֍ The great scholar and reformer, Vidyasagar’s ideas were a happy blend of Indian and Western thought.
֍ He believed in high moral values, was a deep humanist, and was generous to the poor.
֍ In 1850, he became the principal of Sanskrit College.
֍ He was determined to break the priestly monopoly of scriptural knowledge, and for this he opened the Sanskrit College to non-brahmins.
֍ He introduced Western thought in Sanskrit College to break the self-imposed isolation of Sanskritic learning.
֍ As an academician, he evolved a new methodology to teach Sanskrit.
֍ He also devised a new Bengali primer and evolved a new prose style.
֍ Vidyasagar started a movement in support of widow remarriage which resulted in legalisation of widow remarriage.
֍ He was also a crusader against child marriage and polygamy.
֍ He did much for the cause of women’s education.
֍ As government inspector of schools, he helped organise 35 girls’ schools many of which he ran at his own expense.
֍ As secretary of Bethune School (established in 1849), he was one of the pioneers of higher education for women in India.
֍ The Bethune School, founded in Calcutta, was the result of the powerful movement for women’s education that arose in the 1840s and 1850s.
Must read: Indian renaissance : meaning and causes
External link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishwar_Chandra_Vidyasagar
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
QUES . Who among the following was associated as Secretary with Hindu Female School which later came to be known as Bethune Female School? UPSC 2021
(a) Annie Besant
(b) Debendranath Tagore
(c) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
(d) Sarojini Naidu
Ans (c) EXPLANATION: ֍ With encouragement from and participation of like-minded social reformers like Ramgopal Ghosh, Raja Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee and Pandit Madan Mohan Tarkalankar, Bethune established Kolkata’s first school for girls in 1849 called the Hindu Female School. ֍ Bethune passed away in 1851. ֍ In 1856, the Government took charge of the Hindu Female School, later renamed as Bethune School. ֍ The Managing Committee of the school was then formed and Pandit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, the celebrated social reformer responsible for the eradication of the custom of Sati and a relentless supporter of women’s emancipation was made the Secretary.
