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Anandamath
by Bankim Chandra Chatterji. A narrative of radical nationalists in the throes of colonialism and emoting the feelings of rising national consciousness. Anandamath, by virtue of expressing nationalistic sentiments of an oppressed nation, brought out the Indian freedom struggle from the confines of the elite to the masses. It is an allegory of a nation, embodying its spirit and culture. It strictly adheres to Indian aesthetics. The invocation of bhavas like bhaya, shoka, jugupsa and krodha in the novel reflect the aspirations of a fledgling nation. Basanta Koomar Roy’s translation was first published as Dawn Over India in 1941. Its greatest asset lies in sustaining the right mood, purpose and sense of the narrative. The translation is remarkable because it has been done in a language that is so alien to the original text. Juxtaposing it with Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’ or Agyeya’s translation in Hindi would be a bit too much to ask for, still, the translator has overcome language barrier appreciably. Roy does well by employing vernacular and Sanskrit words unhesitatingly where their English equivalents could not explain their socio-cultural contexts. Words like dhoti, Jatas, Magh, Dronaparba, Raghuvangsam, Kumarsambhavam appear as it is in the text. Bande Mataram, the soul of this classic finds a remarkable translation in Sri Aurobindo’s I bow to thee, Mother… echoing the essence of love for one’s motherland. The major concern of any translated work is place and displacement, search for an identity and bridging the gap between ‘self’ and ‘other,’ Anandamath dwells on such themes that are ideally suited for translation. Keya Majumdar in her essay Appropriating the ‘Other’: Some Challenges of Translation and its Theories in Indian Literature (July-Aug 2006) says, “The potential of translation can be fully realised once we are able to approach literary text as agents as well as participants in a cultural conversation re-presenting the inconclusive parameter of understanding that would make significant strides towards a new domain of culture studies.” The synergy so developed in the process of translation is an ennobling and enlightening experience to a reader. A reader traverses across mingling cultures, stirring his thoughts and unsettling ‘truth’. In this way past remains dynamic and resists itself from becoming monolithic. The recently established National Translation Mission under the aegis of the National Knowledge Commission provides a much-needed boost to explore bhasa novels in other languages and vice versa.
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Rabindranath Tagore once described Anandamath as a “legend of the struggle for freedom and the passion behind it seems to reflect Bankim’s vision of free India.” Published in book form in 1882 after appearing in a monthly journal, Vangadarshan, it has come to be known as much more than a seminal text of the Indian freedom struggle.