Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/180

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156
TWELVE MEN OF BENGAL

to the truth. Devendra Nath Tagore had indeed discarded the Brahmanical thread and had appointed Keshub, who was not a Brahmin, to the ministry but he was at heart strongly conservative and there were many innovations advocated by Keshub and the younger generation to which he could not subscribe. Keshub had, for instance, taken up the cause of widow re-marriage with enthusiasm, but here Devendra Nath Tagore could not follow him. The still more difficult question of intermarriage had also arisen. The members of the Brahmo Samaj were of all castes and having abandoned all caste restrictions, the question of intermarriage among them was bound to arise. The first intermarriage according to the Brahmo ritual took place in August 1862 but serious doubts were expressed as to its legality, the essential Hindu rites having been omitted. It was a subject which Keshub was to take up later with good results but meanwhile it widened the breach that was gradually separating the old and the new element in the Brahmo Samaj.

Finally breaking with the old Samaj under Devendra Nath Tagore, Keshub Chandra Sen founded the new Brahmo Samaj of India on November the 11th, 1860. The new Samaj was to be on the broadest lines and open to any human being no matter what his creed or caste might be. One of its main objects was to include among its members men of all nationalities and races. It was