A short note on the Bramho Movement in Sylhet

Submitted by Pritam Bhattacharjee on Sun, 01/02/2011 - 00:13

Sylhet : After Comilla , Sylhet , the birthplace of men like Pandit Sitanath Tattwabhushan, Bipin Chandra Pal , Sundari Mohan  Das, Rajchandra Chaudhuri and Pratul Chandra Som, the Editor of the Indian Messenger, demands a little notice. It was once a centre of Brahmo Samaj activity. Many earnest men made their appearance and triumphantly bore aloft  the banner of  Brahmoism , in the face of much persecution . The Samaj was founded in 1862 chiefly through the exertions of  Rai Kalika Das Datta Bahadur , late Dewan of Cooch Behar. From that time it has carried on its work. Even as late as 1881 eight prominent men published an "Appeal" to all  Brahmos on the subject of the latter developments of the New Dispensation , in which they said :

   A  very great responsibility lies upon us. Let us all, every Brahmo and every Brahmo Samaj, combine to let the world know that the New Dispensation is not the Brahmo religion ; that it is quite opposed thereto ; that we have not the least sympathy with the creed ; and that if any provincial Brahmo Samaj , in blind belief , has accepted , or does accept , this New Dispensation as Brahmoism , then the Brahmo Samaj will not have any sympathy with it . It is the duty of every Brahmo , wherever he  may be , from that place to inform the public , in any public paper, that  the New Dispensation is totally opposed  to Brahmoism .

       Thus Sylhet was out and out a Sadharan Samaj party. Even after the departure of Sitanath and others from the place , Babu Rajchandra Chaudhuri and his wife Hemantakumari Chaudhuri , a  daughter of Pandit N. C. Rai of Lahore, kept up  the Samaj work in the eighties and the nineties. But they too removed from the place of employment elsewhere, leaving the Samaj work to be carried on by a few devoted members, who are at present busy with collecting money for building a Mandir. Sylhet being on the borderland between Assam and Eastern Bengal should be a source of Brahmo Samaj influence. I hope a day of prosperity and usefulness will come for it soon .