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SOCIETY AND ECONOMY

The thoughts of Bankim Chandra on social matters are to be found in his book- rather a pamphlet -entitled Samya (Equality) (1879). The other place is a set of Essays collected in his book Vividha Prabandha - DwitiyaBhaga (Miscellaneous Essays-Part-II) (1887) and this set is separately given the title, Bangadesher Krishak (Bengal's Peasants). The pamphlet Equality consists of five chapters and are reprints of essays published in Bangadarshan in 1874. The book contains some of the essays from the set called Bengal's Peasants as Chapters III and IV. While reprinting these Essays as part of Miscellaneous essays Part-II in 1887, Bankim Chandra said that he was doing so because he had withdrawn the book Equality from circulation. (). He never stated in public why he had done so. He has been quoted by an younger friend of his as saying that he considered these views as wrong in his later life. In fact, as we shall see, he ridiculed these early thoughts on social matters in his later writings on morality and religion. We shall consider these developments when we come to those compositions later on in this essay. Whether recanted or not these thoughts marked an important stage in the development of his thoughts and greatly influenced his contemporary thinkers and reformers. It is necessary, therefore, to discuss those extraordinarily powerful reflections, disregarding the author's subsequent poor pinion of them. We shall have reasons to criticize the aging author while approbating his fledgling thoughts.

In the preface to Equality Bankim Chandra says that he has not enquired into the principle of equality in the same way in which the European thinkers have done so. One should not take offence if she does not find an echo of European ethics in his writings. This explicit statement of Bankim, often ignored by modern scholars, provides a valuable clue to the genesis of the mental make-up not only of Bankim Chandra, but also of the whole school of Indian thinkers in the British and post-British periods. They had studied assiduously and assimilated successfully both the Western and the Eastern traditions and mores. After a perfect and passionate description and denunciation of social and economic injustices and inequalities Bankim refers to the greatest teachers of the human race who fought valiantly for establishing equality on the earth and succeeded in changing the course of its history. They are Gautama, the Buddha, Jesus Christ and Rousseau. No European thinker in the ineteenth century would dream of compiling this list.

In the preface Bankim Chandra further says that he lays no claim to scholarship in European thought and this book was not intended to enlighten the educated. He would be grateful if the principle of Equality germinated in the hearts of the lay public.

Bankim Chandra begins his book in a trenchant note by giving a vivid but sarcasting portrayal of the contrast between the lot of a man of ill-gotten wealth and that of his improvident but honest neighbour. Unjustified economic inequality and consequent difference in social rights exist in all parts of the world. What is peculiar to India is the inequality of status due to caste hierarchy. A man poor in natural, moral and financial endowment but ranking high because of birth in a high caste enjoys greater access to rights and has more opportunities than someone more meritorious, learned and virtuous but having the misfortune of being born in a low caste. Bankim is emphatic in his opinion, that, "the specific cause of India's long-standing miserable condition is the excess of social inequalities".     

Bankim recognises that social inequalities exist in all societies in the world. However, societies progress when their members through cooperation succeed in eliminating inequality. Rome prospered and became mistress of the world when by virtue of the superior political skill of the ruling group the differences between patrician and plebeian disappeared in a kind of social harmony.

Bankim Chandra, as we have seen, considers the Buddha to be the first apostle of equality. The caste hierarchy which developed in ancient India largely as a result of the religion of the Vedas launched India on the road to decline. The root of all progress is the progress of knowledge. The castes other than the Brahmins had no right to concern themselves with knowledge. Hence the majority of Indians remained ignorant and India could not produce any Watts, Stevenson and Arkwright. What is worse, the Brahmins. used knowledge as a means of preserving their mastery.

India, oppressed by the inequality, heard with rapt attention when the Buddha announced that the Brahmins and the Shudras are equal and the Vedas are false. Buddhism was accepted in India for about a thousand years and in the opinion of Bankim this one thousand years which saw the rule of Emperors like Ashoka and Siladitya was the period of India's true greatness.

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