Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar realized the importance of upliftment of women, need of secular education, scientific temper, absorbing the fruits of western civilization without forgetting our own culture. Elaborate (200 Words)
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IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
Iswar Chandra is known to have been thirsty for knowledge since his childhood. He studied Sanskrit grammar, literature, Vedanta philosophy, logic, astronomy, and Hindu law for more than 12 years at Sanskrit College in Calcutta, and received the title of Vidyasagar , Ocean of Learning at the age of just 21.
Privately, Iswar Chandra studied English literature and philosophy and was appointed principal of Sanskrit College on January 22, 1851.
Attack on child marriage, advocacy of widow remarriage
· Vidyasagar followed in the great reformist tradition of Raja Ram Mohun Roy (1772-1833), and argued, on the basis of scriptures and old commentaries, in favour of the remarriage of widows in the same way as Roy did for the abolition of Sati.
· His earliest effort at social reform, however, came in the second half of 1850 when, in a paper on the evils of child marriage, he launched a powerful attack on the practice of marrying off girls aged 10 or even younger, pointing to social, ethical, and hygiene issues, and rejecting the validity of the Dharma Shastras that advocated it.
· Vidyasagar wrote his two famous tracts on the Marriage of Hindu Widows, basing his argument entirely on reason and logic, and showing that there was no prohibition on widows remarrying in the entire body of ‘Smriti’ literature (the Sutras and the Shastras).
· On July 16, 1856, The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, known as Act XV, was passed. Inspired by Vidyasagar, a number of literary men produced dramas advocating the remarriage of widows, both in Bengal and elsewhere.
· In 1866 Vishnu Shastri Pandit translated Vidyasagar’s book on widow remarriage into Marathi.
Campaign against polygamy
· Alongside the campaign for widow remarriage, Vidyasagar campaigned against polygamy. In 1857, a petition for the prohibition of polygamy was presented to the government with 25,000 signatures, led by the Maharaja of Burdwan.
· In the 1870s, Vidyasagar, the great rationalist, wrote two brilliant critiques of polygamy, arguing to the government that since polygamy was not sanctioned by the sacred texts, there could be no objection to suppressing it by legislation.
The college bearing his name
· Today’s Vidyasagar College in North Kolkata grew out of the Calcutta Training School that Vidyasagar conceptualised in 1859, and which came to be known as Metropolitan Institution in 1864.
· The efforts of Vidyasagar and the brilliant performance of its students led to the college gaining affiliation with the prestigious Calcutta University in 1872. The college was named after Vidyasagar in 1917.
