1. Bharatendu Harishchandra was an Indian poet, writer, and playwright.
17 Facts About Bharatendu Harishchandra
1. 2.
Bharatendu Harishchandra authored several dramas, biographical sketches, and travel accounts with the goal of influencing public opinion.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra is often considered the father of modern Hindi literature and theatre.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra's works addressed issues such as poverty, dependency, British tyranny, middle-class unrest, and need for societal progress.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra opposed the conventional orthodoxy of the time and the manipulations of religious leaders.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra is described by some as an influential Hindu traditionalist who used Vaishnava devotion to define a coherent Hindu religion.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra was born in Benaras into a wealthy family.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra's father Girdhar Das was a poet and both his parents died when he was young.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra edited the magazines Kavi Vachan Sudha, Bharatendu Harishchandra Magazine, and Bala Bodhini.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra was titled "Bharatendu" at a public meeting by scholars of Kashi in 1880 in recognition of his services as a writer, patron, and modernizer.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra rejected the authority of those engaged with Western learning and institutions over Hindu religious matters and recommended they be left to traditionally educated Hindu scholars.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra used new media, especially publications, to shape public opinion.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra used Vaishnava devotion to try and define a coherent Hindu religion, using as his institutional base the Kashi Dharma Sabha, which was started in the 1860s by the Maharaja of Benares as a response to more radical Hindu reformist movements.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra insisted on the value of image worship and interpreted Bhakti as devotion to a single god; this was in response to Orientalist and Christian critiques of Hinduism.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra started a campaign to promote the use of Swadeshi articles with demands for replacement of Urdu by Hindi in courts and for a ban on cattle slaughter in India.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra continued his campaign for a legal ban on cow slaughter on behalf of the Maharaja of Benares, taking it to the Delhi Durbar.
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Bharatendu Harishchandra used theatre as a tool to shape public opinion.