Sen, KESHUB CHUNDER

Sen, KESHUB CHUNDER, an Indian religious reformer, was born at the village of Garifa (Gouripore) in Bengal, on 19th November 1838, and received an education partly English, partly Hindu. About 1858 he was attracted by the Brahmo Somaj (q.v.), and soon afterwards began the work of his lifetime, a steady endeavour to promote the religious regeneration of his countrymen. In 1866 he founded the more liberal 'Brahmo Somaj of India.' After a visit to England in 1870 he organised in Calcutta several schemes of charitable philanthropy on the lines of what he had seen in England. In 1878 a schism broke out in his church, caused by his own autocratic temper, and by his leanings to mysticism. His last years were years of controversy, waning influence, and disappointment; and he died on 8th January 1884. See Max-Müller, Biographical Essays (1884).