For quite sometime political campaigners in social media have twisted the meaning of this word for scoring political points which has created a wrong image of Bhadralok among Non-Bengalis. Now present perception is that Bhadralok is used to describe leftist intellectuals or only Bengali elites. These are far from truth, slang for leftist intellectual in Bengali is “Aantel”, not Bhadralok. In Bengali society Bhadralok is used to describe someone in a positive light, unlike Aantel which has only negative perception associated with it.
Another point which non Bengalis needs to know is that we use this term for describing non-Bengalis too. And it also has a female version. Female version of Bhadralok is called Bhadramahila. Like their male counterpart Bhadramahila is used for both Bengali and non-Bengali women.
Do we use Bhadralok to describe only Bengali elites ?
No. It’s true that many Bengali elites came from Bhadralok class but the whole class never constituted of only Bengali elites. Rather, elites are not even 1% of Bengali speaking population who identifies as Bhadralok.
What does Bhadra means ?
Bhadra is used as a suffix.
•Bhadralok = Bhadra+lok (log in Hindi) is used to describe someone who possess a refined, cultured state of mind. It is used to describe a cultured, educated person who is a respected member of society and generally commands that respect through his character, deeds and behavior with others.
•Abhadra = A+bhadra is used to describe someone who is not being Bhadra, i.e. not following accepted social manners, customs etc. & being a nuisance to everyone around him. Thus, he’s not worthy of respect. All in all, it’s a negative term used to describe someone’s character.
•Bhadraghor = Bhadra+ghor (Ghar in Hindi) is used to denote pedigree. It means a respectable family origin. It’s a positive term. In Bengal average rural folk too will describe themselves as “son of Bhadra household”.
So, what’s the antonym for Bhadralok ?
It’s Chotolok. Literal meaning of Choto is small but here it means something else. Like Bhadra, Choto too is used a suffix.
Choto+lok (it’s Hindi equivalent would be Neech Aadmi).
Chotolok+ghor -> Basically means someone who has a “neech”, shameful family origin.
Chotoloker baccha -> Someone who has a shameful parentage. Highly offensive.
All of these are highly derogatory words. Absolutely no-one will willingly identify with as any of these tags here in Bengal.
Only Brahmin, Kayastha & Baidyas can be Bhadralok ?
No. Rather caste has been no bar when it came to Bhadralok identity. Thus, power, prestige, status were not denied to other castes when their ascendency began (Though some were already powerful in pre-colonial agrarian Bengali society to begin with). Dismantling of Bhadralok identity will leave us with different castes acting as different islands. End of Bengali identity as we know it. Educated class of different castes will put interest of their caste instead of Bangali Jati.
Economic condition has been no bar when it came to Bhadralok too. Someone from an economically marginal section can also rise after obtaining education and can become a Bhadralok.
Middle class Bengali people are Bhadraloks by-default ?
No it depends on individual conduct. A middle class person who frequently visits red light area or returns home drunk every day or abuses his wife won’t considered as a Bhadralok no matter how much educated he is or how much money he earns.
A poor person with good manners from a respectable family will be described as a Bhadralok but a person with a rotten character from a respected family will be termed as a Chotolok.
So, how do you describe nobility in Bengali society ?
For describing nobility, aristocracy we use Borolok. It’s hindi equivalent is “Bade log”. Bengali elites in past came from both Borolok & Bhadralok class.
How did Bhadralok class appeared in Bengal ?
Bhadralok class appeared during the economic fall of agrarian society of rural Bengal. Indigenous education system too collpased. Importance of Western education began to grow. People who were involved with rural education system(Pathshalas etc.) too eventually began to take up western education for survival. Educated people began to migrate to cities in search of jobs as old ones began to disappear in villages and took up office jobs in cities, eventually their descendants became doctor, writer, scientist, lawyer etc. As importance of rural Bengal decreased and landed elite too moved to cities, importance of Bhadralok class only grew and many elites began to appear from this class. Many Bhadraloks came from landed elites & rural middle class too. Till date finest scientists, writers, historians, political leaders and most nos of revolutionaries came from this class. This class laid the foundation of Hindu nationalism and the term “Hindutva” was invented by a Bhadralok. Bande Mataram, Bharat mata too were contribution from Bhadraloks. Aurobindo, Bipin Chandra Pal, Netaji Subhas Chandra Basu, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee were Bhadraloks only. Few more notable Bhadraloks were Jagadish Chandra Basu, Satyendranath Basu, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray, Ramesh Chandra Mazumdar, Jadunath Sarkar, Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay etc.
Contribution of Bhadraloks.
Bhadralok class laid the intellectual founafound of Hindu nationalism and Indian nationalism. The very word Hindutva, the concept of Bharat Mata and the Bande Mataram slogan were all products from Bengali Bhadralok class. That basis of Indian unity must be Hinduism and Hindus are in danger both came from Bhadraloks. Bholanath Chandra, another Bhadralok was the first Indian who gave the call to boycott of foreign goods to revive Indian economy back in 1874. Bhadraloks were the pioneer of Swadeshi movment, they set up thousands of industries in Kolkata, Howrah, Dhaka, Comilla etc. Bhadraloks led Indian nationalism movement too. Both as part of Congress and as revolutionaries. Another Bhadralok historian Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay discovered Mahenjo-daro, his colleague Nani Gopal Mazumder who lived for only 41 years, discovered 62 Indus valley archeological sites within his short life span. I will end the history section with mention of three more stalwart Bhadraloks. Dr. Jadunath Sarkar, Ramesh Chandra Mazumdar and DC Sircar. Another Bhadralok laid the foundation of experimental science in Indian subcontinent, pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, invented crescograph and noted as father of radio science by IEEE. A crater on the moon has been named after him. He’s none other than Sir Jagadish Chandra Basu. Another monk who came from a Bhadralok household preached glories of hinduism to world. Contribution & achievements of Bhadraloks are endless, I need to end it here otherwise this blog article will continue forever. I will end it stating one more point, both Indian national anthem & national song are written by two Bhadraloks.
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