ADDRESS OF THE SECTIONAL PRESIDENT: 19TH CENTURY SOCIAL REFORM MOVEMENT

IN INDIA : A CRITICAL APPRAISAL

Author(s): KANAI LAL CHATTOPADHYAY
Source: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress , 1996, Vol. 57 (1996), pp. 415-439
Published by: Indian History Congress

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III/l

ADDRESS OF THE SECTIONAL PRESIDENT

19TH CENTURY SOCIAL REFORM MOVEMENT IN

INDIA : A CRITICAL APPRAISAL

KANAI LAL CHATTOPADHYAY (LM 00106)

Mr. President, Hon'ble members, fellow delegates of the Indian

History Congress, ladies and gentlemen.

I Executive am extremelyCommittee
Executive Committee grateful of
ofto the
the the Indian
Indian distinguished
HistoryHistory Congress
Congress members for
for of the
thethe
honour they have bestowed upon me in electing me the President
of the Modern India section for its 57th session which is meeting
to day at the historic city of Madras. My association with this
august body of historians spans more than thirty years. I will now
come straight to my address without wasting any more time. The
theme that I have chosen to discuss here is the Social Reform
Movements in India in the 19th Century, which witnessed a spate
of major social-cum-religious reform movements in Indian
society-the Brahmo Reform Movement, the Prarthana Samaj, the
Arya Samajist movement, the Ramkrishna-Vivekananda move-
ment and the Draft reform movement led by Jyotiba Phule.
The new awakening in Bengal in the nineteenth century,
produced partly by the impact of western education, brought in
its wake the desire to bring a new enlightenment in the field of
religion. The general people of Bengal at the end of the eighteenth
century followed their traditional forms and practices of religious
worship. The worship of different gods and godesses was very
popular in Bengal. The followers of Chaitanya formed an impor-
tant religious sect. The followers of the Tantras were also quite
large in number.1 Idol worship was a common feature of most of
the Hindu sects and elaborate rituals and ceremonies were
prescribed for the worship of each deity. To the comm
religion consisted mainly in the scrupulous observance
rituals and ceremonies and also of the rules and regula
the caste system. This great emphasis on rituals and ce
naturally resulted in the establishment of an undue inf
the priesthood on society; and the priests, to perpetuate their
influence, encouraged various superstitious rites in the name of

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416 PROCEEDINGS IHC : 57TH SESSION. 1906

religion. Belief in the efficacy of magic, witchcr

an important element of popular religion.2
The unity of Godhead and that of the symbolical nature of
idol-worship were not unknown to the educated Hindus of Ben-
gal. This is clearly revealed in the writings of Ramprasad Sen,
Bharat Chandra Roy, the two great Bengali poets of the
eighteenth century and of Ramnarayan Bose, one of the earliest
writers of Bengali prose literature. Rammohun Roy also admitted
in the preface to his Translation of 'The Isopanisaď that many
learned Brahmins of this country, "are perfectly aware of the
absurdity of idolatry' and are well informed of the nature of the
pure mode of divine worship."3 But whatever might be the
religious belief of these educated Hindus of Bengal there is no
evidencce to prove that these outward religious observances dif-
fered radically from those of the common people. The standard of
orthodoxy in practice was the same for the educated classes and
the masses alike.

The Western impact produced three distinct patterns of

tion in Bengali Hindu Society. Thus, there were those who
be described as conservatives, who were determined to uphold
the social and religious status quo and maintain their position in
a period of challenge. Like the upholders of the Catholic Church
in the age of the Counter-Reformation, these Hindu conservatives
sought to consolidate their position by accepting certain reforms
particularly in the field of education. This attempt to protect the
old order was considered unsatisfactory by others who wanted to
build a structure on the old foundations. These were the
reformers who sought to meet the western challenge not by
rejecting Hinduism but by giving it a new look. They, in fact,
attempted to reinterpret Hinduism in the light of contemporary
knowledge and criticism. But this attempt to compromise be-
tween old and new, between tradition and hersey, was not only
denounced by the conservatives: it was found untenable by yet
another section of Hindus, mostly educated at the Hindu College.
These young men were radicals and rejected Hinduism in the
light of the rationalist criticism of the age. The empiricism of
Hume and the Utilitarianism of Bentham coupled with the
romanticism of Shelley and Byron had profoundly affected their
outlook. The conservatives, the reformers and the radicals thus
represented three distinct trends in Bengali Hindu thought
during the early decades of the nineteenth century, each of which
left its mark upon the social outlook of the Hindu community. A

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 MODERN INDIA 417

comparative study of these

an understanding of the st
this period.4
The conservatives formed the most numerous section of the

people, who saw nothing wrong with their religion or social

toms and regarded with dread and contempt anything that c
from outside. They would scrupulously avoid contacts with t
mlecchas. Centuries of Muslim rule had brought little chang
this attitude and the Hindus continued to preserve to a great
extent their separate and exclusive existence so as to constitute
a sort of state within state as far as their religious and social
positions were concerned. This, however, did not mean that
changes did not take place within the fold of Hinduism. In fact,
Hindu society did respond to the various kind of challenges which
came largely from outside and it modified itself in certain ways.
But the basic and orthodox character of Hinduism had remained
unaltered.

The establishn«nt of British rule was regarded by the Hindu

in general as the beginning of yet another period of foreig
domination. They seem to have taken it in spirit of stoic resign
tion and many of them had, in fact, readily co-operated with th
new masters and were able to recoup the consequent reward
It would be wrong to think however, that the Hindus had wel
comed everything associated with English rule. Their attitude w
rather to obtain as many benefits as possible under an alien
government without compromising their religious and social posi-
tion. The policy of the East India Companys Government also
admirably suited their interests. The zeal with which even the
conservative sections of the Hindu community sought English
education reflected their practical sense. But while they began to
cultivate the English language, they were afraid of Western ideas.
They would have nothing to do with anything that would in a way
subvert the religious and social status quo. This was indeed a
difficult situation. The contradiction between the acceptance of
western education on the one hand and social conservatism on
the other, was reflected in the attitude of the Hindu conservatives
typified by Radhakanta Deb.
Foremost amongst the Hindu leaders, Radhakanta Deb
belonged to a family which had come into prominence after the
establishment of English power in Bengal. He was a typical ex-
ample of that new aristocracy which owed its existence to the new
regime. An accomplished scholar in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic,

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418 Proceedings ihc : 57th session. 1996

0
he had also acquired a fairly good knowledge of English. His
reputation as a Sanskrit scholar was to gain international recog-
nition by the publication of his Sanskrit dictionary, the Sabda
Kalpadrum. Radhakanta Deb always showed marked interest in
promoting education, particularly English education among the
Hindus.7 Radhakanta was an active director of the Hindu College
for over thirty years. His influence in the management of this
institution throughout this period was predominant. He was also
an active member of the Calcutta School Book Society from its
inception. With the establishment of the Calcutta School Society.
Radhakanta became its Honorary Secretary. With David Hare
who was later appointed European Secretary of the School
Society, Radhakanta took a keen interest in promoting the cause
of elementary education in Bengal.8
At a time when female education suffered from utter neglect
because of social apathy and prejudice, Radhakanta advocated
the education of girls and had actually published, in collabora-
tion with an orthodox Hindu Pandit, Gourmohon Vidyalanker, a
pamphlet in Bengali, called Stri Siksha Vidhayaka advocating
female education. His conservatism however, would not allow him
to approve of girls being sent to school, but he insisted on their
education at home.

Despite the valuable contribution to the cause of education,

Radhakanta Deb was almost a blind champion of social conser-
vatism. He became the leader of a party of orthodox Hindus who
fanatically defended the social and religious status quo and were
bitterly opposed to those who advocated reforms. Although a loyal
supporter of the British Government, Radhakanta was opposed
to any interference by the Government in the social and religious
life of the people. Thus, although Sati was not practised in his
own family , he came forward not to oppose it when the Govern-
ment contemplated its prohibition. He argued that this would
stultify internal reform.
When Bentinck's Government had finally abolished Sati by a
regulation in 1829, Radhakanta along with his conservative
Hindu friends, protested against the measure by presenting a
petition to the Governor- General on behalf of the orthodox section
of the Hindu community. Soon after, an association of orthodox
Hindus called the Dharma Sabha was established.

The primary object of the Dharma Sabha was to arrang

the sending of a petition to the Privy Council in England
repeal of the anti-Sati regulation. The Dharma Sabha also took

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 MODERN INDIA 419

upon itself the task of def

system from onslaughts fr
ma Sabha soon became the
party in Calcutta. Its chief public organ was the Bengali
newspaper, the Samachar Chandrika . whose editor
Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyay was himself the secretary of th
Dharma Sabha. Other Bengali newspapers like the Sambad Pra
hakar and the Sambad Ratnakar also subscribed to its orthodox

views. At a meeting of the Dharma Sabha held in Februaiy

it was resolved to institute a social boycott against those Hin
who were in favour of the abolition of Sati.9 The Samachar
pan reported a strange situation that arose in 1 834 at the w
ding of the niece of Mathuranath Mallick, a wealthy and
influential zaminder who happened to be a friend of Rammohun
Roy, The Dharma Sabha had asked its supporters not to attend
this wedding. The guardians of the bride and the bridegroom, on
the other hand, sought to make the orthodox party's ban ineffec-
tive by giving monetary rewards to those who attended the wed-
ding. Consequently, the Dharma Sabha also had to spend money
on those who did not attend.10
It was indeed unfortunate that a man of Radhakanta Deb's
influence, attainments and talents should have placed himself
the head of a movement for social reaction and religious
fanaticism at a time when the forces of reform and change were
beginning to produce an impact upon Bengali opinion. His learn-
ing, which was undoubtedly profound, especially in the field of
oriental literature, was like that of a medieval schoolman and
made him an almost uncritical admirer of the past.
The reform movement in Hindu society which began in early
nineteenth century is uniquely associated with the great name of
Rammohun Roy. Unlike that of many of his leading contem-
poraries, Ram Mohun's family could claim an ancient Brahmani-
ral lineage with a long tradition of respectability, though not
uniform material prosperity. 1 1 It has been maintained that at the
early age of twelve, Rammohun Roy was sent by his father to
Patna to study Arabic and also to improve his knowledge of
Persian, which he had already acquired at home under private
tuition.12 It was at Patna that Rammohun is said to have studied
Aristotle and Euclid in the Arabic language in addition to Islamic
theology and jurisprudence under his Muslim teachers to have
imbibed those ideas which were to exercise a considerable in-
1 ^
fluence in moulding his life and thought . After complet

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420 PROCEEDINGS IHC : 57TH SESSION. 1996

studies at Patna, Rammohun, it is believed, went to Benaras to

study Sanskrit. Thus a comparative study of Muslim and Hindu
scriptures together with a knowledge of Aristotelian logic learn
through Arabic medium enabled him at an early age to develop
somewhat revolutionary approach towards the established
religions.14 On his return home Rammohun is said to have
developed a conflict with his parents on account of his unor-
thodox views and had to leave the paternal house and proceeded
to Tibet, where he came in touch with Buddhist monks which
enabled him to acquire some knowledge of Buddhism. His ent
public life comprised the last seventeen years of his life.
He entered public life in his early forties, that is somewhat
late. Earlier years were years of active and intense preparati
during which he equipped himself with new ideas and also w
the necessary material means to cope with the tasks ahead. He
learnt English, Greek, Hebrew and Latin as well as Sanskrit,
Arabic and Persian. An early acquaintance with the Hindu
shastras opened Rammohun s eyes and led him to undertake the
hard task of attempting a reformation of the beliefs and ways of
life of the then Hindus. His comparative study of various scrip-
tures led him to find the fundamental unity of all religious in
their essential tenets and principles. This gave him the inspira-
tion to launch a reforming campaign against those enormous and
puerile notions and beliefs that came to be engrafted on the pure
theism in the course of ages. The fruits of Rammohun s early
researches in theological truth came to be embodied in his
pamphlet Tuhfat ul-Muwahhidin published in 1803-0410, which
was a protest "against the idolatorv of all religious". There was a
sharp reaction against it, which could not stop him on his for-
ward march. His knowledge of Persian and zeal for the religious
reform was further manifested in his establishing a religious
society at Rangpur, where the tenets of the higher Hindu
shastras were discussed and propagated. This brought him into
collision with the accumulated ignorance of the orthodox section
of the community there and roused their angry fanaticism. But
the really fruitful and eventful years of his reforming activity
started when he settled down in Calcutta in 1816, where he
started a society, called the Atmiya Sabha. Before finally set
in Calcutta, Rammohun amassed vast wealth and earned a social
status worthy of blue-blooded aristocracy. Rammohun built up
his fortune initially through money-lending and dealings in Com-
pany papers, from the proceeds of which he started purchasing

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 MODERN INDIA 42 1

1 fi
land from 1799. He later developed close connections with
Agency houses and in a letter to the Court of Directors (23 July
1833) asking for a loan after tne collapse of Mackintosh and Co.
stated that the latter had been 'my agents as well in general
pecuniary transactions as in receiving my rents and managing
my landed property'.17 Rammohun's dual world of religion and
business had distinctly been established.
In his Atmiya Sabha not only religious principle, but the ab-
surdities, puerilities of the various Hindu social and other cus-
toms, connected with polytheism or idolatiy, were discussed and
condemned.18 Next he published the higher shastras of the Hin-
dus. This propagation of the Hindu shastras in different Indian
languages as well as in English, had immediate results. The eyes
of different sections of the society were soon drawn to him but
with varied reactions. While the orthodox section of his friends
saw in it nothing but the potentiality of a great evil occuring to
them, liberal westerners hailed it with jubilation as the precursor
of great things to happen such as evangelization, amelioration of
the material and moral conditions of the people, and the advent
of a better state of things and affairs in the country.19
Rammohun's advocacy of social, educational, political and
economic changes in the early British rule made a deep impres-
sion on different section of the people. The early nineteenth cen-
tury social reformers in Bengal show the position of Hindu
women as the greatest abuse in society. Crusade against Sati
attracted the notice of Rammohun who because an embodiment
of the anti-Sati movement to both the anti-Sati and pro-Sati
groups as well as well to the British rulers. The Sati and role of
Rammohum have been discussed by many scholars. So here we
need not discuss those points.
If Western Unitarians increasingly worked tc alleviate the suf-
fering of the industrial proletariat living in a ciety undergoing
no industrial revolution, Rammohan chose Bengali Hindu women
in general as his proletariat and with extremely important im-
plications for his successors, saw in their depressed condition the
root cause of social immobility in India. One has only to read
Rammohun's works on social reforms to realise that most of it
deals with one aspect or another of man's inhumanity to women
and only by treating them as human being could Indian society
free itself from social stagnation.20
Rammohun advocated monotheism as against polytheism be-
cause he perhaps, wanted to overcome sectarian differences

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422 PROCEEDINGS IHC : 57TH SESSION. 1996

among the Hindus. He wanted to promote broad unity of the

people. But his religious reforms did not at all touch the Muslim
society. Not a single Muslim ever became a member either of the
Atiniya Sabha or the Brahmo Samaj. Though he had profound
knowledge in Arabic and Persian, though he wrote many of his
tracts and papers and though he advocated the causes of the
Mugliai Emperor before the British Parliament, yet all these failed
to endear him to the Muslims of his time or to create new stirring
in their minds. In short, his religious reform movement remained
confined exclusively to the Hindus.
Rammohun did not hesitate to co-operate with Christian mis-
sionaries in their eiforts or promote education among Indians to
propagate Christianity. The vocal section of the Bengali Hindu
society at the time of Rammohun was sharply divided into three
distinct groups led by Rammohun consisted of zaminders with
commercial interests. They had imbibed a liberal outlook and
strongly supported the cause of western education which he
believed, would promote social progress. Opposed to the Ram-
mohun faction were the numerous sections of conservative Hin-
dus who were determined to uphold the social and religious
status quo. The East Indian Company's policy of non-interference
with regard to Indian religion and society also admirably suited
their interest. Hence even the conservative sections of the Hindu
community showed much enthusiasm in seeking English educa-
tion.

Soon after Rammohun Roy had left for England in 1830 the
Brahmo Reform movement in Bengal, being without a leader was
in disarray. By then the first phase of reform movement was
almost over. After his death in England, the two prominent
figures struggling to keep up the infant church during the critical
interlude, were Dwarkanath Tagore and Ramchandra
Vidyabagish. Rammohun did not arrange for the future leader-
ship of his new religious group when he left India. Most of them
belonged to the society. After the death of Rammohun almost all
of them left the Samaj and drifted back to their old mooring. Only
his friend Dwarkanath tried to keep the flag of the Samaj flying
by bearing all its expenses. In 1843 Devendranath Tagore formal-
ly joined the Brahmo Samaj.
After the first phase of the movement was over, a strong
central organisation, however, could perhaps partially salvage the
situation. The object of such an organisation would be to weld
together all the scattered forced of social progress in the country,

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 MODERN INDIA 423

inspire them with certain common ideals and set them on the
right track with the deliberate purpose of achieving a common
goal, based on the revival of religious thoughts of Rammohun.
The Tattvabodhini Sabha was established in Calcutta in 1839
under the leadership of Devendranath to remove this wan
Tattvabodhini Sabha or society for the communication of t
was", says Miss Collet, "a society whose avowed object was to
sustain the labours of Rammohun. by introducing graduallv
among the natives of this country the monotheistic system of 2^
divine worship inculcated in the original Hindu scriptures. This
Sabha formed one of the most significant chapters in the history
of the Brahmo movement in India. Now we find the rapid growth
of the power and influence of the Brahmo movement after the
Tattvabodhini Sabha had taken charge of the Samaj, the religion
of the Brahmo Samaj was the true religion as expounded in the
Vedanta. Pressed by the younger rationalist section, headed by
Akshoy Kumar Dutta, the infallibility of the Upanishadas was
discarded and the religion was henceforth known as Brahma
Dharma or Brahmoism. 3
Devendranath thought this Sabha had improved the Brahmo
Sainaj among the uneducated masses by the establishment of
schools. By this it acquired great popularity and renown.24 This
Sabha attracted the sympathy of both the conservative and
liberal Hindu. This Sabha was successful in absorbing a large
section of the educated middle class.

It seems that Devendranath obtained some measure of suc-

cess: (1) to check the spread of Christian proselytism and (2)
bring back the English educated youth blindly imitating
western ways and manners to a traditional culture. Apart fr
the theoretical controversies Devendranath had also to enter into
a bitter controversy with the missionaries over the practical iss
of the conversion of minor Indians to Christianity.
Devendranath perhaps thought that to counteract the mis-
sionary activities, it would be proper to make a compromise with
the conservative Hindus. We find that the inveterate enemy of
Rammohun, Radhakanta Deb became the friend of Devendranath
and accepted the membership of the Tattvabodhini Sabha and he
along with his relations joined many of the organisations with
Devendranath.25 Probably this compromise formula was essen-
tial for the advancement of Brahmo Samaj by counteracting the
excessive zeal of the Christian missionaries.

The Western educated Derozians were also the members of the

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424 PROCEEDINGS IHC : 57TH SESSION. 1996

Sabha. They had no faith in idolatrous practices

so they wanted a reformed Hindu society. The
place for such intellectual, Devendranath firmly
the Christian church but the Brahmo Samaj. By conducting a
running battle with the missionaries, Devendranath, perhaps,
tried to divert the flow of conversion from the Christian Church
to the revitalised Brahmo Samaj26. Many Derozians like Kishor
Chand Mitra, Bhudev Mukheijee, Ramgopal Ghosh etc became
members of the Tattvabodhini Sabha.

As a spiritual disciple of Rammohun, Devendranath clung to

his social philosophy and belief in social reform. He had suc-
ceeded in assembling on the platform of the Tattvabodhini Sabha
almost all the leading progressive elements of Bengal. The total
membership of the Sabha was over eight hundred. Pandit Ram-
chandra Vidyabagish, the first Achaiya of the Brahmo Samaj,
had already supported widow remarriage even before Vidyasagar
had started his movement.27 Brahmo leaders like Devendranath,
Akshoykumar Dutta, Rajnarayan Bose were in favour of it. It is
not surprising therefore, that the great reformer Vidyasagar
found in the Sabha, a place where all these sections were united.
The Sabha further condemned social habits like polygamy, drew
the attention of the thoughtful section of the community to the
evil of drunkenness and debauchery and supported women's
education through the pages of the Tattvabodhini Patrika .
There was a gradual shift in the social composition of the
Brahmo leaders. In the earlier phase, all the leaders belonged to
the higher caste, wealthier section and the elitist group. They
were mostly landlords. In the next phase, there was a remarkable
change in their social composition. People drawn from the middle
classes came to the forefront and they brought with them new
social ideas, and ideological clash between the old leadeis and
the young radicals was inevitable.
Keshab Chandra Sen joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1858. Some
close associates of Keshab soon joined this movement. Under the
leadership of Keshab Chandra they together played a prominent
role in this period. The reinforcement of the ranks of the Brahmos
by many intellectuals created a ferment which spread in many
directions.28 India was then passing through stirring times. The
wave of rationalism that spread over Europe had its repercus-
sions also in India. Religion was on its trial at the bar of reason.
It had to meet formidable challenges and adjust itself to the needs
of the time. A redefinition of the religion was overdue, Keshab

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 MODERN INDIA 425

took up the challenge of ext

of blind faith on the other. H
unscientific nor irrational in
By the time Keshab Chandra entered the arena missionary
activities had already slackened off considerably, perhaps due to
(1) change in official attitude specially after the uprising of 1857
(2) cumulative effects of the campaigns led by Devendranath (3)
Young Bengal too had begun to think that it was not necessary
to be a Christian in order to be modern.

Keshab Chandra defended the position of the Brahmo Samaj

with the enthusiasm and ability that won the admiration even of
his opponents. Lectures and counter-lectures followed in quick
succession and the Brahmo Samaj made rapid headway among
the young generation.30
In 1864 Keshab planned an extensive tour in the cities of
Bombay and Madras. This was the first all India missionary tour
by any Brahmo. Keshab Chandra's lectures made a deep impres-
sion on the minds of his listeners. This success suggested to his
mind the possibility of forming an all-India Brahmo Samaj cover-
ing all the provincial centres of enlightenment, thought and
reformed activity.31 Soon he begun to take necessary steps for
forming such a countrywide organisation.
When Keshab Chandra was in England, a society was formed
in England with Miss Mary Carpenter as the Secretary, for the
reform of the Indian people. This was known as the National
Indian Association. Keshab was present at the inaugural function
of the National Indian Association and was elected its first
32
honorary member and Indian correspondent.
It worked in close cooperation with Keshab s Indian Reform
Association which was also established in the same year. After
returning to India, Keshab wrote on November 2, 1870, to the
National Indian Association : "You will be glad to learn that I am
already busily engaged in organising a National Reform Society
for the furtherance of certain reforms most needful at the present
day in India. It is proposed to divide it into five sections, each
having a separate object and a separate executive committee. The
sections are as follows: (1 ) education for the working classes and
industrial education (2) female improvement (3) charity (4) cheap
literature for the poor (5) temperance.
The Annual report of the Reform Association gives an idea of
the progress made in different fields of reforms. First of all, the

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426 PROCEEDINGS IHC : 57TH SESSION. 1996

work in the female improvement section may b

object of this section was to promote the intel
social improvement of Indian women. Normal s
lished. It was also decided to publish books and periodicals
adapted to the female mind.
Keshab attached considerable importance to female education.
He felt that if both the males and females were educated, they
would jointly try to exert their influence for purifying all the social
customs and the institutions of the country.
A deep-seated social prejudice against women's education con-
tinued almost during the entire period. Women's education was
also considered unbecoming to the modesty of their sex and fit
only for public dancer. Even young married women were bur-
dened with their domestic duties so heavily that they did not get
any chance to devote time to study.33 Another obnoxious practice
detrimental to the interests of females was the system of child-
marriage. It was considered to be a disgrace for a family to have
an aged daughter unmarried and hence the marriage of a
daughter was the major obligation which a father had to meet
and often incur a heavy debt on this account.34 The main urge
at that time was to impart education only to male students
because there was a growing demand for male office assistants in
government organisation and private firms. As there was no
scope for employment of educated females in public institution,
the economic incentive for spreading education among women
was still not there.

The officials of the East India Company waited for the day
when public consciousness of the cause would be fully aroused.
They accepted the prevailing social attitude35 and thus the
education of the Indian girls was left entirely and exclusively t
the fostering care of individuals and private societies. In short th
people of Bengal were generally apathetic to the cause of femal
education and the Government too was disinterested.

Radhakanta Deb was not entirely opposed to female educa-

tion. Though he disfavoured the idea of sending girl of respectable
Hindu family to public schools, he wanted to have them taught
at home before their marriage by tutoresses trained in missionary
schools.36
Keshab Chandra was a boy when John Drinkwater Bethune
founded near Hedua. the Hindu Balika Vidyalaya in 1849.3/ In
1856 the school was converted into a Government institution.38
Vidyasagar, the first Secretary of Bethunes school was soon

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 MODERN INDIA 427

striding in the field of fe

lished 50 girls schools in
Nadia districts39. Even af
Inspector of Schools aroun
energies to save those inst
Inspite of heroic efforts b
the days of the Serampore
field of female education w
social conservatism, public
Keshab Chandra firmly b
in society was possible wit
the fetters of ignorance, s
wholeheartedly supported Vidyasagar's agitation for widow
remarriage and took an active part in 1859 in staging the Bid-
haba Bibaha Natak to create public opinion in its favour.
Early marriage and polygamy were also roundly condemned by
him. He advocated, in his lecture entitled, Temale Education in
India, (1870), that a sound education should be given to women
if their miseries were to be alleviated. It was education alone that
could help them to play a prominent role in life and society and
this was necessary in the interests of social and national
regeneration. He suggested that the vernacular should be used
as the medium of instruction and through this medium ideas
about religion, morality, sciencê and literature might be com-
municated to women.

Keshab Chandra came in contact with Sri Ramkrishna

Paramahansa in 1875 and news about Ramakrishna was
40
regularly published in the Indian Mirror. New Dispensation etc .
Keshab was at that time the most popular leader of the educated
Bengali youth and his growing admiration for Ramkrishna helped
the latter considerably to emerge into limelight. Keshab s growing
intimacy with Ramkrishna was significant for more than one
reason. It marked Keshab' s own gradual reconversion from Brah-
moism, to Vaishnavism, the return of the prodigal son to his
fathers fold. It also strengthened the rising tide of neo-Hinduism
which was destined, before long, to swallow up Keshab' s own
Nababidhan movements; Brahmoism as a religious movement too
suffered heavy reverses. Conversion to Brahmoism was reduced
to a trickle with increasing defection in the ranks of the Brahmos
themselves. Keshab Chandra s growing veneration for the saint of
Dakshineswar marked a new phase in the religious movement of

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428 PROCEEDINGS IHC : 57TH SESSION. 1996

the ninteenth century, the phase of Hindu revivalism and of

decline of religious movement. The real challenge to Brahmoism
at that time, however, came not so much from neo-Hinduism as
from the increasing political activities of the 1870 s. S. N. Ban
jee was fast outpacing Keshab in the race for capturing the min
of educated youth. As nationalism was becoming a substitute f
religion, not only Keshab's personal appeal but also Brahmoism
as a religious movement suffered a precipitate decline. At a tim
when nationalism was coming to the forefront, Keshab continu
to proclaim his loyalty to the British Raj.41 By 1876 according
Sivanath Shastri, there were no new candidates for initiation to
Brahmoism. This was not fortuitous.

The Hindu revivalist movement, strangely enough, drew its

early inspiration from some Brahmo leaders of the old school. I
the early seventies of the nineteenth century Rajnarayan Bose,
member of the Adi- Brahmo Samaj wrote and spoke on the
supremacy of monotheistic Hinduism to other religious faiths. Of
course this monotheistic Hinduism was only another name for
Brahmoism as preached by the leaders of the Adi Brahmo Samaj,
but Rajnarayan preferred to call it Hinduism of a very highly
developed form42. His bold assertion created a great sensation
among the educated classes and even some orthodox leaders like
43
Kalikrishna Deb hailed him as a great champion of Hinduism
Later on in 1887, Rajnarayan wrote a pamphlet entitled Vriddha
Hindur Asha to popularise the ideas of starting a national as-
sociation of the Hindus.44 Rajnarayans associate and follower
Nabagopal Mitra organised the Hindu Mela in Calcutta from 1867
to 1880 with the object of stimulating Hindu religious
nationalism.40
Some well-known Bengali educationists and literateures of
this period also tried to stimulate through their writings the
Hindu revivalist sentiment. Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, a class-mate
of Rajnarayan but an orthodox Brahmin tried to idealise through
his essays and other writings Hindu family life and Hindu social
ideas.46 He encouraged inter-provincial marriage to revitalise the
Hindu society, and advocated the adoption of Hindi as the lan-
guage of national unity.47 Nabin Chandra Sen, a well-known
Bengalee poet of the time, also tried to revive in the minds of his
countrymen a respect for Hinduism in the traditional sense of
that term. He interpreted the story of Mahabharata and that of
the great war at Kurukshetra as signifying a successful attempt
at fusing the contending nations in India into one great

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 MODERN INDIA 429

nationality on the basis of

social organisation.
Bankim Chandra Chatte rjee, one of the giants of Bengali
literature in the nineteenth century, was the prophet of
nationalism in literature, but Hindu revivalism seemed to speak
out through him. In 1882, Bankim Chandra under the pseudo-
nym of Ramchandra, entered into a religious controversy with
Rev. M. Hastie, Principal of the General Assemblies Institution,
who had written a series of articles in the Statesman, attacking
some Hindu rituals. In his 'Letter on Hinduism', written about
this time to the positivist philosopher Jogendra Chandra Ghosh
Bankim made an attempt to explain the fundamentals of the
Hindu religious faith. His novel views on Hinduism were also
elaborated in a series of articles that appeared in the Prachař and
Nabajiban two Bengali periodicals which appeared in 1884. The
influence of the two contemporary utilitarian philosophers,
James Mill and Bentham is clearly visible in these writings. The
articles that Bankim wrote in the Nabajiban were later published
in a some what changed form in his book entitled Dharmatattva.
In 1 886 came out his famous work Krishnacharitra. in which he
tried to vindicate the historical character of Krishna on the
evidence of our ancient books. He presented Krishna as the
veritable perfection of human character, and defended his cult as
a praiseworthy and natural form of hero worship. Bankim's ideas
about religion also found expression through some of his novels
like Anandamath. Devi Chaudhurani and Sitaram . Bankims writ-
ings on religion and philosophy were characterised throughout
a remarkable boldness and freshness of outlook and he did much
to restore the shaken faith of the middle class Hindu intel-
48
ligentsia of Bengal in the religion of their ancestors.
At a more obscurantist level revivalism was represented by
Sasadhar Tarkachuramoni and Krishnamohan Sen, who claimed
shastric preceedents for all the discoveries of modern Western
science. But revivalism was most effective when it sought to
appeal to emotions rather than to the intellect through the neo-
vaishnavism of the Amrita Bazar Patrika . seeking inspiration in
Chaitanya rather than the Krishna of the epics whom Bankim
had sought to idealize and above all through Ramkrishna Param-
hansa, the saintly Dakshineswar priest who cast a spell over
Calcutta's sophisticated intellectuals precisely through his eclec-
ticism and rustic simplicity. In the 1890s, his disciple
Vivekananda leapt to fame after a memorable appearance at the

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Chicago Congress of Religions. Vivekananda w

being an obscurantist or revivalist in any cru
Ramkrishna made an unqualified defence of
duism, of eveiy simple element in it including polytheism,
idolatry and the cult of Guru. Moreover, by trying to inculcate a
belief in the truth of all religions, he undermined, the Brahmo
and the Christian militancy and reassured the shaken spirit of
the traditionalists. He asserted that the supreme being might be
conceived in various forms. This catholic and broad view was in
striking contrast to the sectarian views which were dividing t
people into so many hostile camps and making religion a symb
for hatred and discord instead of love and brotherhood.00 T
message of Ramakrishna was carried all over India and even to
the West by his famous disciple Vivekananda.
Vivekananda was no dissident Brahmo but a Hindu sanyasin
and this naturally stimulated the Hindu revivalist sentiment.51
Vivekananda's trenchant criticism of Hindu religious supersti-
tions and social inequalities was not taken seriously by his
coreligionists, but his glorification of the rich spiritual heritage of
the Hindus and their historic role of the spriritual preceptor of
mankind greatly stregthened the latter s religious* pride and feel-
ing of self-complacence. His clarion call to his countrymen to look
upon the motherland as a divine entity and to sacrifice all for her
sake also inspired the Indian revolutionaries during the first two
decades of the present century. The Ramkrishna Mission or-
ganised by Vivekananda in 1898 took up the task of reviving
Vedantism as the living and popular religion of the modern
western-educated Hindus and adopted social service as an essen-
tial discipline for religious and spiritual life. One unfortunate
result of the Hindu revivalist movement was the strengthening of
communal and caste prejudices, of mysticism and religious
obscurantism among the Hindus of Bengal.52
'Revivalism' thus obviously contributed to the assertion of an
aggressive Hindu identity. But one has to add that difference here
with the 'reform' movement was of degree rather than kind. Not
only had 'modernistic' trends like the Brahmo or Prarthana
Samaj or the more secular movement of Young Bengal or
Vidyasagar been entirely Hindu in composition, with few excep-
tions, they too had operated with a conception of 'Muslim
tyranny or 'medieval' dark age from which British rule with its
accompanying alleged 'Renaissance* had been a deliverance. As

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 MODERN INDIA 431

similar movements were developing at about the same time

within Indian Islam too, the two communities tended to drift
apart both at the level of the elite and of the peasant masses.
A pattern of clear-cut reformist-revivalist conflict with the first
tending to be loyalist and the second anti- British, seems at firs
to be evident in late nineteenth century Indian Islam. The two
trends were represented by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan s Aligarh move-
ment and the Deobandh movement. Syed Ahmed tried to convert
upper class Muslims to the virtues, and benefits of English
education through a Scientific Society, and the Aligarh Anglo-
Muhammedan Oriental College. His interpretation of Islam em-
phasized the validity of free enquiry and the alleged similarities
between Quranic revealation and the law of nature discovered by
modern science. Syed Ahmed always stressed the need to impart
Western education to upper class Muslims as Muslims. Above all
it was through British support that, "a man whose religious views
were so unorthodox that the majority of his co-religionists
branded him an infidel was raised up as the advocate of his
community.03
The social basis for Syed Ahmed was provided by U.P. Muslim
landlords. According to many British officials and Muslim
leaders, separatism developed initially not for reasons of back-
wardness but because the traditional elite felt increasingly
threatened by Hindu trader, money-lender and professional
groups buying up land, capturing municipalities and obtaining
job at its expense.
The initial British support for Aligarh was due not so much to
the need for a counterpoise against nationalism but fanaticism
and anti- foreign mentality preached by some religious leaders,
which often seemed to have ready response among pre-industrial
lower middle class of petty landholders, country town Mullahs,
teachers, book-sellers small shopkeepers, minor officials and
skilled artisans... men literature in the Vernacular... quick to be
seized by religious passion/'54 Broadly similar groups among
Hindus were being attracted to revivalism and extremist
nationalism by the late nineteenth centuiy.
Muslim religious consciousness was greatly stimulated in Ben-
gal by the Wahabi and the Faraizi movement which spread rapid-
ly in the province during the 30 s of the nineteenth century and
was not completely extinguished even after the Mutiny. Politically
these movements were anti-British and also anti-Sikh in the

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432 PROCEEDINGS IHC : 57TH SESSION. 1996

Punjab. In their social aspect they represented a revolt of the

oppressed Muslim peasantry of Bengal against the Hindu
zaminders and European Indigo-Planters. But in their religious
aspects, they constituted a puritanical reform movement which
aimed at liberating Islam from all idolatrous rites, prejudices and
superstitions. This inevitably gave them an anti-Hindu colour.
The Wahabis and the Faraizis revitalised Islam to some extent
but very unfortunately they left a legacy of communalism
hind.55
The reform movements in Bengal were declining after the
1870 s, with the Brahmos torn by internal quarrels and influen-
ces and Vidyasagar simking into tragic isolation. The pattern was
by no means so unambiguous in western India, where M. G.
Ranade remained a commanding influence in the intellectual
world till his death. Along with his friend K. T. Telang, Ranade
followed a cautious policy of pursuing social reform along the
lines of least resistance. A reform group had also emerged in the
south, where Virasalingam of the Telegu -speaking country
founded the Rajahmundri Social Reform Association in 1878 with
promotion of widow-remarriage as its principal objective and K.
N. Natarajan started the influential Indian Social Reformer in
1899. A Hindu Social Reform Association was also started in
Madras in 1892. For the first time, too, something like al
social reform movement had been launched with Ranade from
1887 organising an annual National social conference which
in the Congress Pandal till Tilak drove it out to Poona in
Behramji Malabarťs Notes on infant marriage and enforced
widowhood in 1884 started a countrywide debate among intellec-
tuals. His sustained campaign did pressurise the government to
pass the first major social reform legislation since the legalisation
of widow-remarriage in 1 856 and the Age of Consent Act of 1 89 1 .
In Maharastra, revivalism had its centre at Poona and took on
a more narrowly Brahminical character than in Bengal. Tilak s
alliance with the Poona revivalists in the 1 890 s forged as a result
of common opposition to the Age of Consent Bill, the starting of
the Ganapati Utsav and the refusal to permit Ranade to hold his
National Social Conference at the Congress Pandal in 1895. He
had sponsored with Ranade a circular letter advocating women's
education and raising the age of marriage. In South India where
indigenous movements of reforms or revival were relatively weak,
the Theosophical society founded in 1882 at Madras acquired

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 MODERN INDIA 433

considerable influence amo

ticularly after the arrival of
repeatedly attacked social reformers and extolled the virtues of
traditional Hinduism.00
The one reform movement however, that was making spec-
tacular advances in the 1880s and 90s was the Arya Samaj,
founded by the wandering sannyasi from Kathiwar, Dayananda
Saraswati but acquiring its principal base in northern India.
The western impact produced opposite reactions in two sec-
tions of the small new elite in Maharastra as it did in other parts
of India. The reformist section imbued with Western rationalism

and humanism held that the exacting deformed and dilapidate

Hindu social organisation with its supporting traditional ideas
must first be thoroughly reformed and reorganised, if the country
was to make progress and take its rightful place in the moder
world57. Social reform movement which they started, aimed
removing social and moral evils that were corroding the Hind
society and polluting the Hindu religions. Opposed to it was th
idea that everything old was sacrosanct and any mention of
change sacrilegious. The social reform movement therefore had to
contend against the strong Hindu orthodoxy and the inbuilt in-
ertia of the ages.
Unlike Bengal, reformers of Maharastra adopted a moderate
58
path of reform . Practically all of them had a deep faith in
Hinduism. They demanded the restoration of pure Hinduism
which was overshadowed by the reactionary customs which
developed during the medieval times. Inspiration of reform in
them was no doubt, derived from the Western ideals which came
in the wake of the British rule but, at the same time, it must be
noted that this was not blind imitation of the west. They did not
altogether reject the values set up by the Hindu society. Bal
Shastri Jambhekar, the first social reformer of Maharastra, em-
phasised belief in Hindu traditions and the shas tras. °9
With the exception of Jyotirao Phule, most of the reformers of
Maharastra were cautious in their approach to social reform.
They did not wish to create turmoil in the society by unduly
disturbing the orthodox elements. The Paramahansa Sabha was
founded sometime in 1840 s and which was the first positive
expression of an emerging new social consciousness in
Maharastra. The aims of the Sabha were abolition of caste sys-
tem, renunciation of idolatry, introduction of widow- remarriage,

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434 PROCEEDINGS IHC : 57TH SESSION. 1996

promotion of female education and spread of

the depressed classes.60 In the initiation cerem
were required to take a pledge that they woul
caste distinction. The Sabha could not last long
from orthodox circle.

Thus the first rationalistic attempt of reform was unsuccessful

due to lack of courage. After the fall of the Paramhansa Sabha
the reformers of Bombay were seriously thinking of establishing
an open organisation for bringing about socio-religious reform.
An additional incentive was provided by Keshab Chandra Sen s
missionary visit to Bombay in 1864.61 A preliminary meeting of
the promoters of this new organisation which later came to be
known as Prarthana Samaj was held on December 30, 1866 at
the residence of Atmaram Pandu rang. This Association did not
turn aside from the general moderate tone of reform. M. G.
Ranade said that the Prarthana Samaj was nothing but protes-
tant Hindusim, the present character of Hinduism had to be
modified at the dictates of conscience and reason.

Among those who had shown a concern for the down trodde
masses and who secured a platform to vent their grievances, w
Jyotirao Phule. He stands out in a striking difference from tho
reformers who concentrated their attention mainly on the socia
issues forced by the middle class. Phule was a rebel against god
and so called tradition of the past. He virulently attacked the
Brahmins who were responsible for the sorrowful condition of
cn

lower castes. To Phule, the whole corpus of Hindu tradition

represented the Aryan heritage which was Brahminical and anti-
masses. He rebelled against the heritage and sought to wipe it
out root and branch. He attacked the Prarthana Samaj as class
organisation of the higher castes, specially founded to perpetuate
Brahmin supremacy. He therefore established the Satyasodhak
Samaj in 1873. But it should be noted that the forces of conser-
vatism were so strong in Maharastra that Phule s ideal of equality
did not assert itself for long even in the Satyashodhak Samaj.
Justice Ranande sympathised with all the movements for so-
cial reform not only in Maharastra but all over the country and
conceived the idea of uniting them in one national forum. The
Indian National social conference, founded in 1887, was the fruit
of his labour. Its offshoot in Maharastra was the Bombay
Presidency Social Reform Association founded in 1897 under the
Presidency of N. G. Chandravarkar. The reform movement in

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 MODERN INDIA 435

Maharastra during the last q

to receive its brilliant intellectual leadership as well as its
staunchest opponent from men connected with the two institu-
tions that sprang up in Poona, the Sarvajanik Sabha, founded in
1871 by G. V. Joshi and the Deccán Education society estab-
lished in 1884, under the 'spiritual leadership' of Ranade.64
By the turn of the nineteenth century, however, the social
reformers began to lose ground to the orthodox opposition. After
1870 the revivalist movement became very strong. In 1874 Vis-
nusastri Chiphonkar started this Nibandhmala. in which he
vehemently attacked the reformers for exposing the cause of so-
cial reform when the country was being ruled by the foreign rule.
He held that inwardly there weis nothing wrong with our society
and that neither religion nor social customs like child- marriage
or caste, had anything to do with India's decline as alleged by the
social reformers. Foreign rule alone was responsible for all the
ills60. When therefore, Tilak who belonged to the 'tradition of
militant Hindu revivalism' rather than of liberal humanism and
theism joined the ranks of the opponents, things became too
difficult for the reformers.

Finally, the question that comes to our mind and which, I

suppose comes to the mind of eveiy historian in this assembly,
did the various reform movements in the 1 9th century India have
any profound contemporary relevance? Radical historians of the
contemporary period have generally tended to be sharply criticad
of the elitist character of the bulk of the reformers of the 19th
century. They have validly pointed out that most of the
programme of the reformers touched only the upper classes and
did not have any impact on the downtrodden masses. The ab-
sence of radical socio-economic programme in the platform of the
reformers was responsible for such limitations. Nonetheless, the
fact that West Bengal remained and has remained substantially
free from communal and casteist virulence while these evils
plagued almost large parts of India need some explaining.
propaganda by Rammohun and the Brahmo reformers in fav
of monotheism and in defence of the fundamental unity of t
essential teaching of all religion created the basis of relig
tolerance and communal harmony among educated Bengalis.
These filtered down among the masses who could very well ap-
preciate this from their traditional folk- beliefs in one God and
brotherhood of man. These combined to create a support base for

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436 PROCEEDINGS IHC : ÒTVH SESSION. 1996

communal harmony in Bengal and created a ba

damentalist preachings.
The fact that after the demolition of the 'Babri Masjiď in
December 1992, West Bengal, notably, its countryside remained
practically free from communal divisive manifestations was sure-
ly due to not one single but a multiple of factors. It is my humble
submission that the spate of social and religious reform move-
ments in the 19th century were one of the factors that has helped
the Bengali-mind to remain substantially unaffected by com-
munal and fundamentalist sustained propaganda. On the other-
hand, in Maharastra in particular, and Bombay in general, at the
turn of the 19th century the entire reform movement was sharply
divided into two opposing camps. The one led by Balgangadhar
Tilak, created the maximum impact on the national movement
and electrified the country with slogan of Swaraj. But Tilak s
emphasis on defence of almost everthing in Hindu tradition
created on the one side a movement for nationalism but also
opened the doors for Hindu revivalism to rear its ugly hoo
was like a double edged sword and was responsible for a ch
in the armour of our national movement. It ultimately allowed
divisive ideas to engulf Indian society and politics, leading to the
tragic partition of our country. Its evil consequences persists even
in 1996.

On the other hand, forces that have so far prevented India

from degenerating into a theocracy, like so many of our unfor-
tunate neighbours and keep the secular democratic fabric of our
country alive despite divisive attacks, owe their strength also to
the various streams of progressive social and religious reform
movements of the country. The development is uneven in our
country with Bengal flying high the flag of religious tolerance,
communal harmony and secularism while some other areas like
Maharastra falling a prey for the time being to the onslaught of
divisive forces like aggressive religious fundamentalism. The tri-
umph of Hindu revivalist reform movements in Maharastra in the
19th century and the victory of Bengali egalitarian socio- religious
reform movement with strong emphasis on communal harmony
in Bengal, perhaps in part explain the two different realities in
our time. That is what I would like to suggest as being the
contemporary relevance of our various reform movements of the
last country.
It is for delegates of the Indian History Congress - young and

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 MODERN INDIA 437

old - to agree or disagree w

to get constructive criticis
patience long enough.
NOTES

1. K. K. Dutta : Survey of India's life of Economic Condition in the

Eighteenth Century . Calcutta. 1961. 3.
2. K. K. Dutta. [Link] .. 8-9.
3. K. Nag and D. Burman: The English Works of Raja Rammohun Roy.
Part 11, Calcutta 1946. 44.

4. Salauddin Ahmed : Social Ideas and Social Changes. Calcutta edi-

tion. 30.

5. Parliamentary Papers. House of Commons, 1812-13, IX. 26th 5.

216.

6. R. Heber: Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Province of Ind

from Calcutta to Bombay. 1824-25. London, 1828, 238.
7. Friend of India. Sept. 1820.
8. Calcutta Review , 1867.

9. Samachar Darpan. 13 Feb. 1830.

10. Calcutta Christian Observer. May 1834.
1 1. N. C. Ganguly : Raja Rammohun Roy. Calcutta. 1934. 1-3.
12. N. Chattopadhyay: Mahatma Raja Rammohun Rayer Jiboncharita.
Calcutta. 1881. 14-16.

13. Ibid.

14. N. Chattopadhay. [Link].. 15.

15. Rammohun Roy Centenary Volume. 1933. Calcutta. 133.
16. S. D. Collet : Life and letters of Rammohun Roy , edited by D. Biswas
& Ganguly, Calcutta. 1962. 14.
17. R. R. Roy : Collected works, [Link].. 129.
18. J. K. Majumder: Rammohun Roy and Progressive Movements in
India. Calcutta. 1941, 1.

19. Ibid. xx.

20. Rammohun Roy and the Bengal Renaissance: V. C. Joshi ed. : Ram
Mohun Roy and the Progressive Movements in India. New Delhi. 3
21. K. L. Chattopadhyay: Brahmo Reform Movement. Calcutta. 1983,
15.

22. S. N. Sastri: History of Brahmo SamaJ. 68.

23. J. Das : the Brahmo Samaj in the Studies in the Bengal Renaissan-
ces. Calcutta. 1952. 187.

24. Sastri, [Link]. 19.

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438 PROCEEDINGS IHC : 57TH SESSION. 1996

25. Devendranath Tagore : Atmacharitra. Calcutta (4

26. K. L. Chottopadhyay. op. cit. 37.
27. D. Biswas : "The Maharshi and the Tattvabodhini Sabha". in the
Studies in the Bengal Renaissance. Calcutta. 1952. 42.
28. S. Sastri : Ramtanu Lahiri O Tatkaìin Banga Samaj. Calcutta. 1957.
222.

29. A. C. Bannerjee : "Keshab Chandra Sen" in Studies in the Bengal

Renaissance. Calcutta. 1952. 80.

30. S. Sastri, [Link].. 242.

31 . P. C. Majumdar : Life and Works oj Bramananda Keshab Chandra
Sen. Calcutta. 1887. 73.

32. Journal of the National Indian Association. England. Jan. 18

33. C. N. Bose : "Bengal Social Science Association". Jan. 20. 1869
Calcutta Review, vol. XXV. 1855. 91-92.

34. Home Department. Education. August 14. 1837 (Female Edu

in India. No. 8-1 OA. 1.)

35. Selections from Educational Records, pt II. ed. bv J. A. Richav. 352.

36. K. C. Mitra : Radha Kanta Deb. Calcutta. 1897. 4.

37. C. E. Buckland : Dictionary of Indian Biography. 1906. 36.

38. A. P. Howell : Notes on the Study of Education in India. 1866-67.
49.

39. Government Records. D. P. I. Bengal. 1855. Calcutta. XI.

40. B. N. Bandyopadhyay and S. K. Dey : Ramkrishna Paramhartsa .
Calcutta. 1952.

41. M. Borthwick : Keshab Chandra Sen. Calcutta. 1977. 159.

42. J. C. Bagal: Rajnarayan Bose. Calcutta. 1955. 69-71.

43. S. N. Sastri, [Link].. 286.
44. J. C. Bagal [Link].. 90-96.
45. B. N. Bandyopadhyay. Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay, 29-30.
46. A. Mukherjee : "Religious Reform Movement in Bengal in the
Nineteenth Century" in S. P. Sen (ed): Social and Religious Reform
Movement in the Nineteenth and Twentieth century , Calcutta. 1979.
10.

47. B. N. Bandyopadhyay. [Link].. 39-40.

48. B. N. Bandyopadhyay and S. K. Das: Bankim Chandra Chattopad-
hayay. Calcutta. 1963. 65-68.
49. Sumit Sarkar: Modern India. New Delhi. 1983. 72.

50. Roman Rolland: The Life of Ramkrishna. 1931. 105.

51 . Amit Sen: Notes on the Bengal Renaissance. Calcutta. 1957. 66-65.
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