(i) In Bengal many historical novels were about Marathas and Rajputs that produced a sense of a Pan-Indian belonging. (ii) They imagined the nation to be full of adventure, heroism, romance and sacrifice. (iii) Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay’s Anguriya Binimoy (1857) was the first historical novel written in Bengali whose hero Shivaji engaged in many battles against a clever and treacherous Aurangzeb. (iv) The imagined nation of the novel was so powerful that it could inspire actual political movements. (v) Bankim’s ‘Anandmath’ is a novel about a secret Hindu armed force that fights Muslims to establish a Hindu Kingdom. (vi) It was a novel that inspired freedom fighters. (vii) The novel helped in popularising the sense of belonging to a common nation.