The Era of Bengali Rennaissance – A Legacy of the Hallowed Sons of Bengal

: The Bengal Renaissance (Bengali: বাাংলার নবজাগরণ — Banglar Navajagaran), also known as the Bengali Renaissance, was a cultural, social, intellectual, and artistic movement that took place in the Bengal region of the British Raj, from the late 18th century to the early 20th century.Historians have traced the beginnings of the movement to the victory of the British East India Company at the 1757 Battle of Plassey, as well as the works of reformer Raja Rammohan Roy, considered the "Father of the Bengal Renaissance," born in 1772.[2] Nitish Sengupta stated that the movement "can be said to have … ended with Rabindranath Tagore," Asia's first Nobel laureate. Print language and literature played a vital role in shaping ideas and identities in colonial Bengal from the 18th century onwards. With its adoption by the ruling class and the indigenous population, Bengali marked a site that also oversaw contests for domination across a broad social spectrum. For the latter moreover, the language also defined their cultural identity, as part of the attempt to create a new literary prose Bengali to distinguish it from earlier colloquial forms. The new Bengali became an essential tool for the urban, educated upper middle classes to establish their power over lesser privileged groups - women, the lowly classes and poor Muslims. However, commercial print cultures that emanated from numerous cheap presses in Calcutta and its suburbs disseminated wide-ranging literary preferences that afforded a space to different sections of the Bengali middle classes to voice their own distinctive concerns.

For over 500 years, the city of London has provided food for thought to Bengali intelligentsia back in Calcutta, now Kolkata. Throughout the duration of East India Company rule in India, there were calls for greater power for Indians in their own land starting from greater autonomy, social justice and finally outright independence. This brought leading intellectuals to London, many of whom finally shaped the famed nineteenth century Bengali Renaissance. This is a journey to some of the less visited places in London which bear the legacy of some hallowed sons of Bengal. emerged, and with it the novel and modern blank verse; old arguments about religion,society, and the lives of women were overturned; great schools and colleges were created; new ideassurfaced in science. And all these changes were led by a handful of remarkable men and women. Forthe first time comes a gripping narrative about the Bengal renaissance recounted through the livesof all its players from rammohun roy to Rabindranath Tagore. Immaculately researched, told with color, drama, and passion, awakening is a stunning achievement.
Culture of Bengal Through the Ages-Some Aspects by BHASKAR CHATTOPADHYAY talks about Bengali culture originated and developed in the land where the growth of Bengali language and literature had occurred. The land was bounded by the Himalayan countries, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan in the north, the Brahmaputra in the north-east, Dvaravanga (Darbhanga) in the north-west, the chain of Garo-Khasia-Jayantia-Tripura-Chattagrama hills extended to the south sea in the east, the mountainous forest-infested plateau of Rajmahal-Santal Pargana-Chhotangpur-Manbhum-Dhalbham-Keonjhar-Mayarbhanj in the west and the Bay of Bengal in the south. This land, inhabited by the Bengali speaking people, comprised a number of Janapadas in the early period, of which Gauda, Pundra and Varendra lay in the north, Radha and Suhma in the west, and Vanga, Vangala, Samatata and Harike.la in the east. The Bhagirathi-Hooghly, in its downward course to the Bay of Bengal, marked the boundary between Radha and Vanga. The Muslims, having conquered North and West Bengal, named the territory under their possession as Lakhawati that had two wings on either side of the river Ganga (Gang) viz. Radha (ral) on the western side and Varendra (Barind) on the eastern side. The Portuguese, having brought coastal Bengal under their occupation in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries, referred to Chattagrama as the City of, Bengala. Bengala was most probably derived from Vangala. The Portuguese referred to the people of this country as Bengalas and their language as Bengali. The nomenclature originally applied to coastal Bengal was later used for the entire land stretching from the foot of the Himalayas to the coasts of the Bay of Bengal. The history of the culture of Bengal may be traced from the pre-and proto-historic age. This is evident from the discovery of Paleolithic, microlithic, Neolithic and chalcolithic tools and implements in different parts of the country. While the Paleolithic men in Bengal, as in other parts of India, were at the stage of savagery, collecting food from jungles and leading a community life, the Neolithic men learnt the art of producing food, manufacturing potteries, igniting fire and cooking their meals and thus reached the stage of barbarism. "Indian type of feudalism" that had its beginning in early medieval Bengal was consolidated under the Sultans of Bengal. Rural economy based on agriculture was the foundation upon which was set up the super-structure of Bengali culture. Agriculture, along with small industries, constituted the selfsufficiency of the village-economy. The extent of landholding determined the social status of the people. The position of poor peasants, the degraded sudras, was reduced to that of serfs. The Serfs and the womenfolk were deprived of social and religious rights and privileges. Sri Chaitanya was the first man who started a movement with an objective to establish an equality of rights and privileges. "The Renaissance which we owe to English rule in the nineteenth century had a precursor-a faint glimmer of dawn no doubt two hundred and fifty years earlier" and that is `Chaitanya Renaissance'. The 'Nineteenth Century Renaissance' in Bengal was infact, the creation of the English-educated middle class people. The cultural development centered in and around Calcutta and had the remotest link with the villages inhabited by the eighty percent of the population of Bengal. The renaissance, of course, reflected the intellectual attainment but failed to bring about any change in the society and economy. European mercantilism touched on the fringes of the society. The predominance of the village-based agrarian economy remained undisturbed. Neither the peasants and artisans in the villages, nor the labourers and small traders living in Calcutta itself, could participate in the cultural progress of nineteenth century Bengal. The regeneration in society and culture did not grow from the roots in the soil. The type of education that the English rulers had introduced in Bengal was for the privileged few. The vast mass of illiterate people wallowed in complete ignorance. In this background, socio-religious reforms or social legislations, engineered by the upper class in collaboration with the government, could hardly be appreciated by the majority of the people. The emancipation of women and Sudras, that was promised by the reformation movement of Chaitanya, was echoed in the speeches and writings of the nineteenth century Bengali intellectuals. Vivekananda's programme of upliftment of the poor and downtrodden and Rabindranath's experiments in rural reconstruction remain yet to be fulfilled. Tagore's efforts for the revival of rural economy by the application of modern science and technology and also for the regeneration of rural culture comprising folk art, dance, music and literature, with somewhat urban sophistication and refinement, indicate the trends in the twentyieth century Bengali culture.
The History of Bengal: Hindu Period by R.C. Majumdar is also another important book on the topic. The first volume covers the history of the undivided ancient Bengal from the pre-Mauryan to the Sena period. It contains 17 chapters, which cover the Hindu period, and is profusely illustrated with maps and plates. The volume begins with the origins of the Bengali people and the ancient principalities during the pre-Mauryan period. A large part of the work covers the political history of Bengal under the Mauryan, Gupta, Pala, and Sena periods. It also covers the history of Bengali literature, the influence of Vedic and Buddhist literary traditions, and the emergence of vernacular proto-Bengali literature. Then there is a discussion on the religious history, social and economic history, art and architecture of Hindu Bengal. Interestingly, this volume also covers the Bengali diaspora during the ancient period.
Bengali Culture Over a Thousand Years by Ghulam Murshid talks about art, literature, music and other intellectual expressions of a particular society are together regarded as the culture of that society. Ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular people or society are also its 'culture'. Contrary to what we think, it is not easy to describe 'culture', nor is it easy to write the cultural history. Writing the history of Bengali culture is even more difficult because Bengali society is truly plural in its nature, made even more so by its political division. The two main religious communities that share this culture are often more aware of the differences between them than the similarities. Nonetheless, the people remain bound by history and a shared language and literature. Ghulam Murshid's Bengali Culture over a Thousand Years is the first non-partisan and holistic discussion of Bengali culture. Written for the general reader, the language is simple and the style lucid. It shows how the individual ingredients of Bengali culture have evolved and found expression, in the context of political developments and how certain individuals have moulded culture. Above all, the book presents the identity and special qualities of Bengali culture.The book was originally published in Bengali in Dhaka in 2006. Print and Publishing in Colonial Bengal by Roy Tapti, Taylor & Francis is an important book. This book reconstructs the history of print and publishing in colonial Bengal by tracing the unexpected journey of Bharat Chandra's Bidyasundar, the first book published by a Bengali entrepreneur. It examines how local enterprises engaged in producing and selling books charted out a cultural space in the 19th century. The Bengalis: A Portrait of a Community by Sudeep Chakravarti says that the Bengalis are the third largest ethno-linguistic group in the world, after the Han Chinese and the Arabs. A quarter of a billion strong and growing, the community has produced three Nobel laureates, world-class scientists, legendary political leaders and revolutionaries, iconic movie stars and directors and an unending stream of writers, philosophers, painters, poets and musicians of the first rank. But, bald facts aside, just who are the Bengalis? What is the community all about, stereotypically and beyond stereotype? In order to find the answers to these and related questions, the author (a Bengali born and steeped in his own culture but objective enough to give us a balanced reckoning of his fellows) delves deep into the culture, literature, history and social mores of the Bengalis. He writes with acuity about the many strengths of the community but does not flinch from showing us its weaknesses and tormented history. He points out that Bengalis are among the most civilized and intellectually refined people on earth but have also been responsible for genocide and racism of the worst kind. Their cuisine is justly celebrated, but few remember the cause and effect of millions of Bengalis dying of famine. Renowned for their liberal attitudes, they are also capable of virulent religious fundamentalism. Argumentative and meditative, pompous and grounded, hypocritical and wise, flippant and deep -Bengalis are all this and much, much more. With erudition, wit and empathy, this book manages to capture their very essence. Unarguably, it is the definitive portrait of one of the world's most vibrant and distinctive communities. Hour Of The Goddess: Memories of Women, Food and Ritual in Bengal by Chitrita Banerji says that food constitutes an integral aspect of the intellectual and cultural milieu of Bengal, and rituals, social customs and day-to-day routine are closely intertwined with the preparation of traditional dishes by the women of the household. The quintessential Bengali emphasis on food was brilliantly encapsulated by Chitrita Banerji in Life and Food in Bengal. In The Hour of the Goddess, she returns with an unbeatable combination of cultural insight, personal anecdote and mouth watering recipes. Intimate yet objective, it examines the complex connection between gender and food preparation, and the intricate relationship between food, ritual and art in Bengal. Written in her inimitable style, the book takes the reader on a journey that spans Banerji's personal growth from girlhood to womanhood in Calcutta. Gastronomy and social commentary combine to form a lucid, thoroughly enjoyable book that covers, among other things, offerings made to gods, restrictions imposed on widows, cooking tools, the role played by maidservants in Bengali households, and customs associated with eating. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, The Hour of the Goddess is a finely crafted masterpiece that is at once memoir, food guide and cultural history.

ANALYSIS OF THE STUDY:
A History of British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance in the Twentieth Century Bengal Renaissance in eastern India began in 1773 when Warren Hastings designated Calcutta as the capital of British India until Lord Bentinck challenged Orientalist cultural policy in 1828. During this time period, Calcutta's schools adopted European text booksand teaching methods. In addition, the Hindu middle class established Hindu College, the only Western-style university in South Asia. Newspapers, magazines, and books in both English and Indian vernacular languages were supported by the government. Calcutta's public library had all the latest technology. To put it another way: The city had its own "intelligentsia" that was knowledgeable about European politics, aware of their own country's history, and optimistic about the future of their own culture Among Bengalis during the Orientalist era, Rammohun Roy (1772-1833) had the greatest impact on Hindu socio religious reform. Before Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission, before Nehru wrote the monumental Discovery of India in a British prison, and before Gandhi built his nationalist ideology on the bedrock of Hindu and Buddhist morality, Rammohun was already using the Orientalist rediscovery of the ancient tradition. They shared their thoughts on 19th-century Western civilization with Rammohun while he was in Calcutta. Danish missionaries in the Serampore enclave had been unsuccessful in their efforts to convert Rammohun to their Baptist form of Protestantism. Christianity saved some intellectuals who were xenophiles because they realised that modernization was synonymous with Westernization. The Orientalist study of Hindu antiquity reveals that Rammohun made a comparison between his own time and classical India, which was free of dark-age deformities like caste rigidity, idolatry, and abuse of women. He and other reformers in Calcutta had grown tired of the same dubious beliefs and practises that bothered them there, so Rammohun decided to reform Hinduism. Founded in Calcutta by Rammohun and died while visiting the Bristol home of Reverend LantCarpenter, Calcutta Unitarian Society was named after him. William Ellery Channing, a prominent Unitarian preacher in the United States, would have met Rammohun had he been alive today. However, even though Unitarianism wasn't a large-scale movement, it brought together Indians and Westerners with a shared belief in the importance of religion and society, which had a significant impact on social and religious reform. Three simple but highly controversial ideas (1815-1835) united the renaissance intelligentsia of Calcutta with the enlightened, liberalminded elites of England and the United States.
In 1830, the Father of Modern India Rammohan Roy had travelled to London as an envoy the Mughal emperor Akbar Shah II, who invested him with the title of Raja. He stayed in London at the house of Joseph Hare, brother of celebrated Indologist David Hare, in Bedford Square, before moving to Bristol. While in London, he campaigned on behalf of 1832 Reform Act as well as spread his Unitarian message of Brahmo Samaj in UK, a legacy later carried forward by another stalwart, Keshab Chandra Sen, evidences of which can still be seen at Lewin's Chapel. West of London, the town of Bristol carries forward the legacy of the Raja even to this day. He died at Stapleton, on 27 September 1833 of meningitis and was reburied at the prestigious newly built Arnos Vale Cemetery in southern Bristol in an ornate mausoleum designed by William Princep and funded by Prince Dwarakanath. The Raja is celebrated in Bristol, with a nine feet statue on College Green, close to Bristol Cathedral where the annual commemoration happens in September every year. Entrepreneur, philanthropist and the leading force behind the first joint stock commercial bank in India (Union Bank), Prince Dwarakanath Tagore was known in Britain for his lavish parties with royalty and generous donations to charities. He had an untimely death at the age of 52 in 1846 in the company of just two members of his huge familya son and a nephew at Brown Hotel in central London. It is said that Queen Victoria had sent four carriages for his last journey-quite a princely send off. Dwarakanath rests in peace at the prestigious Kensal Green Cemetery at a simple grey grave which sadly never got visited thereafter by most of his illustrious descendants due to family strife. Our journey takes us to Heath Hampstead in north-west London which hosted grandson of Dwarakanath and perhaps the most celebrated son of India, Rabindranath in 1912. The poet philosopher had brought with him English translations of Gitanjali which he read out to his friends including WB Yeats, CF Andrews at this residence. Interestingly soon after his arrival in UK, the Bard had left the attaché case containing the only manuscript of Gitanjali on the Underground train from Charing Cross. Finally this got recovered from the Lost Property office of the London Underground the following day and the rest is history! Asia got its first Nobel Laureate in 1913. Tagore enjoys his pride of place at the birthplace of England's own Bard, William Shakespeare at Stratford upon Avon. The gardens host a bronze bust of Tagore with an ivory tablet of his poem written in 1916 to mark the Tercentenary of Shakespeare's death. Indian nationalist and Hindu philosopher Aurobindo Ghosh spent his formative years at Shepherd's Bush, London. Son of a noted Indian Civil doctor, Aurobindo attended school at St Pauls from 1884 and was known for his rare talent especially in languages and history at a tender age. He later secured admission to Cambridge and passed ICS successfully before joining the freedom movement in India. His brother Manmohan Ghose, an 1890's poet was actively associated with the Rhymers' Club (known for its aestheticism). Staying with nationalists in London was the founder president of Indian National Congress and a distinguished son of Bengal, WC Bonnerjee. An accomplished barrister, Bonnerjee, to further his career, bought a large house at Croydon in 1890 which he named Kidderpore, after his Kolkata house's locality. While his paternal house in Kolkata (Girish Park) is in shambles now, London's Kidderpore House where Bonnerjee lived until his death in 1902 survives the test of time gloriously. The last leg of this tour brings us to Pimlico off the Victoria station which hosted the monk philosopher Swami Vivekananda in 1896. His brother Mohendra was in London to study law and Vivekananda joined him in summer to spread the message of Vedanta philosophy conducting numerous classes amongst his students and disciples the most noteworthy being Margaret Noble (later Sister Nivedita). He was able to capture many minds with his non-sectarian universal message of truth. Calcutta being the capital of imperial India, London has welcomed Bengalis with open arms. Various corners of the city still bear testimony to their achievements which later sowed the seeds of modern independent India. As eminent historian Sir Jadunath Sarkar(1928) noted, "The greatest gift of the English (to India) is … the Renaissance which marked our 19th century. Modern India owes everything to it".

SCIENCE:
During the Bengal Renaissance science was also advanced by several Bengali scientists such as Satyendra Nath Bose, Anil Kumar Gain, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Jagadish Chandra Bose and Meghnad Saha. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was a polymath: a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist , and writer of science fiction. [8] He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent. [9] He is considered one of the fathers of radio science, [10] and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. He was the first from the Indian subcontinent to get a US patent, in 1904. Anil Kumar Gain and Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis were leading mathematicians and statisticians of their time. Gain went on to found Vidyasagar University, while Mahalanobis laid the foundation of the Indian Statistical Institute. Satyendra Nath Bose was a physicist, specializing in mathematical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose-Einstein condensate. He is honoured as the namesake of the boson. Although more than one Nobel Prize was awarded for research related to the concepts of the boson, Bose-Einstein statistics and Bose-Einstein condensate-the latest being the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, which was given for advancing the theory of Bose-Einstein condensates-Bose himself was never awarded the Nobel Prize. record of patronage of printed works. Bookstores had multiplied throughout Calcutta and education had become a sought-after commodity. The socio-intellectual adventure would not be confined to Calcutta or to Bengal, but culture would spread to other metropolitan centers with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds such as Bombay and Madras