Puranic Pasts and Colonial Presence: Bhaktivinoda’s Vaishnava Historiography of India: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

Kedarnath Bhaktivinoda, the Vaiṣṇava savant and the British (though Indian) civil servant, was not only a British loyalist due to his position of employment, but it seems apparent from his writings that he was very pro-British politically, even though some of his close associates like Sishir Kumar Ghose and Bipin Chandra Pal were heavyweight nationalists and openly against British presence in India.1 Despite writing at a period when fomenting anti-British feelings were beginning to become visible and the (Hindu) nationalist movement was at its nebular phase, Bhaktivinoda started the first editorial of a new year’s Sajjana Toṣanī journal by stating, “May our
current sovereign Śrīmatī Queen Victoria keep ruling our India with perfect health and peaceful mind. By the strength of her rule, let us continue to experience and practice pure Vaiṣṇava dharma.”