The Renascent Bengal at the Cross-Roads: Some Essays in Interpretation

A sort of ferment and the revolt within Hindu Bhadralok society was going on in The Renascent Bengal at the Cross-Roads. As an inevitable consequence of the enlightenment, the westernized elite developed a natural aptitude to assimilate alien ideologies and a playful attitude to traditional religious and socio-ethical ideas. But there were also the representative figures who denounced pandemonium of self-assertion of Anglophiles and cherished values of stability and permanence. Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Debendranath Tagore, Keshabchandra Sen, Bankimchandra Chattopaddhaya and above all Shri Ramakrishna tried to assimilate modern thought into India’s inner life and cultural heritage. Structurally, the work seeks to re-evaluate and x-ray the reigning mood in the seed time of western learning, the clash of Anglophilism and conservative reality and focus on the disquieting sort of ambivalence within Hindu Bhadralok society in the Renascent Bengal. The perceptible shifts were all for search for identity and for revitalization of religion and society. In this scholarly study, which was acclaimed by Prof. K.K. Dutta and Prof. N.K. Sinha, the author brings together a wide array of information with a certainty of touch. The work, which is kindled by sensitivity of understanding, wafts a fresh breeze of re-evaluation of an extremely important aspect of the Renascent Bengal.