Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/178

154 shades of opinion and permitting full discussion in them.

Formally appointed a minister of the Brahmo Samaj in 1862 by Devendra Nath Tagore, he was installed with much ceremony in the latter's house, the title of Brahmananda, the Rejoicer in God, being conferred upon him. The occasion of the installation marks another step in the advance towards the emancipation of the women of Bengal. Desirous that his wife, whom he had married according to Hindu rites many years before, should be present at the ceremony, he brought her to Calcutta from the family residence at Bally where she had been living with his relatives. The latter strongly opposed this further departure from orthodox Hindu custom, and his persistence meant for the time practical excommunication. But Keshub was convinced that the time had come when Indian women should play a more prominent part in life, being given a better education and a greater freedom of action, and he held on his way undismayed. A truce between him and his family, patched up in the following year, was again broken by dissensions over the Jat Karma, the thanksgiving for the birth of Keshub's third child, his mother alone remaining by him. Gradually, however, as the years advanced Keshub's strong personality and winning disposition not only overcame the opposition of his relatives but succeeded in carrying them with