Sen, Keshub Chander, (d. 1884) He was a reformist Hindu and
the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, to which he devoted his whole life.
English Unitarianism inspired his emphasis on the concept of
ethical monotheism and rejection of numerous rituals.
The Samaj split in 1865 over Keshub's demand that members
stop wearing the holy thread.
Then, in 1878, Keshub had an incomprehensible error in
judgment when he arranged for his thirteen-year-old daughter's marriage.
The majority of his followers deserted him in protest, and
he spent the rest of his life constructing the New Dispensation, a new religion
combining aspects from numerous religious traditions.
He had few adherents when he died, but he was prominent
because of his previous attempts to improve Hindu society and to examine
Christian culture and religion critically.
He met the Bengali mystic Ramakrishna in his search for
religious ideals, and it was through his contact with Keshub that Ramakrishna
started to draw pupils from Calcutta's middle class, most notably Narendranath
Datta, who later became known as Swami Vivekananda.
