Who among the following founded the Dharma Sabha?

Q: What is the answer to CAPF 2021 Paper I Q108?

C. Correct — C, Radhakanta Deb. The Dharma Sabha was set up in Calcutta in January 1830 by Radhakanta Deb, at the head of a group of orthodox Hindu gentry alarmed by the pace of reform. Its immediate business was to oppose Regulation XVII of 1829, by which Bentinck had made sati a punishable offence, and it carried an appeal against the ban all the way to the Privy Council in London, which rejected it in 1832. Its newspaper, the Samachar Chandrika, argued the conservative case against Rammohan Roy's Brahmo Sabha. Deb himself was not a simple obstructionist — he supported the spread of English education and the schooling of girls — but on questions touching custom and caste he stood with tradition. (Provisional — pending the official UPSC key.)

(a)Krishna Mohan Banerjee
(b)Keshab Chandra Sen
(c)Radhakanta Deb
(d)Akshay Kumar Datta

Answer

Why

Correct — C, Radhakanta Deb. The Dharma Sabha was set up in Calcutta in January 1830 by Radhakanta Deb, at the head of a group of orthodox Hindu gentry alarmed by the pace of reform. Its immediate business was to oppose Regulation XVII of 1829, by which Bentinck had made sati a punishable offence, and it carried an appeal against the ban all the way to the Privy Council in London, which rejected it in 1832. Its newspaper, the Samachar Chandrika, argued the conservative case against Rammohan Roy's Brahmo Sabha. Deb himself was not a simple obstructionist — he supported the spread of English education and the schooling of girls — but on questions touching custom and caste he stood with tradition.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Krishna Mohan Banerjee — A member of Derozio's Young Bengal circle who later became a Christian clergyman and scholar. He belonged to the group the Dharma Sabha was formed to resist.
(b)Keshab Chandra Sen — A Brahmo leader of the next generation, born in 1838 — eight years after the Dharma Sabha was founded. He split the Brahmo Samaj in 1866 and formed the Bharatvarshiya Brahmo Samaj.
(d)Akshay Kumar Datta — The rationalist editor of the Tattwabodhini Patrika, the Brahmo journal. Again a reformer, on the other side of the argument from the Dharma Sabha.

Concept

The reform debates of early nineteenth-century Bengal produced organisations on both sides. The Brahmo Sabha of 1828 and its successors argued from scripture for a monotheism without idols and against sati and caste rigidity. The Dharma Sabha argued, also from scripture, that the state had no business legislating on religious custom. Both used the printing press, both petitioned the government, and both drew on the same Calcutta gentry.

Three of the four names in the option set belong to the reforming camp, and only one to the orthodox side, so a candidate who has sorted the period's figures into two groups answers this without recalling the Sabha's founding date. The date itself is a useful check on Keshab Chandra Sen, who had not been born when the Dharma Sabha was formed.

Key facts

The Dharma Sabha was founded in Calcutta in January 1830 by Radhakanta Deb.
It opposed Regulation XVII of 1829, which made sati a punishable offence, and appealed to the Privy Council, losing in 1832.
Its organ was the Samachar Chandrika.
Radhakanta Deb supported English education and the education of girls while defending caste and custom.
The Brahmo Sabha, founded by Rammohan Roy in 1828, was the body it was formed to counter.

Two Calcutta camps of the same decade

Brahmo Sabha, 1828 — Rammohan Roy→Monotheism without images, opposition to sati and to caste rigidity; the Tattwabodhini Patrika later carried its arguments under Akshay Kumar Datta.

Dharma Sabha, 1830 — Radhakanta Deb→Defence of custom against legislation; petitioned against the sati ban and lost before the Privy Council in 1832. Its paper was the Samachar Chandrika.

Young Bengal, 1820s-30s — Derozio's students→Radical rationalists including Krishna Mohan Banerjee, further from the Dharma Sabha than the Brahmos were.

Three of the four names offered belong to the reforming side of this table.

Study next

Rammohan Roy, the Brahmo Sabha and the campaign against satiThe Dharma Sabha and orthodox responses to reformDerozio and the Young Bengal movementKeshab Chandra Sen and the splits in the Brahmo SamajReform legislation of the nineteenth century — the sati ban, widow remarriage, the age of consent

Common traps

Assuming every named Bengali society of the period was a reforming one.
Placing Keshab Chandra Sen in the 1830s; he was born in 1838.

A founder-recall item whose option set is three reformers and one conservative.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2012_GS1_Q742012Open & attempt →

Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding Brahmo Samaj? 1. It opposed idolatry. 2. It denied the need for a priestly class for interpreting the religious texts. 3. It popularized the doctrine that the Vedas are infallible. Select the correct answer using the codes given below.

(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer(b) 1 and 2 only

The organisation on the other side of the same argument. The Brahmo positions against idolatry and priestly authority are precisely what the Dharma Sabha was founded in 1830 to resist.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The Dharma Sabha was founded chiefly to oppose which measure?
- (a)The abolition of sati
- (b)The Widow Remarriage Act
- (c)The Age of Consent Act
- (d)The Charter Act of 1833
Answer(a) The abolition of sati — Regulation XVII of 1829, against which the Sabha appealed to the Privy Council.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which newspaper served as the organ of the Dharma Sabha?
- (a)Sambad Kaumudi
- (b)Samachar Chandrika
- (c)Tattwabodhini Patrika
- (d)Bengal Gazette
Answer(b) Samachar Chandrika — the conservative counterweight to the reformers' journals.