Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

Krishna Kanta's Will Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was unquestionably the greatest novelist that India has ever produced. No other writer has done so much to improve the style, and to raise the tone of Bengali literature. His severe criticisms on the worthless and ephemeral productions of so many of his fellow-countrymen, his fearless exposure of the faults and shortcomings of Hindu social life, and of the evils arising from a corrupt and superstitious form of Hindu religion, have brought about a complete revolution in the history of Bengali literature. The story is written with much dramatic force, tragic indeed, but enlivened by passages of humorous description. The moral lesson intended to be conveyed is obvious-in fact, the chief aim of the author in all his works appears to have been to promote the amelioration of Hindu society, and to teach the vital importance of a reliance on religious principles in the affairs of life.