Describe the ways in which the novel in India attempted to create a sense of pan-Indian belonging.

The ways in which the novel in India attempted to create a

sense of pan-Indian belonging were:

→ Many historical novels were about Marathas and the Rajputs

which produced a sense of a pan—Indian belonging in Bengal.

They imagined the nation to be full of adventure, heroism,

romance and sacrifice. The novel allowed the colonized to give a

shape to their desires.

→ Bankim’s Anandmath is a novel about a secret Hindu militia

that fight Muslims to establish a Hindu kingdom. It was a novel

that inspired many kinds of freedom fighters.

→ Shivaji, the hero of the novel Anguriya Binimoy (1857) written

by Budhadeb Mukhopadhyaya’s (1827-94) engages in many

battles against clever and treacherous Aurangzeb, what gives

him courage and grit is his belief that he is a nationalist fighting

for the freedom of Hindus.

→ Imagining a heroic past was one way in which the novel

helped in popularising the sense of belonging to a common

nation. It was another way to include various classes in the novel

so that they could be seen as belonging to a shared world.

Premchand’s novels, for instance, are filled with all kinds of

powerful characters drawn from all levels of society.