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Unit 3: Socio-Religious Reforms Movement

no place for priesthood in the Samaj nor sacrifices of any kind were allowed. The worship was Notes
performed through prayers and meditation and readings from the Upanishads. Great emphasis
was laid on “promotion of charity, morality, piety, benevolence, virtue and strengthening of the
bonds of union between men of all religious persuasions and creeds”

“Rammohan Roy was the herald of new age” and the fire he kindled in India has brunt
ever since. Rammohan Roy accepted the concept of one God as propounded by the
upanishads.

It should be clearly understood that Rammohan Roy never intended to establish a new religion.
He only wanted to purge Hinduism of the evil practices that had crept into it. Roy remained a
devout Hindu till the end if his life and always wore the sacred thread.
From the beginning the appeal of the Brahmo Samaj had remained limited to the intellectuals and
educationally enlightened Bengalis living in the towns. The orthodox Hindus led by Raja Radhakant Deb
organised the Dharma Sabha with the object of countering the propaganda of Brahmo Samaj. The early
death of Rammohan in 1833 left the Brahmo Samaj without the guiding soul and a steady decline set in.
The informal association of the two Sabhas gave a new strength in membership and purpose to the
Brahmo Samaj. Tagore worked on two fronts. Within Hinduism the Brahmo Samaj was a reformist
movement, outside he resolutely opposed the Christian missionaries for their criticism of Hinduism
and their attempts at conversion. Tagore condemned idol worship, discouraged pilgrimages,
ceremonials and penances among the Brahoms. Under his leadership branches of the Samaj were
established in various towns and the Brahmo message spread in the countryside of Bengal.

It was left to Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905) to infuse new life into the Brahmo
Samaj and give the theist movement a definite form and shape. Tagore joined the
Samaj in 1842. Earlier, Tagore headed the Tattvabodhini Sabha (founded in 1839)
which was engaged in search of spiritual truth.

Keshab Chandra Sen joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1858. Soon after Tagore appointed him the
Acharya of the Brahmo Samaj. The energy, vigour and persuasive eloquence of Keshab popularised
the movement and the branches of the Samaj were opened outside Bengal, in the U.P., the Panjab,
Bombay, Madras and other towns. In Bengal itself there were 54 branches in 1865. However,
Keshab’s liberal and cosmopolitan outlook brought about a split in the Samaj.
On the social front, Keshab spoke against the caste system and even advocated intercaste marriages.
To Debendranath these developments looked too radical and by virtue of his position as the sole
trustee of the dismissed Keshab from the office of the Acharya in 1865. Keshab and his followers
left the parent body in 1866 and formed the Brahmo Samaj of India. Debendranath’s Samaj henceforth
came to known as the Adi Brahmo Samaj.
A further split in Keshab’s Brahmo Samaj of India came in 1878. Some close disciples of Keshab
began to regard Keshab as an incarnation. This was not liked by his progressive followers. Further,
Keshab began to be accused of authoritarianism. All along Keshab Chandra had advocated a minimum
age for marriage of Brahmos, but did not follow his own precepts. In 1878 Keshab married his
thirteen-year old daughter with minor Hindu Maharaja of Cooch-Bihar with all the orthodox Hindu
ceremonials. He justified his action on the plea that such was the will of God and that he had acted
on intuition. Most of Keshab’s followers felt disgusted and set up a new organisation called the
Sadharan Brahmo Samaj.

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