OPINION: If India is to progress, it must follow path of Vidyasagar

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-1891), whose bust in Vidyasagar College, Kolkata, was vandalised on Tuesday, and whose birth bicentenary will be celebrated next year, is an outstanding figure in Indian history. Vidyasagar was a veritable colossus who almost single-handedly sought to transform the nation.

Though Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) is often called the father of the Indian Renaissance, that appellation truly belongs to Vidyasagar.

Born in an orthodox Brahmin family in Bengal, and steeped in traditional Sanskrit learning, one would have expected Vidyasagar to become an arch-conservative and die-hard reactionary. Instead, however, Vidyasagar broke out of his orthodox upbringing and background, and for his times became a revolutionary.

Though outwardly, Vidyasagar appeared to be a devout Brahmin who wore a dhoti at knee height, had a traditional tuft of hair, and was well-versed in Hindu scriptures and Sanskrit, he fought all his life for the scientific and rational approaches and modern education.

While principal of Sanskrit College, Kolkata, he opposed professor Ballantyne, principal of Sanskrit College, Benares, who wanted only Sanskrit to be taught along with Vedanta and Sankhya. Vidyasagar insisted that English (a language he learnt on his own without any formal education in it) should be taught. Vidyasagar realised that English was a window to modern scientific knowledge, without which India could not progress.

Vidyasagar called Vedanta and Sankhya false philosophies, though he himself was an authority in these spiritual schools, and instead advocated study of Western science, Western philosophies such as those of David Hume and John Stewart Mill, logic and history.

Vidyasagar championed the cause of education, opening school after school in Bengal. In particular, he advocated women's education, which at that time was against the traditional notion that women were not suited for education.

Vidyasagar forcefully propagated the idea of widow remarriage, which was then a revolutionary idea, something which even Raja Ram Mohan Roy had not done. At that time, many young girls became widows, as medical science was not advanced, and epidemics that killed thousands were commonplace. These young widows were often treated very shabbily, and remarriage was then unthinkable.

In his second tract on widow remarriage (1855), an impassioned Vidyasagar wrote, "Indian menfolk, you are quite willing to burn your dearest daughters in the hellfire of widowhood, but you are not prepared to support widow remarriage and thus emancipate your daughters from living hell. In this country, menfolk are devoid of kindness, justice, sense of good and evil, and only want to cling to blind prejudices. Let women be never again born in such an accursed land.”

In a remarkable letter dated September 7, 1853, to the secretary, council of education, Government of India, Vidyasagar wrote, "It appears to me to be a hopeless task to conciliate the learned folk of India to the acceptance of the advanced sciences of Europe. They are a body of men whose long-standing prejudices are unshakeable. Any idea when brought to their notice, either in the form of a new truth or in the form of expansion of known truths, they will not accept. It is but natural that they will obstinately adhere to their old prejudices. They believe that their Shastras have all emanated from omniscient rishis, and therefore they cannot but be infallible."

Vidyasagar was a polymath, and is known as the father of modern Bengali alphabets and Bengali prose.

Why then was such an outstanding man's bust smashed? Perhaps, it was because those who broke it mistakenly thought Vidyasagar was against Indian culture and wanted it to be replaced by Western culture, something which the orthodox Hindu society—which was bitterly hostile to his views—thought in his lifetime.

But the truth is that Vidyasagar was not critical of Indian culture as a whole, steeped as he himself was in it. He only wanted to reject that part of our culture that was holding up our progress. While Vidyasagar was opposed to Vedanta and Sankhya philosophies, he advocated study of science and the scientific and rational outlook, something which the Nyaya—Vaisheshik Indian philosophies stood for (see my articles Nyaya or Vedanta and Indian Philosophy on my blog Satyam Bruyat).

If India is to progress, it must follow the path shown by Vidyasagar, the path of science and rationalism, which far from being foreign to Indian culture, is an integral part of it (see my articles Indians were once leaders in science and Sanskrit as a language of science).

Justice Markandey Katju retired from the Supreme Court in 2011

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK