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Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
September 26, 1820 - July 29, 1890
১২ই আশ্বন, ১২২৭ - ১৩ই শ্রাবণ, ১২৯৭
 Ishwar
Chandra Vidyasagar was perhaps the most influential personality of the
nineteenth century Bengal. He had touched, influenced and changed so many
aspects of our lives that all of us still feel the sacrifices he made
without even realizing his contributions.
Vidyasagar was born to Thakurdas Bandyopadhyay and Bhagavati Devi in a
village named Birsigha in Midnapore districk of West Bengal (India). He
spent is childhood in extreme poverty. Legend has it that Ishwar learned the
English numbers at the age of eight by following the inscriptions on
milestones when walking with his father to Kolkata.
In 1829, he got admitted to Sanskrit College.
His concentration and quest for knowledge was so intense that he was used to
study on street light as his family couldn't afford gas lamp at home. In
1839, he passed Hindu Law Examination and was honored with the title 'Vidyasagar'
(Ocean of Knowledge).
In 1841, Vidyasagar took the job of a Sanskrit
pundit (professor) at Fort William College in Kolkata (Calcutta). In 1846,
he joined the Sanskrit College as Assistant Secretary. A year later, he and
a friend of his, Madan Mohan Tarkalankar, set up the Sanskrit Press and
Depository, a print shop and a bookstore.
While Vidyasagar was working at the Sanskrit
College, some serious differences arose between him and Rasamoy Dutta who
was then the Secretary of the College, and so he resigned in 1849. One of
the issues was that while Rasamoy Dutta wanted the College to remain a
Brahmin preserve, Vidyasagar wanted it to be opened to students from all
castes. Later, Vidyasagar rejoined the College with a pre-condition that he
will be given a free hand to overhaul and reform the college syllabii.
Vidyasagar was one of the first persons in
India to realize that modern science was the key to India's future. He
translated into Bengali the English biographies of some outstanding
scientists like Copernicus, Newton, and Herschel. He sought to inculcate a
spirit of scientific inquiry into young Bengalis. A staunch anti-Berkeleyan
(George Berkeley's idealism that there was indeed no "real" knowable object
behind one's perception and that what was "real" was the perception itself),
he emphasized the importance of studying European Empiricist philosophy (of
Francis Bacon) and the inductive logic of [John Stuart Mill].
Vidyasagar was a philosopher, academic,
educator, writer, translator, printer, publisher, entrepreneur, reformer and
philanthropist. He spent a great deal of time to uplift the state and
stature of women in the society. In the face of severe opposition from the
Hindu establishment, Vidyasagar vigorously promoted the idea that regardless
of their caste, both men and women should receive the best education. He
fought against Hindu orthodoxy that prevented Hindu widows from re-marrying.
He encouraged his son to marry a widow and often paid financial incentives
to those who married widows. He was strongly against polygamy. He introduced
the 'Hindu Family Annuity Fund' for widows who could not re-marry.
Vidyasagar took the initiative in proposing and pushing through the Widow
Remarriage Act XV of 1856 in India.
Vidyasagar understood that women cannot be
uplifted in society with education. He opened as many as 1200 schools for
women in those early days of women education. He was the secretary and one
of the founders of in
Bethune College. Vidyasagar was also one of
the founders of
University of Calcutta which was
established in 1857. With help from some friends, in 1859 he established
Calcutta Training School. This school was later named as Metropolition
Institution and later was converted to a college named after him as
Vidyasagar College.
When he realized that there were hardly any
good books for basic education, he wrote several Bengali books with basic
language construct and fundamentals, like, "Barnaparichay", "Bodhoday" and "Kathamala"
(Aesop’s fables) etc. and then easy grammar books like "Upakramonika"
and "Byakaron Kaumudi". He also introduced some basic books for Mathematical
logic. Vidyasagar translated some masterpieces of Sanskrit and English
literature into Bengali: "Betaal Panchabingshati, Kathasarit Sagar, "Shakuntala"
(all from Sanskrit), "Bhranti Bilaas" (from Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors).
Rabindranath Tagore called him the father of modern Bengali language.
Vidyasagar was a first-rate linguist. He
reconstructed the Bengali alphabet, rationalized them and reformed Bengali
typography into a set of alphabets comprising of twelve vowels and forty
consonants. So profound is his contribution to the Bengali language that
Rabidranath Tagore called him the "Father of Bengali Modern Language".
Bold and articulate life style, honesty,
strong determination, self respect, tenacity to fight against all odds -
these characteristics made him a legendary personality in the era of Bengal
renaissance. His strength of character became proverbial. His love, respect,
and devotion towards his mother is exemplary. He was also known for his
charity and philanthropy and was called as "Daya-r sagar" - ocean of
kindness. Renowned poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta wrote about him - "The
genius and wisdom of an ancient sage, the energy of an Englishman and the
heart of a Bengali mother". In 29th July, 1891, this great personality died.
Shortly after Vidyasagar's death, Rabindranath
Tagore reverently wrote about him: "One wonders how God, in the process of
producing forty million Bengalis, produced a man!"
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