Birthday Tribute to Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: A Philanthropic Protagonist

      From Raja Ram Mohan Roy to Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, all the leading personalities of the nineteenth century (including Gurudev Rabindranath and Swami Vivekananda) were in one way or another influenced by 'universal rationalism' and because of them many social reforms took place in those days in Bengal.  Among the top leading personalities, on 26September in 1820 Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay/ presently many Bengalis write Banerjee instead of Bandyopadhyay i.e. inter changeably used) was born in then Bengal, present West Bengal of India. Because of his immense knowledge and wisdom, he is known as Vidyasagar means ‘Knowledge of Ocean’. He was also known as ‘Dayar Sagar’ or ‘Karunar Sagar’ (meaning ocean of kindness) because of his generous nature and kindness. His enormous contribution for the development of the society is gratefully remembered by all not only in India but also in Bangladesh which I observed when I was in Bangladesh. He was asocial reformer and advocated widow remarriage and worked against polygamy. Because of his initiative, the Widow Remarriage Act was passed in 1856 making the widow marriage legal.   Ishwar Chandra ji worked relentlessly to deliver equal education to all men and women irrespective of their caste, religion and gender. He was a great figure for the promotion of women education. According to him, with education only women can live in society with dignity. Vidyasagar ji lobbied for girls’ school and for this; he went door to door requesting heads of families to allow their daughters to admit inthe schools. And it is believed that he could open 35 schools for girls throughout Bengal where around 1300 students were enrolled. It is pertinent to mention that because of his hard labour and subsequent support received from John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune, the first girls’ school in India, the Bethune School was established on 7 May, 1849 in Calcutta, now Kolkata. From1 May 1855, Vidyasagar was appointed as the Principal of Sanskrit College and also as Assistant Inspector of Bengali Schools in four districts of southern Bengal: Nadia, Hooghly, Burdwan and Medinipur. He toured the ends of four districts. One of his achievements was to establish a total of 20 'Model' /Adarsh Bangla schools, five in each district from 22 August 1855 to 14January 1858.He worked as a Sanskrit professor in Sanskrit College, Calcutta. While he was principal of the college undertook some reforms and one was admission of students belonging to marginalised groups (present SC/ST) as earlier they were not allowed admission. Further, when he was Professor in Sanskrit College successfully included English and Bengali as medium of learning, in addition to Sanskrit. During his lifetime, Vidyasagar wrote many books and thus enriched the education system. In present days, he is remembered inmany ways, inter alia of which are: Vidyasagar Setu, a bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal; Vidyasagar College in Kolkata is named after him, as well as Vidyasagar University in Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal; for his selfless service for the marginalised people of then Bihar present Jharkhand, a railway station has been named as Vidyasagar Station in Jamtara district of Jharkhand and Indian Post and Telegraph Department issued commemorative stamp in the name of Vidyasagar  in 1970 on occasion of his 150 birth anniversary.       In addition to above, I have observed many people across India keep their son’s name Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar/ Vidyasagar (prefix as family name). When I visited Bangladesh I was astonished to observe his popularity among the people of Bangladesh.   Vidyasagar ji although had passed away on 29 July, 1891 but many still remember across India and Bangladesh. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore respectfully in 1891, soon after the death of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar ji wrote, “One wonders, how God, in the process of producing forty million Bengalis, produced a man.”

Dr Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad