To put into historical perspective the multifaceted pattern of Hindu socioreligious modernism, scholars have chronicled the origins of British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance. Similar to the European Renaissance, which occurred prior to the Reformation, nineteenth-century India also underwent a period of cultural renaissance followed by an era of religious reformation.

British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance

The Bengal Renaissance occurred in eastern Gangetic India—specifically, in the colonial metropolis of Calcutta—from the year 1773, when Warren Hastings designated the city as the future capital of British India, until 1828, when Governor-General Lord Bentinck challenged Orientalist cultural policy. During this period, Calcutta operated schools using European textbooks and teaching methods. In addition, the newly created Hindu middle class had founded Hindu College, the only Western-style institution of higher learning in South Asia. The government supported newspapers, journals...