The Bengal Renaissance: Identity and Creativity from Rammohun Roy to Rabindranath Tagore

Scholars have long debated the very idea of a 'Bengal Renaissance'. The controversies have been largely over whether there was a 'renaissance' at all, and its significance from social, political, and cultural perspectives.

This book addresses the issue from the perspective of philosophy of science and the psychology of creativity. Dasgupta shows that the Bengal Renaisance is characterized by a collective cognitive identity, which had its roots in British Orientalism and flowered within a remarkable community of creative individuals in nineteenth-century Bengal , which included writers. Reformers, mystics. And scientists

Dasgupta outlines the core work of such notable figures as Rammolun Roy. Henry Derozio. Michael Madhusudan Datta. Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay., J. C. Bose, P. C. Ray. Sri Ramakrishna. Swami Vivekananda, and Rabindranath Tagore. He analyses their distinctive style. Contribution to an intellectual milieu. And effect on cultural life.

The author unveils the precise cognitive nature of their creativity in lndology, theology. Literature. Science, and practical religion. He demonstrates their cross-cultural mentality and universalism, arguing that their creativity represents a cognitive revolution in Indian cultural history.

Accessible and elegantly written. This is a book for general readers looking for an introduction to the Bengal Renaissance: scholars familiar with the area will find its perspective both novel and compelling.

About the Author

Subrata Dasgupta is the Computer Science Trust Fund Endowed Eminent Scholar, and Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science, at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he is also Professor of History. He is the author of Several books, including Jagadis Chandra Bose and the Indian Response to Western Science (Oxford. 1999). And, most recently, boyhood memoir, Salaam Stanley Matthews (Granta Books. 2006).