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CONCLUSION

Every thinker is the creature of his times, his social and historical circumstances. Bankim Chandra faced a different world from ours; his response would naturally be different from ours.

Bankim was himself an achiever; his example would continue to inspire Indians to rise to great intellectual heights. He had studied Western social thought minutely, but his grasp of his own culture was equally impressive. Modern Indian thinkers have no alternative to this. They cannot but approch society through Indian eyes.

Bankim undoubtedly desired and worked hard for Hindu resurgence. The Hindus must realize that there is much in this tradition for which they can beproud. Early Bankim wrote valiantly for the rights of the downtroddon. This love did not diminish in later Bankim. But he believed that a refurbished Hindu thought is strong enough to end economic exploitation and ensure social equality. He never gave up his faith in utilitarian ethics. He thought that it was to be found in the Hit iu moral treatises as forming an essential part of Hindu belief-system.

Bankim Chandra held up Krishna as the Hindu ideal and his reconstruction of the character of Krishna is a tour de force. It may be Krishna in modern garb. But he himself says that things are to be explained to the nineteenth century audience in the nineteenth century language.

Is the nineteenth century discourse totally irrelevant today? Certainly not in India. The tremendous impact of the modernising force of the West had to be absorbed by the Indian intellectual. Since social and economic backwardness has lingered on the problems of modernisation have remained more or less the same. The West has gone forward, we have to keep up with them. But inspired by Bankim Chandra we have brushed up our historical memory. New history has to be built upon the remnants of the old. Indian history cannot be a carbon-copy of that of Europe, but neither can it fail to follow the footsteps of the superior and dominant culture which continues to dazzle and mesmerise us by its sheer success. Indians must join in a universal endeavour which is gradually transcending national boundaries.

But national identities would remain in the foreseeable future. Bankim Chandra tried to discover the main characteristics ofHindu identity. The search must go on. But Bankim also tried to discern the abiding features of human culture which must be rendered universal. Bankim Chandra's essential modernism and forward looking outlook and his diligent efforts to reinterpret Hindu identity in the interest of the development of a universal culture incorporating the best in every tradition have made his thought exceedingly relevant and instructive not only for contemporary

India, but also for all those who reflect on the prospects of the global village of the next century.

BIBLIOGRAHY
The autaoritative edition of Bankim Chandra’s Collected Works has been published by Bangiya Sahitya Parishad (1938). A Collected Volumed of english Writing has been published by Sahitya Samshad. (Calcutta)
The only reliable translation of his non – ficitional work is:
Sociological Essays [ Tr. and Ed. by S. N. Mukherjee and Mariam Maddern (Wild Peory Ltd., Glebe, NSW 2037, Australia, 1986)