Author: Brian A Hatcher
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 308
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195652290
Description
This book situates the worldview of Isvarcandra Vidyasagar, a Brahmin scholar, prominent social and educational reformer of India.
This book begins by tracing Vidyasagar's origins in rural Bengal, the dynamics of education in colonial Calcutta, and his work in promoting and improving vernacular education. The second part of the book analyses Vidyasagar's school-book pedagogy in terms of the convergence of European Bourgeois morality and sanskritic norms of worldly improvement. Finally, the socio-religious dimensions of his worldview are explored, with special attention to his relationship to the reformist work of Brahmo Samaj.
EXCERPTS FROM REVIEW:
Fluid and often graceful, dense with information, opinion, erudition, interesting takes on Indian cultural concepts, and unusual interpretations of 1th century Bengali history.
- David L Curley, Journal of Asian Studies
Contents
Maps, Plates, and Tables
Abbreviations
Preface
Sketch of the Life of Vidyasagar
Note on Translation and Transliteration
Introduction
PART ONE - A WORLD OF IMPROVEMENT
Origin of Brahman Pandit Ideal
Orientalism and Sanskrit College
Isvarcandra's Schooldays
Vidyasagar as Improving Vernacularist
PART TWO - MAKE AN EFFORT!
Bourgeois Pedagogy and Nitisastra
Vernacularization in Early Bengali School Books
Vidyasagar's Moral Pedagogy
PART THREE - LET RELIGION GO, BUT DHARMA REMAIN
A Householder's Religion
The Tattvabodhini Sabha
Vidyasagar's Dharma
Conclusion - A Vernacular World-view
Bibliography
Index