The New International Encyclopædia/Sen, Keshub Chunder

SEN, Keshub Chunder (1838-84). A Hindu reformer and theist. He was bom at Garifa, Bengal, and received a mixed native and English education. He came into prominence in connection with the Theistic Church of India or the Brahmo-Somaj (q.v.), which he joined in 1857. In 1865 a division resulted, and the majority became known as the ‘progressive Somaj’ with Sen as the acknowledged leader. Although acknowledging the moral precepts of Christ, they demanded for India a Christ presented in Oriental form for the Hindu mind. In 1870 he visited England, where he was cordially received by scholars and ecclesiastics. When, in 1878, however, Sen, who had been one of the prime movers in the passage of the law against child marriage, permitted his daughter, thirteen years old, to wed the Rajah of Cutch Behar, he was deposed by some of his congregation and thenceforth his personal prestige declined. The dissenters formed the Sadhara or Cothetic Brahmo-Somaj. In 1881 he celebrated what he called the birth of the New Dispensation, promulgating the teachings which he had imbibed from Ramakrishna (q.v.). He was the author of Yoga, Objective and Subjective (1884). Consult: Max Müller, Biographical Essays (London, 1884); Mozoomdar, Life and Teachings of Keshub Chunder Sen (Calcutta, 1887).