Lal Behari Day

Biography

Lal Behari Day was born on 18 December 1824 into a Bengali Suvarna Banik family in Sonapalasi, near Bardhaman. His father, Radhakanta Dey Mondal, worked as a small bill broker in Kolkata. After attending a village school for his early education, Day moved to Calcutta with his father and enrolled at Reverend Alexander Duff’s General Assembly Institution, where he studied from 1834 to 1844. This school is now known as the Scottish Church Collegiate School, and Day was among the first five boys Duff admitted. Under Duff’s influence, Day formally converted to Christianity on 2 July 1843. A year before his baptism, in 1842, he had already published a tract called The Falsity of the Hindu Religion, which earned a prize from a local Christian society for best essay.

From 1855 to 1867, Day served as a missionary and minister for the Free Church of Scotland. Then, from 1867 to 1889, he taught English at government-run colleges in Berhampore and Hooghly. After spending much of his career in church work, he became principal of Berhampore Collegiate School in 1867. Later, from 1872 to 1888, he was a professor of English and Mental and Moral Philosophy at Hooghly Mohsin College, part of the University of Calcutta. Although he was a devout Christian and supported British rule, he openly opposed discrimination by the ruling class against native Indians.

Day had a deep command of the English language and literature. While working in Burdwan, he observed rural life closely, and this experience shaped his book Bengal Peasant Life, published in 1874. At that time, relations between landlords and tenants had grown very strained, and peasant unrest was spreading across Bengal. Bengal Peasant Life explains the causes of this turmoil.

Day opposed the zamindari system and is considered the first person to investigate and document the real struggles of the depressed classes under the permanent settlement, while also suggesting solutions. His contemporaries Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Peary Chand Mitra, and Dinabandhu Mitra also wrote powerfully about peasants and the problems of the depressed classes. Their writings heavily influenced the 1880 Rent Commission report, which led to the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885, often called the Magna Carta of peasant rights in Bengal.

Day also wrote two novels: Chandramukhi, A Tale of Bengali Life (1859) and Govinda Samanta. Both depict the suffering of peasants under the zamindari system. In 1874, Govinda Samanta won a prize of Rs 500 from Baboo Joy Kissen Mookerjea of Uttarpara, a notably progressive zamindar, for the best novel—in either Bengali or English—that illustrated the social and domestic life of Bengal’s rural population and working classes. Charles Darwin wrote a letter on 18 April 1881 to Day’s publishers, saying he had read Govinda Samanta years earlier and wanted to express how much pleasure and instruction he had gained from it.

Day was likely the first person to collect Bengali fairy tales, compiling them in Folk-Tales of Bengal (1875). This scholarly work was a groundbreaking effort to catalogue the cultural heritage of rural Bengal. It preserved folk tales that might otherwise have been lost and paved the way for modern folk literature studies.

Day was also a strong advocate for Bengali-language and vernacular education. He made it a policy to publish articles on the importance of education in local languages in Arunodaya (1875), a fortnightly journal he edited and published. These views were noted by the Hunter Commission of 1882, an education commission focused on spreading education among the depressed classes.

In addition, Day edited three English magazines: Indian Reformer (1861), Friday Review (1866), and Bengal Magazine (1872). He also contributed articles to the Calcutta Review and Hindu Patriot. He was a member of several organizations, including the Bethune Society and the Bengal Social Science Association. In 1877, he was made a Fellow of the University of Calcutta. Lal Behari Day died on 28 October 1894 in Calcutta.

Lore / Story / Guide

Lalbehari Dey was perhaps the first collector of Bengali fairy tales and compiled Folk-Tales of Bengal (1875). This scholarly work is a path-breaking effort in cataloguing the cultural heritage of rural Bengal. This compilation not only preserved folk tales that might otherwise have been lost, but also paved the way for the modern study of Folk literature. The book includes illustrations by Warwick Goble.

Dey's work as a collector came from his deep engagement with rural life during his time in Burdwan, where he saw peasant life closely and drew on that experience for his writing. His novel Govinda Samanta (1874) won a prize of Rs 500 offered by Baboo Joy Kissen Mookerjea of Uttarpara for the best novel illustrating the 'Social and Domestic Life of the Rural Population and Working Classes of Bengal'. Charles Darwin himself wrote a letter on 18 April 1881 to the publishers, saying he derived 'much pleasure and instruction' from reading Govinda Samanta.

Dey also wrote Chandramukhi, A Tale of Bengali Life (1859). Both novels portray the suffering of peasants under the zamindari system. His Bengal Peasant Life (1874) explained the reasons for peasant unrest and the deterioration of landlord-tenant relations. Dey was against the zamindari system and is considered the first to investigate and report the actual problems of the depressed classes under the permanent settlement, suggesting remedies.

His work, along with that of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Peary Chand Mitra, and Dinabandhu Mitra, influenced the Rent Commission of 1880, leading to the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885, called the Magna Carta of peasant rights in Bengal.