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2025-11-13T06:53:57Z

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{{Short description|Bengali Conservative Litterateur}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Chandranath basu.jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1844|08|31|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Kaikala, [[Hooghly district]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]] (present-day [[West Bengal]], [[India]])<ref name ="Bose146">Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), (1976), ''Samsad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (Biographical dictionary), {{in lang|bn}}, p 146</ref><ref name="bc"/>
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1910|06|20|1844|08|31|df=yes}}
| father = Sitanath Basu<ref name="Bose146"/>
| relatives = Kashinath Basu (grandfather)
| alma_mater = [[Presidency University, Kolkata|Presidency College]]
}}
'''Chandranath Basu''' (1844–1910)<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195655391.001.0001/acprof-9780195655391|title=Hindu Revivalism in Bengal c.1872-1905: Some Essays in Interpretation|last=Sen|first=Amiya P.|date=2001-02-28|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199080625|language=en-US|chapter=Their Finest Hour: Hindu Revivalism and Aggressive Propaganda Through the Press and Platform (c. 1880–1904)|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195655391.001.0001|chapter-url=https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195655391.001.0001/acprof-9780195655391-chapter-4}}</ref> was an Indian<ref>{{Cite book|title=Embodiment : Essays on Gender and Identity|last=Bagchi|first=Jasodhara|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1997|editor-last=Thapan|editor-first=Meenakshi|location=[[New Delhi]]|pages=85|chapter=Female sexuality and community in Jyotirmoyee Devi's Epar Ganga Opar Ganga|author-link=Jasodhara Bagchi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jyxuAAAAMAAJ|title=Writing social history|last=Sarkar|first=Sumit|date=1997|publisher=New York|isbn=9780195646337|pages=375|language=en|author-link=Sumit Sarkar}}</ref> litterateur.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCJrUfVtZxoC|title=A Dictionary of Indian Literature: Beginnings-1850|last=Mukherjee|first=Sujit|date=1998|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=9788125014539|volume=1|location=[[New Delhi]]|pages=70–71|language=en}}</ref> A staunch Hindu,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYASAAAAMAAJ|title=Literary Criticism in India|last=Nagendra|date=1976|publisher=Sarita Prakashan|pages=18|language=en}}</ref> Chandranath coined the term [[Hindutva]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://openthemagazine.com/features/politics-features/general-election-2019/will-its-hindu-revivalist-past-haunt-west-bengals-future/|title=Will its Hindu revivalist past haunt West Bengal's future?|date=2019-03-28|website=Open The Magazine|access-date=2019-10-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gopal|first=Sangita|date=2003-07-01|title=Hindu Buying/Hindu Being: Hindutva Online and the Commodity Logic of Cultural Nationalism|journal=South Asian Review|volume=24|issue=1|pages=161–179|doi=10.1080/02759527.2003.11978304|s2cid=158146106|issn=0275-9527}}</ref>{{Efn|Amiya Sen notes that Basu's usage of the word was to merely portray a traditional Hindu cultural view in contrast to the political ideology, purveyed by [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198098966.001.0001/acprof-9780198098966-chapter-2|title=Discourses, Public Addresses, and Informal Talks|last=Sen|first=Amiya P.|date=2014-05-22|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199083015|language=en-US|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198098966.001.0001}}</ref> Other scholars have shared similar observations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bhatt |first=Chetan |year=2004 |chapter='Majority ethnic' claims and authoritarian nationalism: the case of Hindutva |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203563397/chapters/10.4324/9780203563397-20 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203563397 |editor-last=Kaufmann |editor-first=Eric P. |title=Rethinking Ethnicity : Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=9780203563397 |doi=10.4324/9780203563397}}</ref>}} and has been regarded as a doyen of economic and [[Indian nationalism]] in Bengal.<ref name=":0" />

==Early life and education==
Chandranath Basu was born on 31 August 1844 in a Kayastha family at Kaikala (village) in Hooghly district, Bengal Presidency, British India.<ref name="bc">{{cite web|url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Basu,_Chandranath|title=Basu, Chandranath|last1=Akhter|first1=Shamima|website=Banglapedia|access-date=13 May 2019}}</ref> He was the second son of Sitanath Basu, and had 3 sisters.<ref name="Majumdar">{{Cite thesis|last=Majumdar|first=Karunamaya|title=Chandranath Basu : Jiboni o Sahityokormo|date=16 January 1977|publisher=Calcutta University|script-title=bn:চন্দ্রনাথ বসু : জীবনী ও সাহিত্যকর্ম|language=bn}}</ref>

Chandranath studied at the Hedore School, a missionary institute for a while, before dropping out due to a fear of being baptized. He then joined the [[Oriental Seminary]] because it had a teacher who took care of English pronunciation among the students.<ref name="bc" /><ref name=":2" />

He pursued his B.A. (1862–1865) from [[Presidency University, Kolkata|Presidency College]] on a financial scholarship provided by the Department of Public Instruction and went on to secure fifth place in the First Arts examination, before eventually topping the list of graduates in 1865.<ref name=":0" /> He received a M.A. in history in 1866 and a degree in law, the following year.<ref name=":0" />

== Career ==
After serving in various officio-legal capacities, including a six-month stint as the [[Resident magistrate|Deputy magistrate]] of [[Dacca]], Chandranath permanently settled in Kolkata after being inducted as a Librarian of the Bengal Library.<ref name=":0" /> In 1877, he was also appointed as the official Translator to the Bengal government; Chandranath served in this capacity till his superannuation in 1904.<ref name=":0" />

He also served as the principal of Joypur College Of Education and held a seat in the Vernacular Textbook Committee (responsible for selecting curricula up-till secondary tier).<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Chaudhuri|first=Rosinka|date=2008-02-01|title=The Politics of Poetry: An Investigation into Hindu/Muslim Representation in Nabinchandra Sen's Palashir Yuddha|journal=Studies in History|volume=24|issue=1|pages=1–25|doi=10.1177/025764300702400101|s2cid=154887715|issn=0257-6430}}</ref> Chandranath was also the temporary vice-chairman of the [[Bangiya Sahitya Parishad]] for a few months.<ref name="bc" />

==Activism and reception==

=== Earlier works ===
His earliest works were in English and concerned with the [[Glorious Revolution]].<ref name=":2" /> One of his essays, published in 1864 was positively reviewed by [[The Oeconomist, Or, Englishman's Magazine|''The Englishman'']], which doubted whether it was written by a ‘native pen’.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Barua|first=Ankur|date=2017-04-04|title=Vedantic variations in the presence of Europe: establishing the Hindu dharma in late nineteenth century Bengal|journal=International Journal of Dharma Studies|volume=5|issue=1|pages=10|doi=10.1186/s40613-017-0050-3|issn=2196-8802|doi-access=free|url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/d689601b-6cdd-40df-b9c9-16c427760b92/download}}</ref>

Chandranath's literary talent was first spotted by [[Bankim Chandra Chatterjee]] in his review of ''[[Krishnakanter will|Krishnakanter Will]]'' and it was at Chatterjee's behest, that Chandranath took to writing in Bengali and got associated with [[Bangadarshan]], a pioneering magazine of the late 1800s.<ref name=":0" />

Chandranath used to frequent Brahmo discussions during his days at Presidency and was even attracted to them for a short while despite his dislike of the [[Scottish Enlightenment]], whose luminaries were borrowed from extensively.<ref name=":2" /> His faith in Hinduism was restored by an orthodox Brahmin pandit [[Sasadhar Tarkachuramani]], whom he met at Bankim's residence.<ref name=":1" />

=== Pasupati Samvad ===
After the publication of [[Pasupati Samvad]], Chandranath began to command a huge popularity among the masses and came to be recognized as a prominent voice of the orthodox sections of the Hindu society.<ref name=":0" /> He went on to reignite theological debates between Christian and [[Brahmo]] intellectuals and advocated for a rigid abidance by religious scriptures.<ref name=":0" />

=== Shakuntala Tattwa ===
One of his first major work was ''Shakuntala Tattwa'', a comparative study on [[Shakuntala (play)|Kalidasa's ''Shakuntala'']] which sought to locate conservative Hindu values in the literature and met with immense success in the conservative circles of Bengal.<ref name=":0" />

Comparing Shakuntala with Juliet, Chandranath highlighted the victory of self-restrain and penance (Dharma) over the unbridled materialistic outpouring of love (Adharma) in mitigating difficult personal situations.<ref name=":2" /> Subsequently, European gender relations including pre-marital romance<ref name=":1" /> etc. are sharply critiqued and lambasted whilst restriction on the public dissemination of feminine charm and sexuality is advocated, lest the males succumb to it.<ref name=":2" />

[[Amiya Prosad Sen]] notes Chandranath to propound three major themes through his work—rejecting a man-centric notion of universe, critiquing the usage of non-societal parameters to measure self, and denying temporality of tradition;<ref name=":2" /> in entirety, Sen deemed it to be a "thoughtless and tendentious application" of hardcore Hindu orthodox thought-school, which managed to locate conservative values where there were none.<ref name=":0" />

=== Hindutva: Hindur Prakrita Itihas ===
In 1892, he produced his magnum-opus ''Hindutva--Hindur Prakrita Itihas'' propounding the [[Advaita Vedanta]] school of thought and coining the term Hindutva which assumed a variety of traditional and often contradictory beliefs and practices under a common fold''.<ref name=":2" />''<ref name=":4" />

Notably, he did not pursue an intensely mythological line''<ref name=":2" />'' but yet choose to portray the Hindus as the only beings who have gained the spiritual consciousness to understand that humanity is in itself, a form of divinity and manifest its ''dharmic'' scopes, having been the sole harbingers of absolute harmony, magnanimity, honesty and unity.<ref name=":4" /> He rejected the [[positivism|positivist thought school]] and saw God through the prism of his creations, whereupon any challenge to traditional societies were equivalent of a challenge to the legitimacy and omniscience of the God, Himself.<ref name=":0" /> Parallel to fellow Hindu conservatives<ref name="Menski2008">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-H8yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT471|title=Hindu Law: Beyond Tradition and Modernity|author=Werner Menski|date=10 September 2008|publisher=OUP India|isbn=978-0-19-908803-4|pages=471–|access-date=20 January 2019}}</ref> and deriving from his own theses,<ref name=":4" /> Chandranath went on to portray the Hindus as fundamentally superior to people of all other faiths, whose traditional social customs and practices in that they have survived centuries of thought-schools and hence were axiomatically superior to western culture and way of life.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Walsh|first=Judith E.|year=1997|title=What Women Learned When Men Gave Them Advice: Rewriting Patriarchy in Late-Nineteenth-Century Bengal|journal=The Journal of Asian Studies|volume=56|issue=3|page=664|doi=10.2307/2659604|issn=0021-9118|jstor=2659604}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sarkar|first=Tanika|year=2009|title=Rabindranath's "Gora" and the Intractable Problem of Indian Patriotism|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=44|issue=30|page=40|issn=0012-9976|jstor=40279311}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> He was also rigidly against religious conversions and insisted that India shall not be a homeland, for foreign religions like Islam and Christianity.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0LBhBAAAQBAJ|title=The Origins of Religious Violence: An Asian Perspective|last=Gier|first=Nicholas F.|date=2014-08-20|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=9780739192238|pages=50 (Proquest)|language=en}}</ref> Chandranath also chose to integrate [[Tantra]] as a core part of Hinduism in that it represented an inherent Hindu manliness and vigor, which would have helped fighting the colonialists.

[[D. N. Jha]] commented of the work to be essentially anti-Islamist and advasic, in nature. [Is "advasic" a word in English?]<ref name=":6" />

=== Manuals and pamphlets ===
Chandranath wrote two short but little known manuals on the ideal Hindu way of domestic life - ''Garhyastha Path'' (1886) and the ''Garhyastha Vidhi'' (1887). They were primarily aimed at women.''<ref name=":2" />''

One of his pamphlets located the superiority of the Hindu woman in her dedication to cooking in the kitchen for long hours, despite being engulfed in the smokes and flames.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jEUdPqYQjhoC|title=Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India|last=Sarkar|first=Sumit|date=April 1996|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=9780812215854|editor-last=Ludden|editor-first=David|pages=283|language=en|chapter=Indian Nationalism and the Politics of Hindutva}}</ref> In 1904, he published a detailed manual for the conduct of men - ''Sangyam Sikhhar Nimnotomo Sopan.''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OacKxYHmVVgC|title=Explorations in Modern Bengal, C. 1800-1900: Essays on Religion, History, and Culture|last=Sen|first=Amiya P.|date=2010|publisher=Primus Books|isbn=9788190891868|pages=134|language=en}}</ref>

=== Masculinity ===
In 1901, he wrote ''Sabitri Tattva'' a comparative study on [[Savitri and Satyavan]]; Chandranath proceeded with a similar outlook as in ''Shakuntala Tattwa'' and portraying Savitri as the ideal Hindu wife, held marriage as an institute that permeated death and any temporality.''<ref name=":2" />''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chowdhury-Sengupta|first=Indira|date=Fall 1992|title=The Return of the Sati: A Note on Heroism and Domesticity in Colonial Bengal|url=https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-449889221/the-return-of-the-sati-a-note-on-heroism-and-domesticity|journal=Resources for Feminist Research 22|volume=3/4|access-date=28 October 2019|archive-date=28 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028174711/https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-449889221/the-return-of-the-sati-a-note-on-heroism-and-domesticity|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sen notes him to be the foremost spokesman of the orthodox view on Hindu marriage; Chandranath essentially viewed the institution as a longstanding social ritual for the sole purpose of maintaining progeny and male hegemony, absent any locus of individual autonomy.<ref name=":0" />

Besides this, he supported child marriages in that it led to the development of an ideal house wife,<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=HerStory--Historical Scholarship between South Asia and Europe : Festschrift in Honour of Gita Dharampal-Frick|last=P. Sen|first=Amiya|date=4 July 2018|publisher=CrossAsia-eBooks|isbn=978-3-946742-43-2|editor-last=Klöber|editor-first=Rafael|location=Berlin|pages=175–187|chapter=A Hindu Conservative Negotiates Modernity : Chandranath Basu (1844–1910) and Reflections on the Self and Culture in Colonial Bengal|doi=10.11588/xabooks.366.517|editor-last2=Ludwig|editor-first2=Manju|chapter-url=https://crossasia-books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/xasia/reader/download/366/366-43-81620-1-10-20180704.pdf|access-date=28 October 2019|archive-date=20 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210320121908/https://crossasia-books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/xasia/reader/download/366/366-43-81620-1-10-20180704.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> advocated for the continuity of patriarchal traits,<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=Rethinking Hindu Identity|last=Narayan Jha|first=Dwijendra|publisher=Routledge|year=2009|isbn=9781315710907|location=London|pages=3|chapter=Introduction|doi=10.4324/9781315710907|chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315710907/chapters/10.4324/9781315710907-8|access-date=28 October 2019|archive-date=28 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028074108/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315710907/chapters/10.4324/9781315710907-8|url-status=dead}}</ref> prized female chastity as a social gift<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/hindunationalism00chet/page/25|title=Hindu nationalism: origins, ideologies and modern myths|last=Bhatt|first=Chetan|date=2001|publisher=Berg|isbn=9781859733431|pages=[https://archive.org/details/hindunationalism00chet/page/25 25–26]|language=en}}</ref> and opposed reforms in female education,<ref name=":3" /> [[Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856|widow remarriage]]<ref name=":1" /> and gender rights.<ref name=":3" /> He dissented<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KWGcAAAAMAAJ|title=The Sentinels of Culture: Class, Education, and the Colonial Intellectual in Bengal (1848-85)|last=Bhattacharya|first=Tithi|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|isbn=9780195669107|pages=14|language=en}}</ref> against the [[Age of Consent Act, 1891|Age of Consent Act]] in 1891, which sought to raise the [[age of consent]] for sexual intercourse from ten to twelve years in all jurisdictions and treat any violation thereof as rape, as violations of sacrosanct Hindu customs.<ref name="Sinha1995">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8RQNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA138|title=Colonial masculinity: the 'manly Englishman' and the' effeminate Bengali' in the late nineteenth century|last=Sinha|first=Mrinalini|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0-7190-4653-7|location=Manchester|page=138|access-date=6 September 2011}}</ref>

[[Tanika Sarkar]] notes that the adherence to Hindu customs was so rigid, that Chandranath and others went to the extent of showcasing the downsides of the status-quo as the strength of the Hindu women to bear such adversities.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sarkar|first=Tanika|date=2016-08-11|title=The Hindu wife and the Hindu nation: Domesticity and nationalism in nineteenth century Bengal|journal=Studies in History|volume=8|issue=2|pages=233|doi=10.1177/025764309200800204|s2cid=162222895}}</ref>

===Miscellaneous===
Chandranath was a vocal supporter of the [[Indigenous Aryans|Indigenous Aryan]] hypothesis, having extensively argued for the superiority of Aryan race and that the Indian Hindus were true Aryans; [[Tapan Raychaudhuri]] commented of the thought-school as 'aggressive chauvinism'.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://brill.com/view/title/15737|title=Notions of Nationhood in Bengal: Perspectives on Samaj, c. 1867-1905|last=Gupta|first=Swarupa|date=2009-06-24|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789047429586|pages=331–332|language=en|chapter=From Region To Nation: The Idea Of India|doi=10.1163/ej.9789004176140.i-414|chapter-url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789047429586/Bej.9789004176140.i-414_009.xml}}</ref>

Chandranath also engaged in aggressive exchanges with contemporary intellectuals; Tanika Sarkar notes a polemical discourse with [[Rabindranath Tagore]] concerning Hindu marriage and Hindu diet.<ref name=":2" /> He also conflicted with [[Nabinchandra Sen]] whilst voting against the inclusion of one of his plays, ''[[Palashir Yuddha]]'' in school-syllabus; in a letter to Sen, Chandranath inquires about why a Hindu ought to feel saddened at the defeat of a ''Muslim'' ruler.<ref name=":1" /> An angered Sen penned a dismissive reply and in personal records, alluded Chandranath of being a dovetail of Bankim Chandra who merely reproduced the latter's private opinions as his own, in a verbose manner.<ref name=":1" /> At last, Sen submitted a revised version which went on to be included whilst Chandranath wrote an apology letter, prodded by a mutual friend [[Gooroodas Banerjee]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.questia.com/read/120905778/the-black-hole-of-empire-history-of-a-global-practice|title=The Black Hole of Empire|last=Chatterjee|first=Partha|date=2012-12-31|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9781400842605|location=Princeton|pages=241|chapter=The Pedagogy of Culture|doi=10.1515/9781400842605|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9781400842605/9781400842605-010/9781400842605-010.xml|access-date=29 October 2019|archive-date=29 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191029053110/https://www.questia.com/read/120905778/the-black-hole-of-empire-history-of-a-global-practice|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":1" />

==Death and legacy==
Basu died on 20 June 1910.<ref name="bc" /> He heavily influenced [[Bhudev Mukhopadhyay]], an important figure of the [[Bengali Renaissance|Bengal Renaissance]].<ref name=":2" />

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1844 births]]
[[Category:1910 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Bengali people]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:Bengali-language novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century Hindu philosophers and theologians]]
[[Category:Writers from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Indian male essayists]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian essayists]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian male writers]]
[[Category:Indian theologians]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian philosophers]]
[[Category:Indian literary critics]]
[[Category:Writers about Hindu nationalism]]
[[Category:Indian religious writers]]
[[Category:Hindu nationalism]]
[[Category:Hindu nationalists]]
[[Category:Hindutva]]
[[Category:Indian columnists]]

Chandranath Basu - Revision history

Mohammedsajib at 06:53, 13 November 2025