Bengali Renaissance

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Bengali Renaissance marks the beginning of Bengal's transition to a modern society. Usually the beginning is set in the 19th century , a phase of cultural, social, religious, intellectual and political change. The center of the movement was Kolkata .

Similar to the time of the European Renaissance , there was a reinterpretation of classical texts ( Vedas , Upanishads ) in the sense of a philosophy geared towards the autonomous subject gifted with reason. With the establishment of modern educational institutions and the introduction of new educational content, mainly taken from Western culture, as well as the new economic possibilities through cooperation with the British East India Company and later the British colonial administration, a new social class, the bhadralok , emerged, mostly consisting of the upper castes and the Young Bengal student movement . This layer challenged the intellectual monopoly of the traditional elite as well as social and religious traditions. She tried to establish a bourgeois public (schools, libraries, associations), a modern economy (trade, industry, banks) and social and religious reforms ( women's rights ). The Bengali language and literature experienced an upswing. With increasing urbanization and industrialization , the world of work changed and modern concepts of time and discipline were anchored.

In contrast to the Renaissance in Europe, these formation processes of a modern society in Bengal took place under colonial conditions. Above all, this meant that Bengal, and increasingly the whole of India, was integrated into the then capitalist world economy as a supplier of raw materials and a sales market, and the colonial power hindered the emergence of local entrepreneurship . The resulting middle class was predominantly educated and oriented towards the West and was dependent on the colonial structures for its existence. Various measures by the colonial government (strengthening the aristocracy , consolidating the caste structures , establishing patriarchal relationships) promoted the traditionalization of society.

In the last third of the 19th century, the educated elite's vague hopes for social progress in cooperation with the colonial power faded and the renaissance, similar to the Risorgimento in Italy, is associated with the idea of ​​a national awakening and the call for a national culture.

Critics complain that the Bengali renaissance was limited to an elite minority and that the majority of the Bengali population remained unaffected by this phase of change. The accusation that the Bengali Renaissance is a mere imitation of Western ideas is also sometimes made. Contemporaries spoke more of a time of awakening, but after 1880 the term Bengali Renaissance became established. Despite all the weaknesses, some of which can also be found in the European counterpart, the Bengali Renaissance can be seen as a powerful indigenous movement in which a number of groups and personalities worked that have changed Bengali and also Indian society and culture.


Some leading figures and groups

literature

  • David Kopf: British Orientalism and the Bengal renaissance: the dynamics of Indian modernization, 1773-1835. University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles 1969
  • David Kopf, Safiuddin Joarder (Ed.): Reflections on the Bengal Renaissance. Institute of Bangladesh Studies, Rajshahi University, Dacca 1977
  • Sivanath Sastri: A History of the Renaissance in Bengal: Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer. Swan, Sunshine, London 1903; Renaissance, Kolkata 2002
  • Sumit Sarkar: Renaissance and Kaliyuga: Time, Myth, and History in Colonial Bengal. In: Gerald Sider and Gavin Smith (Eds.): Between Hist & Histories: The Making of Silences and Commemorations. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1997, pp. 98-126, ISBN 0802078834

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bhadralok. Banglapedia