The tradition of using the term "Indian Renaissance" as applied to the 19th and early 20th centuries is widely used in Indology, since it integrates the leading meanings and content of intellectual, spiritual, social and cultural works of figures of Indian modernization during the British colonial rule in India. From the historiosophical point of view, the Indian Renaissance is an era of national and cultural revival associated with the attempts of European-educated intellectuals to find an adequate path to modernity and at the same time rethink their own cultural tradition in order to preserve and develop it in a modernizing world. Therefore, this term meaningfully combines all the dimensions of the epoch - philosophical, religious, cultural, intellectual, educational, social, legal, political. In the studies of the Indian Renaissance, different methodological approaches coexist, ultimately enriching the understanding of the synthesis of eastern and Western, traditional and modernized principles in colonial India.
The Indian Renaissance originates and develops on the subcontinent, which consists of many regions that differ in their ethno-socio-religious structure and cultural and historical appearance, so it consists of regional renascences - Bengali, Tamil, Gujarati, etc. The leading place, comparable to the place of the Italian Renaissance in the European Renaissance, is occupied by the Bengali version - this, apparently, is not so much a typical version of the Indian Renaissance as an exception, since in Bengal, due to historical reasons, "the processes of collision of European and Indian cultures were most intense" [Serebryany, 2003, p. 118, 128Calcutta was the most important political, economic and cultural center of India. Many works of generalizing and problem-related nature are devoted to the Bengali Renaissance in the Indian scientific literature.
However, the very designation of a cultural and historical period as a Renaissance raises questions about the validity of using this term in relation to a period in the history of a non-European country and about possible comparisons of this phenomenon with the European Renaissance. English (C. F. Andrews, J. H. Cousins, C. Lovett, H. C. E. Zacharias, etc.) and Indian scholars have been using the term "Bengali Renaissance" to describe the state of social life and culture in Bengali cities and the multifaceted transformations in all spheres of spiritual and social life since the first decades of the 20th century. They followed the Bengali intellectuals who, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, drew analogies between their own time and European eras (especially the Renaissance), and saw it as the beginning of the renaissance.
Thus, the philosopher and reformer Rammohan Rai (1772-1833), who is called the "father of modern India" and whose works are most often attributed to the beginning of Bengali (and Indian as such). He was well aware of the role of Bengal in promoting the cultural and social development of Indians and was the first to compare the events taking place in it with the European Renaissance and Reformation. "I am beginning to think," he told the missionary Alexander Duff, "that something similar to the European Renaissance can take place here in India" [Reflections..., 1977, p. 4]. The writer and public figure Bonkimchondro Chottopadhyay (1838-1894), a member of the liberation movement of India, compared the 19th and early 20th centuries with the Renaissance. political movements in Bengal, the future philosopher Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950), the politician Bipinchondro Pal (1858-1932), Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). But for the participants of the renaissance processes in Bengal, there is a revival (of the country, society, culture) It has been the goal and process of activity in all spheres of life, and professional teachers have been trained in the following areas:-
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Modern humanitarians in India and the West inherit this term to denote the cultural era and use it as a general theoretical approach that opens up broad heuristic possibilities for its interpretation.
The historian of Indian philosophy V. S. Naravane notes that the two interpretations of the word "Renaissance" that exist in the scientific literature were taken by analogy with the European ones. Some authors use this word to express the revivalist (i.e., related to the "revival of faith", in this case - Hinduism) nature of Indian thought, in which the "treasury of spirituality" is rediscovered, identical, in their opinion, to classical Indian philosophy, sacred texts and Sanskrit literature. These authors are convinced that the intellectual movement, beginning with R. Rai, had only one goal - to restore the glory of ancient Indian culture. Other authors refer to the term "renaissance" as a new enlightenment, a revolutionary awakening to the future, freedom from the shackles of decayed customs. For them, this is a break with the past rather than its revival, bringing Indian thought to the line of modern (in the sense of "Western") trends in philosophy. V. S. Naravane believes that these opposite interpretations need to be corrected, since in India, according to his ideas, there has never been either a forgetfulness of tradition or a violent break with it. the past. In Indian thought of the 19th and 20th centuries, there is a new interpretation of the tradition as subject to " gradual reassessment in the light of fresh experience "(Naravane, 1964, p. 9-10). "Fresh experience" is an experience of communication with the West, stimulating understanding of one's own culture and sociality.
The most fruitful period for the formation of concepts of the Bengali Renaissance was the period of the 1940s-1980s. At this time, the works of Indian authors established the idea of the irreducibility of the epoch to any one dimension of socio-cultural life (only religious or only the flourishing of literature and art) and of the attempt made during this period to synthesize the ideas and values of different civilizations and cultures. This review is devoted to the most significant generalizing works, which lay not only the foundations of the historical analysis of the Bengali Renaissance, but also approaches to the formation of a methodology for its historical and philosophical interpretation.
The term "Bengali Renaissance" was used especially actively by Indian authors after the publication of Amit Sen's book "Notes on the Bengal Renaissance"in 1946. Subsequently, it was reprinted many times with the original name of the author - Shushobhanchondro Shorkar, a Bengali historian, professor at the University of Jadobpur (Calcutta). He was the first to propose a consistent concept of the epoch based on an analysis of sources on the history of thought, public organizations and circles, religious societies, educational and scientific institutions in Bengal, as well as the life path of its most prominent representatives.
The Bengali Renaissance, according to S. Shorkar, is an awakening that Bengal was the first Indian region to respond to " the impact of British rule, the bourgeois economy and the new Western culture... The role that Bengal plays in the modern revival of India is comparable to the position of Italy in the history of the European Renaissance " [Sarkar S., 1970, p. 3]. The search of Bengali intellectuals for an adequate way to integrate India into the modern world is considered in the work of S. Shorkar through the interaction of three components: the Hindu heritage, British colonialism as a "catalyst" for national liberation and integration processes, and attempts to liberate India from foreign rule.
The origins of the Renaissance in Bengal and throughout the country are associated with the name of R. Shorkar. He speaks of the "epoch-making significance of his life's work" (Sarkar S., 1970, p. 18). His many-sided activities in the religious, social, educational and political spheres were dictated by the awareness of the deep degradation of Indian society in comparison with the West and the desire to synthesize the best that is created by the thought of the East and the West. R.'s activity Raya is, according to the historian, the first of five periods of the Bengali Renaissance: I) 1814-1833 (from the final establishment of permanent residence in Calcutta to his death in Bristol during a visit to England). The historian dates other periods as follows: (ii) 1833-1857-before the Sepoy Rebellion; (iii) 1857-1885-before the founding of the Indian National Congress; (iv) 1885-1905-before the partition of Bengal; (v) 1905-1919-from the Swadeshi1 to the "non-cooperation" period, started by Mahatma Gandhi.
Svadeshi 1 (literally, "one's own land") - movement at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries for the development of national Indian industry, directed against the dominance of English goods on the Indian market. The leaders of the movement actively used the symbols of Hinduism, which caused concern among representatives of other religious communities, primarily Muslims.
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In the spiritual and intellectual movement of the Bengali Renaissance, S. Shorkar sees a constant interaction of liberalism and conservatism, radicalism and moderation, reformism and revivalism, religious and secular components. Thus, it represents the internal inconsistency, versatility of the creative potential and achievements of the era. The historian does not reduce the cultural movement of the era only to the reformation quest of free-thinking Hindus. On the contrary, it seeks to reflect the secular content of their search for social reform, culture and politics, as well as to show the role of representatives of the Christian (D. Hare, G. V. L. Derosio, K. Banerjee) and Muslim (Abdul Latif, Syed Amir Ali) communities in the same socio-cultural revival process.
S. Shorkar interprets the Bengali Renaissance as the awakening of society in the name of its development, as the development of culture - ultimately based on the assimilation of Western liberal values. His "Westernist" sympathies lead him to characterize any attempts to resist Western influence as "revivalism", while Orthodox opponents of the Russian Revolution are often called "revivalism". He calls Rai and his reforms "conservative critics" (Sarkar S., 1970, p. 18). Using the term "revivalism" uncritically, Shorkar identifies it with neo-Hinduism - a trend of thought that aimed to humanize the values of Hinduism as a religion and social organization in the face of other religions and socio-cultural values, especially Western ones. However, neo-Hinduism in Bengal is also a product of the Western rationalistic approach to religion, which allowed us to rethink the Hindu tradition in comparison with other world religions, and this understanding is far from the orthodox Brahmin approach. The activities of such representatives as B. Chottopadhyay and S. Vivekananda are an integral part of the quest of Bengali intellectuals.
In a later work by Sh. Shorkar's Rabindranath Tagor and the Renaissance in Bengal (1961) clarifies and methodologically enriches the concept of the Bengali Renaissance. His acquaintance with T. G. Masaryk's study "Russia and Europe", which analyzes the conflict between Westernism and Slavophilism in Russia, plays a significant role in this. Sh.Shorkar criticizes the "fashion" of the last two decades to call the awakening of Bengal a "Renaissance" and compare it with the European Renaissance. The historian now sees significant differences between these two Revivals: 1) In Bengal, there is no " discovery of the world, a profound revolution in religion, the foundation of modern science, the rise of centralized states, the beginning of the breakdown of the old social system and the transformation of trade, industry and agriculture... British rule in India paved the way for the destruction of the old order, but it never had the intention or ability to build a new society in its place. Our apathetic, passive compatriots, apparently, are also deprived of any initiative and striving for the goal" [Sarkar S., 1970, p. 150]. 2) The awakening of Bengal began under a foreign colonial regime, not in free independent states like in Europe. 3) The ancient culture of India was both suitable and contradictory to modern times, while the ancient Greek culture was sufficiently enriched to meet modern aspirations. This limitation of the Bengali Renaissance does not diminish its historical value, despite the fact that Bengal received the impetus for it not from Ancient India, but from the hostile, modernized West. The historian suggests that the analysis should take into account these differences in historical conditions, prerequisites and causes, which does not exclude a certain similarity in the ideas and theoretical constructions of Bengalis and Europeans.
The " Bengali Awakening "is riddled with an internal conflict between two main trends - Westernism, or liberalism, and" orientalism", or traditionalism. This dichotomy, as well as the terms themselves (especially "orientalism", which usually refers to Oriental studies), are indisputable. Methodologically fruitful is the idea of S. Shorkar that Westernism and Traditionalism are "not two actually different groups of people, but two abstract types of thinking, two logical concepts that lead to a battle in people's minds" (S. Sarkar, 1970, p. 153). The evolution of Rabindranath Tagore's views is the best illustration of the idea of a "battle in the mind" based on the material of the spiritual history of man, which the scientist calls "the highest point of development of our Renaissance". It was only after moving away from the Swadeshi movement and making a difficult spiritual choice that Tagore "finally became a Westernist" [Sarkar S., 1970, p. 173]. R. Tagore (especially in his great novels "The Mountain" and "Home and Peace") is too categorical here. -
2 More adequate, in my opinion, is the term "ethnophilism" proposed by G. S. Pomerants.
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It shows the possibility, desirability and necessity of a rational and spiritual synthesis of Indian and Western heritage and achievements in a modernized India, the necessity of which was justified by R. Rai a hundred years earlier.
According to Sh. Shorkar, Bengali Westernism consists of "passion for social reforms", rationalism and "Western humanism", while traditionalism consists of worship of the past glory of India (and this is Hindu glory), "consciousness of Hindu superiority", which hurt the feelings of non-religious communities, and a tendency to mysticism and spiritual emotionality characteristic of the Indian people. Hinduism. In the history of the Bengali Renaissance, the scholar puts the contribution of Westernism above all others, since it is the arrival of a new one-Western ideas that are connected with the future of India, no matter what external forms this novelty may take. Reflecting on the attempts of various authors to find a synthesis in the legacy of the era, Sh. Shorkar noted that in practice, Indian society did not produce this synthesis, and if it did, it turned out to be a compromise - an eclectic combination of fundamentally opposite ideas. Shorkar's constructions suggest that the actual "battle of minds" best proves the need to synthesize the positive aspects of Western and Indian heritage, as well as the real historical experience of traditionalist "distortions" in the activities of intellectuals (such as the use of Hindu symbols in the liberation movement). Attempts to embody the synthesis projected in the legacy of the Bengali Renaissance can be traced in the social and political practice of independent India.
In 1958, the intention to present an objective picture of the era in one publication ("Studies in the Bengal Renaissance") was carried out by a team of reputable experts in the field of socio-humanitarian sciences under the auspices of the National Council of Education. In the introduction, the collection's editor, Otulchondro Gupto, noted that although the term was created by analogy with the European Renaissance, "it is not only useless, but harmful and erroneous, following this similarity of names, to try to reveal - to everyone's satisfaction and, as a rule, successfully - the deep and real similarity between the great European and local Bengali Renaissance in India." their manifestations and development... But at the same time, one may not notice the differences between the two phenomena and their consequences" [Studies..., 1958, p. XI]. Contact with Europe has given rise to searches and conflicts, not only the acceptance of new ideas, for example in the field of religion, but also opposition to them. These contradictions in the Bengali Renaissance led Bengalis to realize that "the European approach in some areas of knowledge and experience is not necessarily a necessarily true and holistic approach" [Studies..., 1958, p. XIII].
O. Gupto considers the Bengali-European contact as a complex phenomenon brought to life by the influence of Christianity, on the one hand, and the rational search for truth, not constrained by dogmas, on the other. Thanks to the two dimensions of the Renaissance - religious (the contact of Hinduism and Christianity) and rationalistic (the reception of Western education and scientific knowledge) - there was an "awakening of Bengali consciousness and a rise in creative activity". "If the Renaissance is the awakening of a new life, then life continues to create something new, very often exceeding the initial expectations," concludes O. Gupto [Studies..., 1958, p. XIV, XV].
The book presents a broad panorama of the dimensions of the epoch, as well as essays on its prominent representatives. Authors avoid any one-sided and stereotypical assessments; in addition to striving for objectivity, they are driven by a deep respect for their characters. So, Sh. Shorkar created for this publication a detailed article about G. V. L. Derosio (1809-1831) - a poet, educator, teacher of the first educational institution of the European type-Hindu College. Derosio taught students to think rationally and critically and was accused by orthodox Hindus of preaching social heresies and inciting hatred of Hinduism. Otindronath Boshu, in an article on Vivekananda, rejects the accusations of Hindu revivalism leveled against this thinker, emphasizing that it was he who welcomed the spirit of freedom and activity, vitality and scientific progress that came from the West, and he also condemned sectarianism and fanaticism [Studies..., 1958, p. 116 - 117]. The history of the Brahmo Samaj Religious and Educational Society founded by R. Rai (1828) and the influence of Christianity and Islam on the Renaissance processes, social reform and changes in the status of women, the development of European and national education and science, the formation of new Bengali literature and art culture, the economic context of the era and the evolution of political consciousness - these are the topics presented in the publication, allowed the authors to identify the correlation of religious and secular aspects of the era, the constant interaction between the two countries.-
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the relationship between the spiritual and social dimensions of social life in modernizing Bengal.
In the works of the Bengali historian Romeshchondro Majumdar, the Bengali Renaissance is analyzed in the context of the Indian Renaissance. In the 19th century, the historian sees "a great turning point in the evolution of the culture of the Indian people "[Majumdar, 1960, p. 1]. Renaissance processes are developing in the provinces and principalities of colonial India under the influence of two major factors in its cultural evolution - English education and Western culture. Ideas, ideals, forces, and movements that appeared earlier or later in other parts of India can be conveniently studied in Bengal, since "evolution in Bengal has formed a basic pattern for the rest of India" (Majumdar, 1960, p. 2 - 3). In the 19th century, Bengal not only moved from the Middle Ages to the Modern era, but also, according to R. Majumdar, encouraged the rest of India to follow its example and precepts. In lectures delivered at the Vishwabharati University founded by R. Tagore and published in a separate book, R. Majumdar expounds his concept of the Bengali Renaissance, which later formed the basis of his fundamental two - volume work "British Paramount and Indian Renaissance" (Bombay, 1963-1960).
Before the Renaissance, Bengal, according to R. Majumdar, was isolated from other regions of India: its population was in a state of social and intellectual stagnation, it lost the best moral qualities and moral values, as a result of which there were such social vices as polygamy, the custom of sati (burning Hindu widows on the funeral pyre of her husband), etc. One of the fundamental characteristics of this social state is considered by the historian to be the indifference of society to human suffering caused by moral and intellectual decline. R. Majumdar sees two decisive factors of liberation from this state in the introduction of English education, the penetration of Western ideas, as well as in the emergence of "a long series of remarkable personalities who have glorified not only Bengal, but also the whole of India, and whose names in some cases are known far beyond the borders of their homeland" [Majumdar, 1960, p. 21]. The first in this series Majumdar puts the" giant figure " of R. Rai.
The" liberating effect of English education " was evident in all spheres of Bengal's life - social, religious, and political, as it formed a high standard of rational thinking, which was not present in other regions of India at that time. R. Majumdar argues with the view of the famous historian Jadunath Sarkar, who considers Revival "the greatest gift of the British, after universal peace and modernization of society"[Sarkar J., 1960, p. 14]. R. Majumdar emphasizes that the awakening in Bengal was initiated by the activities of the Bengalis themselves, involved in the orbit of Western intellectual influence, and was not the result of the managerial and scientific activities of the British. Due to the division of Bengalis into Hindus and Muslims and the well - known use of differences between them (from the turn of the XIX-XX centuries) by the British authorities for political purposes, the Bengali Renaissance was mainly the creation of Bengalis-Hindus. R. Majumdar considers the Islamic influence on the Hindu community of Bengal to be rather limited, so he raises the idea of Hindu-Muslim unity mainly towards the ideology of the Indian National Congress. The historian does not take into account the serious influence of Islam on Bengali thinkers, as well as the emergence of ideas of intercultural dialogue and supra-confessional unity during the Bengali Renaissance, which then became part of the ideology of the Congress.
Describing the Bengali Renaissance as a movement with a powerful secular content, which gave rise to a new national consciousness, a sense of patriotism, social reforms, a new culture and new political ideas (everything that was previously unknown to India), R. Majumdar considers its three main directions - the development of English education, social reforms, political ideas and organizations. The religious dimensions of the epoch appear to him in the background, as a concomitant, but not a predominant element.
Meanwhile, reducing the content of the Bengali Renaissance only to Western, "secular" guidelines makes it difficult and impoverished to understand the ideas and processes of the era. It is enough to delve into the study of the works of any of the Bengali thinkers to realize that among them there are neither "Westerners" nor "ethnophiles" in their "pure form", but in the worldview of each there is a certain ratio of Westernism and ethnophilism. Indian researchers ' own Westernist sympathies encourage them to find the predominance of Westernism in the constructions and activities of the luminaries of the Bengali Renaissance. Against this background, any appeal to the national
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It may look like "traditionalism"," reaction", or"revivalism".
A more subtle interpretation of the content of the Bengali Renaissance was offered by the cultural critic Nirad Chowdhury (1897-1999), who saw in the ideology of the new era two circles that formed the opposition-liberalism, perceived by Bengali intellectuals from European thought, and conservatism, expressed in the desire to preserve all rational aspects of traditional life [Chaudhuri, 1967, p. 16-17]. Representatives of these circles see the correlation of elements of synthesis differently and place different priorities in the revival of India - social or spiritual revival, respectively. However, the distinction between liberals and conservatives is rather a conditional methodological device, and not a historical and philosophical reality, taking into account the remark of S. Shorkar about the "battle in the minds". The term "conservatism" is most appropriate for interpreting the content of different dimensions of the epoch, since other terms are not sufficiently defined, have a negative evaluation load, do not imply secular components along with religious ones, and rather denote trends within conservatism rather than have a self-sufficient content for interpreting the processes of the epoch.
Cultural historian and sociologist Orobindo Poddar, a lecturer at Rabindra Bharati University (Calcutta), who is recognized as a leading expert on the socio-political and cultural history of Bengal, published a two-volume study "Renaissance in Bengal" in the 1970s. O. Poddar considered his approach Marxist and combined it with P. A. Sorokin's theories on the types of culture and on the development of cultural values. social stratification and mobility; he also used the ideas of A. J. Toynbee. In the first book " Renaissance in Bengal. Ouests and Confrontations. 1800-1860 " O. Poddar outlines the basics of his concept. The question of "rebirth" is not a question of discovering the past, antiquity in the present and future, as some Western scholars and prominent Indians believe. Vivekananda, M. G. Ranade, A. Ghosh), and the question of awakening public consciousness, overcoming conformism and getting out of the state of social stagnation and isolation of society on itself. This awakening is the result of the impact of the "dynamic impulse of sensuous culture" of Europeans on the Bengali consciousness [Poddar, 1970, p. 16]. O. Poddar's uncritical use of terms borrowed from P. Poddar. Sorokin's book narrows down the possibilities of interpreting Western influences on Bengali culture. The Bengali historian does not pay attention to the fact that P. Sorokin speaks about the change of different types of culture in the history of all societies - both Eastern and Western - and he does not have an unambiguous reduction of European culture to the sensual type.
O. Poddar analyzes the social background of the Bengali Renaissance, and the most important of them is the transformation of Indian society into a" dynamic whole " after the establishment of British rule. Europeans found India a closed social system, "introverted and masochistic" [Poddar, 1970, p. 2, 4]. This system lacked mobility, cultivated conformity, subordination of the individual to the collective interest of the family and community in the name of the stability of the social organism. The worldview of its representatives was dominated by xenophobia, which suppressed any form of social interaction with outsiders due to the perception of their impurity and lack of piety, and the result of xenophobia was collective aggressiveness. All this, according to O. Poddar, destroyed the world of human feelings and the world of the spirit, made unhappy all individuals who existed, but did not live. Society was doomed to stagnation because of its internalized "masochistic" behavior: "the refusal to recognize the human dignity of those who were at the bottom of the social hierarchy or outside it, on the one hand, and on the other - institutionalized social hatred and oppression, sanctifying such acts of humiliation and aggression against women as the custom of sati", and also child abuse and similar phenomena [Poddar, 1970, p. 3]. The scientist emphasizes that, despite religious and social differences, similar preferences and biases characterized both Hindus and Muslims.
Following N. Chowdhury, O. Poddar considers the key figure of the Renaissance to be the Bengali intellectual, who, thanks to his English education, is guided by the values of rationality and free thinking, refuses to passively accept living conditions, goes to confrontation with old values, and struggles with his social environment. Nonconformity is the main difference between a Bengali (and any other) intellectual and a traditional scholar. An intellectual who distances himself from collective pressure is aware of his own individuality and seeks to "make his own contribution to the emergence of a more rational social order" [Poddar, 1970, p. 9]. O. Poddar is convinced that the emergence of an intellectual has become possible
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only after the establishment of British power-thanks to the breakdown of the social structure, the appearance of an element of mobility and the birth of individuality in the initial period after the British conquest. The Bengali intellectual has been a product of cosmopolitan Calcutta since 1773. The capital of the British possessions in India and the center of intellectual life in Bengal.
According to O. Poddar, in the first period of the Bengali Renaissance, Anglophilism - this is the prevailing mood of intellectual elites - was due to the uncertainty of their social and intellectual position: they distanced themselves from traditional society and sought to gain recognition from the British. The historian speaks about the formation of a new "caste of English-educated people" - people who are relatively free from the rigidity of caste-limited mentality and masochistic worldview, but "denationalized" (as defined by A. Ghosh) in spiritual terms [Poddar, 1970, p. 35]. The positive side of" denationalization "was that these" Europeans by training " became creative and dynamic thinkers, but they rejected the values and norms of their civilization, which turned into alienation from their people, an attempt to identify with the British establishment and nostalgia for the lost world. Only a few intellectuals paid attention to the need for the participation of the people in the life of the nation. In this context, O. Poddar interprets the views of leading intellectuals-R. Rai, Derozians, O. Dotto, I. Biddeshagor, M. M. Dotto, and also considers the development of science and education. According to the scientist, being the "intellectual tool" of the British for consolidating the empire, "English education created the most harmful obstacle to the implementation of the Indian Renaissance - alienation, which followed the loss of language and means of communication with the people" [Poddar, 1970, p. 244]. But the reduction of Renaissance processes to the Anglophilism of the elite as such limits their understanding in a certain way. In my opinion, social and cultural creativity in the era of the Bengali Renaissance is directed and initiated by representatives of the "creative minority" (A. Bergson) in the intellectual elite itself, and the leading representatives of the era can not always be called Anglophiles.
The second period of the era, which begins, according to O. Poddar, after the Sepoy Rebellion, opens with a gradual realization of the futility of Indian hopes that they will be accepted as equals by both the European community and the British colonial power in India. Racial prejudice and the British sense of superiority, the injustice of the colonial authorities, peasant uprisings that exposed the scale of poverty and exploitation of the people, and India's economic dependence on England played a significant role in the loss of Anglophile illusions and the emergence of a sense of loss of identity, perceived as a connection with its people. The desire to acquire this identity has become the antithesis of Anglophilism. In his second book - " Renaissance in Bengal. Search for Identity. 1860-1919 "- the scientist described the" narrowing of the horizon "of Westernized elites as follows:" Fascinated eyes, usually peering into the West, gradually began to look towards the East [Poddar, 1977, p.4].
O. Poddar connects the search for identity with the development of nationalism of the bourgeoisie and intelligentsia, who from the idea of "happy self-government under British rule" came to the ideas of "liberation from foreign yoke", the search for support for their efforts by the people, their own production (swadeshi) and independence. The achievement of the early Bengali nationalists, although controversial, according to O. Poddar, is that they "began to look beyond the borders of Bengal in order to discover a united India." However, in their doctrine of the unity of the country and the unity of the people, the idea of a religious Hindu identity became predominant. O. Poddar sees the basis of this identity in the fact that in the XIX century. it was "the most stable and generally accepted". All the progressive movements of the nineteenth century stemmed from religious reform movements that did not destroy this identity; it reflected an instinctive awareness of "the fundamental cultural unity of India based on Hindu mythology and literature" (Poddar, 1977, p.19).
O. Poddar believes that this limited the progressive work on creating a true nation, in which all communities could unite, and the formation of a real positive identity. Bengali "nationalists "'s focus on the past and the idea of India's spiritual superiority over Europe (it was haughtily called the "slave of matter") actually supported the" exclusivity mentality "that gave rise to the" counter-exclusivity mentality " of Muslims. Because of this, the gap in social interaction between the main communities was not bridged. O. Poddar is convinced that the incompleteness of the search for identity dictated - largely unwittingly and unconsciously - the reluctance to share political power with other communities. "Same-
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the great irony of history... The problem was that when the Hindu Anglophiles learned enough to turn their backs on their teachers, the Muslim intelligentsia began to worship, honor, and accept them intensely. And accordingly, the spirit of nationalism has ceased to develop in a single dimension" [Poddar, 1977, p. 37]. Following the tradition of dividing nationalism into two types - religious and political-among Bengali scholars, O. Poddar pointed out a significant contradiction in the aspirations of the Bengali Renaissance figures, expressed in the discrepancy between the secular (liberal) idea of India as a common home of different religions and cultures and the religious (conservative) idea of it as a"country of Hindus". This discrepancy prevented the formation of a common civil identity.
Therefore, not only in the development of nationalism, but also in the processes of the Bengali Renaissance, the scientist sees a split and incompleteness caused by the distance between communities. Considering the activities and ideas of K. Sen, B. Chottopadhyay, S. Banerjee, Vivekananda, B. Pal, A. Ghosh and R. Tagore, O. Poddar shows their contradictory searches in the light of the evolution of nationalism and the search for identity. His greatest sympathies are on the side of the liberal politician who was at the origin of the Indian National Congress, Surendranath Banerjee (1848-1925), who opposed Hindu nationalism, and R. Tagore, who became above nationalism. But despite their sincere efforts, "the roots of a true national identity were never found" (Poddar, 1977, p. 250).
The constant fluctuation of Bengali intellectuals between Westernized and ethnophile orientations and the corresponding eclecticism of views, coupled with the isolation of this stratum from Indian society, did not lead to a clear definition of the future development of the country - economic, social, political, cultural. "The promise of the Indian Renaissance as such... they expected and still expect implementation", - this idea of O. Poddar reflects his position on the topic under study [Poddar, 1970, p. 21]. With all the depth of insight into the topic, the author, unfortunately, did not take into account the fundamental irreducibility of the Renaissance processes of the last decades of the XIX century to the development of nationalism, as well as the fact that the very inconsistency of the experience and heritage of the Bengali "creative minority" contains a breakthrough to the realization of the limitations of uniform approaches and the need
The Bengal Renaissance: Social and Political Thought, by K. S. Bhattacharjee, a specialist in Modern Indian and Western social thought, sums up the development of the era's concepts in a peculiar way, although the work is limited to the study of the first, "liberal phase" of the awakening and leaves out the "nationalism phase" [Bhattacharjee, 1986, p. 26]. S. Bhottacharjee sees in the Bengali Renaissance both the history of thought and the history of social practice, which develops in the context of the awakening caused by the emergence of elements of modern thinking in India. The scientist sees the peculiarity of the new Bengali thought, which distinguishes it from the thought of the European Renaissance, in the desire "to reorganize Indian thought and practice in such a way, following Western ideals, so that the dynamism and progress that marks Western society can be developed here" [Bhattacharjee, 1986, p. 19]. This desire interacts with the desire caused by the confrontation with Western culture and intellectual tradition - to revive the glory of the past and find a pure Indian tradition. Both stem from the desire to revive India, with or without the Western model.
Like his predecessors, K. S. Bhottacharjee connects the essence of the Bengali Renaissance with the movement towards modernity, carried out in thinking under the influence of European humanism and rationalism. He offers the following generalized characteristics of the interpretation of liberal and nationalist thought, showing its irreducibility to the so-called search for a pure ancient tradition: 1) a universalist conception of man and society; 2) a rationalistic tendency to explore all aspects of life and thought; 3) a humanistic consideration of the problems of man and society; 4) rejection of traditional authorities and search for new ones in the cultural, social and intellectual spheres; 5) encouraging the individual to fulfill the needs of his new awakened consciousness [Bhattacharjee, 1986, p. 20]. The researcher emphasizes that these characteristics of modernity are manifested in all spheres of thinking, including religious ones, and have projections in the desire of Bengali thinkers to construct a new approach to national politics in India, united from within, and not from outside, as it was under British rule. The advantage of the K. S. concept Bhottacharji - in the view of the irreducibility of the thinking of Renaissance leaders to Anglophilism/Westernism (probably,
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this is partly a polemic with O. Poddar), since they, having adopted Western rationalism, humanism and liberalism, sought to combine the progressive development of the country with national needs.
So, the use of the term " Bengali Renaissance "in the Indian scientific literature does not reflect a certain" fashion "or habitual tradition received from the participants of the" awakening in Bengal " or European authors, but opens up wide opportunities for historical and historical-philosophical analysis of this time. The positions of different authors are united, in my opinion, by a common approach to the study of the epoch, the essence of which lies in the study of the process of self - determination of representatives of Bengali (and more broadly, any non-Western) culture. I see the main points of this approach as follows:
1. The Bengali Renaissance should be interpreted in the broad context of the political, economic and social processes taking place in the Indian subcontinent and associated with the beginning of the modernization of traditional society. 2. The Renaissance was created by a variety of conditions, starting with the establishment of British rule and the penetration of Western education. 3. A crucial role in the genesis of the Bengali Renaissance was played by external," Western " secular factors-English education and European rationalism. 4. The liberating influence of English education was manifested in the personality of an Indian intellectual, in whose mind there was a correlation between Western and Indian, religious and secular, modern and traditional. 5. The Bengali Renaissance is an era of national awakening, fundamentally not reducible to attempts to restore the past in the present, but connected with the search for a path to modernity, adequate adaptation to the changing conditions of the modernizing world. 6. The essence of the epoch that marked the beginning of overcoming (in many respects partial and limited) traditionalism in the life of society is manifested in its cultural-creative nature. The attempt at a rational synthesis of Western and Indian principles in thinking and in various spheres of life ultimately aimed at humanizing Indian reality in the face of orthodoxy and traditionalism. 7. The creative character of the epoch is largely explained by the interaction in the minds of its leading representatives of liberalism and conservatism, Anglophilism and nationalism, Westernism and traditionalism.
Indian scholars in the 1840s and 1980s focused on the social aspects of the era, showed the secular content of its processes, and thus overcame the stable interpretation of the Bengali Renaissance as a purely religious movement that existed (both in Indian and European authors). Religion in the considered works is rather a projection of social reality, rather than an independent and important component of socio-cultural processes, enriching the spiritual development of society. Insufficient attention to the impact of Christianity and missionary criticism of Hinduism on Bengali intellectuals and their religious pursuits significantly narrows the possibilities of understanding the Bengali Renaissance, since it was in the Bengali religious humanism of the XIX-early XX centuries that the adogmatic approach to the social and political dimensions of modernization was justified. In general, thanks to the efforts of Indian scientists to identify the features of Renaissance processes in Bengal, methodological foundations for the study of regional renascences and, more broadly, the interpretation of the Renaissance as a pan - Indian phenomenon, which was initiated by peripheral Bengal in relation to traditional society, have emerged.
list of literature
Silver, S. D. a novel in the Indian culture of the New time. M.: RGGU, 2003.
Bhattacharjee K. S. The Bengal Renaissance: Social and Political Thought. New Delhi: Classical Publishing Company, 1986.
Chaudhuri N. Ch. The Intellectual in India. New Delhi: Association Publishing House, 1967.
Majumdar R. C. Glimpses of Bengal in the Nineteenth Century. Calcutta: Mukhopaddhay, 1960.
Naravane V. S. Modern Indian Thought. N. Y.: Asia, 1964.
Poddar A. Renaissance in Bengal. Quests and Confrontations. 1800 - 1860. Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, 1970.
Poddar A. Renaissance in Bengal. Search for Identity. 1860 - 1919. Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, 1977.
Reflections on the Bengal Renaissance / Ed. by D. Kopf and S. Joarder. Rajshahi: Institute of Bangladesh Studies, 1977.
Sarkar Jadunath. India Through the Ages. 5 ed. Calcutta: M. C. Sarkar & Sons, 1960.
Sarkar Susobhan. Bengal Renaissance and Other Essays. New Delhi, etc.: People's Publishing House, 1970.
Studies in the Bengal Renaissance / Ed. by A. Gupta. Calcutta: Jadavpur University, 1958.
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