On Tuesday morning the head of the Brahmo Somaj of
India, Keshub Chunder Sen, died at Calcutta, at a comparatively early age. Ever since 1878, when the marriage of his daughter with the Rajah of Cooch Behar took place, at an age which Keshub
Chunder Sen had formerly condemned as much too early, and with rites that were, to say the least, ambiguous, and thought by many of his followers to be tinged with idolatry, Keshub Chunder Sen has been deserted by a large proportion of the more earnest Brahmos, and has fallen ha& on a sort of sensa- tionalism which has to many of his former friends implied a sad degeneration in the type of his religions teaching. For example, he had taken to a very sensational sort of ritualism,— as we showed when noticing, some months ago, Miss S. D. Collet's excellent 44Brahmo Year-book,"—performing some of the old magic tricks of the Hindoo conjurors before his congregation, and then in- terpreting them by giving them a spiritual or symbolic mean- ing. He has also brought elaborate dancing into vogue as one of the religions rites of his worship, and has spoken of himself as
• inspired in terms which suggest the working of a morbid vanity. His original work had, indeed, long devolved on the Sadharan Brehm° Somaj, which separated itself from his Church, and has strenuously undertaken all the healthier part of his former mission.
Previous page
