Literature on Freedom Movement in Bengali A Bibliography (An Old and Rare Book)

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India's theme song of liberty, social reforms and political emancipation became the authentic voice of Indian nationalism in the wake of the great Indian Renaissance in which Bengal led the rest of India. It was in Bengal that some of the most creative encounters between the East and the West took place. It was from the bosom of Bengal that the people of India gratefully received their national song Vande Mataran and their national anthem "Jana Gana Mana" The literature of Bengali Freedom Movement is the mirror which reflects the saga of India's many-splendoured freedom movement and its historical dimensions. Through her remarkable Bibliography of Bengali Freedom Movement Literature, Mrs. Dipali Ghosh brings to us a documented sense of history enabling us to discover and experience our roots and provides us with a valuable multi- disciplinary research tool in the fiftieth year of the advent of India's freedom. I consider it a privilege to be invited to write this Foreword and to welcome this excellent guide to the literature of Bengali Freedom Movement which had a uniquely vibrant radiance. I congratulate Mrs. Dipali Ghosh on the completion and publication of her arduous and painstaking les research enterprise.

The aim of this bibliography is to help students of history and other research scholars to fund the source materials on India's Freedom Movement in the Bengali language.

A brief historical background.

1557 is generally considered the beginning of the India's Freedom movement but national feeling and patriotism were growing gradually from the early 19th century. When Britain became ruler of Bengal in the mid eighteenth century, Christian missionaries were playing an active role in India With the spread of English education, people became more and more aware of their political and economic rights. They were interested in Western philosophy and political thought. During the early 19th century a number of educational institutions were established. Fort William College was founded in 1800. The Anglo Hindu School was started by Raja Rammohun Roy and David Hare's School Book Society in 1817. The other English educational institutions established in 1818 David Drumond's Dharmatala Academy, the Oriental Seminary and the Parental Academy word The Hindu College, which later on became Presidency College, was the pioneer in the spread of English education. The Portuguese born Indian patriot, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-1831), founded the Academic Association, where young Bengalis were encouraged to participate in debates and to discuss every problem with the help of reason. His book "My country! In thy days of glory past", inspired many young Bengalis to think and act freely. English education immensely influenced social reform and effectively aroused among its beneficiaries the motivation to be equally good as Europeans in India. Debendranath Tagore and Ramaprasad Roy started the Sarbatattvadipika Sabha in 1832, where they encouraged students to organise and participate in debates in Bengali. Radhamadhab Bandyopadhyay and his friends set up a society in 1818 to clear jungles on Gangasagar Island and prepare its soil for cotton cultivation.

Rammohan Roy started his campaign in 1818 against the evil practice of Sati (burning women alive on the funeral pyre with their dead husbands) which was prevalent in the Hindu society in those days. With the help of Lord Willian Bentinck, the bill was passed in the parliament in 1827 against the practice of Sati. This was the beginning of the process which gradually introduced more and more freedom for women from social tyranny in Bengal.

Rammohan Roy founded a new religion Brahmo Samaj, based on Upanishadic and vedanta teachings. He wanted the people to be more tolerant towards other religions and enlighten their outlook. He wanted people to be free from the rigidity of Hindu gmatism and rituals. This was the balanced religion based on Sanatan Dharma, the ancient philosophy of India. It was more appealing to the English educated Bengalis.