Why Vidyasagar continues to rule the hearts of Bengalis

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, who was born on September 26, 1820, was a 19th century social reformer and intellectual giant who, on one hand, helped usher in path breaking reform in upper caste Hindu society, while on the other, reconstructed the modern Bengali alphabet.

While not as well known outside Bengal as some other figures of the 19th-century Bengal Renaissance, Vidyasagar remains a cultural icon in the state, someone whose influence can be felt till date.

In the footsteps of Raja Ram Mohan Roy

The Bengal Renaissance was the product of a number of coinciding circumstances: the advent of British rule; the spread of English education and Western science and philosophy; the rise of interest in Ancient India, including its literary and philosophical traditions; and an economic boom that quickly made Calcutta a bustling city, and created a new middle class.

Many historians believe that the cultural, social, intellectual, and artistic reawakening began with the efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833), a social reformer most known for his campaign against sati and for founding the Brahmo Samaj, a reformist religious movement. In many ways, Vidyasagar, who was born in the decade Roy helped establish the Brahmo Samaj (1828) and the practice of sati was banned in Bengal (1829), carried forward the mantle of Roy.

A polymath, Vidyasagar was an expert in Sanskrit grammar and literature, the philosophy of Vedanta, logic, astronomy, English literature, Western philosophy, and, perhaps most importantly Hindu law. Like Roy, Vidyasagar cited Hindu scriptures to argue against a number of social evils, most notably, the practice of child marriage and the ban on widow remarriage.

Advocate of women’s issues

In a monograph published in 1850 in the Calcutta-based Bengali periodical Sarva Subhakari, Vidyasagar launched a scathing attack on those marrying of girls aged 10 or even younger, highlighting social, ethical, and health issues, and rejecting the validity of the dharma shastras that advocated for it.

“Marrying off an eight-year-old daughter is a holy act of gauri-daan (marrying the daughter off before her first period)…; giving away a nine-year-old daughter is as precious as giving away one’s prized land; arranging a groom for a 10-year-old daughter will lead the parents to heaven…all kinds of imaginations, [faulty] interpretation of religious texts, living in a delusional dream…has led this country’s humanity to normalise child-marriage,” he wrote (translated).

In a couple of articles in 1855, Vidyasagar advocated for the remarriage of Hindu widows, arguing that there was no prohibition on widow remarriage in the entire body of Smriti literature.

“I did not take up my pen before I was fully convinced that the shastras explicitly sanction their remarriage. This conviction I have come to after a diligent, dispassionate and careful examination of the subject and I can now safely affirm that in the whole range of our original Smritis there is not one single text which can establish anything to the contrary,” he wrote.

“Countrymen! How long will you suffer yourselves to be led away by illusions?…Habit has so darkened your intellect and blunted your feelings, that it is impossible for you to have compassion for your helpless widows.”

Vidyasagar’s writings were influential. They caused a sensation in upper caste Bengali society, and forced the administration to take notice.

On October 14, 1855, days after his second article was published, Vidyasagar petitioned the government to pass a law “to remove all obstacles to the marriage of Hindu widows and to declare the issue of all such marriages to be legitimate”.

The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, a progressive legislation that effectively removed legal obstacles for the remarriage of widows in all East India Company jurisdictions, was passed in 1856 as a result of Vidyasagar’s efforts.

Later, Vidyasagar also led a campaign against polygamy among certain Brahmins, and called on the British administration to ban the practice. He would also open and operate a number of schools for girls.

Enduring resonance in Bengal

Vidyasagar is celebrated in Bengal as a great rationalist, one of the most towering figures in the Bengal Rennaissance. Michael Madhusudan Dutt, the 19th-century pioneer of Bengali drama, described him as having “the genius and wisdom of an ancient sage, the energy of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother”.

He also continues to touch daily lives in Bengal till date. Vidyasagar’s Bengali primer, Borno Porichoy, remains the introduction to the alphabet for nearly all Bengali children, almost 130 years after his passing in 1891.

This is perhaps why he is a nearly universally liked figure in Bengal, in some ways, the quintessential Bengali ideal.

In 2019, during a clash between BJP- and TMC-linked student unions on the premises of the Vidyasagar College in North Calcutta, a bust of the social reformer was vandalised. The clash occurred during a roadshow held by Shah.

While the BJP issued denial after denial, the TMC pinned the blame for the vandalism on the party it painted as an “outsider”, accusing it of hurting Bengali sentiments.

“Biddashagor (Vidyasagar) is an emotion in Bengal,” TMC Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brian said, while wiping away a tear, during a charged press conference. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later called Shah a goonda. “If they really attacked Biddashagor, then I am forced to call Amit Shah a goonda,” she said.

This outsider narrative was central to the TMC retaining the state Assembly in the 2021, even as the saffron party made inroads into Bengal. And ahead of Assembly elections next year, the incumbent party is returning to the same playbook, even as Shah seeks to make up for some of the bad press his party received in 2019.

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