Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar CIE (26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891),[1] born Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay (Ishshor Chôndro Bôndopaddhae), was an Indian educator and social reformer.[2] His efforts to simplify and modernise Bengali prose were significant. He also rationalised and simplified the Bengali alphabet and type, which had remained unchanged since Charles Wilkins and Panchanan Karmakar had cut the first (wooden) Bengali type in 1780. He is considered the "father of Bengali prose".[3]

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
BornIshwar Chandra Bandopadhyay
(1820-09-26)26 September 1820
Birsingha, Bengal Presidency, British India
(now in West Bengal, India)
Died29 July 1891(1891-07-29) (aged 70)
Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India
(now Kolkata, West Bengal, India)
OccupationEducator and social reformer
LanguageBengali
NationalityIndian
Alma materSanskrit College (1828-1839)
Literary movementBengal Renaissance
SpouseDinamayee Devi
Children1

He was the most prominent campaigner for Hindu widow remarriage and petitioned Legislative council despite severe opposition and a counter petition against the proposal with nearly four times more signatures by Radhakanta Deb and the Dharma Sabha.[4][5] But Lord Dalhousie personally finalised the bill despite the opposition and it being considered a flagrant breach of Hindu customs as prevalent then and the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 was passed.[6][7]

He received the title "Vidyasagar" (in Sanskrit Vidya means knowledge and Sagar means ocean, i.e., Ocean of Knowledge) from Sanskrit College, Calcutta (from where he graduated), due to his excellent performance in Sanskrit studies and philosophy. Noted Cambridge mathematician Anil Kumar Gain founded Vidyasagar University, named in his honour.[8]

Biography
Birthplace of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Birsingha, Ghatal

Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay was born in a Bengali Hindu Brahmin family to Thakurdas Bandyopadhyay and Bhagavati Devi at Birsingha village in Hooghly district; later, the village was added to Midnapore district[9] which is in the Ghatal subdivision of Paschim Midnapore district in current day West Bengal on 26 September 1820. At the age of 9, he went to Calcutta and started living in Bhagabat Charan's house in Burrabazar, where Thakurdas had already been staying for some years. Ishwar felt at ease amidst Bhagabat's large family and settled down comfortably in no time. Bhagabat's youngest daughter Raimoni's motherly and affectionate feelings towards Ishwar touched him deeply and had a strong influence on his later revolutionary work towards the upliftment of women's status in India.

His quest for knowledge was so intense that he used to study under a street light as it was not possible for him to afford a gas lamp at home[10] He cleared all the examinations with excellence and in quick succession. He was rewarded with a number of scholarships for his academic performance. To support himself and the family, Ishwar Chandra also took a part-time job of teaching at Jorashanko. Ishwar Chandra joined the Sanskrit College, Calcutta and studied there for twelve long years and passed out of the college in 1841 qualifying in Sanskrit Grammar, Literature, Dialectics [Alankara Shastra], Vedanta, Smriti and Astronomy[1] As was the custom then Ishwar Chandra married at the age of fourteen. His wife was Dinamayee Devi. Narayan Chandra Bandyopadhyaya was their only son.

In the year 1839, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar successfully cleared his Sanskrit law examination. In 1841, at the age of twenty-one years, Ishwar Chandra joined Fort William College as head of the Sanskrit department.

After five years, in 1846, Vidyasagar left Fort William College and joined the Sanskrit College as 'Assistant Secretary'. In the first year of service, Ishwar Chandra recommended a number of changes to the existing education system. This report resulted in a serious altercation between Ishwar Chandra and College Secretary Rasomoy Dutta. In 1849, he against the advice of Rasomoy Dutta, resigned from Sanskrit College and rejoined Fort William College as a head clerk.[11]

Widow remarriage

Vidyasagar championed the upliftment of the status of women in India, particularly in his native Bengal. Unlike some other reformers who sought to set up alternative societies or systems, he sought to transform society from within.[12]

Unable to tolerate the ill-treatment, many of these girls would run away and turn to prostitution to support themselves. Ironically, the economic prosperity and lavish lifestyles of the city made it possible for many of them to have successful careers once they stepped out of the sanction of society and into the demi-monde. In 1853 it was estimated that Calcutta had a population of 12,700 prostitutes and public women. Many widows had to shave their heads and don white saris, supposedly to discourage attention from men. They led a deplorable life, something Vidyasagar thought was unfair and sought to change.[13]

Spread of Education beyond Higher Classes

The Wood’s despatch of 1854—considered the Magna Carta of Indian education—adopted a new policy towards 'mass education'. Hitherto the official focus was on the upper classes of population for education. Dubbed the 'Downward Filtration Theory', this implied that education always filters down from the upper classes of the society to the common masses.

In 1859, the government’s education policy reiterated "the spread of vernacular elementary instruction among the lower orders".[14] Upon this, Vidyasagar addressed a letter, dated 29 September 1859, to John Peter Grant, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, underlining his perception:

An impression appears to have gained ground, both here and in England, that enough has been done for the education of the higher classes and that attention should now be directed towards the education of the masses... An enquiry into the matter will, however, show a very different state of things. As the best, if not the only practicable means of promoting education in Bengal, the Government should, in my humble opinion, confine itself to the education of the higher classes on a comprehensive scale.[15][16][17]

The words "higher classes" in Bengali parlance do not entail anything but caste which bestows or withdraws the privilege of education on a person by birth. Thus, Vidyasagar explicitly advocated for confining education to "higher classes".[16][17]

Earlier in 1854, Vidyasagar had scoffed at the admission of a wealthy man from the goldsmith caste of Bengal in the Sanskrit College, Calcutta. His argument was that "in the scale of castes, the class (goldsmith or Subarnabanik) stands very low".[16][17] Notably, Sanjib Chattopadhyay, a biographer of Vidyasagar, revealed that Ishwar Chandra started his primary education in a school established and maintained by Shibcharan Mallick, a rich man of goldsmith caste in Calcutta.[18]

Vidyasagar in Santal Pargana

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s long association with Karmatar, a sleepy hamlet about 20 km from the district headquarters of Jamtara, seems to have been forgotten by the people of the state.

Vidyasagar came to Karmatar in 1873 and spent more than 18 years of his life here. He had set up a girls’ school and a night school for adults on the premises of his house, which he called Nandan Kanan. He also opened a free Homeopathy clinic to provide some medical care to these unprivileged tribal people.

After his death the Nandan Kanan, the abode of Vidyasagar was sold by his son to Mallick family of Kolkata. Before Nandan Kanan could be dismantled Bengali Association Bihar on 29 March 1974 purchased it by money collected by house to house contribution of one rupee each. The Girls School has been restarted, named after Vidyasagar. The Free Homeopathic Clinic is serving local population. The house of Vidyasagar has been maintained in the original shape. The most prized property is the 141 year old ‘Palanquin’ used by Vidyasagar himself.[19]

The Jharkhand government on 26th September 2019 named Jamtara district's Karmatand block as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Block as a mark of respect on the birth anniversary of the great social reformer.

An official release quote of Jharkhand's former Chief Minister Raghubar Das:

"Jamtara's Karmatand prakhand (block) was the 'karma bhumi' (workplace) of social reformer and strong supporter of women's education Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Now the block will be known as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar prakhand"

Meeting with Ramakrishna

Vidyasagar was liberal in his outlook even though he was born in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family. Also, he was highly educated and influenced by Oriental thoughts and ideas. Ramakrishna in contrast, did not have a formal education. Yet they had a nice relation between them. When Ramakrishna met Vidyasagar, he praised Vidyasagar as the ocean of wisdom. Vidyasagar joked that Ramkrishna should have collected some amount of salty water of that sea. But, Ramakrishna, with profound humbleness & respect, replied that the water of general sea might be salty, but not the water of the sea of wisdom.[20]

Accolades
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar on a 1970 stamp of India
Vidyasagar Setu, which connects Howrah and Kolkata, is named after him

Shortly after Vidyasagar's death, Rabindranath Tagore reverently wrote about him: "One wonders how God, in the process of producing forty million Bengalis, produced a man!"[21][22]

After death, he is remembered in many ways, some of them include:

  1. Vidyasagar Setu (commonly known as the Second Hooghly Bridge), is a bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. It links the city of Howrah to its twin city of Kolkata. The bridge is named after Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.
  2. In 2004, Vidyasagar was ranked number 9 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of all time.[23]
  3. Vidyasagar College in Kolkata is named after him, as well as Vidyasagar University in Paschim Midnapore.
  4. Rectitude and courage were the hallmarks of Vidyasagar's character, and he was certainly ahead of his time. In recognition of his scholarship and cultural work the government designated Vidyasagar a Companion of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1877[24] In the final years of life, he chose to spend his days among the "Santhals", an old tribe in India.
  5. Indian Post issued stamps featuring Vidyasagar in 1970 and 1998.[25]
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References
  1. "29 July 1891: Social Reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Passes Away". www.mapsofindia.com. 29 July 2013.
  2. "Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: A Profile of the Philanthropic Protagonist". americanchronicle.com. Retrieved 20 December 2008.
  3. "Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  4. H. R. Ghosal (1957). "The Revolution Behind the Revolt (A comparative study of the causes of the 1857 uprising)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 20: 293–305. JSTOR 44304480.
  5. Pratima Asthana (1974). Women's Movement in India. Vikas Publishing House. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-7069-0333-1.
  6. Amit Kumar Gupta (2015). Nineteenth-Century Colonialism and the Great Indian Revolt. Taylor & Francis. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-317-38668-1.
  7. Belkacem Belmekki (2008). "A Wind of Change: The New British Colonial Policy in Post-Revolt India". AEDEAN: Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-americanos. 2 (2): 111–124. JSTOR 41055330.
  8. Lal, Mohan (2006). "Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar". The Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature. Sahitya Akademi. pp. 4567–4569. ISBN 978-81-260-1221-3.
  9. District Gazetteer of Hooghly 1820
  10. "Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: A Profile of the Philanthropic Protagonist by Aparna Chatterjee". www.boloji.com.
  11. "Ishwar Chandra Vidysagar". vivekananda.net.
  12. "Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar". hinduweb.org. Archived from the original on 18 November 2002. Retrieved 20 December 2008.
  13. Sarkar, Nikhil [Sripantho] (1977) Bat tala. Calcutta: Ananda. p. 66. (in Bengali)
  14. Stark, Herbert Aligk (1916). "Vernacular education in Bengal from 1813 to 1912". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. Biswas, A K (23 December 1993). "A Nation of Slow Learners". The Telegraph.
  16. "Universalisation of Education: India in a Trap - Mainstream Weekly". mainstreamweekly.net. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  17. Shobhana, Nidhin. "Surnames and 'Merit': A Case of Miranda House". Round Table India. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  18. Bartaman, Sharad Special Issue, Calcutta, 1411 B.S., p. 345.
  19. "Official Web of Jamtara, Govt. of Jharkhand".
  20. "Visit to Vidyasagar". Gospels of Sri Ramakrishna by M, translated by Swami Nikhilananda. p. 37.
  21. "Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar". WBCHSE. West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  22. The Life And Times of Ramakrishna Parmahamsa (1st ed.). Prabhat Prakashan. 1 August 2013. p. 53. ISBN 978-8184302301.
  23. —"Listeners name 'greatest Bengali'". BBC. 14 April 2004. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
    —Habib, Haroon (17 April 2004). "International : Mujib, Tagore, Bose among 'greatest Bengalis of all time'". The Hindu.
    —"Bangabandhu judged greatest Bangali of all time". The Daily Star. 16 April 2004.
  24. Dutt, Romesh (1962) Cultural Heritage of Bengal. Kolkata, Punthi Pustak. p. 117.
  25. File:Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar 1970 stamp of India.jpg, File:Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar 1998 stamp of India.jpg

Further reading
  • Indramitra, Karunasagar Vidyasagar, Ananda Publishers, Kolkata ISBN 81-7215-040-7
  • Haldar, Gopal. (1998) [1982]. "I. C. Vidyasagar: Realist and Humanist". In Bishop, Donald H. (ed.). Thinkers of the Indian Renaissance (Second ed.). New Delhi: New Age International. pp. 81–91. ISBN 978-81-224-1122-5. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
  • Sarkar, Sumit (2008). "Vidyasagar and Brahmanical Society". In Sarkar, Sumit; Sarkar, Tanika (eds.). Women and Social Reform in Modern India: A Reader. Indiana University Press. pp. 118–145. ISBN 9780253220493.
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