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 KESHUB CHANDRA SEN

1838—1884

No name in the annals of Bengal in the nineteenth century is more widely known than that of Keshub Chandra Sen. Spoken of as 'Indian's greatest son' by so eminent an Orientalist as Professor Max Müller, no Hindu before him ever achieved so widespread a reputation or drew so closely the attention of both East and West towards his life and teaching. His was one of the few names that was familiar during his lifetime not only among the vast millions who inhabit the Indian Empire but among European nations whose knowledge of India and all things Indian was then far slighter than it is to-day. Born at a time when Western education, half understood and imperfectly applied, had yet caught the imagination of the East, Keshub Chandra Sen's lfelife [sic] coincided with one of the most important and interesting intellectual revolutions that India has ever seen. After long centuries of isolation East and West had met, and fusion of thought and speech had begun. On the one hand stood western civilization, with its latest scientific inventions, its latest literary achievements and its latest artistic triumphs