Walter Scott and Bankim Chandra Chaterjee:

WALTER SCOTT AND BANKIM CHANDRA CHATTERJEE:
A STUDY OF ANALOGOUS THEMES

Y. V. R. Prasanna Kumar
G. M. Sundaravalli

Every novelist is a product of the age in which he is born and bred, and in which he works and creates. His writings express his age in various ways, and his works cannot be understood without an understanding of the times he lived. This is more so the case with the novels that reflect the time-spirit to a much greater extent than other art forms. Walter Scott and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee belong to this elite group. They are the pioneers of historical novel. Their novels reflect the age they lived in. Both tried to present the man’s struggle to break away from the tyranny of the existing oppressor. This is an attempt to reveal the intricate likenesses in the themes of their novels.

Although they lived in two different countries, the political conditions in Britain and India were similar to a great extent. Scott created his historical novels at a time when the traumatic events of the French Revolution had scattered his generation and had produced a new awareness of the past. In 1603 Scotland was united with Britain. The Scottish people felt dejected and suffered from an inferiority complex. In this situation of frustration Scott considered the historical novel as the most effective tool for arousing a new zeal in the Scottish nation. He delighted in writing Scottish history, legends and its culture. His novels are remarkable for Scottish heroism and patriotism. He endeavoured to build up the morale-of his countrymen and tried to bring them out of the state of hopelessness and uncertainty.

Bankim wrote at a time when India was colonized by England and the tragic consequences of the 1857 War of Independence were still impinging upon the lives of the people. They were the days of growing nationalism and consolidation of imperialism by Queen’s Declaration which added salt to the sore. There was also utter lawlessness, robbery, looting and plunder. “The Civil Service and Ilbert Bill agitation and the wide spread resentment against the Vernacular Press Act formed an exciting ground to the period when Bankim was at the height of the literary career.”¹ He was no less great as an artist than as a nationalist. The shame of India’s subjection had burned deeply into his mind. As he grew older he preached national regeneration through religious revival. The purpose of his novels was to arouse Indians against their oppressor. Historic actions usually form a part of Bankim’s special effects. People got inspired to do mighty things for the nation’s cause. “Bankim’s passion for history bums bright throughout his novels earning him the appellation ‘The Sir Water Scott of Bengal.’” ²

A critical analysis of the themes in the novels of Scott and Bankim reveals that there are similarities and dissimilarities in the subjects that they select for artistic representation. Their greatness as historical novelists is obvious from their way of dealing with the popular periods of history by imparting to them a tinge of romance. With the publication of Scott’s Waverly Series historical romances became popular in English Literature making historical novel a permanent form of literature. Enveloping actions of hi story with romance generally form a part of Bankim’s technical paraphernalia, like scenes of striking engagements. They had a large share in building up the massiveness of the design of his novels. Nine out of fifteen novels have been set in a historical frame or fringe.

Patriotism was one of the common themes between them. Romantic idealism in Literature is very often a powerful factor for patriotic or political upsurge or struggle for freedom. Scott wanted his people to realise the positive side of Scottish alliance with the English. His novel The Fortunes of Nigel states a whole series of themes, the historical novelty of life in the seventeenth century London and the hostility between the English and the Scots. He has nostalgia for the independent past of Scotland but, at the same time, he also realises the importance and inevitability of Scotland’s allegiance to England.

On the contrary, Bankim’s historical and semi-historical novels are packed with most fervent patriotic sentiments having an electrifying effect on the readers. He preached vigorous patriotism at a time when Indian Nationalism had just got going with a pace neither too bold nor too assertive. His novels like Durgeshnandini, Mrinalini, Rajasinha, Anandamath and Sitaram, are all pitched to the same key-struggle for freedom or self­defence: in other words, people’s patriotic obligation of defending their country or society against external attacks or oppression under an unrighteous regime. “He knew that nothing appealed to the Indian mind more than religion. Hence, he raised Nationalism to the level of religion by identifying the Motherland with the Mother-Goddess. The tremendous impact Anandamath and Vandemataram produced on the Indian National Movement is a fact of history.” ³

The two novelists also appear to be similar in introducing the element of romance to the historical subjects. They think it essential because, in their opinion, a historical novel contrary to history has to be interesting, attractive and colourful. Both of them want to give a colouring of imagination to the realistic depiction of history but they vary from each other in gradation of the combination of romance and history. Ian Jack comments that “Scott has found Scotland’s past and its events as romantic as anything he has discovered in imaginative literature. His aim in the Scotch novels was to communicate his imaginative excitement to the readers.”⁴ Scott has tried to wed the two cultures by creating love affairs between Scottish heroines and British heroes. The love affairs between the two are usually the result of a compromise on the part of the Scottish heroine and her father with the changed and new society. The examples in this instance are the marriage of Waverly and Rose Bradwardine in Waverly and that of Frank Baldistone, who marries his Scottish heroine Diana Vernon in ‘Rob Roy’. Marian. H. Cusac comments that “the fundamental theme in most of his novels is the movement of the protagonist from Scottish romanticism to English realism. In all his novels historical story dominates over the love story.”⁵

Scott does not give much importance to romance: the romantic relationship between the hero and the heroine exists as an important part of the novel, but never dominates the realism. His involvement of romance in history that bears most of the characteristics of romanticism and romance in his novels is associated with past and pessimism. Even though romance is an important aspect of his novels, he does not indulge in making it a dominant element in them.

Bankim was essentially a romanticist­ - even his social novels have not escaped the romantic touch. A romance deals with life no doubt but, at the same time, seeks to transfigure it, emphasising its beauty and passion, its heroic and imaginative aspects. In a novel, art tends towards the actual condition of life; in a romance, it lifts life itself to a higher plane. From this point of view, his novels like Durgeshnandini, Mrinalini, Anandamath, Kapalkundala, Chandrasekhar, Devi Chaudhurani and Sitaram - all are romantic.

In Chandrasekhar the story centres on the unmarried attachment between Shaibalini and Pratap which, however, does not culminate in marriage. The main focus is on Shaibalini’s continuing passion for Pratap even after her marriage with Chandrasekhar. Commenting on Bankim’s courage to converge history with romance, R. Satyan says, “Bankim was attempting in the wake of the new awakening in the country a kind of idealistic romanticised regeneration of the Hindu ethos.” ⁶

His novel Durgeshnandini is divided into two parts. The theme of the novel is the recovery of Bengal by the Moghuls of Delhi from the Pathan usurpers. Each part is built upon a love episode around the hero, Jagat Singha. The book is named after Tilottama, the daughter of Bengal Chieftain, Birendra Singh, the heroine and the focus of interest. In the second part another heroine called Ayesha appears from Pathan’s side. Ayesha’s tender, self effacing love comes to dominate the rest of the story. She is ready to sacrifice her happiness for the sake of others. The novel ends with the marriage of Jagat Singha and Tilottama in Mandaran. Bankim is basically a romantic novelist who wants to create a new zeal and enthusiasm in his countrymen with the help of his historical romances and in this endeavour he tends to make romance dominate over history.

Bankim and Scott can be paid equal tribute as they are the great initiators of historical romances in their respective cultures and literatures. They are akin on a few points to the extent of thematic aspects of their historical novels. But after a careful analysis there is clear divergence even within these similar themes due to the difference in their aims and situations, especially in blending romance. Both the novelists are made immortal by their novels. They occupy, forever, a unique place in the literatures of their nations due to their great contribution in originating and developing the art of the historical and romantic novels.

References

¹ Bose. S. K. Bankim Chandra Chetterjee, Publication Division, New Delhi, 1974. P.6
² ibid. P.56
³ ibid.P.126
⁴ Jack. Ian, Sir Walter Scott, Edinburgh, 1972.P. 15
⁵ Cusac. H. Marian, Narrative Structures in the Novels of Sir Walter Scott, Paris 1969. P.57.
⁶ R. Satyan, The Three Pioneers of Indian Novelists, Vol.24, No.4, Jul-Aug, 1 981. P.79
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            Speaking about Bankim Chatterjee, the author of our National song Vande Mataram, Rabindranath Tagore said: “He has a regal mien.”