We at the SU-NITI News bow down to the Greatest Bengali Sapient and Reformer - Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar on his 200th Birth Anniversary. He was the prominent campaigner for Hindu Widow Remarriage which Finally LED to Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856. He even made his son marry a widow.
Born on 26 September 1820, Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay, Popularly known as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was an Indian educator and social reformer. He is considered as the "Father of Bengali prose".
His significant efforts were to simplify and modernise Bengali prose. He also rationalised and simplified the Bengali alphabet and type, which had remained unchanged since Charles Wilkins and Panchanan Karmakar had cut the first (wooden) Bengali type in 1780.
He received the title "Vidyasagar" (in Sanskrit, Vidya means knowledge and Sagar means ocean, i.e., Ocean of Knowledge) from Sanskrit College, Calcutta (from where he graduated), due to his excellent performance in Sanskrit studies and philosophy.
After death, he is remembered in many ways, some of them include:
- Vidyasagar Setu (commonly known as the Second Hooghly Bridge), is a bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. It links the city of Howrah to its twin city of Kolkata. The bridge is named after Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.
- In 2004, Vidyasagar was ranked number 9 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of all time.
- Vidyasagar College in Kolkata is named after him, as well as Vidyasagar University in Paschim Midnapore.
- Rectitude and courage were the hallmarks of Vidyasagar's character, and he was certainly ahead of his time. In recognition of his scholarship and cultural work the government designated Vidyasagar a Companion of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1877. In the final years of life, he chose to spend his days among the "Santhals", an old tribe in India.
- Indian Post issued stamps featuring Vidyasagar in 1970 and 1998.
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