Rassegna storica del Risorgimento

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Gita Srivastava
corner of India through the biographies of Italian patriota like Mazzini and Garibaldi in Indian vernacular languages. Historical biographies of Italian Nationalist leaders, particularly those of Mazzini and Garibaldi, were written in nearly ali the major languages of India Bengali, Gujrati, Garhwali, Hindi, Marathi, Malyalam, Oriya, Tamil, Telgu and Urdù. Not only the works and ideas were translated in different languages but the biographies of Italian nationalist leaders were written with inspiring and firing prefaces.
Modem Indian literatures are mostly the products of Western impact. Contact with the European spirit through English education brought in a real Indian renaissance and gave a new course to the literatures in modem Indian languages.5) English literature itself and literatures of ancient, medieval and modem Europe to which English knowing Indians had access through translations in English revolutionised the attitude to life and literature and it led to the inauguration of the current or modem phase in Indian literature. This contact with the European mind first began in Bengal and by the middle of the nineteenth century the emancipation or modernisation of the mind of Bengal and of Bengali literature had already begun.6) There is an astonishing floraison of literature in Bengali at first, and gradually in other languages in the development following generally a similar course as English education through schools and colleges began to shape the mind of the intelligentia. Next to English literature, the infhience of Bengali literature had been one of the most potent forces in modem Indian literature.75
Biographies of Italian Nationalists in Bengali Literature
In Bengali literature, nationalism and history, are intertwined. Historical themes and historical characters served as vehicles of propagating patriotic feelings and sentiments among the people of Bengal in the later half of the nineteenth century.8) Thus, the purpose of historical biographies of Italian nationalist leaders was to educate the mass of school-going children and partly to arouse national consciousness in the country. The lives and deeds of Mazzini and Garibaldi and the general history of Italian Risorgimento became a model for the Indian nationalists.
The first biography of the great Italian patriot, Mazzini, was written
R.C. MAJUMDÀR, The Britìsb Varamountacy and Indian Renaissance, Bombay, 1965, part. II, voi. X, p. 162.
6) Ibid.
7) Ibid.
S.P. SEN, Historical Biography in Indian Literature, Calcutta, 1979, pp. 86-87.