Indian Litrature (contd-2)

Young Bengal

 The Young Bengal movement was a group of radical Bengali free thinkers emerging from Hindu College, Calcutta in the early 19th century. They were also known as Derozians, after their firebrand teacher at Hindu College, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio.

Prominent Derozians and Young Bengal group members who left a distinct mark in Calcutta society of the 1830s and 1840s were^;

• Krishna Mohan Banerjee (1813–1885), whose conversion to Christianity raised a great storm
• Tarachand Chakraborti (1805–1855), prominent in the Brahmo Sabha and Young Bengal
• Sib Chandra Deb (1811–1890), a prominent Brahmo Samaj leader of Konnagar
• Hara Chandra Ghosh (1808–1868), judge of the Small Causes Court.
• Ramgopal Ghosh (1815–1868), a successful businessman and public speaker whose attacks on the Black Acts and criticism of the European protests against a well-intentioned government move to bring Europeans on a par with the natives in judicial treatment were landmarks
• Ramtanu Lahiri (1813–1898), publicly removed his sacred thread in 1851 and as a teacher became a centre of progressive thoughts
• Rasik Krishna Mallik (1810–1858), refused to swear by the holy Ganges water and ran away from his orthodox home
• Peary Chand Mitra (1814–1883), founded the Monthly Magazine in Bengali that set a non-journalistic style of writing intelligibly to all, including average women, and also took part in establishing the Calcutta Public Library in 1831 which became an intellectual forum
• Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee (1818–1887), donated the site for the Bethune College for women
• Radhanath Sikdar (1813–1870), caused a sensation by refusing to marry a child bride and thereafter rose to be a surveyor, mathematician, diarist, writer and public speaker

The Young Bengals were inspired and excited by the spirit of free thought and revolt against the existing social and religious structure of Hindu society. A number of Derozians were attracted to the Brahmo Samaj movement much later in life when they had lost their youthful fire and excitement. As one scholar characterized it:

"The Young Bengal movement was like a mighty storm that tried to sweep away everything before it. It was a storm that lashed society with violence causing some good, and perhaps naturally, some discomfort and distress." ^[2]

The Young Bengal Movement peripherally included Christians such as Reverend Alexander Duff (1806–1878), who founded the General Assembly's Institution, and his students like Lal Behari Dey (1824–1892), who went on to renounce Hinduism. Latter-day inheritors of the legacy of the Young Bengal Movement include scholars like Brajendra Nath Seal (1864–1938), who went on to be one of the leading theologians and thinkers of the Brahmo Samaj.