Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: A Popular Personality in India and Bangladesh 

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar is a great name in India and Bangladesh for his immense contribution to the development of Bengali literature and women’s empowerment; the people of this region will remember generation to generation. On September 26, 1820, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay/ at present many persons with the same surname write Banerjee instead of Bandyopadhyay) was born in the Bengal, present West Bengal. Because of his vast knowledge later on in his life, he is known as Vidyasagar means knowledge of the ocean. He was also known as ‘Dayar Sagar’ or ‘Karunar Sagar’ (ocean of kindness) because of his generosity. His enormous contribution to the development of society is gratefully remembered by all, not only in India but also in Bangladesh.
He reconstructed the Bengali alphabet and simplified Bengali typography into alphabets.
He was a social reformer who advocated widow remarriage and worked against polygamy. Because of his initiative, the Widow Remarriage Act was passed in 1856, making widow marriage legal.
Vidyasagar worked endlessly to provide equal education to all men and women irrespective of caste and religion. He was a protagonist of women’s education. According to him, with education, only women can live in society with dignity and respect. He lobbied hard for girls’ schools, and for this, he went door to door requesting heads of families to allow their daughters to be admitted to the schools. It is believed that he could open 35 schools for girls throughout united Bengal, where around 1300 students were enrolled. It is pertinent to mention that because of his arduous labour and support received from John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune, the first girls’ school in India, the Bethune School was established on May 7, 1849, in Calcutta.
He worked as a Sanskrit professor in Sanskrit College, Calcutta. While he was the principal of the college, he undertook some reforms, and one of them was the admission of students belonging to marginalized groups (present SC/ST), as earlier, they were not allowed admission. Further, as a Professor at Sanskrit College, he successfully included English and Bengali as learning mediums in addition to Sanskrit. He introduced courses in European History, Philosophy, and Science along with Vedic scriptures. During his lifetime, Vidyasagar wrote many books and thus enriched the education system.
In present days, he is remembered in many ways, inter alia of which are:
a) Vidyasagar Setu, which connects Howrah and Kolkata, is a bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal.
b) A fair/mela named Vidyasagar Mela (dedicated to spreading education and increasing social awareness) has been held annually in West Bengal since 1994.
c) Vidyasagar College in Kolkata is named after him, as well as Vidyasagar University in Paschim Midnapore, West Bengal.
d) The West Bengal Government has established a stadium named after him at Barasat, North 24 Parganas district.
f) For his immense and selfless service to the marginalized people of Bihar, a railway station has been named Vidyasagar Station in the Jamtara district of Jharkhand.
g) Indian Post and Telegraph issued a stamp in his commemoration in 1970 on his 150th birth anniversary.
When I visited Bangladesh, I was joyous to observe his popularity among the people of Bangladesh.
Prof Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad