Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar ( Bengali: ঈশ্বর চন্দ্র বিদ্যাসাগর, Īśbar Candra Bidyāsāgar, real name: Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay; * September 26, 1820 in the village in the district of Midnapore Birshingha, Bengal; † July 29, 1891 ) was an Indian social reformer and scholar. He is considered the founder of modern Bengali language and with respect to its social reforms as a spiritual successor Ram Mohan Roy. The name Vidyasagar is a title of honor for high scholars (literally Ocean of learning or ocean of knowledge ).
Life and work
His childhood is spent in extreme poverty Vidyasagar. At the age of 8 years he came with his parents to Kolkata. During his school years 1829-1841 at the Sanskrit College his thirst for knowledge was said to be so immense that he had worked out with street light because his parents could not afford a gas light. In 1839 he was a " Hindu Law " exam and was honored with the title " Vidyasagar ". What is arising from this early period of his life, truth or myth-making myth Today it is no doubt judge.
1841 Vidyasagar joined his first job as a teacher at Fort William College in Kolkata, where he incidentally learned English and Hindi. Through his work he felt a need to restructure the education system. When he Director of the Sanskrit College in 1851, he began to implement his ideas. While the college until now was only students from the Brahmin caste accessible, Vidyasagar managed initially from these castes restriction.
1855 he has been appointed by the government the responsibility for the schools in the surrounding districts. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar then also founded several schools for girls in different places in Bengal to women can also provide a minimum level of education for the first time. Overall, said to have been founded due to its initiative in the course of time over 1,000 such schools.
It turned out that virtually no teaching texts for primary education in Bengali existed since the formation hitherto practically exhausted in the study of Sanskrit texts. Vidyasagar wrote thereupon textbooks in simple Bengali language, as well as grammar books and books for the foundations of mathematics education. This was until the early 20th century in Bengal in use. In addition, Vidyasagar translated numerous texts from English and Sanskrit in Bengali.
Vidyasagar also continued successfully, but against strong resistance from the upper classes, for the right of widows to remarry and against bigamy and child marriage one, which ultimately 1856 Hindu Widow's Remarriage Act 1872 was its legal implementation in the Civil Marriage Act. In 1857 he was a founding member of the Calcutta University.
Rabindranath Thakur called him the " father of modern Bengali language " and the poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta described the essence Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagars with the words: " the genius and wisdom of a scholar, the energy of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother."
Was founded in 1981 by Act of the Government of West Bengal, the Vidyasagar University, Medinipur.