Keshub Chunder Sen

Brotherhood of man under the Fatherhood of God

Keshub Chunder Sen (19th November 1838 - 8th January 1884) was an Indian religious and social reformer.

Quotes

• Her (India’s) great curse is caste; but English education has already proved a tremendous power in levelling the injurious distinctions of caste.
  • Speech at Hannover Square Rooms on the occasion of a Soiree held to welcome him on 12th April 1870.

• Prayer simply means a longing of the heart, it is the wish felt, - it may be expressed, or not expressed. It may take the form of human language or it may never be uttered at all; still it is a prayer, if God only hears it in the secret recess of the heart.
  • Sermon at Hackney Unitarian Church, London, on 24th April 1870.

• My brothers and my sisters, do always persevere in true and earnest prayer, and the Lord will hear you. Believe that the highest revelations of science are conformable to the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer; that in this doctrine the highest philosophy harmonizes with the purest devotion.
  • Sermon at Hackney Unitarian Church, London, on 24th April 1870.

• In carrying out the work of female education great impediments, some of them of an almost insuperable character, had to be overcome, and many defects had to be rectified.
  • Speech delivered at the East India Association, London, on 13th May 1870. See Female Education in India for full speech.
• Bombay is far ahead of Bengal in the matter of female education. I have visited some of the best schools in Bengal and Bombay, and I can say from my own experience that there are a larger number of girls receiving public education in Bombay than in Bengal; but while Bengal has not come up to Bombay as far as regarded extent of education, Bengal is not behind Bombay in the matter of solidarity and depth.
  • Speech delivered at the East India Association, London, on 13th May 1870. See Female Education in India for full speech.

• Look at that young, active, energetic Hindu who has received education in some English school or college. Yesterday what was he? An ignorant Indian. To-day what is he? An active, intelligent, fine-looking, educated man. Tomorrow what is he? He has English books on one side, he has the dangerous bottle of whisky on the other side. What is he the next day? Oh sad catastrophe! The whole house mourns the death of the promising young man.
  • Speech at St. Jame’s Hall, Picadilly, London, on 19th May 1870.

• Education is the chief remedy for all those great evils which afflict the country. Education will not only cultivate and improve the intellect of the nation, but will also purify its character.
  • Speech delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington Butts, London on 24th May 1870. See Education in India for major portion of the speech.

• The education that you give to the upper classes will not uproot idolatry and prejudice, for it is amongst the masses that the error and prejudice will always maintain their power, and while you do not uproot those prejudices from the hearts of the masses, a handful of educated Hindus will never be able successfully to reform the country.
  • Speech delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington Butts, London on 24th May 1870. See Education in India for major portion of the speech.

• If merit is not recognised, still it is merit, and it ought to be honoured as such; but if it is rewarded, it becomes valuable in the eyes of all, and everybody is encouraged to pursue that course in which merit obtains its due reward.
  • Speech delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington Butts, London on 24th May 1870. See Education in India for major portion of the speech.

• The true object of religion is to bind mankind together, and to bind them all to God. If we see that in the name of religion, men, instead of promoting peace on earth and good-will among men, are trying to show their antagonism and animosity towards each other, then certainly we must stand forward with our voice of protest, and say that religion is defeating its own legitimate object.
  • Speech delivered at Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London, in a meeting held to constitute a Theistic Association in London on 20th July 1870. See Universal Religion for full speech.

• Religion is essentially universal. If God is our common Father, His truth is our common property. But the religious world may be likened to a vast market, where every religious sect sells only a portion of truth. Religion is many-sided; but each individual, each nation, oftentimes adopts and represents only one side of religion. In different times and in different countries, therefore, we see not the entire religious life of humanity, but only partial religious life.
  • Speech delivered at Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London, in a meeting held to constitute a Theistic Association in London on 20th July 1870. See Universal Religion for full speech.

• The movement had likewise for its object the abolition of polygamy and premature marriages, the promotion of the remarriage of widows, the introduction of better ideas about marriage, its duties, and its responsibilities.
  • Speech after reception in the City Hall, Glasgow on 22nd August 1870.

• Let brothers and sisters from one end of the world, speak in all brotherly love, all affection, and one sweetness, to their brothers and sisters in the other extremity of the world. Then we shall succeed in rearing up one vast cathedral in this world, where men of all nations and races shall glorify the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.
  • Sermon preached at Mill-hill Chapel, Leeds on 28th August 1870.

• I was also pained to notice an institution which I certainly did not expect to find in this country – I mean caste. Your rich people are really Brahmins, and your poor people are Sudras.
  • Speech at Hannover Square Rooms on the occasion of a Soiree held to bid him farewell on 12th September 1870.

• The truths which are represented in England and Western countries generally, are those which refer to force of character, earnestness of purpose, conscientious strictness, noble charity, practical duty, whilst the truths which I find peculiarly developed in India – developed to a greater extent than anywhere else, - and in the Eastern countries generally, are those which have reference to sweetness of communion, sweetness of temper, meekness and resignation unto God.
  • Parting words at Southampton on 17th September 1870.

• Those of you among our readers, who are farmers or artisans, do ye unite and stand up. Exert yourselves to the utmost to improve your condition, to forcibly stop outrage, cruelty and oppression to the tenantry. It is for your good, consider, that we publish this little journal. Sleep no more. It is time, wake up. No one is there to speak for you.
  • Published in Sulava Samacharon 28th November 1870. Translated from Bengali by Dr. Prem Sundar Basu.

• It is impossible to establish unanimity of opinion among mankind, and those who have tried to bring about such unanimity have always failed. I hope, therefore, the friends and promoters of this movement will not commit that great mistake. Let individual liberty be recognised: let individual rights be fully vindicated and respected; but still at the same time , while we recognise differences of opinion, let us feel, and let us declare, that it is possible to have a common platform of action, where we can exchange our sympathies with each other as brethren.
  • Speech delivered on July 20th, 1870 at Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London, in a meeting held to constitute a Theistic Association in London. See Universal Religion

About Keshub Chandra Sen

• An anonymous rhyme of the nineteenth century bemoaned in Bengali:

jat marley tin seney,

keshub seney wil-seney isti-seney

Caste, this declared, has been destroyed by three ‘Sens’: Keshub Sen, the Brahmo leader, ‘wil-sen’ or Wilson’s Hotel, where the Hindus guzzled ‘forbidden food’; and the ‘isti-sen’ or station, as the niceties of caste could not be observed on railway journeys.

• • Quoted from the Lost World of the Babus by Subir Roy Choudhuri, in Calcutta The Living City Vol I, Oxford University Press.

• Chittaranjan Das: I believe that Bengal has a message for the world. Keshub Chunder Sen delivered that message. Again and again that message has been delivered on the banks of the Ganges, and again and again will that message be delivered and redelivered in a fuller and yet fuller manner till we listen, till the world listens.
  • Speech delivered at the Overtoun Hall, Kolkata in January 1917.

• It is only when we move to modem times that we find the first traces of sarva-dharma-samabhâva surfacing in India in the form of the Brahmo Samaj.... Even Keshub Chunder Sen cannot be called a votary of sarva-dharma-samabhâva, strictly speaking. The man fancied himself as the prophet of a New Dispensation (Nababidhâna) which had not only equated all religions but also gone beyond them. He ended by becoming a bag of nauseating nonsense... The trail blazed by Keshub Chander Sen, however, did not go in vain. It was followed by the first disciples of Sri Ramakrishna who took over the Mission after the death of its founder, Swami Vivekananda...
  • S.R.Goel, Preface, in Goel, Sita Ram (ed.) (1998). Freedom of expression: Secular theocracy versus liberal democracy.

• Romain Rolland: His journey to England was a triumphal progress… During his six months’ stay he addressed seventy meetings of 40,000 persons and fascinated his audiences by the simplicity of his English and his musical voice.
  • The Life of Ramakrishna by Romain Rolland, translated by E.F. Malcolm-Smith, Advaita Ashrama.

• Swami Vivekananda: The genuine orator exercises a sort of hypnotism over his audience. I have listened to many orators, Indian, English and American; but Keshub Chunder Sen is easily the greatest of all.
  • Quoted by Charu Chandra Banerjee in a speech at Dhaka Purva Bangla Brahmo Samaj. Published in the Prabashi, Pous 1340 (1933). Reprinted in Brahmananda Keshub Chunder Sen “Testimonies in Memoriam”. Compiled by G.C.Banerji, Allahabad , 1934