Course IB-105 Bangladesh Studies (session 2022-23) Lecture 16 Bengal Renaissance And Reform Movements Bengal Renaissance • What is Renaissance? • It is a French word which connotes rebirth. • Cambridge Dictionary defined it as: – a new growth of activity or interest in something, especially art, literature, or music • The Renaissance was the period in Europe, especially Italy, in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, when there was a new interest in art, literature, science, and learning. Michelangelo’s Pietà, St Peter’s Basilica (1498–99) Abduction of a Sabine Woman Giambologna The composition is shown in a spiral movement. Bengal Renaissance • It was the social, cultural, psychological, and intellectual changes in Bengal during the nineteenth century, as a result of contact between certain sympathetic British officials and missionaries on the one hand, and the Hindu intelligentsia on the other. • The setting for the Bengal Renaissance was the colonial metropolis of Calcutta. Why in Calcutta? • Before 1830, earlier than any other Asian city, Calcutta already had a school system using European methods of instruction and textbooks. • On their own initiative, the urban elite had founded Hindu College, the only European-style institution of higher learning in Asia. Why in Calcutta? • Newspapers, periodicals, and books were being published regularly in English and Bangla • The city had a public library in European style. • Calcutta also boasted a native intelligentsia conversant with events in Europe, aware of its own historical heritage, and progressively alert about its own future in the modern world. Hindu College • It was founded on 20 January 1817 in Calcutta • The prime objective was providing tuition to the sons of respectable Hindus, in the English and Indian languages and in the literature and science of Europe and Asia. • It played a very significant role in the socio-cultural life of Bengal. Hindu College Hindu College ❖The Hindu College was originally divided into two sections(A) Pathshala: School section It imparted instruction in English, Bangla, Grammar and Arithmetic (B) Mahapathshala: College Section Where Languages, History, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Mathematics, Chemistry and other sciences were taught . ❖On the opening day there were 20 pupils on the rolls but within the next three months the ❖Four Aspects of the Bengal Renaissance ❖First: there was the modernization of the Bengali language and the simultaneous birth of a new Bangali literature. ❖Secondly: there was the rediscovery of, and identification with an Indian classical era hailed as a golden age which placed South Asian civilisation on a par with the grandeur of Greece and Rome. ❖Thirdly: there was the Serampore missionary interpretation of the Protestation Reformation, which Indians applied creatively to their own historic situation. ❖Fourthly: there was the secular view of universal progress on which India's hope lay not in resurrecting the past but in projecting the golden age into the future. Serampore Mission ➢ India's first Christian missionary organisation. ➢ William Carry and his two associates established this mission on 10 January 1800. ➢ The Mission started preaching the message of Jesus from two places in Hughli district, West Bengal. ➢ The first Catholic Church in this district was established at Bandel in 1599. ➢ About two hundred years later a Protestant Church was built in Serampore in 1800 CE. ➢ William Carey established this Church and the mission on 17 August 1761. ➢ It was through his initiative that the Baptist Missionary Society was formed. • The College of Fort William hired the Baptist missionary, William Carey in 1801 as head of the Bangali Department every available kind of financial, technological, and human resource was put at his disposal. • With an unlimited budget and a capable staff of Brahman pundits, Carey found himself in a most enviable position. • His dream of creating a cadre of cultural intermediaries, who would disclose to him the secrets of indigenous culture while also being persuaded to disseminate Christianity to their own countrymen, seemed closer to realisation. Ram Comul Sen the earliest known Renaissance scholar • Born in a Hughly village in 1790 and his father was proficient in Persian. • Sen moved to Calcutta at the age of seven and while there learned English, Sanskrit, and Persian. • He published the first modern Dictionary of the English and Bengalee languages in 1834. • Persian helped him establish his credentials as an indigenous member of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. • He interacted with the Orientalists and worked on their publications. Sen was especially friendly with HH Wilson who helped promote the Bangali as an intellectual entrepreneur who left an estate of 1,000,000 rupees when he died in 1844. • If the Bengal Renaissance produced one outstanding progenitor who imbibed the Orientalist contribution as effectively as he did linguistic and literary modernization and the effective defense of Hindu theism against the double-edged challenge of Christianity and secularism, it would be Rammohun Roy (d. 1833). • Secularism: the fourth aspect of the Bengal Renaissance, was the least influenced by British Orientalism, and its appeal to that segment of the intelligentsia who sought the true Hinduism in remote ages of gold. • The Young Bengal Movement of the students at Hindu College, rejected the idea of seeking answers to India's decadence in the historic dimension instead of advocating cultural change by looking to the future. • Originally nurtured by Henry Derozio, a teacher at the College in English literature during his brief but influential tenure between 1828 and 1831. • Young Bengal imbibed the secular progressive spirit of the contemporary West, which they interpreted as entirely future-oriented. Reform Movements Reform Movements • Muslim Religious Movements of nineteenth century Bengal were mainly revivalist • But also partly liberal modernist reformist in nature. The Islamic Reform Movements – Faraizi, – Tariqah-i-Muhammadiyah, – Taaiyuni and – Ahale Hadis • These were revivalist in character and stirred deep religious sentiments among Muslims throughout east, west and north Bengal, and succeeded considerably in rousing the Muslim masses to action. Faraizi Movement • A nineteenth century religious reform movement launched by Haji Shariatullah. • The term Faraizi is derived from 'farz' meaning obligatory duties enjoined by Allah. • The Faraizis are, therefore, those who aim at enforcing the obligatory religious duties. • The exponent of the movement, Haji Shariatullah, interpreted the term in a broader sense to include all religious duties enjoined by the Quran as well as by the Sunnah of the Prophet (Sm). • Haji Shariatullah regarded British rule in Bengal as injurious to the religious life of the Muslims. • In pursuance of the Hanafi law he was of the opinion that the absence of a lawfully appointed Muslim caliph or representative administrator in Bengal deprived the Muslims of the privilege of holding congregational prayers. • To the Faraizis, Friday congregation was unjustified in a non-Muslim stale like Bengal. • The Faraizi movement spread with extraordinary rapidity in the districts of Dhaka, Faridpur, Bakerganj, Mymensingh, Tippera (Comilla), Chittagong and Noakhali as well as to the province of Assam. • The movement, however, gained the greatest momentum in those places where the Muslim peasantries were depressed under the oppressive domination of Hindu zamindars and European indigo planters. • The leader of the Faraizis was called Ustad or teacher and his disciples Shagird or students instead of using the terms like pir and murid. • A person so initiated into the Faraizi fold was called Tawbar Muslim or Mumin. The Faraizi Doctrines (i) Tawbah i.e. to be penitent for past sins as a measure for the purification of soul; (ii) Farz: to observe strictly the obligatory duties (iii) Tawhid or Unitarianism as enunciated by the Quran; (iv) India being Dar-ul-Harb, Jum'ah and Eid congregations were not obligatory and (v) Denouncing all popular rites and ceremonies, which had no reference to the Quran and Prophetic traditions, as sinful innovations.
