23 Vidyasagar: A Bridge Between the East and the West Kaberi Ghosh

word of French origin, ‘renaissance’, ety- characteristics. While secular humanism in mologically means ‘rebirth’and it also in- the nineteenth-century Bengal was stimulated A dicates the great socio-cultural revival by Western contact, its most effective propo- of Europe that commenced in the fourteenth nents were indigenous modernisers rather than century. This humanist movement encom- Westernisers. passed new ideas for wholesome development The Indian Renaissance was different in the in all aspects of life including the social, polit- context of the Indian race, milieu, and move- ical, and educational changes that altered the ment. As a result, nationalistic, reformistic, human progress. In India, the modern age began and revivalist thinking found its way into lit- with the advent of Raja Rammohan Roy in the erature, which slowly turned itself into a move- eighteenth century. The impact of Western civi- ment spearheaded in different parts of India by lisation, the rise of political consciousness, and renaissance leaders like Raja Rammohan Roy, the change in society were highlighted. The ex- the pioneer; Sri ; Swami Viveka- cessive control by any religious institution was nanda; Mahadev Govind Ranade; Gopal Krishna questioned and criticised. The evolution of ver- Gokhale; the ; and Pandit Ishwar naculars into great literary languages gained an Chandra Vidyasagar. The leaders of the Renais- unprecedented impetus. The scientific reasoning sance induced in people a desire for social reform, and revolution promoted by great thinkers and revival of India’s ancient glory, heritage, and In- researchers expanded communication facilities. dian consciousness. Thus the Renaissance in Europe affected and -in Rammohan, regarded as the foremost pioneer fluenced other countries including India. of renaissance in India, tried to free religion from Contact with the Western world resulted in superstitions, bigotry, and other social evils to massive changes in the cultural, educational, so- advance the social progress but within the frame- cial, political, and religious situation in India. work of religion as he had accepted Vedanta as This is generally regarded as the Indian Renais- the supreme authority. Vidyasagar’s rational sci- sance in the nineteenth century—a ‘Renais- entific outlook marked further advancement of sance’ in a country under foreign domination. Indian Renaissance. ‘It was more a nascence, a A synthesis between Indianisation and West- new birth or rejuvenescence, than renaissance, ernisation brought about the Renaissance in the rebirth.’1 If Rammohan was the foremost pioneer nineteenth-century India unlike the Renaissance in social reforms, Vidyasagar was the supreme pi- in Europe where scientific revolution, individual oneer in the reforms of education. freedom, and humanism were the dominant Vidyasagar, a stalwart of the Indian cultural

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educational institution exclusively for women was taken. Bethune, Law Member of the Governor- General’s Council and President of the Council of Education, realised and emphasised the need for educated mothers and common belief in civi- lising mission of women. In the early nineteenth century, people were worried about the fact that by sending their daughters to school, they would not be available for domestic duties. Many people were also not comfortable sending their daughters out to public places. Amidst all such unfavourable circumstances, Bethune did not hesitate to invite Vidyasagar, an open-minded ardent supporter of female education to help him in this matter. Their efforts resulted in the foundation of Calcutta Fe- male School in May 1849 with Bethune as Presi- dent and Vidyasagar as Secretary. It was the first school of its kind in the whole of India. Vidyasagar was working as the principal of the Sanskrit College. During his stay there, he was first appointed Assistant Inspector of Schools and later Special Inspector of Schools Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar for the southern districts of Bengal. He real- renaissance played a very important role as an ised that unless the women of the land were educationist, litterateur, social reformer, and a educated, it was impossible to emancipate and good fighter who launched his campaigns for liberate them from the terrible burden of in- women’s education, campaigns for widow mar- equalities and injustice imposed on them by the riage, campaigns against polygamy and Kulinism, oppressive Hindu society, blinded by false beliefs campaigns against child marriage to emancipate and derelict customs. He worked relentlessly and the Hindu woman from her basic disabilities and set up primary schools in the districts of Bengal traditionally imposed slavery. Women should be including Hooghly, Burdwan, Midnapore, and given education so that they could become con- Nadia. During the short period from November scious of their rights and fight for them as all 1857 to May 1858, he set up as many as thirty-five people—women and men are equal in the eye such schools with an average total attendance of of law. All had equal right to prosper in life. His 1,300 girls. His above-mentioned positions gave friend and contemporary, Akshay Kumar Dutta, a him a big advantage here to do this job. thoroughgoing materialist, had done likewise, but In order to promote education for girls, Vid- if Akshay Dutta argued from the vantage point of yasagar made door to door calls, requesting the positivist ethic, Vidyasagar approached the parents to send their daughters to schools, en- problem as an indigenous moderniser. couraged landlords and other wealthy people The first concrete step towards founding an to establish educational institutions. Within his

356 PB March 2020 Vidyasagar: A Bridge Between the East and the West 25 inspection zone, he founded many schools, sev- widow-marriage. A passage from Parashara Sam- eral of which were for girls. His philanthropy hita prescribes remarriage of women under cer- was proverbial. He even advanced money from tain conditions that include widowhood. He his own pocket to finance them. ‘He advanced erected the main structure of his thesis from a Rs. 3,439/- from his personal funds to expedite traditional text: ‘Nashte mrite pravrajite klibe cha their opening.’2 Between August 1855 and January patite patau, panchasvapatsu narinam patiranyo 1856, he set up twenty model vernacular schools. vidhiyate; the authoritative treatises prescribe re- The , founded in 1857, marriage of a woman if her husband is missing, but open to women as late as 1878, gave them deceased, is determined to be impotent, has be- a big advantage. For example, Chandramukhi come a renunciant, or has been outcast.’3 and Kadambini Bose, two Bengali girls, were the Vidyasagar interpreted thus: ‘On receiving first women who passed the BA examination in no tidings of a husband, on his demise, on his 1882. In 1884, Chandramukhi again, was the first turning an ascetic, on his being found impotent, woman to pass the MA examination. Kadambini or on his degradation—under any one of these went on to study in a medical college. Vidyasagar calamities, it is canonical for women to take an- made a personal gift to Chandramukhi, the first other husband.’4 MA in Calcutta University, a copy of Cassell’s During the Kali-yuga, the three injunctions Illustrated Shakespeare, signed by him and the regarding widows were provided by Parashara: endorsement in his own hand read as follows: marriage, celibacy, and immolation, of which, ‘Srimati Kumari Chandramukhi Basu, the first the custom of immolation had been abolished Bengali lady who has obtained the Master of under law.5 Thus, widows have two options: mar- Arts, of the Calcutta University, from her sincere riage and celibacy. Either they should marry or well-wisher Isvara Chandra Sarma.’ adopt celibacy as they see fit. But theKali -yuga is Vidyasagar, the leading proponent of widow too difficult an age to permit widows to remain marriage in colonial India, particularly in his celibate. The injunction regarding marriage is native Bengal, sought to transform society from for a woman who experiences one of the five dire within, urged his contemporaries to reject prac- situations already mentioned before. When any tices that caused countless women to suffer. His of such conditions occurs, remarriage is the only strategy involved firstly the creation of strong valid alternative for widows. public opinion in favour of the removal of the Vidyasagar published his first pamphlet in bar to widow marriage. Secondly, he induced his defence of widow marriage in January 1855. His parents to give their consent to his taking the ini- comment on the passage was: tiative to launch the movement. Lastly, a reread- Thus it appears that Parasar prescribes three ing of Hindu scriptures alongside an emotional rules for a widow: marriage, observance of plea on behalf of widows resulted in the reimag- Brahmacharyya, and burning with the deceased ining of Hindu laws and customs. A rich collec- husband. Among these, the custom of concre- mation has been abolished by order of the rul- tion of Sanskrit texts available in the library of ing authorities; only two ways, therefore, have the Sanskrit College was of immense help, which now been left for the widows; they have the op- enabled him to overcome the last hurdle—the tion of marrying or observing the Brahmacha- most difficult. After a good deal of search, he ryya. But in Kali Yuga, it has become extremely came across a passage from shastras sanctioning difficult for widows to pass their lives in the

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observance of the Brahmacharyya; and it is for some anti-polygamy tracts by Shyamacharan this reason that the philanthropic Parasar has, in the first instance, prescribed marriage. Be Sarkar. The Government had contemplated legis- that as it may, what I wish to be clearly under- lation. The revolt of 1857 precluded such action, stood is—that as Parasar plainly prescribes mar- but polygamy among the Hindus was outmoded riage as one of the duties of women in the Kali or abolished by law only after independence. Yuga under any one of the five above enumer- The time Vidyasagar lived was characterised ated calamities, the marriage of widows in Kali by the gradual transition from the middle ages Yuga is consonant with the Sastras.6 into modern social structures, a process of global Child marriage and Kulin polygamy were effect started in Europe and triggered the social interrelated. In the mainstream Hindu society, transformation in India at the end of eighteenth the Kulin elderly man took the full advantage century. It is in this context that Vidyasagar can of Kulinism—the system of restriction of inter- be justifiably called the bridge between tradition marriages within families of noble birth among and modernity, between East and West. the brahmanas. The prevailing custom of el- Vidyasagar championed the cause of the op- derly Kulin brahmana polygamy allowed elderly pressed, especially the upliftment of women in men—even on their deathbeds—to marry teen- India and made relentless efforts to rid them of age or prepubescent girls who would be left be- poverty, misery, and illiteracy. According to our hind in their parental homes, occasionally visited Upanishads, it is the one universal soul, para- by the Kulin in consideration of pecuniary gain, matma, that shows in millions of living beings especially after their widowhood, to lead a de- or individual souls, jivatma. The One in all and plorable life, replete with sufferings which in- all in the One—this is the knowledge of Atman. cluded semi-starvation, hard domestic labour, There is no duality, only God is revealed and and close restriction on their freedom to leave realised. Vidyasagar’s whole life is an epitome the house or be seen by strangers. of such realisation. He was one with the poor, This intolerable situation forced such girls, ailing, wretched, homeless, miserable people ir- the victims of their families’ and society’s ill-treat- respective of caste, creed, cline, colour, and race. ment, including rape-victims and unsupported Hiranmay Banerjee thinks that Vidyasagar be- mothers, to run away and turn to prostitution to lieved in the immanence of the spirit, and lived support themselves. Thus,Kulinism contributed in spirit of the Upanishadic injunction of the to the social malady of prostitution. In his tract three D’s—dama, dana, and daya—self-control, on polygamy written in 1871, Vidyasagar gave a charity, and compassion.7 sophisticated analysis of women’s subordination While Swamiji rose in an invocation to ‘Sis- and highlighted its universal character. He called ters and Brothers of America’,8 there was a thun- for legislation against unchecked polygamy, dering, spontaneous, unstoppable applause, it rampant, refined to the level of a gainful com- was not a sudden outburst of the audience, but a merce when Kulin brahmanas would easily live transcendent cord was touched. One and all, the in luxury on the spoils of their wretched in-laws. alien audience irrespective of caste, creed, cline, The second anti-poligamy tract came out in 1873. and credentials were swept off their feet by the A number of petitions against polygamy, signed universal force of oneness. by Vidyasagar, Maharaja of Burdwan, and others Vidyasagar’s love for humanity—the poor, the were submitted. TheHindoo Patriot published lowly, and the wretched was of the same order.

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Vidyasagar lived the tenets of the Bhagavadgita. All creatures, all human beings, mean or noble, high or low, the sinner or the saint were all equal to Vidyasagar as beloved as they are beloved to God. Here we should remember a verse from the Gita: ‘The enlightened person should not create disturbance in the beliefs of the ignorant, who are attached to work. Working, while oneself remaining diligent, one should make them do all the duties.’9 Human beings are selfish; they do not want others to come up to the same level of their know- ledge, for the fear of losing their own privilege and prestige over others. But the wise person should engage the ignorant in the right work and grad- ually bring them up. This powerful idea from Indian scriptures undoubtedly applied to Vid- yasagar who was very deeply moved by the plight of the poor and the helpless. Inside a rock-like stubborn shell was hid a tender mother’s heart that gave his nature a gracious divinity. ‘He proved but the aberrations of dharma or religion im- himself a great broad-minded educationist of the posed on ignorant people by traditional author- age of renaissance by admitting to the college all, ities. To legitimise his revolutionary programme irrespective of caste, and by offering the secret key of widow marriage, he never hesitated to collect to mastering grammar broke the hereditary mon- sanction from traditional shastras. His reform opoly of it by the priest-pandit class.’10 tracts testify respect for the shastras from where Vidyasagar’s argument is based not on an he searched out the necessary sanctions for his appeal to shastra, but upon a reasoned exam- reform campaigns. ination of the created order. He combined the According to Rabindranath Tagore, Vidyasa- arguments of a humanist with the shastric eru- gar was a universalist and humanist, whose re- dition of a pandit. He made a plea to the hearts ligion was humanism. To him, a person was a and minds of his fellow and to the con- person, be the person a Hindu, Muslim, Chris- science of the British Government. It was appro- tian, or Brahmo. He was a true secular humanist. priate and expedient to appeal to more universal His central teaching is that the only important notions of virtue and righteousness. Vidyasagar shastras are those inscribed on every human resorts to shastras only to gain confidence of an heart. Here, we should remember the meeting ignorant public who would never accept a re- between Sri Ramakrishna, the spiritual master form based only on rationalistic approach. Apa- who believed all religions to be true as different thetic to religion, he never attacked religion or paths to the one ultimate truth, and Vidyasagar, religious rites. Vidyasagar’s reformist writings the rationalist, a man of renaissance, who guided suggest that his real foe is not shastric Hinduism by science and reason believed in doing good to

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humanity based on the truth of human life. ‘He culture and education, a strong wind of change was never a nationalist, but always a rationalist.’11 started fast stirring the Indian cultural and in- If we discuss the logic of Vidyasagar’s world- tellectual climate. Vidyasagar, a towering per- view in terms of rationalism and humanism, sonality of the Indian renaissance, wanted we must trace its roots both to the modernist to connect the traditional Indian culture and thought originating in Europe and to the central modern European science in order to promote categories of Brahmanical ideology. ‘Vidyasagar a cultural fusion containing the wealth of both was Bengal’s most learned Sanskrit scholar, but the traditions. He was one of the leaders of the also her most successful social reformer; he was nineteenth-century Indian awakening, who were an ardent rationalist, but spent most of his time willing to accept Western culture and education justifying that rationalism from Hindu texts; only to the extent that they would help grow a and he considered himself a good Hindu— modern life in India on an indigenous basis. In- dressed, ate, and acted accordingly—yet was stead of being a theoretician on modernity to known to be a dedicated humanist and a pro- which Vidyasagar’s approach was pragmatic and fessed atheist’ (47). realistic, he was a practitioner of modern scien- Vidyasagar appreciated the limitations of tific education, he remained a man of action, and direct communications when confronted by laboured hard in the concrete sphere of activity. deep-seated prejudices and pervasive habits Vidyasagar’s search for modernity was based as did Kierkegaard, his Danish contemporary, on rationalism and dynamism. An apostle of whose job was as difficult as Vidyasagar’s. If positive dynamism, he was more interested in anyone claims to be a better Christian than his laying a new ground rather than destroying the country-people, they would turn his enthusiasm old one. Vidyasagar devoted himself to the cause into fanaticism. But Kierkegaard says, one must of modern education based on science and ra- proceed by an indirect method, as he explains: tionality. Rationalism made him apathetic to ‘If it is an illusion that all are Christians—and religion but brought him nearer to Western edu- if there is anything to be done about it, it must cation and culture. Traditional education, based be done indirectly, not by one who vociferously on indigenous ideas, was not enough to hatch a proclaims himself an extraordinary Christian, modern mind. He favoured modern Western but by one who, better instructed, is ready to de- education that had broken away from an uncriti- clare that he is not a Christian at all. That is, one cal, unthinking reverence for tradition. must approach from behind the person who is Appointed as the principal of the Sanskrit under an illusion.’12 College (1850–3), he realised that the vehicle of Vidyasagar had a fine sense of irony as did English language, alongwith Western science Kierkegaard. He used his sense of irony for the and philosophy, had introduced the Indian so- purpose of communicating what it means to be ciety to advanced modern thoughts, rational- an authentic individual—in his case a brahmana. ism, and the concepts of liberty, equality, and Vidyasagar’s greatness stems from his attempt to fraternity. He favoured English and Bengali challenge ‘orthodox’ views of what it means to be languages as a medium of education alongside a brahmana. Vidyasagar was successful in com- Sanskrit. Not only Bengali—but the other In- municating his authenticity to others. dian languages like Hindi, Tamil, and so on With the opening of the window of Western must be the media of modern education. He

360 PB March 2020 29 wanted the students to know all the different Indian philosophical systems as well as Euro- pean philosophy, and encouraged them to com- pare ancient Indian philosophy with modern European philosophy in order to have a better understanding and evaluation of ancient Indian philosophy. Students of the Sanskrit College should ‘understand both the learned of India and the learned of Europe, and to interpret be- tween the two … by showing that European sci- ence recognises all those elementary truths that had been reached by Hindu speculation’.13 He offered students a wide range of books and subjects including Logic by Mill, History of the English Revolution by Guizot—a historian, who probably considered theocratic domina- tions as the cause of immobility in the moral life of the Asians, including the Hindus—Smith’s History of the French Revolution, Johnston’s Dr James Robert Ballantyne (1813–1864) Atlas, Newton’s Principia Mathematica, Euclid- In September 1853 Vidyasagar had to defend ean Geometry, and so on. Promotion of business his syllabus against criticisms made by Ballan- in publishing and insurance made him quite un- tyne, principal of Benaras Government Sanskrit like others of his own society as ‘he had a good College who wanted less of Mill’s Logic that head for business and was perhaps the most suc- Vidyasagar wanted to teach. Mill advocated a cessful publisher of his time’.14 blend of individual liberty with social respon- He tried to implement a closer contact with sibility and morality, emphasising that ‘there is the modern, progressive ideas of the West in his a need of a great increase of disinterested exer- personal and professional life. He was taking his tion to promote the good of others’.15 Vidyasa- English lessons from his friend Durgacharan gar himself was impersonal and social in all his Banerjee. He made extensive study of Western work and Mill’s views were remarkably close philosophy and history, and recommended in- to him. On the other hand, Dr James Robert clusion of English literature and philosophy in Ballantyne, a British orientalist, who superin- the courses offered at Sanskrit College. In habits, tended the reorganisation of the government he was an Englishman but in lifestyle and dress, Sanskrit college at Benares, wanted the inclu- he was very much a traditional Hindu. sion of Bishop Berkeley’s Inquiry and the intro- He discarded erroneous beliefs of Indian duction of a commentary written by Ballantyne, customs, preferred European science wher- which emphasised the alleged similarities be- ever appropriate, but he did not blindly accept tween the classic text of European philosoph- everything European just by its virtue of being ical idealism and Vedanta and Sankhya, the two a Western concept. Vidyasagar ‘never confused main pillars of Hindu philosophy, which Vid- modernization with Westernization’ (10). yasagar openly denounced.

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There was a need to bridge the growing gap Pandit (1827–76), translated the book on the between the traditional pundits and the West- remarriage of Hindu widows. M G Ranade, a ernised educated intelligentsia, not through great advocate of the widow remarriage in the some kind of eclectic compromise, which Hindu Society, set up the ‘Widow Remarriage roughly had been Ballantyne’s advice, but by a Association’ in 1861. determined effort to transform and get beyond Swami Akhandananda mentioned the name both poles, which Vidyasagar did, broadening of Jhandu Bhatji, a great admirer of Vidyasagar, the social basis of the intelligentsia as a whole. who used to hear the biography of Vidyasagar at Around 1855–6, excellent relations with many Shankarji Sheth’s house regularly. ‘Whenever he high British officials in Bengal, from Lieutenant- heard an instance of Vidyasagar’s munificence, Governor Halliday downwards, helped Vidyasa- he would burst into tears.’17 Ramanna Soni Mo- gar to develop links with a number of prominent dasa, the translator of Vidyasagar’s books, and zamindars including Joykrishna Mukhopadhyay Kalarthi Mukul, the biographer of Vidyasagar, of Uttarpara, who made an effort to establish both from Gujarat, were Vidyasagar’s devotees. both English and vernacular schools in the areas Raja Ramanna (1925–2004), the noted Indian under his control. ‘He transformed the ritualistic physicist, resident of Bangalore, wrote in a let- corpus of Sanskrit learning into an updated and ter dated 11 January 1990 that Mr B Venkatachar, rational scheme of Sanskrit education. He re- one of his close relatives, learnt Bengali from introduced English, which the Bentinck admin- Vidyasagar by exchanging postcards. istration had dropped in 1835, and introduced In his autobiography, Veeresalingam from Bengali, the living language of the people.’16 Andhra Pradash, mentioned the name of Vid- Vidyasagar, a major figure by the mid-1850s yasagar, the pioneer of movement for redressal among the literati, both traditional and new, of miseries of women in society. In the meeting formed an alliance with like Ak- of the Indian Social Reform, Ranade acclaimed shay Kumar Dutta, active in Brahmo-led Tattwa- Veeresalingam as Vidyasagar of the South India, bodhini Sabha and Tattwabodhini Patrika, was who, with his two friends, formed the ‘Widow a pioneer artist of the and Remarriage Association’ in 1880.18 brought deft creative expression into Bengali M V Venkatarao of Tamilnadu was another prose under whose able superintendence, the biographer of Vidyasagar. His work was pub- Bengali language became the elegant vehicle of lished from Madras by Palaniyappa Brothers. scientific and other information. A great teacher Phakiramohan Senapati of Orissa, described in of Bengali language, beginning from first lesson his autobiographical book, how Vidyasagar, a in alphabet to advanced literature, Vidyasagar great inspiration, rejuvenated a dejected person introduced a new method for acquiring know- to start writing in his own language. ledge of the language. Bharatendu Harishchandra, the famous Vidyasagar was an inspiration to many in Hindi poet, who was a friend and admirer of other states where the social atmosphere was Vidyasagar, wrote a Hindi poem on Vidyasagar. similar to that of Bengal. Jyotirao Phule (1827– Vidyasagar was awarded the title of the ‘Com- 90), pioneer in the field of education for women panion of the Order of the Indian Empire’ (cie) in Maharashtra, took active interest in the re- in 1880 and nominated an honorary fellow by marriage of Hindu widows. Vishnu Parasuram the Punjab University in 1886.

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The name and fame of Vidyasagar knew no books of Euro- barriers of any country and travelled abroad. pean languages. 3. Michael Madhusudan Dutta was elated to find Shakuntala—this Vidyasagar, honoured in England and France. It novel-like famous is known to all that when Dutta was financially drama has prob- ruined in Versailles, France, Vidyasagar was lit- ably been inspired erally his ‘friend in need’ who sent the required by Lamb’s Tales of money to rid him of that wretched condition. In Shakespeare. 4. a letter, Dutta wrote: ‘I have seen one or two of Sitar Bonobas. 5. your works in a shop in Paris.’19 In another letter, Bodhoday, rudi- Dutta also mentioned the name of the doctor, ments of know- Goldstucker, a profound Sanskrit scholar who ledge, published knew Vidyasagar by name and Dutta also men- in 1851. 6. Katha- tioned the remarriage of widows. mala of 1856, a Vidyasagar was made an honorary member Bengali transla- of the Royal Asiatic Society, London in 1864. tion of sixty-eight Michael Madhusudan Dutta (1824–1873) His books were translated into English and Ger- fables of Aesop. 7. Jiban Charit of 1849, trans- man. For example, Sitar Bonobas, translated into lated into Bengali from Chambers Educational English by H Jane Harding, was published in Course, contains eight biographies of famous London under the title, The Exile of Sita, which European scholars including Nicolaus Coperni- ‘showed how Bengali had become a classic prose cus, Galileo Galilei, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Wil- language, with all the flexibility, dignity, and liam Jones, and so on from different spheres of grace requisite for the purpose of interpreting knowledge. 8. Charitabali of 1856 contains nine- to the mass of the people the old life-history of teen short biographies of European scholars. the nation, and the new phase of thought intro- Jiban Charit and Charitabali use material duced from the West’.20 There was a brief review from William and Robert Chambers’ Exem- of about seventeen of his books in a magazine, plary and Instructive Biography, published Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Ge- from Edinburgh in 1846, to present brief life- sellschaft, published from Germany in 1865. histories of leading Western scientists. The con- The German Oriental Society nominated centration on scientists indicates Vidyasagar’s Vidyasagar as its member in recognition of his rationalist preferences.21 contributions and presentation of his entire ‘There is not a man of my age in north- range of works—sixteen publications in twenty- ern India’, said Swamiji to Sister Nivedita, ‘on two volumes, large and small, most of them whom his shadow has not fallen’.22 Swamiji was written in Bengali—to the library of their So- referring to the tremendous impact of Ishwar ciety. Vidyasagar’s exemplary publications are: Chandra Vidyasagar’s personality on his con- 1. Barna Parichay, acquaintance with alphabet, temporaries.23 How was it possible for a man of 1855, a Bengali abc book composed totally like Vidyasagar to exert such an influence on on the European model. 2. Upakramanika, an the growing generation? This question natur- introduction to Sanskrit grammar, which Brock- ally and frequently crops up in our minds, as the haus, the reviewer, compared with the grammar world today has become very small and our life

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is closely interlinked with global affairs. Global 3. Parashara Samhita, 4.28. . 4 Subal Chandra Mitra, Isvar Chandra Vidyas- understanding including intercultural relations agar: A Story of His Life and Work (Calcutta: are now preconditions that enable humans to Sarat Chandra Mitra, 1902), 263. solve global problems by global co-operation. . 5 In one of the few contemporary historical refer- Vidyasagar had such a vision of the next half-a- ences in these tracts, Vidyasagar mentions the century. He was a bridge between oriental ethics abolition of the custom of widow immolation, sati or sahamarana, by Lord William Bentinck or values and the Western work culture. With in Act XVII of 1829. his forward-looking mind and far-seeing spirit, 6. Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, 263–4. he watched the march of science in the modern 7. Vidyasagar: A Reassessment, 88. world and realised that the old traditional schol- 8. The ompleteC Works of , 9 vols (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1–8, 1989; 9, arship was not going to be enough and that mod- 1997), 1.3. ern learning was the sole vehicle for spreading the 9. Gita, 3.26. light of the West in India. He combined the en- 10. Swami Tathagatananda, ‘Pandit Iswar Chandra ergy of the West with the values of the East. Such Vidyasagar’, 141. combination prompted him to make society free 11. David Kopf, Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Mind (New Jersey: Princeton Uni- from the bondage of superstition. versity, 1979), 56. He faced all problems from a practical stand- 12. Sren Kierkegaard, The Point of View for My point, trying to take a position of scientific Work as an Author, trans. Walter Lowrie, ed. thinking while not interfering with the religious Benjamin Nelson (New York: Harper and Row, practices of a community. He wanted Indians to 1962), 24–5. 13. Asok Sen, Vidyasagar and His Elusive Milestones absorb the wholesome in the Western culture (Calcutta: Riddhi-India, 1977), 171, 176. but never wanted them to be mindless imitators 14. Amales Tripathy, Vidyasagar: The Traditional of the West. He admired the best in the Western Moderniser (Calcutta: Punascha, 1998), 13. culture without denationalising Indians, so that 15. John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, Liberty, Repre- sentative Government (London: J M Dent and a rich and prosperous human society could come Sons, 1954), 132. up in due course. 16. Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern The Statesman wrote just after his death: ‘The Mind, 55. venerable Pundit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar so 17. Swami Akhandananda, From Holy Wanderings well known as the leader of the Widow Mar- to Service of God in Man (Madras: Ramakrishna Math, 1979), 60. riage Movement in Bengal, is dead, and by his 18. See P Raghunadha Rao, History of Modern Andhra death the cause of Indian social reform has lost Pradesh (Greater Noida: Sterling, 1993), 80. one of its most ardent advocates. … There have 19. Yogindra Nath Basu, Michael Madhusudan Dut- been few of his countrymen who have more ter Jivan Charit (Bengali) (Kolkata: Chuck- ervertty and Chatterjee, 1905), 555. earnestly striven to make their example accord 20. R W Frazer, A Literary History of India (Lon- with their precepts.’24 P don: T Fisher Unwin, 1907), 412. 21. Women and Social Reform in Modern India, ed. Notes and References Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar (Bloomington: . 1 Gopal Haldar, Vidyasagar: A Reassessment (New Indiana University, 2008), 124. Delhi: People’s Publishing House, 1972), 77. 22. Complete Works, 9.349. . 2 Swami Tathagatananda, ‘Pandit Iswar Chandra 23. Swami Tathagatananda, ‘Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar’, Prabuddha Bharata, 76/3 (March Vidyasagar’, 140. 1971), 142. 24. ‘Obituary’, The Statesman, 30 July 1891.

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