Banga Mahila Vidyalaya
Encyclopedia
Banga Mahila Vidyalaya was the first women’s liberal arts college in India
. Established at Kolkata
(then known as Calcutta) on 1 June 1876, by the liberal section of the Brahmo Samaj
, it was successor of Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya
(School of Hindu Women) set up on 18 September 1873 by Annette Akroyd. Banga Mahila Vidyalaya was merged with Bethune College
on 1 August 1878. The short-lived Banga Mahila Vidyalaya not only laid the foundations for higher education of women in India, it was the pivotal issue which fostered the second split in the Brahmo Samaj. David Kopf
says that while the immediate cause for the split in the Brahmo Samaj in 1878, was the marriage of Keshub Chunder Sen’s daughter to the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, ‘’women’s emancipation was the major issue of the 1870s.”
, Sivanath Sastri
, Sib Chandra Deb
, and Durga Mohan Das
, were together. Their thinking about most matters related to the Brahmo Samaj matched. The parting of ways started in the early 1870s, and one of the issues on which they differed was women’s education.
The writings of Theodore Parker
, the socially active Unitarian
, had a profound impact on the Brahmo Samaj thinking. Mary Carpenter
, a British follower of Theodore Parker and daughter of Ram Mohan Roy
’s Unitarian friend, Lant Carpenter, also had a positive impact on Brahmo Samaj thinking. During her first two visits to India, Mary Carpenter met the Brahmos and asked them to extend the American and English efforts at women’s emancipation to India. Among her more devoted supporters were Monomohun Ghosh, whom she had occasion to meet when he was in England, attempting first an entry into the Indian Civil Service and then the English bar in the early and mid sixties.
When Mary Carpenter visited Kolkata in 1869, she had a definite scheme for promoting women’s education in India. She proposed the establishment by the Brahmo Samaj of a normal school to train women teachers for girls’ schools. Such a school was set up as part of the Indian Reform Association. At that point of time, Bethune’s
school was the only institution for girls’ in Kolkata, which Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
, Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan
and other liberals were supporting.
It was then that a second British woman, Annette Akroyd entered the scene. She had formed a deep friendship with Monomohun Ghosh in England and when Keshub Chunder Sen went to England and delivered his noted speech on Female Education in India, she made up her mind to travel to India. She arrived at Kolkata in 1872 and was house guest of Monomohun Ghosh.
Annette Akroyd opened her school, Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya, in 1873 with Dwarkanath Ganguly
as headmaster. It became the cause of a bitter quarrel between the conservative and liberal sections of the Brahmo Samaj of India. Ultimately, Annette Akroyd got married and left the school. With the arrival of Mary Carpenter on her third visit to India, a more ambitious scheme to train women for higher education was adopted with the establishment in 1876 of Banga Mahila Vidyalaya .
David Kopf writes, “Miss Akroyd played a leading part in this debate, sarcastically distinguishing Keshub, the rhetorician of women’s liberation in England from Keshub, the typical Hindu male keeping knowledge from the minds of women… Keshub tried to convince Miss Akroyd, Ghosh and Sastri that he was progressive, but at the same time wary of radical change.’’ Miss Akroyd lost faith in Keshub’s ‘go slow’ policies. Sen countered with a warning about denationalised female education in Bengal and anglicized curriculum.
The progressives, who later formed Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, replied, that Keshub Chunder Sen had joined the growing legion of Hindu revivalists and militants who had nothing but contempt for things western.
David Kopf writes, “The triumph of the Sadharan Brahmos over the Keshubites on the issue of women’s emancipation clearly represents the impact of Unitarian
social philosophy on Hindu society and culture. As the facts disclose, Unitarian impact was not merely intellectual or ideological. Through the advocacy and work of Carpenter and Akroyd, its impact was intrusively practical.” He goes on to conclude, “The relatively emancipated professional Indian woman of today owe a considerable debt of gratitude to the Brahmo pioneers of the nineteenth century.
The Report on Public Instruction for 1876-77 prepared by the Education department said, that Banga Mahila Vidyalaya was “in every sense the most advanced school in Bengal. It was formerly managed in Calcutta by Miss Akroyd, and lately revived by some Bengali gentlemen who desire to see girls appearing at the university examination and finishing their education at the new college for women in Cambridge… It is the first attempt to establish a higher English boarding school for girls.”
Among the prominent students of the school were Kadambini Bose
, a cousin of Monomohun Ghosh, Sarala Das
and Abala Das
, daughters of Durga Mohan Das
, and Subarnaprova Bose, sister of Jagadish Chandra Bose and later wife of Mohini Mohan Bose.” Kadambini Bose became the first woman in India to pass the Entrance Examination in 1878.
Banga Mahila Vidyalaya was located in Ballygunj.
who was secretary to the Bethune School Committee was also connected with Banga Mahila Vidyalaya. He played an important part in the amalgamation
of these two institutions. Chief Justice Sir Richard Garth
, who was president of Bethune School paid a visit to Banga Mahila Vidyalaya and was highly pleased with the arrangements and the instruction imparted to the girls. The result was an offer from the committee of Bethune School to Banga Mahila Vidyalaya for amalgamation, which came about on 1 August 1878. With the amalgamation Bethune School entered a new phase in its history.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Established at Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
(then known as Calcutta) on 1 June 1876, by the liberal section of the Brahmo Samaj
Brahmo Samaj
Brahmo Samaj is the societal component of the Brahmo religion which is mainly practiced today as the Adi Dharm after its eclipse in Bengal consequent to the exit of the Tattwabodini Sabha from its ranks in 1859. It was one of the most influential religious movements responsible for the making of...
, it was successor of Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya
Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya
Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya was a boarding school located at 22 Beniapukur Lane, Entally, Kolkata, India, founded by Annette Akroyd The school made a break with the idea of a less taxing curricula for girls, and provided the same kind of learning for its students as was available for boys. Sources...
(School of Hindu Women) set up on 18 September 1873 by Annette Akroyd. Banga Mahila Vidyalaya was merged with Bethune College
Bethune College
Bethune College is a women's college in India. It was founded as a school in 1849 by John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune and in 1879 developed as the first women's college in India. It is located at 181, Bidhan Sarani, Kolkata -700006, just opposite the current campus of Scottish Church College,...
on 1 August 1878. The short-lived Banga Mahila Vidyalaya not only laid the foundations for higher education of women in India, it was the pivotal issue which fostered the second split in the Brahmo Samaj. David Kopf
David Kopf
David Kopf is professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota. A well-known research scholar on South Asian history, he has produced several books on the region. He has won the Guggenheim Fellowship at the University. A Ph.D...
says that while the immediate cause for the split in the Brahmo Samaj in 1878, was the marriage of Keshub Chunder Sen’s daughter to the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, ‘’women’s emancipation was the major issue of the 1870s.”
The background
When the Brahmo Samaj split for the first time in 1866, all the progressives within the organisation, including Keshub Chandra SenKeshub Chandra Sen
Keshab Chandra Sen was an Indian Bengali religious preacher and social reformer. Born a Hindu, he became a member of the Brahmo Samaj in 1856 but founded his own breakaway "Brahmo Samaj of India" in 1866 while the Brahmo Samaj remained under the leadership of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore...
, Sivanath Sastri
Sivanath Sastri
Sivanath Sastri was a scholar, religious reformer, educator, writer and historian...
, Sib Chandra Deb
Sib Chandra Deb
Sib Chandra Deb was one of the leading Derozians, virtually the first generation of English-knowing Indians. He had joined Hindu College in 1825 and was subsequently drawn towards Derozio...
, and Durga Mohan Das
Durga Mohan Das
Durgamohan Das was a Brahmo Samaj leader and a social reformer with notable contribution in the field of widow remarriage and women’s emancipation.- Early life :...
, were together. Their thinking about most matters related to the Brahmo Samaj matched. The parting of ways started in the early 1870s, and one of the issues on which they differed was women’s education.
The writings of Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
, the socially active Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
, had a profound impact on the Brahmo Samaj thinking. Mary Carpenter
Mary Carpenter
Mary Carpenter was an English educational and social reformer. The daughter of a Unitarian minister, she founded a ragged school and reformatories, bringing previously unavailable educational opportunities to poor children and young offenders in Bristol.She published articles and books on her work...
, a British follower of Theodore Parker and daughter of Ram Mohan Roy
Ram Mohan Roy
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian religious, social, and educational reformer who challenged traditional Hindu culture and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule. He is sometimes called the father of modern India...
’s Unitarian friend, Lant Carpenter, also had a positive impact on Brahmo Samaj thinking. During her first two visits to India, Mary Carpenter met the Brahmos and asked them to extend the American and English efforts at women’s emancipation to India. Among her more devoted supporters were Monomohun Ghosh, whom she had occasion to meet when he was in England, attempting first an entry into the Indian Civil Service and then the English bar in the early and mid sixties.
When Mary Carpenter visited Kolkata in 1869, she had a definite scheme for promoting women’s education in India. She proposed the establishment by the Brahmo Samaj of a normal school to train women teachers for girls’ schools. Such a school was set up as part of the Indian Reform Association. At that point of time, Bethune’s
John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune
John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune , previously John Elliot Drinkwater, a barrister and law member of the Governor-General's Council, was an Anglo-Indian lawyer and a pioneer in promoting women's education in 19th-century India....
school was the only institution for girls’ in Kolkata, which Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar CIE , born Ishwar Chandra Bandopadhyaya , was an Indian Bengali polymath and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance....
, Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan
Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan
Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan was an Indian scholar, editor and publisher of the trend-setting weekly Bengali newspaper Somprakash.-Father:His father, Harachandra Bhattacharya was a scholar...
and other liberals were supporting.
It was then that a second British woman, Annette Akroyd entered the scene. She had formed a deep friendship with Monomohun Ghosh in England and when Keshub Chunder Sen went to England and delivered his noted speech on Female Education in India, she made up her mind to travel to India. She arrived at Kolkata in 1872 and was house guest of Monomohun Ghosh.
Annette Akroyd opened her school, Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya, in 1873 with Dwarkanath Ganguly
Dwarkanath Ganguly
Dwarkanath Ganguly was a Brahmo reformer in Bengal of British India. He contributed substantially towards the enlightenment of society and the emancipation of women.-Early life:...
as headmaster. It became the cause of a bitter quarrel between the conservative and liberal sections of the Brahmo Samaj of India. Ultimately, Annette Akroyd got married and left the school. With the arrival of Mary Carpenter on her third visit to India, a more ambitious scheme to train women for higher education was adopted with the establishment in 1876 of Banga Mahila Vidyalaya .
Conflict of opinions
The focus of conflict between the conservatives and progressives initially centred around one view that female education as preparatory for marriage and the other view that women should be educated on the same basis and to same levels as men.David Kopf writes, “Miss Akroyd played a leading part in this debate, sarcastically distinguishing Keshub, the rhetorician of women’s liberation in England from Keshub, the typical Hindu male keeping knowledge from the minds of women… Keshub tried to convince Miss Akroyd, Ghosh and Sastri that he was progressive, but at the same time wary of radical change.’’ Miss Akroyd lost faith in Keshub’s ‘go slow’ policies. Sen countered with a warning about denationalised female education in Bengal and anglicized curriculum.
The progressives, who later formed Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, replied, that Keshub Chunder Sen had joined the growing legion of Hindu revivalists and militants who had nothing but contempt for things western.
David Kopf writes, “The triumph of the Sadharan Brahmos over the Keshubites on the issue of women’s emancipation clearly represents the impact of Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
social philosophy on Hindu society and culture. As the facts disclose, Unitarian impact was not merely intellectual or ideological. Through the advocacy and work of Carpenter and Akroyd, its impact was intrusively practical.” He goes on to conclude, “The relatively emancipated professional Indian woman of today owe a considerable debt of gratitude to the Brahmo pioneers of the nineteenth century.
The revival
Durga Mohan Das, Dwarkanath Ganguly, Ananda Mohan Bose, Monomhun Ghosh and Annadacharan Khastagir were actively involved in the revival of the Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya as Banga Mahila Vidyalaya. The education imparted was of a higher standard, its students following the course meant for Entrance (school leaving or university entrance) Examinations.The Report on Public Instruction for 1876-77 prepared by the Education department said, that Banga Mahila Vidyalaya was “in every sense the most advanced school in Bengal. It was formerly managed in Calcutta by Miss Akroyd, and lately revived by some Bengali gentlemen who desire to see girls appearing at the university examination and finishing their education at the new college for women in Cambridge… It is the first attempt to establish a higher English boarding school for girls.”
Among the prominent students of the school were Kadambini Bose
Kadambini Ganguly
Kadambini Ganguly was one of the first female graduates of the British Empire along with Chandramukhi Basu. She was one of the first female physicians of South Asia to be trained in European medicine.-Early life:...
, a cousin of Monomohun Ghosh, Sarala Das
Sarala Roy
Sarala Roy was an educationist and is remembered as founder of the Gokhale Memorial School at Kolkata , at present the capital of the east Indian state of West Bengal.-Life:...
and Abala Das
Abala Bose
Abala, Lady Bose was a social worker well-known for her efforts in the field of women’s education and her contribution towards the alleviation of the condition of widows.-Family:...
, daughters of Durga Mohan Das
Durga Mohan Das
Durgamohan Das was a Brahmo Samaj leader and a social reformer with notable contribution in the field of widow remarriage and women’s emancipation.- Early life :...
, and Subarnaprova Bose, sister of Jagadish Chandra Bose and later wife of Mohini Mohan Bose.” Kadambini Bose became the first woman in India to pass the Entrance Examination in 1878.
Banga Mahila Vidyalaya was located in Ballygunj.
Amalgamation with Bethune College
By the year 1866-67 a movement was afoot for remodelling Bethune School because the school was not sought after. That Banga Mahila Vidyalaya was higher type of school was also admitted. Monomohun GhoseMonomohun Ghose
Monomohun Ghose was the first practicing barrister of Indian origin. He is notable for his contributions towards the fields of women’s education, for arousing the patriotic feeling of his countrymen and for being one of the earliest persons in the country in organised national politics...
who was secretary to the Bethune School Committee was also connected with Banga Mahila Vidyalaya. He played an important part in the amalgamation
Consolidation (business)
Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In business, it often refers to the mergers and acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. In the context of financial accounting, consolidation refers to the aggregation of financial statements of a group...
of these two institutions. Chief Justice Sir Richard Garth
Richard Garth
Sir Richard Garth PC QC was Member of Parliament for Guildford from 1866 to 1868 and Chief Justice of Bengal from 1875 to 1886....
, who was president of Bethune School paid a visit to Banga Mahila Vidyalaya and was highly pleased with the arrangements and the instruction imparted to the girls. The result was an offer from the committee of Bethune School to Banga Mahila Vidyalaya for amalgamation, which came about on 1 August 1878. With the amalgamation Bethune School entered a new phase in its history.