This study argues that the Bengali novelist Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay produced some of the most searching critical reflections on modernity in colonial India. It rejects assumptions that Bankim was a conservative, claiming that his art must be seenMoreThis study argues that the Bengali novelist Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay produced some of the most searching critical reflections on modernity in colonial India. It rejects assumptions that Bankim was a conservative, claiming that his art must be seen in a different, historical context.