Nation pays homage to Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar on his 207th birth anniversary

New Delhi ( Vivek Ojha) : The nation today is paying homage to Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a towering figure of India’s social reform movement, on his 207th birth anniversary. Born on 26 September 1820 at Birsingha in Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal, Vidyasagar dedicated his life to education and social reform. He was a strong advocate of women’s education and played a historic role in the campaign for Hindu widow remarriage, which led to the enactment of the Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act in 1856.

He also worked against child marriage and polygamy and promoted education among girls by helping establish schools for them. As an educationist, he played a major role in modernising education and simplifying Bengali prose. His Barnaparichay became a landmark primer for Bengali children.

It may be said that social reformer Raja Rammohan Roy helped open the door to social and intellectual reform; Vidyasagar pushed that reform deeper into society, especially in the lives of women and children.

Ishwar Chandra was brilliant in his academic performance. In appreciation of his academic performance, the Sanskrit College conferred on him the title ‘Vidyasagar’ which means ‘an ocean of Learning’—a title which has earned him a country-wide currency and which was appended in the certificate given to him. But Ishwar Chandra never made use of this title in any of his writings. He signed simply as ‘Ishwar Chandra’.

Vidyasagar was a great philanthropist. Whatever he earned he gave away as monetary help to the poor and to the needy. A major part of his income went to charities which earned him the epithet ‘Dayasagar’ which means ‘ocean of compassion’.

Once Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was invited to a party. When he reached the venue, the person at the gate told him that guests had to come in formal European dress. Those were the days of the British rule in Bharat. British manners were adopted by Bharatiya with English education. Vidyasagar, however, had turned up in his usual spotless white dhoti and kurta.

Vidyasagar thanked the man at the gate and left. A little while later, he turned up at the venue again. The man at the gate was happy to see that Vidyasagar was now in a formal European attire. He announced his arrival. The host himself came out to receive Vidyasagar, who was highly respected in Kolkata as a scholar.

During dinner, Vidyasagar started pouring food on his clothes, one spoon at a time! The guests were taken aback to see Vidyasagar talk to his coat, asking it to have some more soup. The host rushed to the scene and demanded an explanation for this strange behavior.Vidyasagar smiled, “It is clear the invitation to dinner is to the dress I am wearing and not to me. Therefore, I’m feeding the dress.” The host got the message and he apologized to Vidyasagar.