Kolkata, September 26, 2019

 

 

Pundit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was a legendary educationist and a social reformer who challenged Hindu orthodoxy, played a pivotal role in helping widows get remarried and fought for women’s education as well as ending the shameful and stigmatised practice of child marriage, said Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Culture and Tourism, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel today. He inaugurated a two-day seminar on ‘Probing Social Reforms in India in the Nineteenth Century: Vidyasagar’s Legacy in the Long Run’ at The Asiatic Society today on the occasion of bicentenary of Pundit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, where he delineated his opinion on this revered Sanskrit scholar and social reformer.

 

 

The minister stated that his Ministry will lend all means of support for the betterment of this revered academic institution which began its journey 236 years ago with a new wave in the sphere of Oriental studies.

 

Shri Patel added that Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was a part of the larger social movement called Bengal Renaissance, which started with the enlightened leadership of Raja Rammohan Roy and he raised his voice against child marriage, polygamy and mistreatment of widows, to usher in a new thinking about social ignominies then prevalent in India.

 

 

The Minister also released four publications on Pundit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar on the occasion.

 

The other dignitaries, who were present on the occasion, included Professor Isha Mahammud, President of the Society as well as the General Secretary, Dr Satyabrata Chakrabarti and Professor Arun Bandyopadhyay, Historical and Archaeological Secretary of the Society and Professor Brian A Hatcher, Tufts University, USA.

 

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SSS

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