NATIONALISM AND DEMOCRACY
Sivanath Sastri says that the Indian Association (1876) a political
organization and the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj (1878) were like twins – the same
ideals and the same architects being on
both sides. The majority of the founding members of the Indian Association were
the same persons who, two years later, founded the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj were
already politically influenced when they started this new Samaj. Hence,, nationalism and democracy
were prominent features in the origin and development of the Sadharan Brahmo
Samaj, in fact of the entire Brahmo Movement from Rammohun, only with a small
break in Keshab’s time.
Rammohun Roy in his Town Hall dinner given in 1820 mainly to the
Spaniards in Calcutta
delivered.
An after-dinner speech publicly on “Religious and Political Freedom” thus
for the first time integrating politics with religion.
Mahatshi Debendranath Tagore became the first Secretary (the most
important executive post in any organization) of the first all-India political
body, the British Indian Association.’
Keshab Chandra never attached himself to any political organization.
During his period (1866-1877), patriotism was not a strong feature of the
Brahmo Movement as in other phases of the Movement it was. In this period,
Rammohun Roy the Father of the Movement was completely thrown into the shadow.
The spirit of nationalism and democracy was strong in the formation of
the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj in1878 and has persisted ever since then. Ananda
Mohan Bose became the President of the Samaj as well as of the Indian National
Congress. Dwarakanath Ganguli was the
Asst. Secretary of the Indian Association as well as of the Sadharan Brahmo
Samaj and was the first complier of ‘national’ songs. From 1878 till the
Swadeshi Movement of Bengal (1905-10), there were many in the Sadharan
Brahmo Samaj who have been both
religious men and patriots. Even among the young revolutionaries in the first
decase of the present century, many belonged to the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj.
A democratic Constitution of the
Sadharan Brahmo Samaj of international significance was framed in the same
year, based on the principle of universal adult franchise for both men and
women. At that time (1878) women were not entitled to vote in England , America ,
France, Germany
or anywhere else. This Constitution of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj is thus, also,
a great milestone in the international
history of womens emancipation movement, because it gave equal right to the
woman to vote with the man for the first time.
WOMENS’ EMANCIPATION
In Maharshi’s days women were not admitted into the Mandir. In Keshab’s
time they were allowed to hear the Divine Services and lectures but from behind
a screen. Thus far and no farther.
The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj boldly and courageously broke all the social
shackles that bound down the women. They came to the Mandir without any
‘purdah,’ mixed with men freely, formed associations amongst themselves without
barring out men, introduced co-education and were admitted into the realm of
higher education.
Women began to sing openly in and outside their homes, taking part along
with men in the Samaj choir and in public meetings. They began to walk in the
streets boldly and openly.
The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj produced women teachers, professors, principals
of colleges, nurses, midwives, doctors and what not,-a thing unthinkable in
Bengal of those days, Brahmos of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj opened Widows’s
Homes with facilities for vocational training for the first time in India .
It produced juvenile littérateurs.
The spirit of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj produced women delegates to the
Indian National Congress. It went even much more ahead. On October 27, 1907,
when the dead body of the famous patriot under trial Brahmabadhab Upadhyaya,
was lain on the funeral pyre in the cremation ground, Hemangini Das (wife of
Dr. Sundari Mohan Das of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj), while standing at the foot
of the pyre, suddenly got inspired and delivered extempore a fiery patriotic
speech before a huge crowd who had followed the dead body. Repeated loud cries
of ‘Bande Mataram’ rose from thousands of throats. The Times of London of October
28 said: “A Bengali, Mrs. Dass, delivered an oration. She said that Pandit
Upadhay had taught a lesson in patriotisim, and had shown them how to die when
their usefulness was threatened by an alien bureaucracy.” Monorajan Guha, a
socialist leader and worker in the village reconstruction centre,
‘Sikshaniketan’ at Nabakalagram
(Burdwan) , in his book Brahma-bandhah Upadhyaya described this
“oration” as a ‘flash of fire’ and said that it was an ‘amazing, un-precedented,
historic event.’ This was possible only due to the spirit of the Sadharan
Brahmo Samaj, the emancipator of women. Such another courageous Brahmo was
jyotirmoyee Ganguli, the daughter of Dwara-kanath Ganguli.
The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj infused a new life and a new spirit into the
shackled and cramped women of Bengal . It
opened before them a new wide vista of life,-spiritual, moral, intellectual,
literary, economic and political. It paved the way for future Matangini Hajras.
With the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj came the complete freedom for women. The
spirit of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj was only intensified and more widely spread
by Mahatma Gandhi over the length and breath of the Nation.
YOUTH MOVEMENT
In fact, the entire Brahmo Movement is a Youth Movement. The birth of the
first Youth organization-Students’ Association’-was in the hands of
Surendranath Banerji in 1876. Ananda Mohan Bose of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj
was his closest associate in this new venture.
In 1879, the ‘Students’ Weekly Service under the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj
was formed by Ananda Mohan Bose and Sivanath Sastri, Surendranath associated
with them.
The next Youth organization in the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj was the Brahmo
Yuba Samiti which was born in 1917 with the blessings of SivanathSastri and
Satish Chandra Chakravarty. The leaders of the Movement were Sukumar Roy,
Subinay Roy, Jivanmoy Ray, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Jatis Chandra Sen,
Kalidas Nag, Nirmal Kumar Siddhanta, Ajit Kumar Chakravarti, Prafulla Chandra
Ganguli, Santa Devi, Sita Debi and others.
The Youth ovements in the Brahmo Samaj had always been in close
cooperation with and under the guidance of the elders. This spirit of mutual
cooperation is very unlike the modern tendency of pushing out the old and the
experienced by the new modernist Youth- a fascist policy of creating division
between the brawn and the brain imported
from the West and not inherent in the traditional culture of India, nor in the
culture of the Brahmo Samaj Movement.
CONCLUSION
The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj achieved many other brilliant successes. It has
done many philanthropic works without begging for aids from an alien
Government. In 1885 it gave relief to over one hundred villages in and outside Bengal before any other national organization came in to
the field. In 1943-44, with the help of contributions from all India Samajes
and outside help, it fed daily over 6000 hungry people at free gruel kitchens
for months together in Calcutta
and eight villages. The Samaj opened cheap grain shops and charitable
dispensaries for them, distributed clothes and blankets, and provided them with
work. It organized night squads with volunteers to feed the footpath dwellers
with milk and biscuits or bread. Free milk kitchens were opened.
The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj did pioneer work in harijan upliftment over large
parts of India
before Mahatma Gandhi. The Prarthana Samaj of Bombay also gave signal service to the
harijans through Mahatma V.R. Shinde. The spirit of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj
introduced new trends in juvenile literature and journalism. India ’s first labour journal Bharat
Sramjeebee was born. Dasee edited by Ramananda Chatterjee on social service
alone, came out and enjoyed a large circulation. Prabasi (Bengali) and Modern
Review (English) set new standards of journalism introduced certain innovations
which were followed by other journals and became the leading journals of India , founded
and edited by Rammananda Chatterjee of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj who had his
first training in journalism in the Indian Messenger.
In the work of social reform and fight against superstition and casteism,
many members of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj bravely faced disinheritance, various
kinds of tortures or were driven out of their homes. Yet they remained firm and
never yielded. They were never cowed down either by the orthodox society or by
an alien bureaucracy.
In education also, the contributions of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj were
remarkable and creative.
In short, the story of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj is brilliant,
fascinating and instructive and forms the most important chapter in the entire
history of the Brahmo Samaj Movement. It was in this phase of the Sadharan
Brahmo Samaj that the total Brahmo Movement reached its highest peak. The
history of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj played a leading role in shaping the national
movement of the nineteenth century . India culminating in the Swadeshi Movement
of Bengal of 1905 to 1910 which was the First Resistance Movement on a national
scale against the British Government. The leaders of the Swadeshi Movement of
Bengal were mostly either members of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj or sympathizers.
The We would do well to hold up the glorious history of the Sadharan Brahmo
Samaj and national integration in the nineteenth century India before the nation and the
world. Such a record may also serve as a source of inspiration to the New Youth
of the Brahmo Samaj.
Even today, if the Brahmo Samaj Movement lives at all anywhere, it lives
chiefly in the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. So, we should boldly and unfalteringly go
forward in a proper and useful way with a view to bring forth a new Creative
Youth for the guidance of the country and the world.
- The Indian Messenger
