Bengal Renaissance
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The Bengal Renaissance (
For almost two centuries, the Bengal renaissance saw the radical transformation of
The Bengali renaissance was predominantly led by
Background
The Bengal Renaissance was a movement characterised by a sociopolitical awakening in the arts, literature, music, philosophy, religion, science, and other fields of intellectual inquiry.[1] The movement questioned the existing customs and rituals in Indian society – most notably, the caste system, and the practice of sati, idolatry – as well as the role of religion and colonial governance. In turn, the Bengal Renaissance advocated for societal reform – the kind that adhered to secularist, humanist and modernist ideals.[9] From Rabindranath Tagore to Satyendra Nath Bose, the movement saw the emergence of important figures, whose contributions still influence cultural and intellectual works today.[10]
Although the Bengal Renaissance was led and dominated by upper caste Hindus, Bengali Muslims played a transformative role in the movement, as well as the shaping of colonial and postcolonial Indian society.
From the mid-eighteenth century, the
During this time, partly through the 1757 Battle of Plassey against the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, and in part through the fall of the Mughal Empire, the company was able to acquire extensive territory in the Bengal and Ganges basin.[13] The expense of these wars, however, threatened the company's financial situation, and the Regulating Act 1773 was passed to stabilise the EIC as well as subject it to some parliamentary control.[13] Further legislation over the next several decades progressively brought about tighter controls over the company, but the Indian Rebellion of 1857 forced the British parliament to pass the Government of India Act 1858, which saw the liquidation of the EIC and the transfer of power to the British Crown.[13]
Origins
The Bengali Renaissance originated in the Bengal Presidency of the British Indian Empire, but more specifically, its capital city of Kolkata, then known as Calcutta.[14] This colonial metropolis was the first non-Western city to use British methods of teaching in their school system.[14] In 1817, the urban elite led by Raja Ram Mohan Roy cofounded the Hindu or Presidency College in Kolkata, now known as the Presidency University, the only European-style institution of higher learning in Asia at the time.[15] The city was also home to a public library, the Imperial Library, now the National Library of India, and newspapers and books were being published regularly in both Bengali and English.[16] "Print language and literature played a vital role in shaping ideas and identities in colonial Bengal from the 18th century onwards," writes Anindita Ghosh, continuing that "… commercial print cultures that emanated from numerous cheap presses in Calcutta and its suburbs disseminated wide-ranging literary preferences that afforded a space to different sections of the Bengali middle classes to voice their own distinctive concerns."[16]
The
Other historians cite the works of "Father of the Bengal Renaissance," Raja Rammohun Roy, as the start of the Bengal Renaissance.[2] Roy, by 1829, co-founded the Brahmo Sabha movement, which was later renamed the Brahmo Samaj by Debendranath Tagore.[20] It was an influential socioreligious reform movement that made significant contributions to the renaissance, as well as the makings of modern Indian society.
Education
Among the many changes brought about by the Bengal Renaissance in India was the development of education, both in the Bengali language and in English. Colonial provisions at the time consisted mainly of village schools teaching literacy and numeracy, Arabic and Islamic studies being taught to Muslims in
According to Dermot Killingley, the surplus mentioned in this Charter Act was "an aspiration, not a budget item," and even if the money had been provided for, there was uncertainty about how it should be spent.
Despite the East India Company's initial hostility to missionaries, the colonial government later saw the advantages of their contribution to educating and training the local population. This was especially because, as Killingley noted, "in the innovations of the early nineteenth century, government initiative had less impact than the work of Christian missions, and of individuals … who responded to the demand for literacy, numeracy and related skills created by growing commercial and administrative activity."[22] In 1800, the Baptist Missionary Society established a centre in Srirampur, West Bengal, from which it ran a network of schools that taught literacy, mathematics, physics, geography and other so-called "useful knowledge."[25] Other missionary societies followed soon after, working along similar lines.[26] These missionaries, which were largely dependent on local, indigenous teachers and families, and the colonial government, which sometimes supported them with grants, were also cautious about introducing Christian teachings or the Bible.[26]
Education was also believed to be necessary in reversing the apparent moral decline many colonial administrators saw in Bengal society. To give an example, a British judge in Bengal recommended the London Missionary Society's schools, "for the dissemination of morality and general improvement of society among natives of all persuasion without interfering with their religious prejudices."
Science
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During the Bengal Renaissance science was also advanced by several Bengali scientists such as Satyendra Nath Bose, Ashutosh Mukherjee, Anil Kumar Gain, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Prafulla Chandra Ray, Debendra Mohan Bose, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Jnan Chandra Ghosh, Gopal Chandra Bhattacharya, Kishori Mohan Bandyopadhyay, Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee, Sisir Kumar Mitra, Upendranath Brahmachari and Meghnad Saha.
Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858–1937) was a
Arts
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The Bengal School of Art was an
Following the influence of Indian spiritual ideas in the
Literature
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According to historian Romesh Chunder Dutt:
The conquest of Bengal by the English was not only a political revolution, but ushered in a greater revolution in thoughts and ideas, in religion and society ... From the stories of gods and goddesses, kings and queens, princes and princesses, we have learnt to descend to the humble walks of life, to sympathise with the common citizen or even common peasant … Every revolution is attended with vigour, and the present one is no exception to the rule. Nowhere in the annals of Bengali literature are so many or so bright names found crowded together in the limited space of one century as those of Ram Mohan Roy, Akshay Kumar Dutt, Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, Isvar Chandra Gupta, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Hem Chandra Banerjee, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Dina Bandhu Mitra. Within the three quarters of the present century, prose, blank verse, historical fiction and drama have been introduced for the first time in the Bengali literature.
Religion and spirituality
The Bengali Renaissance also led to religious reform movements. Some notable religious and spiritual leaders associated with these reform movements are
The religious reform movements and organizations associated with the Bengali Renaissance are:
- Brahmoism (Brahmo Samaj)[32]
- Adi Brahmo Samaj
- Sadharan Brahmo Samaj
- Gaudiya Math
- Mahanam Sampraday
- Ramakrishna Mission
- Sri Aurobindo Ashram
- Yogoda Satsanga Society of India
References
- ^ ISBN 978-81-8400-183-9.
- ^ a b Samanta, Soumyajit (2008). The Bengal Renaissance : a critique (PDF). 20th European Conference of Modern South Asian Studies Manchester (UK), 8th – 11th July 2008. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 February 2022.
- ISBN 978-81-7476-355-6.
- ^ Panikkar, K N (3 March 2017). "Three phases of Indian renaissance". Frontline. Publishing Private Limited. The Hindu Group. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
- ^ Sartori, Andrew (2009). Bengal in Global Concept History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 68.
- ^ Sarkar, Sumit (1997). Writing Social History. Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 104.
- JSTOR 3517400.
- ^ JSTOR 3520213.
- (PDF) from the original on 5 February 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
- ISBN 978-81-7824-177-7.
- ^ Bardhan, Protik (29 May 2014). "Kazi Nazrul Islam: Voice of Bengali Muslims and Secular Nationhood". Prothom Alo (Opinion). Matiur Rahman. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
- ^ Khan, Shahadat H (2007). The Freedom of Intellect Movement (Buddhir Mukt Andolan) in Bengali Muslim Thought, 1926–1938. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press Ltd.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-879083-9.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-563696-3.
- ^ a b Sastri, Sivanath; Lethbridge, R (1972). "The Introduction of English Education into Bengal; and the Early History of the Hindu College". A History of the Renaissance in Bengal: Ramtanu Lahiri: Brahman and Reformer (Indian ed.). pp. 40–52.
- ^ JSTOR 4412747.
- ^ Dalrymple, William (2019). Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
- ^ Sastri, Sivanath (1907). Lethbridge, Roper (ed.). A History of the Renaissance in Bengal: Ramtanu Lahiri: Brahman and Reformer. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. p. 56.
- ^ Poddar, Arabinda (1970). "IV. Education and Social Mobility". Renaissance in Bengal: Quests and Confrontations, 1800–1860. Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study. p. 89.
- ISBN 978-0-691-03125-5.
- ISBN 978-0198790839.
- ^ a b c d e f g Killingley (2019). Rammohun Roy and the Bengal Renaissance. p. 41.
- ^ Laird, M. A. (1972). Missionaries and Education in Bengal 1793–1837. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 68.
- ^ Banerjee, Lyric (2020). "Religious Reformation in the Bengal Renaissance: Prelude to Science Museums in India". Marburg Journal of Religion. 22 (2): 3.
- ^ Killingley (2019). Rammohun Roy and the Bengal Renaissance. pp. 41–42.
- ^ a b c d Killingley (2019). Rammohun Roy and the Bengal Renaissance. p. 42.
- ^ A versatile genius Archived 3 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Frontline 21 (24), 2004.
- ISBN 8123704925
- ^ "Bengal School". National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. Archived from the original on 22 October 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
- ^ Dey, Mukul. "Which Way Indian Art?". chitralekha.org. Archived from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
- from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
- ISBN 0-02-865735-7.
Further reading
- Chatterjee, Pranab (2010). A Story of Ambivalent Modernization in Bangladesh and West Bengal: The Rise and Fall of Bengali Elitism in South Asia. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-1-4331-0820-4.
- ISSN 1741-4113.
- Kabir, Abulfazal M. Fazle (2011). The Libraries of Bengal, 1700–1947: The Story of Bengali Renaissance. Promilla & Co. Publishers. ISBN 978-8185002071.
- Kopf, David (1969). British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dinamics of Indian Modernization, 1773–1835. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-00665-2.
- Kumar, Raj (2003). Essays on Indian Renaissance. Discovery Publishing House. ISBN 978-81-7141-689-9.
- Mandal, Mahitosh (2022). "Dalit Resistance during the Bengal Renaissance: Five Anti-Caste Thinkers from Colonial Bengal, India". Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion. 3 (1): 11–30. from the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
- Marshall, P. J. (2006). Bengal: The British Bridgehead: Eastern India 1740-1828 (The New Cambridge History of India). ISBN 978-0521028226.
- Mittra, Sitansu Sekhar (2001). Bengal's Renaissance. Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-81-87504-18-4. Archivedfrom the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
- Pal, Bipin Chandra; Cakrabartī, Jagannātha (1977). Studies in the Bengal renaissance (2nd ed.). the University of California: National Council of Education, Bengal. OCLC 5945802.
- Sen, Amit (2011). Notes on the Bengal Renaissance. Nabu Press. ISBN 978-1-179-50139-0.
- Travers, Robert (2007). Ideology and Empire in Eighteenth-Century India: The British in Bengal. ISBN 978-0521059688.
External links
- Copf, David (2012). "Bengal Renaissance". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.