The Indian Messenger Online

By B.R.Panda Jogi Padmalochan Das is one of the four pillars of Balasore, Brahmo Samaj. His immense contribution towards founding of Balasore Brahmo Samaj will always be appreciated and cherished. Belonging to an orthodox Brahmin family Jogi Padmalochan Das followed all the customs and traditions of a Hindu family. He used to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors and performed all rituals, including ‘puja’ and ‘aarti’ in the Radha – Krishna temple in his village. But deep down in Read More …

By Argha Kr Banerjee ‘Our futility will be in the measure of the greatness of Rammohan Roy’— Rabindranath Tagore In his lecture as President of the Preliminary Meeting of the Rammohan Roy Centenary held at the Senate House, Calcutta on 18th February 1933, Rabindranath Tagore, hailed Raja Rammohan Roy as the inaugurator of ‘Modern Age in India’. Extolling his immense contribution, Tagore observed: ‘He was born at a time when our country having lost its link with the inmost truths Read More …

By Aniruddha Rakshit Rajnarayan Basu was born on 7th September, 1826, in Boral, a village in 24 parganas of the Bengal presidency. His father Nanda Kishore Basu, who hailed from his ancestral village of Garh Gobindpur, Kolikata, was a disciple of Raja Rammohan Roy and also acted as one of the secretaries of the great reformer. He came to Calcutta in the year 1833 to be admitted to the school of one Sambhu Master. This was the year when Raja Read More …

By Sudakshina Kundu Mookerjee If the last decades of the nineteenth century saw some distinguished women doctors, the women started entering other fields of science as well from the beginning of the twentieth century. But their foray in the still new field of science was an uphill task and it met with severe challenges. Janaki Ammal (4th November 1997 to 7th February 1984) was Botanist. Her field of study was Cell Biology. Janaki was one of the first women scientists Read More …

By Maharshi Devendranath Tagore (Translated from Bengali) The Brahmo Samaj was losing its fervour and energy, reaching a nadir and almost vanishing into oblivion, before it was integrated with the Tattwabodhini Sabha. Its union with the Tattwabodhini Sabha breathed life into the Brahmo Samaj. It is not difficult to imagine the unfortunate state it would have reached if these two had not been brought together in Shaka 1763 (1841 CE). Perhaps it would have ceased to exist. We were students Read More …

By Sujoy Gupta Brahmoism is probably the youngest religious creed in the world with an age yet to touch 200 years. No reliable census exists so the headcount is unknown. Having said so, the perception is that in terms of numbers, the populace of adherents can be cogently assumed to comprise a microscopic minority in India. The history of births of religions is attributed by and large to a prophet’s inspirational pronouncements or to collective preaching of men endowed with Read More …

Born 31st January, 1847; Died 30th September 1919. By Rita Bhimani Well before I was born, my mother was exhorted by Pandit Sivanath Shastri that if she were to have a daughter, she should be called Ritam, meaning honest, divine truth. To have inherited such a name, but in a much broader perspective, to have had the fortune of an inheritance of a man ahead of his time, and to have imbibed it from women — my mother, Tapati Mookerji Read More …

By Sudakshina Kundu Mookerjee The University of London opened its doors to women in June 1868. Switzerland was the only German speaking country where women were allowed to enrol at the University, way back in 1840s while the rest of the German speaking nations denied University education to women till early twentieth century. When this was the state of education for women even in the so-called advanced nations of the Western world in the mid-nineteenth century, it is no wonder Read More …

10th January 1836 India stepped into a new epoch of the history of medical science on January 10, 1836, when the first dissection of human body was done by Dr. Madhusudan Gupta in Medical College, Calcutta. Till the early eighteenth century only Ayurvedic or Unani methods were available in India for treating various ailments. Lord Bentinck, the Governor General of India (1828-35 CE), was convinced by the likes of Mr. David Hare that there was need for introducing the modern Read More …

We remember with respect and admiration the men and women who have dedicated their lives to the cause and ideals of the Brahmo Samaj and its counterparts across India. We are presenting short life sketches of those who were born or had died between the month of December. Sasipada Banerjee Born 2 February, 1840, Died 15 December 1925 (Taken from a Bengali article by Shreyashi Sen) Sasipada Benerjee was born on 2 February, 1840, at Baranagar and died on 15 Read More …