Hindu Mela
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Hindu Mela
Hindu ''Mela'' was a political and cultural festival started in 1867 in Calcutta. Its primary objective was to instill a sense of national pride among the city-dwellers to indigenous handmade products rather than imported British-made products. It included the display of ''swadeshi'' wrestling, ''swadeshi'' art and recital and performances of ''swadeshi'' poetry and songs. The ''mela'' met regularly until 1880 after which it lost its importance due to the establishment of other institutions. Founding In 1867, the National Paper published the ''Prospectus of a Society for the Promotion of National Feeling among the Educated Natives of Bengal'' by Rajnarayan Basu. Inspired by this booklet Nabagopal Mitra founded the Hindu ''Mela'' and the National Society in 1867. The ''mela'' was first known as the ''Chaitra Mela''. The founding of the ''mela'' was supported financially by the Tagore family of Jorashako. Members of the Tagore family recited poetry and performed songs at the even ...
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Rajnarayan Basu
Rajnarayan Basu ({1826–1899) was an Indian writer and intellectual of the Bengal Renaissance. He was born in Boral in 24 Parganas and studied at the Hare School and Hindu College, in Kolkata, Bengal. A monotheist at heart, Rajnarayan Basu converted to Brahmoism at the age of twenty. After retiring, he was given the honorary title of ''Rishi'' or sage. As a writer, he was one of the best known prose writers in Bengali in the nineteenth century, writing often for the ''Tattwabodhini Patrika'', a premier Brahmo journal. Due to his defence of Brahmoism, he was given the title "Grandfather of Indian Nationalism". Birth and early life Rajnarayan Basu was born on 7 September 1826 in the Boral village of South 24 Parganas of West Bengal. The ancestral seat of the Basu family was Garh Gobindopur, Kolkata. His father Nanda Kishore Basu was a disciple of a Raja Ram Mohan Roy and later one of his secretaries. A bright student since childhood, Rajnarayan was brought to Calcutta (modern ...
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Empress Of India
Emperor or Empress of India was a title used by British monarchs from 1 May 1876 (with the Royal Titles Act 1876) to 22 June 1948, that was used to signify their rule over British India, as its imperial head of state. Royal Proclamation of 22 June 1948, made in accordance with thIndian Independence Act 1947, 10 & 11 GEO. 6. CH. 30.'Section 7: ...(2)The assent of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is hereby given to the omission from the Royal Style and Titles of the words " Indiae Imperator " and the words " Emperor of India " and to the issue by His Majesty for that purpose of His Royal Proclamation under the Great Seal of the Realm.'). According to this Royal Proclamation, the King retained the style and titles 'George VI by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith'''Indian Independence Act 1947'' (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 30) The image of the emperor or empress was used to signify British authority—his or ...
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History Of Kolkata
Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal and is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Bhagirathi-Hooghly (Ganga). The city was a colonial city developed by the East India Company and then by the British Empire. Kolkata was the capital of the British Indian empire until 1911, when the capital was relocated to Delhi. Kolkata grew rapidly in the 19th century to become the second most important city of the British Indian Empire. This was accompanied by the development of a culture that fused Indian philosophies with Victorian tradition. Kolkata is also noted for its revolutionary history, ranging from the Indian to the leftist Naxalite and trade-union movements. Labelled the "Cultural Capital of India", "The City of Processions", "The City of Palaces", and the "City of Joy", Kolkata has also been home to prominent statesman and yogis. Problems related to rapid urbanization started to plague Kolkata from the 1930s and ...
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Bengali Culture
The culture of Bengal defines the cultural heritage of the Bengali people native to eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, mainly what is today Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura, where the Bengali language is the official and primary language. Bengal has a recorded history of 1,400 years. The Bengali people are its dominant ethnolinguistic group. The region has been a historical melting point, blending indigenous traditions with cosmopolitan influences from pan-Indian subcontinental empires. Bengal was considered to be the richest part of Islamic medieval India and during the era of the Bengal Sultanate it was described to be a major trading nation in the world, while during Mughal times, having triggered the proto-industrialization, its economy was worth 12% of global GDP. However, significant socio-economic inequalities existed during this period. As a part of the Bengal Presidency, it also hosted the region's most advanced political and cult ...
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Bengal Renaissance
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predominantly covering present-day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. Geographically, it consists of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta system, the largest river delta in the world and a section of the Himalayas up to Nepal and Bhutan. Dense woodlands, including hilly rainforests, cover Bengal's northern and eastern areas, while an elevated forested plateau covers its central area; the highest point is at Sandakphu. In the littoral southwest are the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. The region has a monsoon climate, which the Bengali calendar divides into six seasons. Bengal, then known as Gangaridai, was a leading power in ancient South Asia, with extensive trade networks forming connections to as far away as Roman Egypt. ...
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Indian Civil Service (British India)
The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million people in the Presidencies and provinces of British India and were ultimately responsible for overseeing all government activity in the 250 districts that comprised British India. They were appointed under Section XXXII(32) of the Government of India Act 1858, enacted by the British Parliament. The ICS was headed by the Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet. At first almost all the top thousand members of the ICS, known as "Civilians", were British, and had been educated in the best British schools.Surjit Mansingh, ''The A to Z of India'' (2010), pp 288–90 At the time of the creation of India and Pakistan in 1947, the outgoing Government of India's ICS was divided between India and Pakistan. Although these are now ...
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Lathi Khela
Lathi khela ( bn, লাঠি খেলা) is a traditional Bengali martial art – a kind of stick fighting practised India and Bangladesh. A practitioner is known as a ''lathial''. Etymology The word ''lathi'' is the Bengali word meaning stick, while ''khela'' means a sport or game. Therefore, ''lathi khela'' translates as a game of sticks. Instruments The lathi is normally made of the male bamboo and sometimes bound at short intervals with iron rings. A typical lathi measures 6 to 8 feet (2 to 2.4 m). Some, called bari, are shorter and may be wielded like a baton or bludgeon. In the past, sticks could be paired with shields, as can still be seen in ''nori bari'' (mock stick-fight) demonstrations. History Stick fighting has an ancient history in South Asia, tracing back to the region's aboriginal inhabitants. Rich farmers and other eminent people hired ''lathial'' for security and as a symbol of their power. Duels were used as a way to protect or take land and other posse ...
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British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himself employed by the British East India company from the age of seventeen until the British government assumed direct rule over India in 1858." * * and lasted from 1858 to 1947. * * The region under British control was commonly called India in contemporaneous usage and included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom, which were collectively called British India, and areas ruled by indigenous rulers, but under British paramountcy, called the princely states. The region was sometimes called the Indian Empire, though not officially. As ''India'', it was a founding member of the League of Nations, a participating nation in the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1920, 1928, 1932, and 1936, and a founding member of the United Nations in San F ...
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Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of List of monarchs in Britain by length of reign, any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was Kensington System, raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 af ...
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Nabagopal Mitra
Nabagopal Mitra ( bn, নবগোপাল মিত্র; 1840– 9 February 1894) was an Indian playwright, poet, essayist, patriot and one of the founding fathers of Hindu nationalism. He founded the Hindu Mela (which was inaugurated by Rajnarayan Basu ) the pioneer institution behind the genesis of Hindu nationalism. Mitra also founded National Press, National Paper, National Society, National School, National Theatre, National Store, National Gymnasium and National Circus, earning him the sobriquet 'National Mitra'. Early life and influences Nabagopal Mitra was born into a Bengali Hindu Kayastha family residing at Shankar Ghosh Lane, near Cornwallis Street in Kolkata. The year of birth is disputed. While most historians agree that he was born in 1840, in some sources his year of birth is recorded as 1841. From his early days he was very close to the Tagore family. Satyendranath Tagore and Ganendranath Tagore were his classmates at the Hindu School. Gradually he bec ...
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Delhi Durbar
The Delhi Durbar ( lit. "Court of Delhi") was an Indian imperial-style mass assembly organized by the British at Coronation Park, Delhi, India, to mark the succession of an Emperor or Empress of India. Also known as the Imperial Durbar, it was held three times, in 1877, 1903, and 1911, at the height of the British Empire. The 1911 Durbar was the only one that a sovereign, George V, attended. The term was derived from the common Persian term ''durbar''. Durbar of 1877 Called the "Proclamation Durbar", the Durbar of 1877, for which the organisation was undertaken by Thomas Henry Thornton, was held beginning on 1 January 1877 to proclaim Queen Victoria as Empress of India by the British. The 1877 Durbar was largely an official event and not a popular occasion with mass participation like later durbars in 1903 and 1911. It was attended by the 1st Earl of Lytton—Viceroy of India, maharajas, nawabs and intellectuals. This was the culmination of transfer of control of British In ...
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Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl Of Lytton
Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, (8 November 183124 November 1891) was an English statesman, Conservative politician and poet who used the pseudonym Owen Meredith. He served as Viceroy of India between 1876 and 1880during his tenure, Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of Indiaand as British Ambassador to France from 1887 to 1891. His tenure as Viceroy was controversial for its ruthlessness in both domestic and foreign affairs, especially for his handling of the Great Famine of 1876–78 and the Second Anglo-Afghan War. His policies were alleged to be informed by his Social Darwinism. His son Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, who was born in India, later served as Governor of Bengal and briefly as acting Viceroy. The senior earl was also the father-in-law of the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who designed New Delhi. Lytton was a protégé of Benjamin Disraeli in domestic affairs, and of Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, who was his predecessor ...
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