Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, a great Bengali novelist, poet, and nationalist of the 19th century, had the exceptional gift of being able to communicate with, and arouse the masses.
A nationalist to the core, his goal was to revive national pride and by doing so, to fight for freedom from the British.
In 1882, he published a novel Anandamath that became his most famous, as well as his most political novel. It proved to be a source of inspiration for patriots fighting to throw off the yoke of British rule, and the chant of Vande Mataram was coined from this book.
Vande Mataram became a patriotic hymn that stirred an entire nation, and it was later adopted by the Indian Government as the national song.
Vande Mataram expresses Bankim Chandra’s vision of the Mother India as a goddess, and of a woman as holy and venerable. His vision ignited the imagination of the whole of Bengal, and rest of India as well.
The poem is loved by most of the Indians even today.
