Author(s): Shivanand Bande, Shrujala R

Abstract: Language is the utmost important tool humans use to express their thoughts, emotions, and ideas. In literature, language is not just a means of communication but also a mode to outline culture, society, and personal identity. Media plays a crucial role in influencing how language is used and understood. This paper explores how media both as a material form and a cultural force shaped the evolution of modern Bengali language through a comparative reading of Rabindranath Tagore's The Exercise Book and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's Anandamath. By foregrounding the close, fragmented writings of a young girl in Tagore's work and the print-driven nationalist discourse in Bankim's novel, the research highlights how different media environments produce distinct linguistic practices. Tagore's use of personal notebooks reflects an emergent, self-fashioning modern subjectivity, while Bankim's visit with episodic print culture drives the formation of a united discussed Bengali prose. The analysis further argues that the transition from handwritten to print media transformed not only modes of storytelling but also reshaped notions of circulation, identity, and linguistic adjustment. Whereas The Exercise Book captures the fluidity and multiplicity of everyday language, Anandamath evidences how print capitalism facilitated the consolidation of one national language for ideological ends. Jointly, these texts unfold the complex interplay between media technologies and the making of modern Bengali linguistic consciousness.

Keywords: Media and Language, Bengali Modernity, Print Culture, Linguistic Identity.

Article Info: Received: 04 Jan 2025; Received in revised form: 09 Feb 2026; Accepted: 13 Feb 2026; Available online: 18 Feb 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.111.52