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The process of culmination of the debate in the political sphere tracing the developments relating to the Hindu Code Bill during 1952 to 1956 is dealt with in this chapter of the book. This phase marks the final passage of the Bill in the form of five enactments spanning over the period 1952 to 1956. The account of the discourse over the Bill presents the tensions and undercurrents of a society in transition and the conflict between tradition and modernity.

This chapter argues against the notion that the growth of Hindu revivalism in Bengal has to be understood essentially against the backdrop of a crisis-ridden Brahmo Samaj. It also contends that it is a mistake to suppose that by the first two decades of the twentieth century, the Brahmo Samaj had completely succumbed to the successive inroads made into its credibility by the forces of Hindu reaction or to the pressure of changing social and political realities. It explains that weaning away of well-known Brahmo figures was often the result of a long process of systematic and deliberate Hinduization. It also discusses the role of the Brahmo Marriage Bill controversy in reframing community identities. The Bill also touched deeper issues on the Brahmo community life developing over last forty years. Many older values and traditions and values came to be redefined and requestioned due to autonomous developments within Brahmoism.

Chapter 9 provides a background to the formation of Yes Equality, a group dedicated to establishing marriage for same-sex couples. This chapter continues with the announcement of the referendum on marriage equality and an assessment of the campaign in the immediate run-up to the referendum.

This introduction explains the theme of this volume, which is about Hindu revivalism in Bengal from 1872 to 1905. The book aims at reconstructing the life and work of some relatively unfamiliar but by no means unimportant figures like the Sanskritist pundit Sasadhar Tarkachudamani, the fiery Hindu missionary Krishna Prosonno Sen, and three of the major writers for the orthodox Bengali weekly Bangabasi. This chapter evaluates whether revivalism is a valid expression and discusses the politics and problem of definition associated with the history of Hindu revivalism. It also highlights the relevance of the Brahmo Marriage Bill and Consent Bill controversies to Hindu revivalism.

This chapter examines Hindu revivalism during the period from 1872 to 1894 by analyzing new Bengali press and literature. In the early 1870s, notwithstanding the trauma of the Brahmo Marriage Bill controversy, the dominant intellectual mood in Bengal was still characterized by a fairly liberal and cosmopolitan outlook. During this period several orthodox periodicals were launched which are identifiable with the neo-Hindu movement. This chapter reviews the life and work of several Bengali writers including Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Nabin Chandra Sen, and Akshay Chandra Sarkar. One of the major contributions of these figures lies in their successfully delinking Bengali prose and poetry from chaste Sanskrit. This chapter also reveals that the social values with which Bengali literature and press came to be identified were unquestionably more reactionary.