3. Bankim Chandra's nobility

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was Bengal’s greatest novelist. Our immortal mantra Bande Mataram comes from him. That is one of our national songs, a most significant one. While repeating Bande Mataram, many, many patriots embraced death.

Once there was a literary meeting. People wanted Bankim Chandra to preside over the meeting. Rabindranath Tagore was supposed to attend. At that time he was still very young, and he had only written a few poems; he had not written any stories. Before the function started, the authorities garlanded Bankim Chandra because he was the greatest literary figure. When our Bankim Chandra was garlanded, he immediately took off the garland and came to where Tagore was sitting in the audience. Then Bankim Chandra placed the garland on Tagore and said, “I am the setting sun. You are the rising sun. I must honour the rising sun. I will soon take my farewell.” So happily and proudly, Bankim placed the garland around Tagore.

Look at this! Bankim Chandra’s third eye was open, and he was right. Tagore went on to write so many excellent books. Tagore became the hero supreme in Bengali literature. Even though Bankim was much older than Tagore at that time, he said, “I am the setting sun. You are the rising sun, I can see, so I must honour you.”⁶⁵