Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and Modern Hinduism

Abstract

This chapter looks at the contributions of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay (1838–94), an important Bengali intellectual and writer, and discusses his key writings relevant to modern Hinduism. Bankimchandra was primarily an author—and not an organization-builder—and it was through his writings that he influenced younger generations of Hindu reformers and Indian nationalists. Bankimchandra merits a chapter in this volume not least because of his early and sophisticated attempts to define Hinduism, and, as Harder highlights, his reinterpretation of dharma as both equivalent and counter-concept to ‘religion’, as well as his claim of inherent spirituality and tolerance being distinctive features of Hinduism.