Raja Radhakanta Deb, scholar, philanthropist and leader of conservative Hindu society, died on this day.
He was born in 1784. He was the son of Gopimohan Deb, the adopted son and heir of Maharaja Nabakrishna Deb, the founder of Shovabazar Raj family.
Radhakanta Deb, like several of his eminent contemporaries, was an advocate of both progressive and conservative ideas. His scholarly works were impressive. He knew Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic and authored Shabda Kalpadruma, a Sanskrit dictionary.
He contributed articles to Ishwar Chandra Gupta’s newspaper Sambad Prabhakar.
He tried to promote English education and education for women. He took an active part in founding Calcutta School Book Society, an organisation that aimed at publishing and distributing text books in schools, in 1817, and the Calcutta School Society, which focused on teaching methods and establishing new schools, in 1818.
Radhakanta Deb was the first president of the British Indian Association. With David Hare and Raja Rammohun Roy, he had played a major role in the founding of Hindu College in Calcutta. He was an active member of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, which was established in 1820.
At the same time, Radhakanta Deb was a fierce proponent of Hindu orthodoxy. During Raja Rammohun’s campaign against the practice of sati, Radhakanta Deb defended the practice. After its abolition by Lord Bentinck in December 1829, Radhakanta Deb, on behalf of a society of conservative Hindus called Dharma Sabha, petitioned the government, arguing that the abolition was an interference in Hindu practices.
He was knighted in 1866, a few months before his death.
