Politics and Social Consciousness in Bankim Literature in the context of Lokrahasya: A Post-Colonial Reading of a ‘Colonial’ Text

Abstract

The very title of the article suggests a journey back in not only time but politico-socio-cultural situation as well. The ‘Text’ taken for consideration is a piece of colonial literature in terms of the period of its creation; the ideas within it, however, can be seen from a ‘postcolonial’ perspective, in a period which is again ‘post-colonial’. The author Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay continuously juxtaposes the ‘colonialist’ and the ‘colonized’ in a series of metaphors, comparing one with the other. In the context, at one level creates a critique of colonialism; at a deeper level he shows how the processes of colonialism have been appropriated by the ‘colonized’ through both acceptance of, and, resistance to colonialism. Subversion of the ‘superior’ by the ‘inferior’ is a recurrent theme. Finally, his project was cultural regeneration of a colonized society—his own—by imbibing the best elements of both the Orient and the Occident.