Biography of  Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

(June 27, 188-1894)

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, the composer of the hymn 'Bande Mataram', was born on June 27, 1838 in West Bengal. He was a great writer, rationalist thinker and philosopher. He called for a complete regeneration of the national culture in order to shrug off the foreign yoke imposed over Indians. After completing graduation from the Calcutta University he joined the Bengal government as a Deputy Collector at the age of 20.


In 1864, he came in the limelight with the publication of his first novel, 'Durgesh Nandini', in Bengali. He wrote ll novels based on different subjects like humour, satire, short fiction. He also wrote treatise on religion and philosophy. In 1882, he wrote Anandmath'. Besides this, he also wrote Krishna Charitra', 'Durgesha Nandini', 'Chandhrani', 'Vishavriksha', 'Kapal Kundala', Krishna kanther Will.

He believed that the new national religion could only come through education. He also started the Bengali journal 'Bangadarsan'. The writer of India's National Song died in 1894.