Q. Which among the following events happened earliest?

  • Swami Dayanand established Arya Samaj.
  • Dinabandhu Mitra wrote Neel Darpan.
  • Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote Anandmath.
  • Satyendranath Tagore became the first Indian to succeed in the Indian Civil Services Examination.

Answer: (b) Dinabandhu Mitra wrote Neel Darpan.

Notes:
  • Neel Darpan:
    • Neel Darpan was a Bengali play written by Dinabandhu Mitra in 1858-1859 and published in Dhaka in 1860.
    • The play was based on Nil-bidroho or Indigo revolt of February–March 1859 in Bengal. The Indigo Revolt was a peasant uprising in Bengal where farmers protested against being forced to cultivate indigo, a crop demanded by the British textile industry, under exploitative conditions.
  • Arya Samaj:
    • It was founded in 1875 at Bombay by Swami Dayanand Saraswati.
    • Swami Dayanand Saraswati gave the slogan ‘Go back to the Vedas‘ and ‘the Vedas are the source of all knowledge’
    • It believes in one God having no physical existence.
    • Arya Samaj emphasized education for girls but was against co-education.
    • Introduced the Shuddhi movement or mass purification and later in 1882 the Arya Samaj formed a ‘Cow Protection Association’.
  • Anandmath:
    • ‘Anandmath’ is a Bengali novel written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and was published in the year 1882.
      • The national song of India ‘Vande Mataram’ was published in this book.
    • It is inspired by and set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in the late 18th century.
    • It is considered one of the most important novels in the history of Bengali and Indian literature.
    • Its first English publication was titled The Abbey of Bliss (literally Ananda=Bliss and Math=Abbey).
    • The book is set in the years during the famine in Bengal in 1770.
  • Satyendranath Tagore:
    • Satyendranath Tagore became the first Indian to succeed in the Indian Civil Services Examination in 1864.
      • Satyendranath Tagore was allotted Bombay Presidency Cadre.
    • He was a member of Bramho Samaj.
    • His patriotic Bengali language song “Mile Sabe Bharat Santan, Ektan Gago Gaan” (unite, India’s children, sing in unison), which was hailed as the first national anthem of India.