Postcolonial translation

Julius Lipner's translation has an extensive introduction that deals with the life and times of Bankim, the making of the novel, its place in history, and the making of the translation. His choice of title is Anandamath or The Sacred Brotherhood ; Lipner explains that Anandamath is actually a monastery where monks acquire the name of Ananda and “anandamath” actually means nothing more than a fraternity of Anandas. The nationalistic rhetoric has changed yet again as Lipner states: “We must now inquire into a matter of central importance for our appreciation of Bankim's ideological project: the status of the Muslim in his re-visioning of history … Further, as we shall see, with reference to the slogan Vande Mataram and the song from which it emerges—…the role of the Muslim in Anandamath as well as Muslim perception of the novel are of crucial import for ongoing relations, troubled as they are, between Hindus and Muslims in the India of today. Nothing can be gained by sweeping the matter under the rug, and allowing innuendo, ignorance, misrepresentation and recrimination to hold sway” (61). Lipner argues that Bankim is making a distinction between the Muslim as jaban or foreigner and the Muslim as desi or native. Bankim had a high regard for Islam as a religious faith and had on numerous occasions written about the plight of the ordinary Hindu as well as Muslim peasant of Bengal. Lipner contends that Bankim was even-handed in his judgement of Muslims but was unfortunately not perceived to be so. This argument comes in the wake of the revival of the Vande Mataram debate at the national level when the song was seen as blatantly anti-Muslim. It did not help matters that it was championed by Hindu rightwing groups.