NEWS

In the context of ongoing ‘Matua Dharma Maha Mela 2022’, Harichand Thakur is being remembered

HARICHAND THAKUR

• Born in 1812 in Orakandi in Bangladesh in a peasant farmer family of the Thakur community (SC community)
• Thakur, whose family were Vaishnavite Hindus, founded a sect of Vaishnavite Hinduism called Matua. This was adopted by members of the Namasudra community, who were then also known by the common pejorative name of Chandalas and considered untouchable
• The sect, opposed to caste oppression, later attracted adherents from other communities marginalised by the upper castes, including Malis and Telis
• His followers consider him God (hence called him Thakur) and an avatar of Vishnu or Krishna
• He came to be known as Sri Sri Harichand Thakur
• Married to ‘Jagat Mata’ Shanti Mata, with whom he had two sons, Thakur died in Faridpur district in Bangladesh in 1878
• After his death, one of his sons, Guruchand Thakur (born in 1846), collaborated with English Baptist missionary doctor Cecil Silas Mead, who worked and lived among the Namasudras, to get the Chandala people recategorised as Namasudras.
• Devoted his life to the cause of betterment of the oppressed, downtrodden and deprived people in undivided Bengal during the pre-independence era