Volume III, Issue I, September 2026
Volume-III, Issue-I, September, 2026 |
Received: 14.09.2026 | Accepted: 28.09.2026 | ||
Published Online: 30.09.2026 | Page No: | ||
DOI: 10.69655/atmadeep.vol.3.issue.01W. | |||
মক্তবের পাঠশালা থেকে হরিচাঁদ গুরুচাঁদ বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়:
বঞ্চনা থেকে প্রাতিষ্ঠানিক স্বীকৃতির ঐতিহাসিক আখ্যান
ড. নয়ন সরকার, স্বাধীন
গবেষক, নদীয়া, পশ্চিমবঙ্গ, ভারত |
From Maktab School to Harichand Guruchand University: A Historical Narrative of Institutional Recognition from Marginalization Dr. Nayan Sarkar, Independent Researcher, Nadia, West Bengal, India | ||
ABSTRACT | ||
The primary objective of this research paper is to understand the
historical transformation from the exclusion of marginalized communities from
institutional education in nineteenth-century Bengal to their institutional
recognition in the twenty-first century. In the mid-nineteenth century, due to
the overwhelming dominance of the caste system, the young Guruchand Thakur
(1847–1937) was denied admission to traditional pathshalas (village schools)
and was compelled to attend a local *maktab* to acquire his initial literacy. These
childhood experiences of social humiliation and alternative education
eventually shaped his core social philosophy. Identifying education—rather than
conventional religious practice—as the primary instrument of liberation, he
spearheaded an unprecedented educational revolution across the rural areas of
undivided East Bengal, grounded in the principles of "establishing a
school in every home" and the motto: "Work in hand, the Divine Name
on the lips; we seek both education and spiritual initiation." From the integrated vision behind the primary
school and maktab in Orakandi to the establishment of over a thousand schools
across villages, the student hostel movement in the city, and the advocacy for
the rights of disadvantaged students during the founding of Dhaka University in
1912—his wide-ranging movement brought marginalized people to the center of the
social structure. As a historical and moral outcome of this long-drawn-out
struggle, the ‘Harichand Guruchand University’ was established in the
twenty-first century at Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas, under the initiative of
the Government of West Bengal. Primarily through an analysis of the
foundational text Sri Sri Harililamrita and the historical context, this essay
attempts to demonstrate that the journey from the maktab in Orakandi to the
university in Thakurnagar is not merely the life story of an individual;
rather, it stands as a monumental historical record of marginalized people
securing social justice, self-respect, and institutional rights in the face of
systemic deprivation.
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