A STUDY IN SOCIAL CONTRADICTIONS 35 the period to good extent. The young Brahmos rallied against the case of dismissal of Surendranath Banerjee from the service. They considered it an example of imperial bureaucratic excess. Ananda Mohan Bose was the inspiration behind this movement. He was the "brain" and Sivnath Sastri was the "right hand" of the new samaj47. When Anand Mohan Bose was in England (1870-1874) he came in contact with liberal thinkers and some well wishers of India. He became interested in politics. After coming back to the country he along with Surendranath Banerjee realised the need to form a middle class political association. Their middle class desire gave birth to the Indian Association (Bharat Shava) in 1876 of which Ananda Mohan became the first secretary. Thus Ananda Mohan Bose introduced a political element into the Brahmo movement which intoxicated the young followers. They became critical of the British policy of exploitation of Indian labourers in the tea gardens and other places. A young Brahmo Dwarakanath Ganguly (1845-1898) was a strong advocate of liberal education for women and wrote articles in his "Abolabandhab" (1869) edited from a far off village of Dacca. It created a stir among the young Brahmos. When he came to Calcutta (1870) he became immensely interested in politics and became the Assistant Secretary of the Bharat Sb&va (Indian Association). Dwarkanath Ganguly wrote in Bengalee (29, September 1886) about the conditions of the coolies in the tea gardens of Assam : "The position of the labourers in many tea gardens is almost as bad, if not worse, than the condition of the American negro slaves before their emancipation."47 Ramkumar Vidyaratna also wrote about the conditions of the tea gardens' labourers in his 'Satyasrabar Assam Bhraman* (1879), and "Kuli Kahini" (1888). Sibnath Sastri another leading young Brahmo wrote a poem "Sramajibi" in "Bharat Sramajeebi" 1874 Vol.1 edited by Sasipada Bandopadhya through which he gave a call to the workers to rise and emancipate themselves from the bondage of exploitation. It may be recalled that Muzaffar Ahmed one of the founders of the Communist Party of India recognised Sivnath Sastri as one of the first enlightened persons who welcomed the need to form an organisation for the working class48. This politically oriented trend in the Brahmo movement should not necessarily lead us to believe that the emancipation of the working class came to be possible as a result of some articles or poems. These young people could not transcend the frontier of their own class nor could they bring any subjugated worker to realise the gravity of the political and social situation of the time. The restlessness of the new Brahmos was the reflection of the social unrest and the political fluidity of the period. It was a middle class humanitarian urge to do something good on behalf of the exploited people and to become their leaders. It did not usher in the forces of awakening. The objectives of religious or social reform could not form the basis for the emancipation of the exploited. The economic interests of the working class could not be linked with the reform movement and it failed to cause the total awakening of the people. The