Shashipada Bandyopadhyay, social reformer and labour activist, died on this day.
A member of the Brahmo Samaj, Bandyopadhyay advocated education and women’s rights. He worked for widow remarriage and established girls’ schools.
Bandyopadhyay was a part of the Temperence movement and had worked with educationist Mary Carpenter, who visited India from England.
In 1871, he and his wife Rajkumari Bandyopadhyay went to visit Carpenter in England, which made Rajkumari possibly the first “Hindu woman” to visit England.
In 1870, Bandyopadhyay had founded the workers’ organisation, Sramajivi Samiti. It is said to be the first labour organisation in Kolkata.
Bandyopadhyay started the newspaper Bharat Sramajivi, which was widely circulated. Bandyopadhyay’s labour politics, however, have been critiqued by some recently as not going beyond the middle class idea of philanthropy.
His son, who was born in England, was called Albion Rajkumar Banerjee. He joined the Indian Civil Services.