On Tuesday, on the occasion of the 211th birth anniversary of social and religious reformer Harichand Thakur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address Matua Dharma Maha Mela 2022 at Shreedham Thakurnagar, Thakurbari, in West Bengal, via videoconferencing.
So who was Harichand Thakur?
This Dalit icon was the founder of the Matua sect of Hindus. He was born in Orakandi of Gopalganj (Greater Faridpur), now in Bangladesh, in a Namashudra peasant family in 1811.
From early childhood, he would sing bhajans and get moved by the plight of the downtrodden. He later worked extensively with the ‘untouchable’ people of the Bengal Presidency, which was then in India. Many of these people became his followers when he founded this Vaishnavite Hindu sect, called Matua, that has its roots in Faridpur.
Particularly back then, people from the lower castes were oppressed by the upper castes. The downtrodden did not have many rights. And so finally the lower caste people found a place to express their spiritual feelings, though the upper castes maintained their distance from the Matua.
Harichand Thakur established the Matua Mahasangha. People who were looked down upon, who had no space were given space by him in the new Matua sect. His followers believed that he had magical powers with which he could save the downtrodden from the upper castes. He was thus called ‘Param Brahma’ and an avatar of Vishnu. He became known as Sri Sri Harichand Thakur.
Truth, sanity, and love were the three things that formed the bedrock of the Matua sect. Moreover, Harichand Thakur believed that spiritualism does not have to be practised by leaving family life and can be done within it. Chanting ‘Haribol’ can get poor people close to God, he said. He passed away in Faridpur in 1878.
Guruchand Thakur, son of Harichand Thakur, carried on his father’s legacy. He led the Matua movement and fought for the rights of the ‘untouchables’ (Namashudra).
After Partition, over the years, many Matuas took refuge in India. Pramatha Ranjan Thakur, grandson of Guruchand Thakur, also led the Matua movement, and he became a Congress MLA and minister in West Bengal. He founded the town of Thakurnagar in the state, which became the new headquarters of the Matua Mahasangha.
Since then, the Matua sect has become a powerful vote bank in Bengal and is courted by major parties like the Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party. All India Matua Mahasangha leader Shantanu Thakur is a BJP MP and union minister of state for ports, shipping and waterways. His brother, Subrata Thakur, is a West Bengal BJP MLA.
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