Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), the Italian Communist leader was then (1930) languishing in Mussolini's prison. There he came to know of Upadhyay Brahmabandhav from an Italian Catholic journal: '... the celebrated Catholic Sannyasi(?) who wanted to convert India to Catholicism through the Hindus themselves, by Christianising those parts of Hinduism capable of being absorbed; the Vatican disapproved of his nationalist excesses' (Gramsci, p.117). Gramsci was evidently taken aback. He queried: 'When did the Upadhyaya carry out his preaching? I think the Vatican would be more tolerant today.' Derek Boothman, the learned translator-cum-editor of Gramsci's Prison Notebooks, was out his depth in regard to Upadhyay. Apparently finding nothing about Upadhyay in sources he could access, he provided the following useless note: 'A Sannyasi (or Sunnyasee) is a Brahmin in the fourth stage of his life, a wandering fakir or religious mendicant; Upadhyaya is a title meaning simply "teacher"" (ibid. p. 535 n126). The note reveals that Boothman was absolutely clueless about the life and works of Bhabani Charan Bandyopadhyay (Banerjee) who, after his conversion to Catholicism, renamed himself Brahmabandhav Upadhyay.
To some, who have read his article published in The Tablet (January 1903), Upadhyay may indeed appear merely as a Catholic prosetylizer intent on 'winning over India to the Catholic Faith'. That is, however, only one aspect of his personality. First and foremost he was a patriot, seeking immediate overthrow of the British rule in India, if needs be by violent means. There was a constant conflict between the pious Catholic and the impatient patriot in him. All attempts at reconciliation yielded no permanent result. Ultimately the patriot triumphed over the theologian.
Yes, Upadhyay was not just a religious man: he was an original theologian as well. His endeavour to synthesize Vedanta and Christianity was a product of his prolonged years of struggle within himself as also against the Catholic authorities.
In many respects Upadhyay was born before his time. The Catholics now regard him as a prophet (Raj, 2005, р.19), although the obituaries published in the Catholic journals in 1907 spoke in a different tune, treating him as an apostate.
This small monograph proposes to find out what made this man tick. Was religion a true passion with him or was it a surrogate? Writing in 1961 Binay Ghosh (like many others before and after him) found Upadhyay to be enigmatic, always restless, ever mobile (1979, p.124). The secret, I think, lies in the phrase: 'the God-appointed mission of Svaraj', as he declared in the Court of Justice when he was tried. The conflict between God and Svaraj was ultimately resolved.
In the second part of the monograph, the relationship between Upadhyay and Rabindrantah Tagore has been studied. So much of misrepresentations and misinterpretations have been offered (Rabindranath himself is partly responsible for that), that it is no easy task to straighten the record. I contend that the influence of Upadhyay on Rabindranath was far deeper than has so far been assumed.
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