In his 1862 volume Hutom Pyancha’r Naksha (Surveys of the Hooting Owl), social commentator and satirist Kaliprasanna Singha (1841–1870) reflected on one of the most prominent Christian conversions of the last decade. The epitome of the liberal Calcutta aristocrat, Singha was well known for his translation of the Mahabharata into Bengali from the original Sanskrit version. Under his pseudonym Hutom Pyancha, or the Hooting Owl, he also diligently chronicled the life and times of the new imperial city of Calcutta. Among the targets of his acerbic pen were the vagaries and fashions that swayed public opinion in Bengal, including the Khristiani hujoog, or the “conversion to Christianity craze”:
There was a new craze that every one seemed affected by! We have heard that some of the Brahmin Thakurs of Bhatpara will convert next. But instead of the people from Bhatpara, it was Babu Prosonnocoomar Thakur’s son Gyanendramohan who went outside the fold! Krishnamohan Bandyopadhyay offered up his daughter to this new coreligionist…
The situation was such that Enlightenment spread and light broke free from the holes in people’s roofs; some were disinherited, some repented and fell into real hard times. The Khristiani hujoog was like a lantern held up by a stranger at night – it illuminated the...
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