KOLKATA: Modern India, promising to emerge as an economic giant, owed a lot to the Brahmo

movement of the early 19th century, said Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar.

Sircar was delivering a lecture, ‘Brahmo Samaj—Impact on Society’ at the inauguration of the 187th
Maghotsava at Sadharan Brahmo Samaj Mandir, which acted as the cradle of Bengal renaissance, the
stepping stone for modern India. Sircar also unveiled an exhibition of old paintings, lithographs and rare
first editions of Rabindranath Tagore books, part of the collection of art restorer and connoisseur
Ganesh Pratap Singh, at Shibnath Shastri Memorial Hall.

“The Brahmo movement’s single biggest contribution was the emancipation of women in general, their
education in particular. It was a dark period. Education of women was unthinkable, blasphemy. Sisiter
Nivedita had just opened a school for girls and was looking for students, knocking on every door. That
was when Rammohan Roy and Debendranath Tagore took the most challenging task of educating girls. I
am not a Bramho, but every Bengali is a Brahmo at the same time. What we are today is owing to the
Brahmo movement,” said Sircar, adding Brahmo Samaj, as a religious entity, could not be measured by
the number of followers it had, its impact being much greater.

Brahmos took the movement forward by opening one girls’ school after another. Not only that, Sircar
said, think of universal adult franchise. “It was not an import from Europe. Shibnath Shastri, another
doyen of the movement, first wrote about it long before women in America began a fight to vote,” he
added.

The movement started in Kolkata on August 20, 1828, by Roy and Tagore as reformation of the
prevailing Brahminism of the time, especially the Kulin practices. On January 23, 1830 or 11th Magh, the
Adi Brahmo Samaj premises were inaugurated, the day still celebrated by Brahmos as Maghotsava. Art
restorer and collector Ganesh Pratap Singh, who pieced together documents, paintings and lithographs
of Bengal Renaissance, said, “Brahmo Samaj played an important role in shaping modern India.” His
collection offers a glimpse of how Bengali society was at that time.

“In all fields of social reform, including abolition of caste and dowry systems and emancipation of
women, Brahmo Samaj reflected Bengal Renaissance ideologies,” said Prof Sudin Chattopadhyay,
another speaker.

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Are we headed towards extinction?

My son, an articulate young man, and I have discussions about various subjects. Sometimes we agree,
sometimes we agree to disagree. He said that the only answer to the discussion is Yes, we are leading
towaeds extinction. He gave these reasons:

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Brahmos are too conservative

Brahmos are "elitist", and have never paid attention to the common man

No coordination between samajes

Brahmo Institutions enjoy being centres of mediocrity

Minimal social and charitable activities

BS never protests against injustice by way of protests, processions, writing in national newspapers.
Many other organisations do

Non-Brahmos, even educated ones, don't know anything about Brahmo Samaj and its ideals as these
remain unpublicised

Brahmo Samaj is an "honorary" organisation, so there is no dedication

Brahmo Samaj has no relevance in the modern world

He seems logical when he puts forth his arguments. When I look at the present state of Brahmo Samaj
today, I am tempted to agree with him. But I am an incorrigible optimist. So using his reasons as a
starting point, I wish to give my views:

Why did Brahmo Samaj come into being?

In ancient times evolution of spiritual thought resulted in the precepts of Hinduism and Judaism. But as
with all institutions over the years, rigidity set in. This rigidity produced reformers like Buddha
Zarathustra Christ Mahavir. They broke the shackles to propound great thoughts - Mazdayesna of Parsis
Buddhism Christianity, Jainism. The same happened in middle ages; rigidity again set in producing a new
set of reformers like Guru Nanak, Chaitanya, Martin Luther, Calvin. Again in recent times, similar rigidity
produced great thinkers like Raja Rammohun, Swami Dayanand, Ramkrishna Paramhansa,
E.V.Ramaswamy Periyar and others. These great thinkers rejected blind faith and superstition and
promoted rational thinking above rituals. They did not rely solely upon gods or other supernatural
forces. They applied their reasoning power, along with lessons learnt from history and used their
personal experiences to form an ethical and moral foundation.

Brahmo Samaj Has A Glorious Past

In the 19th and early 20th century Brahmo Samaj produced giants - not only in religious thought but also
as social reformers, politics, medicine, science and arts. The Brahmo ethos that they imbibed, helped
them to achieve greatness. But we are producing pygmies nowadays. In his book India: Living with
Modernity Dr Javeed Alam writes, "...In understanding the role and pervasive influence of the Brahmo
Samaj on social thinking in India, it is not important how many people became adherents. It was the
chief intellectual voice of modern reason - a relentless crusader against rituals and ritualism". As
Jawaharlal Nehru had written, "..although a microscopic minority, the brahmo samaj had exerted an
immense influence on Indian society."

Why Brahmo Samaj must not become extinct?

The rigidity I talked about earlier is, unfortunately, creeping in on all societies once more. Hindu Islamic,
Jewish and Christian fundamentalists are promoting hatred and violence. As someone said, "The only
thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. The world is a dangerous place to
live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it"
.We have a responsibility to our forefathers as well as to our children and grand children. We owe it to
society to regain revolutionary fervour. This is the main reason why we must not allow Brahmo Samaj to
become extinct.

Where have we gone wrong?

Early Brahmos were true revolutionaries. Living in today's liberal society can we ever understand the
tremendous courage that was required in those days to defy the existing caste divisions and other unjust
practices? Can we ever feel the fierce persecution they had to endure, not only from society, but often
from their own families? They fought against all odds so that we can live with dignity.

But we have split our tiny organisation into microscopic pieces not due to any ideological reasons. Most
of us believe that the divisions were personal rather than ideological and do not have any relevance
among present day Brahmos. Today, complacency, lack of dedication and clash of personal egos guard
their precious little kingdoms.

My fervent appeal to fellow Brahmos everywhere, that unless we stop thinking about our egos and start
thinking about the good of the Samaj, we are surely headed for extinction. The need of the hour is
cooperation and coordination between samajes not confrontation. Construction takes a long time -
Desctruction takes moments.

Plan of Action

I suggest some simple steps which are not difficult or costly to implement.

List the Samajes

We should have a list of all the Samajes. The Sadharan Brahmo Samajes was unable to produce a list
when I asked for it.

Identify Brahmos

We do not have a comprehensive list of Brahmos. Some lists are available with different Samajes, but
even these are incomplete. So we don't have any idea about our strengths. Let each Samaj compile a list
and circulate it. Also an updated list may be maintained at a Central place, say by CCBS

Youth Activities

Make the Brahmo Samajes attractive, places where our youth want to come, not where they are forced
to come because elders insist. I attend some Christian Church Services. I am pleasantly surprised to see a
large number of young men and women attending services and having weekly meetings in the evenings
to promote social exchange and bonding among themselves. Can't we do the same?

Make Brahmo Institutions as Centres Of Excellence

We seek the best institutions to send our children for education or our ill relatives for medical care. In
any city or town in India, we find that the most coveted schools are run by Christian Missionaries. We
equate Christian education with excellent education, Christian hospitals with excellent healthcare.
Christians are a small minority, but since most decision makers in Government have studied in these
schools, consciously or unconsciously their decision making is influenced by what they have been taught
in their childhood, often in Christian Schools and Colleges. Although Brahmo Samajes and related trusts
run several educational and healthcare institutions all of them are mediocre. Also to the best of my
knowledge, hardly any school, college, hospital, home for the aged have been established in the last 50
years.

This provides an opportunity for us to take action by assisting in better management to make these
Centres of Excellence. Many Brahmos hold or held senior decision-making positions in public life. We
could use their experience to improve Samaj administration

Becoming Centres of Excellence makes economic sense. An efficient, professionally run setup earns
more money. The surplus thus generated can help to establish more educational and healthcare
institutions.

Why are Brahmo Institutions promoting mediocrity? The answer, sadly, is that we are happy to remain
mediocre

Social & Charitable Activities

Occasionally, we hear of good causes that different Samajes have undertaken. If these activities are well
publicised, it will create awareness among public about Brahmo Samaj. It will also develop sense of
togetherness among Samaj members and encourage other Samajes to initiate similar programs.
Various parts of India are regularly faced with floods, droughts, earthquakes and other accidents.
Brahmo Samaj should be in the forefront in assisting when there are such calamities. The local Brahmo
Samaj may set up camps in such areas to provide relief with financial, food, clothing and medical
support provided by other Samajes.

Protest against Injustice

Regrettably, India seems to be going back to these dark ages. Injustice and fundamentalism are rearing
their heads. Innocent people are suffering. Many incidents of oppression and injustice are regularly
published in newspapers. We read these but remain uninvolved, as these do not affect us directly. By
not protesting, we encourage wrong elements. In the 18th and early 19th century, Brahmo Samaj had
always raised their collective voices against social injustice. Sadly, we do not do this any more. We
would like to see Brahmos - collectively and individually - protest loudly when atrocities are committed2

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