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| The Hindu Phenomenon |
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HINDU NATIONALISM : THE FIRST PHASE |
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Sri Aurobindo wrote in his work Bankim-Tilak-Dayanand: "Bankim...
gave us the vision of our Mother... It is not till the motherland
reveals herself to the eye of the mind as something more than a
stretch of earth or a mass of individuals, it is not till she takes
shape as a great Divine and Maternal Power in a form of beauty that
can dominate the mind and seize the heart that these petty fears and
hopes vanish in an all-absorbing passion for our mother and her
service, and the patriotism that works miracles and saves doomed
nations is born."15
Bankim was not anti-Muslim. This point has been clinched by Arabinda Poddar.16 In view of the importance of this question in a definition of Hindu nationalism, it would be in order to discuss his findings at some length. Anandmath, he says, "was definitely and entirely an anti-British novel; the children of the Mother had little to do with Muslims, even when they were depicted as fighting against them." In the first edition of the novel, Bankim, while describing the battle in the third section, does not use the words yavan and nere (which implied Muslims), but in their place the word ingrej (the British) was consistently used. The substitution was clearly an afterthought intended to protect Bankim from the wrath of the British.
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| About Hindu Nationalism: The First Phase |
