The Political Theology of Nationalism: Exploring the Intersectionality between Nation, Caste and Gender in Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Anandamath

Abstract

Hindu intelligentsia makes a secret use of the inimical relations between Muslims, Scheduled castes, Scheduled tribes and Adivasis, which has grown even worse, recently. This lends ammunition to the ulterior forces of intelligentsia, in order to extract desirable actions from them. The fact that the maximum atrocities have happened to these communities, has made them adopt a politics of vengeance and retaliation. Instead of uncovering their atrocities and bringing them out before the entire world, they prefer to keep grievances to themselves and retaliate in their own ways. The retaliatory politics worsen the inimical ties and this makes the radical Hindu forces even more actively installed. At the same time, Muslims and Christians show least interest in resisting casteist forces, which they believe is a matter of religion and they should not be meddling with, accounts for the resentment of Dalit-Bahujans against them. I speculate, phenomenon of Hindutva has a historical impetus to it and it is a result of painstaking work of many years. This paper makes use of Bankim’s Anandamath to illustrate the emergence of Hindutva forces and the ease with which they fitted in Indian nationalist discourse. Anandamath has no explicit political agenda but it implicitly tries to construct a new moral universe for its readers. It endows the readers with a new moral imperative and totally different sense of purpose. The novel, has messianic overtones, as it tries to give the impression as if it is a preparation for a war, a historical war which could transform the destiny of Indian nation. The emergence of the novel added fuel to the already swelling tide of nationalism.

Keywords

• hindutva
• theology
• nationalism
• gender
• caste