Pramathalal Sen

Pramathalal Sen
Born	17 December 1866 Kolkata
Died	30 June 1930 Kolkata
Occupation	Philosopher

Pramathalal Sen (popular as Naluda) was a philosopher of Keshub Chunder Sen’s New Dispensation, who along with Benoyendranath Sen and Mohit Chandra Sen, devoted himself to update the organisation and doctrine of the new religious congregation and improve relations with other Brahmo groups.

Early life

The son of Nabin Chandra Sen and nephew of Keshub Chunder Sen, he passed the Entrance (school-leaving) examination from Albert School, Kolkata. He gave up further efforts at formal education and decided to work for the Brahmo Samaj. After the death of Keshub Chunder Sen in 1884, he spent some time with Sadhu Hiranand Advani in Hyderabad, Sind. However, Advani’s untimely death brought all work there to a stop. On return to Kolkata, he assisted Protap Chunder Mozoomdar in his work.

Theology

Brahmo theology was one of those persisting ideas among many well-intentioned Brahmo leaders that had never gained full acceptance amongst the congregation, nor was it ever institutionalised. Gour Govinda Ray, the most outstanding intellectual luminary in Keshub’s circle of ascetics, candidly disavowed theology as greatly inferior to religious inspiration. However, there were people like Prasanna Kumar Roy who argued that no religion has ever been sustained without a systematic theology. Charles Dall, the American Unitarian missionary, who was member of Keshub’s Brahmo Samaj in the 1870s, also argued that a theological school was urgently needed to avert "emotionalism and mysticism among Brahmos."

Pramathalal Sen was one of the earlier members of the Brahmo Samaj to proceed to Manchester College in England to study theology in 1897-99. It is said that the Unitarians wanted to confer on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity but he politely refused to accept the same.

In 1905, he opted to be a missionary of the Brahmo Samaj. He was inducted by Gour Govinda Ray and presented by Braja Gopal Niyogi.

In 1910, Pramathalal Sen and T.L.Vaswani represented Brahmo Samaj in the World Conference of Religions at Berlin. Just as the 1893 conference at Chicago had been organised by the Unitarians, this conference was also organised by the Unitarians.

Other activities

He was associated with Rabindranath Tagore and Brahmabandhab Upadhyay from a young age. In 1910, he was the first to publish English translations of Tagore’s poems in England. He was secretary of the Victoria Institution at Kolkata from 1914 to 1930. His missionary activities took him to different towns in India, at many of which he had a devoted following, who eagerly looked forward to the visits of Pramathalal, whom they called Sadhu.

Personal traits

He remained single and lived a simple life. In the students’ hostel he set up on Harrison Road (now Mahatma Gandhi Road) in 1902, a board was there, "Seek to be Unknown". That summed up his attitude towards life. Those who came in close contact with him, knew what a superb letter writer he was. In later life he suffered illness for some time and subsequently succumbed to it. When his end was approaching, everybody around sang, his favourite song,

ebar dubilam, dubilam, pranaram sagare.

now I am sinking, sinking in the sea of eternity

Works

For many years he edited The Interpreter and the Young Man, World and the New Dispensation, and Navavidhan.

Four volumes of his letters have been published under the title Naludar Chithi (Naluda’s letters). He published Keshub Chunder Sen – a Study.