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Harichand Thakur (30 March 1812 – 5 March 1878), was a social reformer who worked among the untouchable people of the Bengal Presidency. He founded the Matua sect of Hinduism.

Life

Harichand Thakur was born into a Vaishnavite Namashudra peasant family in 1811 in Safaladanga, a village in Gopalgunj, then part of the Bengal Presidency (now a part of Bangladesh). He was the son of Jashomanta Biswas (father) and Annapurna Devi (mother). His family, for generations, had belonged to the Gaudiya Vaishnavism sect; according to the book "Sri Sri Hari Lilamrita", his ancestors came from Rarhdesh. His grandfather, Manchanram Biswas, was a devout Vaishnavite known as 'Thakur Manchanram' in the locality. His father Jashomanta inherited the 'Thakur' title, and the family adopted the surname 'Thakur', abandoning their original surname 'Biswas'.

Harichand Thakur was married to Jagat Mata Shanti Mata, and they had two sons. He was evicted from his native village Orakandi through the machinations of the village zamindar and finally he became settled in another village in the same district. He did cultivation and some small trading for his daily living.

He became known in the locality as a very religious person with magical power. Because of that, many people of his community from his own village, as well as surrounding villages, came to him as a disciple. Eventually, he founded the sect of Vaishnavite Hinduism called Matua. He did not promote asceticism, preaching instead that men could be devoted to God while staying withint the family (Grihete thakiya jar hay bhaboday. Sei je param sadhu janio nishchay).

Harichand Thakur passed away in 1878, in Faridpur.

Social and religious reforms

People started gathering around him because of his religious nature as well as his miraculous power well known in the nearby locality. According to historian Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, one day Thakur "experienced atma darshan or self-revelation, through which he realized that he was the incarnation of God himself, born in this world to bring salvation to the downtrodden". After that he started preaching his own religious realization which is only based on Bhakti. According to his doctrine, all traditional rituals, except devotion to God, faith in mankind, and love for living beings, are meaningless and distortions from the real aim of attaining God. During that time, lower-caste peoples in India were terribly oppressed and marginalized by the upper-caste people (mostly belong to the Vaishnav or Hindu Brahmin religions). These downtrodden people did not have any right in anything. His simple doctrine attracted many adherents from his own marginalized community. However, higher caste Hindus and Vaishnavs distanced themselves from his religion. He organized these downtrodden peoples of his own community under the banner of his new religious doctrine (known as Matua religion) and established Matua Mahasangha. In one sense, he gave the religionless Namashudras a new religion, his own Matua religion and helped them to establish their own right. His followers began to believe that he was gifted with supernatural power and can protect them from the Brahmanical cruel rules and regulations in the society. They started considering him as God (Param Brahma) Harichand and as an avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu or Krishna. Thus, he became known as Sri Sri Harichand Thakur. Although he initially attracted followers only from his community, later his religion attracted followers from other caste communities that were marginalised by the upper castes, including the Chamars, Malis, and Telis.

His newly founded Matua religion is based on only three basic principles - Truth, Love, and Sanity. He completely rejected the sermons of earlier Hindu saints which described the household as an illusion and family as the main obstacle on the path of attaining salvation. Earlier Hindu saints discouraged people toward family life by preaching One has to leave home to achieve Nirvana (attaining salvation). However, he said Let karma (work) be our religion. There is no need for leaving home to lead a saintly life. He insisted that one can achieve salvation only through simple love and devotion to God. There is no need for initiation by a guru (Diksha) or pilgrimage. One can attain God by chanting Haribol and praying the God. All other mantras except the name of God and Harinam (Haribol) are just meaningless and distortions. He formulated his new Matua religion by combining the work with religion. He said haate kam mukhe nam (work in the hand and name of the God Hari in mouth). He challenged the traditional Hindu belief which described the woman as an illusion (maya), the gateway to hell, and the main obstacle on the path of attaining God. However, he insisted on strict sexual discipline and family values for his followers. According to his religion, all people are equal. He told his followers to treat everyone with the same dignity.

He gave twelve instructions to his followers. These twelve instructions are: (I) Always speak the truth (II) Treat the woman as your mother-being; Respect the woman (III) Always respect your parents (IV) Treat your neighbors and all earthly living beings with love, pity, and kindness (V) Never discriminate on racial grounds (VI) Bring all the six passions of the mind under your control. These six passions of mind are - Lust, Anger, Greed, Infatuation, Pride, and Jealousy. (VII) Remain liberal to all other religions and creeds (VIII) Become honest in mind and activities and avoid saintly dress to adorn yourself with (IX) Perform your duties devotedly and utter the sacred Haribol and pray to God simultaneously (X) Build a temple of pure thoughts in your heart and soul and a temple of Shree Hariparameshwar at your dwelling place (XI) Pray daily to God with devotion and sanctity (XII) Sacrifice yourself to the cause of God.

Legacy

After his death, one of his sons, Guruchand Thakur, himself a Chandala or avarna (born 1846), worked with C. S. Mead in a campaign to have the Chandala people recategorised as Namasudra. He established number of schools in his locality for the education of Dalit community. According to Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, it was under the leadership of Guruchand that the Matua sect "achieved its doctrinal cohesion and organisational push, as it came to be associated with the Namasudra social protest movement started in 1872".

A considerable body of Dalit literature that mixes religious and secular themes has emerged around Thakur and Matua. This includes biographies, promotions of the teachings and interpretations of the relationship to later events, such as the thoughts of B. R. Ambedkar and comparisons with the situation of black people in the US.

See also

• Guruchand Thakur
• Pramatha Ranjan Thakur

References

1. "Eye on Bengal votes, PM Modi to visit Matua mandir in Bangladesh". The Times of India. 14 March 2021.
2. Lorea, Carola (28 February 2020). "Religion, Caste, and Displacement: The Matua Community". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.428. ISBN 978-0-19-027772-7. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
3. ^ Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (1997). Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India: The Namasudras of Bengal, 1872–1947. Curzon. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-70070-626-6.
4. ^ "New Vaisnavism and Sri Sri Harichand Thaku" (PDF). Retrieved 30 August 2021.
5. ^ Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (2004). Caste, Culture and Hegemony: Social Dominance in Colonial Bengal. SAGE. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-76199-849-5.
6. Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (1995). "The Matua Sect and the Namasudras". In Ray, Rajat Kanta (ed.). Mind Body and Society: Life and Mentality in Colonial Bengal. Oxford University Press. p. 163. ISBN 019-563757-7.
7. ^ "Historical Development of the Education of the Namasudras" (PDF). Retrieved 27 August 2021.
8. "Problem of Caste and Identity: The Namasudras of Colonial India" (PDF). Retrieved 27 August 2021.
9. "Bengal's unsung Namasudra movement". 29 November 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
10. Sarkar, Sumit (1997). "Renaissance and Kaliyuga: Time, Myth, and History in Colonial Bengal". In Sider, Gerald M.; Smith, Gavin A. (eds.). Between History and Histories: The Making of Silences and Commemorations. University of Toronto Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-80207-883-4.
11. Sinharay, Praskanva (2015). "Building Up the Harichand-Guruchand Movement: The Politics of the Matua Mahansgha". In Chandra, Uday; Heierstad, Geir; Nielsen, Kenneth Bo (eds.). The Politics of Caste in West Bengal. Routledge. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-31741-477-3.
12. ^ "The Role of Sri Sri Hari Chand Thakur and Sri Sri Guru Chand Thakur to the Social Awakening Movement of the Namasudras: An overview" (PDF). Retrieved 30 August 2021.
13. Sinharay, Praskanva (2015). "Building Up the Harichand-Guruchand Movement: The Politics of the Matua Mahansgha". In Chandra, Uday; Heierstad, Geir; Nielsen, Kenneth Bo (eds.). The Politics of Caste in West Bengal. Routledge. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-31741-477-3.
14. Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (1995). "The Matua Sect and the Namasudras". In Ray, Rajat Kanta (ed.). Mind Body and Society: Life and Mentality in Colonial Bengal. Oxford University Press. p. 173. ISBN 019-563757-7. Harichand, as many of the devotional songs of the sect indicate, was believed to have been the incarnation of Hari or Krishna.
15. ^ Mukherjee, Sipra (2015). "Creating Their Own Gods: Literature from the Margins of Bengal". In Abraham, Joshil K.; Misrahi-Barak, Judith (eds.). Dalit Literatures in India. Routledge. pp. 132, 140. ISBN 978-1-31740-880-2.
16. ^ Thakur, Kapil Krishna (2009). "Harichand Thakur's Matua Movement and Dalit Awakening in Bengal". Voice of Dalit. 2: 37–44. doi:10.1177/0974354520090104. S2CID 164684840. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
17. ^ "Twelve Doctrines of Shri Shri Harichand Thakur". Retrieved 28 August 2021.
18. "Orakandi's pilgrim Prime Minister of India: Look London see Paris? | AK (...) - Mainstream". mainstreamweekly.net. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
19. Biswas, Ratan Kumar (2010). Namasudra Movements In Bengal (1872-1947). Progressive Book Forum. pp. 158–160. ISBN 978-81-88006-19-9.

• Hitesh Ranjan Sanyal : Social Mobility in Bengal, Calcutta, 1985, OCLC 654280803

• Mandal, Mahitosh (2022). "Dalit Resistance during the Bengal Renaissance: Five Anti-Caste Thinkers from Colonial Bengal, India". Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion. 3 (1): 11–30. doi:10.26812/caste.v3i1.367. S2CID 249027627.

• 1810s births
• 1878 deaths
• Bengali Hindus
• Bengali Hindu saints
• People from Gopalganj District, Bangladesh
• Hindu denominations
• Matua people
• Indian social reformers
• Indian Hindu spiritual teachers
• Indian reformers