In Bengal the growth of literature made the greatest contribution to the development of national and patriotic feeling during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The name of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee stands foremost in this connection.His famous novel Anandamath contains the hymn Bande Mataram which had been the naional anthem of India upto 1947. During the long and arduous struggle for freedom from 1905 to 1947 Bandemataram was the rallying cry of the patriotic sons of India, and thousands of them succumbed to the lathi blow of the British police or mounted the scaffold with Bandematram on their lips The main theme of the novel inspred the Bengali youths to supreme sacrifice during the hectic days of the swadeshi movement.Saratchandra's "Pather Dabi", written half a century later declared band, also attracted the youths.
Some Bengali poems of Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, "Ode to Liberty", and of Iswar Chandra Gupta also inspired the youth.
