrote a gushing preface; the critical acclaim led to Tagore receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. We have versions of Gora and The Home and the World on this site, along with Tagore's influential lectures on the problem of nationalism and militarism here. We have also included a book of autobiographical essays, published as My Reminiscences, here.

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876–1938): One of the most popular Bengali novelists, known for works focusing on contemporary social realities, domestic life, and the plight of women. His novels have been especially popular for screen adaptations, with a long array of adaptations of his Devdas spanning essentially the entire history of Indian cinema. Another film that has an excellent recent adaptation is Parineeta. His nationalist novel, Pather Dabi (serialized in 1921; published in book form in 1926), was banned in British India for its seditious content. 

See our version of his novel Srikanta (part 1) here; see a summary of Srikanta here.


 

This page has paths:

  1. Literature of Colonial South Asia: A Digital Archive Amardeep Singh

Contents of this path:

  1. Michael Madhusudhan Dutt (Dutta), "Sermista: A Drama in Five Acts" (1859) (full text)
  2. Peary Chand Mitra, "The Spoilt Child" (1857/1893) (Full Text)
  3. Toru Dutt, "Bianca, or The Young Spanish Maiden" (1878) (Full text)
  4. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, "Rajmohan's Wife" (1864) (Full text)
  5. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, "Anandamath" ("Dawn Over India") (1882 / 1906 / 1941)
  6. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, "The Poison Tree: A Tale of Hindu Life in Bengal" (1884) (full text)
  7. Summary of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's "The Poison Tree"
  8. Toru Dutt, "Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan" (1885) (full text)
  9. Rabindranath Tagore, "Gora" (1910/1924) (Full Text / Ebook)
  10. Rabindranath Tagore, "The Home and the World" (1916 / 1919) (Full Text)
  11. Rabindranath Tagore, "Nationalism" (1917) (full text)
  12. Rabindranath Tagore, "My Reminiscences" (1917) (translation; full text)
  13. Saratchandra Chatterjee (Chattopadhyay), "Srikanta, Part 1 (1922) (Full text in translation)
  14. Summary of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee's "Srikanta"
  15. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, "Kopal-Kundala" (1866 Bengali/1885 Translation) (Full Text)
  16. Summary of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's "Kopal-Kundala"