Devi Chaudhurani

Devi Chaudhurani (Bengali: দেবী চৌধুরানী) is a Bengali novel written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and published in 1884. It was later translated to English by Subodh Chunder Mitter. Following closely after Anandamath, Bankim Chandra renewed call for a resurgent India that fights against oppression of the British Empire with strength from within the common people, based on traditional Indian values of austerity, dedication and selflessness. It is another important novel in the history of Bengali and Indian literature. Since it fuelled the patriotic struggle for Indian independence from the British Empire, the novel was banned by the British. The ban was lifted later by the government of India after independence. In this novel, Bankim Chandra reinforced his belief that armed face-to-face conflict with the Royal Army is the only way to win independence.

Very importantly, Bankim Chandra saw the struggle being led by a woman, the protagonist, in a time when most women remained behind the purdah and did not even show their faces to men outside their immediate families. This was a tremendous inspiration to scores of women who gradually came out of their homes and actively joined the independence struggle in the decades to come. Some feminists, however, see the ending as disappointing because the protagonist prefers to build her home instead of continuing with the independence movement.