>JJMC89 bot III: Merging :Category:Indian male social workers to :Category:Social workers per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2021 July 3#Category:Male social workers

2021-07-31T18:15:19Z

Merging Category:Indian male social workers to Category:Social workers per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2021 July 3#Category:Male social workers

New page

[[File:Shasipada Banerjee.jpg|thumb|358x358px|Shashipada Banerjee]]
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
'''Sasipada Banerji''' (02 February, 1840– 15 December, 1924) was a [[social worker]] and leader of the [[Brahmo Samaj]] who is remembered as a champion of [[women's rights]] and education and as one of the earliest workers for labour welfare in [[India]]. He was the founder of several [[girls' school]]s, a widow's home, [[temperance societies]], a workers' organisation and the editor of the journal ''Bharat Sramajibi''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kumar|first=Raj|title=Essays on Social Reform Movements|year=2004|publisher=Discovery Publishers|location=New Delhi|page=291|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7SQW69LLSIC&q=sasipada+banerji&pg=PA291|isbn=9788171417926}}</ref>

== Life and family ==
Sasipada Banerji was born in 1840 at [[Baranagar]] near [[Kolkata]] (then Calcutta).His father's name was Rajkumar Bandyopadhyay.He married [[Rajkumari Banerji]], then a thirteen-year-old girl, in 1860 and taught her to read and write within a year. The couple had a son, [[Albion Rajkumar Banerji]], who went on to become a member of the [[Indian Civil Service]] and served as [[Diwan (title)|Diwan]] of [[Cochin State|Cochin]]. Rajkumari died in 1876 and Sasipada remarried the following year.<ref name="open">{{cite web|title=Sasipada Banerji|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/sasipada-banerji|publisher=The Open University|accessdate=22 March 2013}}</ref>

== Brahmo leader ==
Banerji became involved in the social reform movement in [[Bengal]] through the Brahmo Samaj which he joined in 1861. Banerji was an advocate of women's rights and education. He promoted the establishment of schools to train women teachers, organised several [[widow remarriage]]s and established a Widows' Home at Baranagar in 1887. He founded girls' schools in 1865 and 1871 and later established an institute for their higher education.<ref>{{cite book|last=Srivastava|first=Gouri|title=Women's Higher Education in the 19th Century|year=2000|publisher=Concept Publishers|location=New Delhi|page=61|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AgHEF9QhJo8C&q=sasipada+banerjee&pg=PA60|isbn=9788170228233}}</ref> Banerji is credited with founding the first women's journal named 'Antapur' in Bengali which was headed by his two daughters and run exclusively by a team of women.<ref>{{cite book|last=Srivastava|first=Gouri|title=Women's Higher Education in the 19th Century|year=2000|publisher=Concept Publishers|location=New Delhi|page=63|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AgHEF9QhJo8C&q=sasipada+banerjee&pg=PA60|isbn=9788170228233}}</ref>

== Temperance movement and visit to England ==
Banerji was a member of the [[Temperance movement]] in India and was a close associate of [[Mary Carpenter]] whom he first met during her visit to India in 1866.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mary Carpenter|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/mary-carpenter|publisher=The Open University|accessdate=22 March 2013}}</ref> On her invitation, Sasipada and Rajkumari paid a return visit to England in 1871. His decision to visit England was met with approbation in Bengal (as it would involve them crossing the oceans, an act that would lead to the Banerjis' loss of caste) and Banerji and Rajkumari were stoned when they paid a visit to his ancestral home before leaving for Britain. The ''Asiatic'' of London declared in 1872 that Rajkumari was "the first Hindu lady who has ever visited England". The couple had their first-born child, a son, while in England whom they name [[Albion Rajkumar Banerjee|Albion]].<ref name="publishing.cdlib">{{cite book|last=Burton|first=Antoinette|author-link=Antoinette Burton|title=At the Heart of the Empire|year=1998|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|pages=51–52|url=http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft6z09p13n&chunk.id=d0e508&toc.id=&brand=ucpress}}</ref>

During the visit, Sasipada spoke at several meetings of the [[National Temperance League]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Rae|first=John Turner|title=The Temperance Record|year=1917|pages=369, 387|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ltNOAAAAYAAJ&q=sasipada+banerjee&pg=PA364}}</ref> At one such meeting, he accused British rule of introducing the hitherto alien vice of [[Temperance (virtue)|intemperance]] to [[Hindu society]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Maunder|first=George|title=The Methodist Temperance Magazine|year=1870|publisher=Elliot Stock|location=London|page=266|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSBOAAAAYAAJ&q=sasipada+banerjee&pg=RA1-PA266}}</ref> He also met and was received by a large number of common people and dignitaries including the [[Secretary of State for India]] during this visit.<ref name="publishing.cdlib" /> In England he became a member of the [[Good Templars|Good Templars Body]] and also of the Order of the Day Star Lodge and attended meetings of the [[National Indian Association]] and helped establish its branches in other British cities.<ref name="open" />

== Labour Movement ==
Sasipada Banerji was among the earliest Indians to work for the rights of the [[working class|labour class]] in India, the Working Men's Club he established in 1870 has been described as the first labour organisation in Kolkata.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chapter 28 – Labour Movement|url=http://static.upscportal.com/files/upsc2012/igp/csat-paper1/IGP-CSAT-Paper-1-Indian-History-Modern-Indian-History-Labour-Movement.pdf|accessdate=22 March 2013}}</ref> The Brahmo Samaj established a Working Men's Mission in 1878 and established several schools for working men and the [[depressed classes]] and Banerji founded the Baranagar Institute the same year.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kumar|first=Arun|title=Industrial Law|year=2003|publisher=Atlantic Publishers|location=New Delhi|page=387|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ebGoIo3HTMC&q=sasipada+banerji&pg=PA387|isbn=9788126901999}}</ref> In 1870 he founded the workers' organisation Sramajivi Samiti and established the newspaper ''Bharat Sramajivi''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Knapp|first=Stephen|title=Crimes Against India: And the Need to Protect Its Ancient Vedic Tradition|year=2009|publisher=iUniverse|location=Bloomington, Indiana|page=107|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7wqH__QPbBUC&q=sasipada+banerjee&pg=PA107|isbn=9781440111594}}</ref> The Bharat Sramajivi was the first Indian journal of the working class and its circulation peaked at 15,000 copies a remarkable number for its time.<ref>{{cite book|last=Das|first=Sisir Kumar|title=A History of Indian Literature: 1800–1910, Western impact : Indian response|year=2005|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|location=New Delhi|page=171|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sHklK65TKQ0C&q=sasipada+banerjee&pg=PA171|isbn=9788172010065}}</ref> Banerji's contributions to the welfare and upliftment of the working class have however been criticised by [[Sumit Sarkar]] of being little more than 19th century middle class interest in industrial and plantation labour and of not going beyond the realm of philanthropy.<ref>{{cite web|last=Sarkar|first=Sumit|title='Popular' Movements and 'middle Class' Leadership in Late Colonial India: Perspectives and Problems of a 'history from Below'|url=http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~sj6/SarkarPopularmovements.pdf|accessdate=22 March 2013}}</ref> Others like Dipesh Chakrabarty have argued that Banerji's efforts aimed to create an "ideal working class imbued with bhadralok values" and to create "not only orderly but also noiseless Bengalis for the jute mills".<ref>{{cite book|last=Chakrabarti|first=Bidyut|title=Subhas Chandra Bose and Middle Class Radicalism: A Study in Indian Nationalism 1928–1940|year=1990|publisher=I B Tauris & Co|location=London|pages=98–99|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDEOwyZazkQC&q=sasipada+banerji&pg=PA98|isbn=9781850431497}}</ref>

== Books ==
Sasipada's memoir ''An Indian pathfinder'' was compiled by his son Albion and published in 1924.<ref>{{cite book|title=An Indian pathfinder: being the memoirs of Sevabrata Sasipada Banerji, 1840–1924|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1K45AQAAIAAJ|accessdate=22 March 2013|last1 = Banerji|first1 = Sir Albion Rajkumar|year = 1934}}</ref> ''A modern saint of India: A sketch of the religious life of Sevabrata Brahmarshi Sasipada Banerjee'' is a biography by Satindranath Roy Choudhary.<ref>{{cite web|title=A modern saint of India: A sketch of the religious life of Sevabrata Brahmarshi Sasipada Banerjee|url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0000CQA92|accessdate=22 March 2013}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banerji, Sasipada}}
[[Category:1840 births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:Temperance activists]]
[[Category:Social workers]]
[[Category:People from Baranagar]]
[[Category:Social workers from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Indian health activists]]

Sasipada Banerji - Revision history

>JJMC89 bot III: Merging :Category:Indian male social workers to :Category:Social workers per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2021 July 3#Category:Male social workers