Introduction

We have seen how translations played a role in the development of the nationalist consciousness in India. In this lecture we shall look at one representative case or multiple translations of a single novel, Anandamath. These translations are also markers of a growing nationalist consciousness which is linked to the movement for Indian independence. Only three English translations of the novel are being considered here, by the Ghosh brothers Aurobindo and Barindrakumar in 1909, by Basanta Koomar Roy in 1941 and by Julius Lipner in 2005. In this lecture we shall place these texts side by side and analyse them.

Anandamath was published in serial form in Bankim's own journal Banga Darshan from 1881 onwards till the year 1882. It was published in book form in 1882, and by 1892 the novel's fifth edition had been printed. These editions differed from each other in minor particulars. Translations into various Indian languages like Marathi and Telugu and into English soon followed. The earliest English translation was Nares Chandra Sen-Gupta's The Abbey of Bliss: A Translation of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's Anandamath published in 1906. Aurobindo started the translation of the novel in 1909 and finished the first 13 chapters including the song Vande Mataram, but left the rest to his brother Barindrakumar Ghosh. It was published in Karmayogin, a journal edited by Aurobindo between 1909 and 1910, retaining the original Bengali title. Basanta Koomar Roy's translation was named Dawn over India and published in 1941 in Washington, later to be republished as Anandamath by Orient Paperbacks in 1992. Julius Lipner's translation has yet another title, Anandamath or The Sacred Brotherhood. This is a scholarly publication, with an exhaustive introduction that is bigger than the original text and locates the text within the contemporary context of postcolonial debates and translation theories.