Dwarkanath Ganguly Biography 
Dwarkanath Ganguly was a Brahmo reformer in West Bengal of British India. He was a social reformer and has done significant contributions in the empowerment of women. He was married to Kadambini Bose, one of the first female graduates of the British Empire and one of the first female physicians of South Asia to be trained in western medicine. Kadambini Boss (Ganguly) was his second wife.
Dwarkanath Ganguly was born on a Bengali New Year’s Day. He was born on 20 April 1844 in Magurkhanda, Bikrampur, now a part of Bangladesh. His mother hailed from a rich family. Yet her concepts of life, independent nature and simple ways of life influenced young Dwarkanath a lot. His early education was done in his village school. Later he joined the English school in nearby Kalipara to learn English. He studied up to the entrance class but failed to clear the examination. After that he started his career as a teacher and worked in different schools.
During school days he was strongly influenced by Akshay Kumar Datta's Dharma Niti, which prompted him to do something for Bengali women. In those days, killing girls was not an unusual thing in the society, particularly in upper class Brahmin families. When he came to know more about such incidents, he took oath not to go in for polygamous marriage. Then he started publishing a weekly magazine named Abalabandhab (Friend of Women) from Dhaka. This magazine gave principles of “liberation of women” and perhaps one among the first Indian magazines of this kind.
He has been associated with Brahmo Samaj those days and ladies were allowed only to sit behind curtain during prayer meetings. When he opposed this practice, it was something like a storm. He was obviously opposed to many of the conservative ideas and it was one of the earliest incidents that resulted in the split of Brahmo Samaj. Dwarkanath joined the Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya and served that boarding school as headmaster, teacher, and dietician. Later Ganguly concentrated on the pathetic conditions of the workers in the tea gardens of Assam and published a series of articles on them.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 10, 2014
