The Reformist At Kolkata
Around 1870, Durga Mohan Das shifted to Kolkata High Court. Dwarakanath Ganguly, the great champion of women’s emancipation, had already shifted from Dhaka to Kolkata with his newspaper Abalabandhab. There were other young men such as Rajaninath Roy, who were clamouring for reforms within the Brahmo Samaj. Till then women used to sit in the Brahmo Samaj behind a screen. The reformists started bringing their wives into the open. That immediately caused some confusion but ultimately they won the day. Brahmo Samaj allowed women to sit in the open.
When Miss Annette Akroyd opened a boarding school for girls in Kolkata, Durga Mohan Das assisted her financially and admitted his daughters in the school. The school was later merged with Bethune’s school and his daughters were amongst the earlier batches to pass out of that school.
It was during that period that his wife died.
Being an outright reformist he sided with such people as Sivanath Sastri, Ananda Mohan Bose, Sib Chandra Deb, and Umesh Chandra Dutta for the establishment of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj in 1878. He extended substantial financial support for the new organisation and served as its president.
He went to England in 1888 and returned back with illness. All his three sons had qualified as barristers and his daughters were married. He led a rather lonely life. He married a widowed daughter of Kali Narayan Gupta of Dhaka. However, old age had caught on and he died on 19 December 1897.
Chittaranjan Das was son of his brother Bhuban Mohan Das. Amongst his children the more renowned were Satish Ranjan Das, Sarala Roy and Abala Bose. Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee was his great gandson on his daughter's side.
After Durga Mohan Das's first wife Bhramamoyee Devi's death, he married a highly respectable widow lady Hemantasashi Sen, daughter of a renowned Brahmo social reformer Kali Narayan Gupta of Dhaka. Hemantasashi Sen's only son by his first husband was noted music composer and song writer Atul Prasad Sen.
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