Kali Charan Banerjee


Kali Charan Banerjee, spelt also as Kalicharan Banerji or K.C. Banerjea or K.C. Banurji, a Bengali convert to Anglican Church, was the founder of Calcutta Christo Samaj, a Christian parallel to Brahmo Samaj.
K.C. Banerji was also one of the pioneers of Indian Christian movement, founder of the movement for emancipation, and was the finest orator in the whole assembly of Congress sessions.

Biography

He was born at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh state where his father lived, and moved to Calcutta for education and made that city as his home for rest of his life. K.C. Banerjee was a lawyer by profession from Bengal, and was both a devout Christian and a prominent member of Congress in its early years.
He taught reading and writing as a teacher to Brahmabandhab Upadhyay aka Bhabani Charan Banerjee, a Roman Catholic; Hindu Sadhu; and Bengali Catholic nationalist, related to K.C. Banerji, who happens to be the uncle of Upadhyay—he laid the foundation for a Vedanta-based Christian theology, Vedantic Thomism - Upadhyay came to know Jesus Christ from his uncle Reverend Kalicharan Banerji and Keshub Chunder Sen, Brahmo Samaj and Naba Bidhan leader - he died prematurely as a prisoner, charged with sedition by Colonial government of Calcutta.

Congress leader

He being a fine orator and representative of Bengali Christian community, he joined the Indian National Congress in 1885, and regularly addressed the Congress annual sessions in moulding the policy of national movement. Rev. Kalicharan Banerji along with G.C. Nath from Lahore, and Peter Paul Pillai from Madras, represented Indian Christians at the four sessions of the Congress between 1888 and 1891, and became a prominent leader in the Congress in the early years of formation.
With regular participation in the annual sessions of Congress, he was able to influence and succeed in putting a number of proposals before the Colonial British government of Calcutta for administrative reforms. In 1889 Congress session, he was responsible for resolution demanding improvement in the educational systems, particularly University education—higher education. He also presided over the grand meeting that discussed the advantages of the municipal elective system, of the Indian League—This seems, attracted Richard Temple, then-Lieutenant governor of Bengal - Temple then called Babu Shishir Kumar Ghose and discussed about his willingness to introduce elective system in municipal bodies.
In 1889, he was instrumental in protesting against the prohibition of teachers participating in political movements, imposed by the Colonial British Raj in Calcutta.

Indian Christian leader

He strongly advocated for and defended the Indian Christian nationality in 1870. At the age of 25, he started a newspaper called The Bengal Christian Herald, later changed its name to The Indian Christian Herald. In his own words as reported in The Bengal Christian Herald:
He was one of the active member of Bengal Christian Association, the first Christian organisation for promotion of Christian Truth and Godliness, founded in 1876 by a group of Christians in Calcutta with an intention of creating a national and independent Indian church. Krishna Mohan Banerjee was its first president.
In 1877, he along with J.G. Shome created a forum by organizing the Bengali Christian conference to present their programme. They criticized the missionaries of denationalizing the Indian Christians and making them into compound converts:
A group of Christians under the leadership of K.C. Banerjee and J.G. Shome left their churches and founded Calcutta Christo Samaj in competition to Brahmo Samaj at Calcutta in 1887 that has no clergy, but affirmed only the apostles creed. Their purpose was to propagate the Christian truth and promote Christian union. They intended to garner all Indian churches together and thereby eliminate denominationalism.
He being a Protestant Christian, a group of nationalist leaders who associated themselves with the Indian National Congress perceived that "Christianity in India was full of stagnant Western waters and could be cleansed only through Indian Christian literature."—the attempts of Protestant Christians to indigenize Christianity created rift between Protestants and Catholics leading to establishment of non-denominational missionary organizations; consequently, in 1887, he along with Shome founded the Calcutta Christo Samaj. K.C. Banerjee later changed his attire to wearing the clothes of Sannyasin, and moved closer to Scottish missionaries in Bengal; his association with Scottish missionaries in Bengal brought closer and impressed Scottish missionaries in Madras too, especially Madras Christian College—then-epicenter of the "Re-thinking Christianity in India Group". The Re-thinking Group of Madras, asserted that the missionary emphasis on institutions like Church in India was not wise and reiterated that Christianity must understand the spiritual genius of India, forms of worship, and categories of thought so as to take root in the Indian soil; as a result, development of spirituality through Bhakti tradition, and inculturation of the Christian faith through the avatar entered into their religious affairs.
Kalicharan Banurji along with Shome representing Bengali Christians participated in a decennial missionary conference at Calcutta in 1882, and in Re-thinkers assemblage at Bombay in 1892 strongly advocating for united and single Indian church—one, not divided, native, not foreign. In the Bombay conference, he presented a paper entitled "The Native Church - Its Organization and Self Support"—an excerpt of that paper:
Kalicharan Banerjee and Tamilians like Parani Andi, V.S Azariah, P. Chenchiah, and K. T. Paul were credited for being the pioneers in reformulating "Rethinking Movement in Indian Christianity"—indigenous mission reflecting the cultural heritage of India and stand aloof from Western cultural domination—Re-thinking in the context of developing Indian expressions of Biblical life and faith against the traditional patterns implanted by Western minds. As a result, The National Church of Madras in 1886, The Christo Samaj of Calcutta in 1887, The Marthoma Evangelical Association of Kerala in 1888, and The Hindu Church of the Lord Jesus in Tinnevelly in 1903 were seen as the first attempts to create indigenous missions by Indian Christian community in India.
In spite of Church organisation becoming a Rethinking group in 1877 and then into a new Church movement in 1887, Calcutta Christo Samaj survived only for few years since "non-denominational Indian church" failed to overtake the already well-established missionary churches with solid foundation and adequate local resources, long before. According to B.R. Barber, biographer of K.C. Banurji:

Gandhi Vs Kalicharan Banerji

, having told his Christian friends in South Africa that he would meet the Christian Indians and acquaint himself with their condition; accordingly, Gandhi while taking shelter at Gokhale's residence, decided to visit Babu Kalicharan Banerji, whom Gandhi held high regard as he took a prominent part in Congress in spite of isolating himself from Hindus and Mussalmans. When Gandhi went to Kalicharan's home, Mrs. Kalicharan was on her death-bed, and in his own words:
Gandhi, having grasped the concept of Hinduism and also the traditions he was following, he seems to have pulled by the attractiveness of the example of Jesus; accordingly, in 1901, he made one determined effort to see if Christianity was the path he should follow. In 1925, when presenting to Christian missionaries, he described this step, which involved going
to see Indian converted Christian Kali Charan Banerjee: