Pather Dabi (The Right of Way; or Demands of the Road) is a Bengali novel written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. It was first published as a novel in 1926, after having been initially serialized in the journal Bangabani. The book is set in British-occupied India. [1] [2] [3]
The book is about a secret society named Pather Dabi whose goal is to free India from British rule.And Sarat Chandra chattopadhyay played a great role for making a Revolutionary mind in young Indians, which gives an effort to the Indians to free from this Torture by British.Sharat Chandra chattopadhyay helped to create an independent consciousness among the Indians.And he also mentioned that independence is the only way to save Indians and also mentioned that proper relationship is not only family relations but also a relation with anyone who is struggling to save India from the British rule, through the words of his novel.The leader of the organization is Sabyasachi Mallick, who is described as being highly educated, having studied medicine, engineering, and law in Europe and America. [3] [4] Sabyasachi is also endowed with physical strength and courage which enable him to elude British intelligence. His physical feats include swimming across a torrential river, and traversing the Eastern Himalayas on foot. [4]
Another major character, Apurba, a member of Pather Dabi, described as a contemptible figure. Emotional and impressionable, Apurba grieves at the colonial rule. He is, however, also weak, timid, and venal. A scene in the book depicts him being humiliated at a railway station by white youth. His obsession with caste purity even during illness and danger is depicted with contempt. Eventually, Apurba becomes a police informer. The main narrative in the book follows Apurba with Sabyasachi appearing unexpectedly, and disappearing as mysteriously. [5]
Sabyasachi does not believe in the caste system, and towards the end of the book pleads for the destruction of "all that is eternal (sanatan), ancient, and decaying--[in] religion, society, tradition" on the ground that these are "enemies of the nation." [6]
Other important characters in the novel are Sumitra and Bharati, who work alongside men in defiance of the traditional social conventions of the day. Sumitra is described as being beautiful and intelligent, besides being a nationalist. In the book, Sumitra makes an impassioned argument for why it is appropriate for a woman to leave a loveless marriage. [5]
According to a review of the book in the Indian Express :
The story touches upon contemporary issues ranging from untouchability, orthodoxy and faith to rich-poor divide and the status of women in the society, criticising the British policies and also India's inherent customs of religion and social structure with the same intensity. [3]
A correspondence between Sarat Chandra and Rabindranath Tagore took place after the ban imposed on the book. [7] Tagore justified the ban on the book, on the ground that it was a seditious book, while Sarat justified his book on the ground that "throughout India, large numbers of people are being imprisoned or externed by the government on flimsy grounds without trial or in flagrant miscarriage of justice." [10] [11] Sarat agreed with Tagore's assessment that the book caused the reader to become disenchanted with the British government, stating that this indeed was his intention in writing it. [12]
Vande Mātaram is a poem written in Sanskritised Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in the 1870s. The first two verses of the poem were adopted as the National Song of India in October 1937 by the Congress.
Syama Prasad Mookerjee was an Indian barrister, educationist, politician, activist, social worker, and a minister in the state and national governments. Noted for his opposition to Quit India movement within the independence movement in India, he later served as India's first Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet after breaking up with the Hindu Mahasabha. After falling out with Nehru, protesting against the Liaquat–Nehru Pact, Mukherjee resigned from Nehru's cabinet. With the help of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor to the Bharatiya Janata Party, in 1951.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was an Indian Bengali novelist, poet, essayist and journalist. He was the author of the 1882 Bengali language novel Anandamath, which is one of the landmarks of modern Bengali and Indian literature. He was the composer of Vande Mataram, written in highly Sanskritised Bengali, personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring activists during the Indian Independence Movement. Chattopadhayay wrote fourteen novels and many serious, serio-comic, satirical, scientific and critical treatises in Bengali. He is known as Sahitya Samrat in Bengali.
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Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, was a Bengali novelist and short story writer of the early 20th century. He generally wrote about the lives of Bengali family and society in cities and villages. However, his keen powers of observation, great sympathy for fellow human beings, a deep understanding of human psychology, an easy and natural writing style, and freedom from political biases and social prejudices enable his writing to transcend barriers and appeal to all Indians. He remains the most popular, translated, and adapted Indian author of all time.
Sugata Bose is an Indian historian and politician who has taught and worked in the United States since the mid-1980s. His fields of study are South Asian and Indian Ocean history. Bose taught at Tufts University until 2001, when he accepted the Gardiner Chair of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University. Bose is also the director of the Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata, India, a research center and archives devoted to the life and work of Bose's great uncle, the Indian nationalist, Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose is the author most recently of His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle against Empire (2011) and A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire (2006).
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The Partition of Bengal in 1947, also known as the Second Partition of Bengal, part of the Partition of India, divided the British Indian Bengal Province along the Radcliffe Line between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The Bengali Hindu-majority West Bengal became a state of India, and the Bengali Muslim-majority East Bengal became a province of Pakistan.
Bengali literature denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language and which covers Old Bengali, Middle Bengali and Modern Bengali with the changes through the passage of time and dynastic patronization or non-patronization. Bengali has developed over the course of roughly 1,400 years. If the emergence of the Bengali literature supposes to date back to roughly 650 AD, the development of Bengali literature claims to be 1600 years old. The earliest extant work in Bengali literature is the Charyapada, a collection of Buddhist mystic songs in Old Bengali dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries. The timeline of Bengali literature is divided into three periods: ancient (650–1200), medieval (1200–1800) and modern. Medieval Bengali literature consists of various poetic genres, including Hindu religious scriptures, Islamic epics, Vaishnava texts, translations of Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit texts, and secular texts by Muslim poets. Novels were introduced in the mid-19th century. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is the best known figure of Bengali literature to the world. Kazi Nazrul Islam, notable for his activism and anti-British literature, was described as the Rebel Poet and is now recognised as the National poet of Bangladesh.
Chatterjee, also known as Chattopadhyay is a Bengali Hindu surname, used by the Kulin group of the Bengali Brahmin caste. Together with Banerjees, Mukherjees, Bhattacharjees, and Gangulys, Chatterjees form the Kulin Brahmins, the highest tier of the Bengali caste system. They belong to Rarhi clan of Bengali Brahmins and the Kashyapa gotra.
The Tagore family has been one of the leading families of Kolkata, India, and is regarded as one of the key influencers during the Bengali Renaissance. The family has produced several people who have contributed substantially in the fields of business, social and religious reformation, literature, art, politics and music. The most prominent figures of this family include Dwarkanath Tagore, a pioneering industrialist; Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel laureate in literature; Abanindranath Tagore, a distinguished artist and more.
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Sanjib Chandra Chattopadhyay was a Bengali writer, poet and journalist. He was the elder brother of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
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