Preface 

Purba Bangla Brahmo Sammilani, fostered during seventeenth session of All India Theistic Conference and the brainchild of Brahmos of erstwhile East Bengal and Calcutta, organized its first conference from 25^th to 27^th October, 1890 at Purba Bangla Brahmo Samaj, Dhaka under the Presidency of Gurucharan Mahalonobis of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. In its first meeting Bhubanmohon Sen was elected as President, Jagabandhu Laha and Satish Chandra Ghosh was appointed as Secretary and Assistant Secretary respectively of this Brahmo Sammilani. Objective of this Sammilani as accepted in first session among others were mission work of Brahmo Samaj and preaching of Brahmo religion, publication and distribution of books and journal, help to Brahmo families, social governance and solidarities among Brahmos. 

Activities of this Brahmo Sammilani was getting momentum and spread in Assam and entire Bengal and further the whole of India which necessitated change of name to Bangla -O-Assam Brahmo Sammilani. This name was registered with Registrar of Joint Stock Company in 1944 with its Registered office at 2/3 Lyall Street, Dhaka. After partition, the registered office was shifted to 211 Cornwallis Street (Bidhan Sarani) Calcutta – 700 006 during 58^th session of Bangla-O-Assam Brahmo Sammilani under the Presidentship of Lady Abala Bose. 

In 1958 the name Bangla-O-Assam Brahmo Sammilani was again rechristened as Brahmo Conference in the annual meeting of 68^th session of Sammilani. This change was duly recorded by the Joint Stock Company in 1959. In addition to holding annual Brahmo Conference it took up other works like generating permanent fund for charitable purposes, preservation of moribund Samajes, propagation of Brahmo principles, to spread and propagate teachings of Raja Rammohun Roy and his liberal religious ideas etc.   

This Brahmo Conference body successfully carried on with its activities according to the principle and objectives laid down in the constitution till the year 2002. At this time around, perhaps this century old successful journey was not enduring well enough to a few Brahmos, and they thought to hold a separate Brahmo Conference forming another organization similar to Brahmo Conference. This group of Brahmos drafted a separate constitution eliminating ex-officio membership of the Secretaries of two founder members, Sadharan Brahmo Samaj and Bangladesh Brahmo Samaj and tried to register in similar name, by changing the Registered office to 23 Ramakanta Sen Lane, Kolkata – 700 067. Ultimately, they could succeed in getting registration after a decade long effort perhaps with change in nomenclature which remains secret even to their own group of people. Although this newly sprouted body holding Conference under the aegis of so called unregistered Brahmo Conference body since 2002. Astonishingly they continued to use the year of establishment as 1890 and till recently held a Brahmo Conference at Hyderabad as the134^th Brahmo Conference. Members may expect a rejoinder how such arithmetical jugglery continued in spite of creating new conference body only 25 years back.  

In spite of all these unethical happening (detail elaborated in Brahmo Conference Reminiscence and revival booklet) and to uphold the original constitution of the historic Brahmo Conference, the then Secretary of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj wrote an open letter explaining in detail and also took the initiative and wanted to discuss and resolve such undeserved issue across the table. Unfortunately, then Secretary of newly formed unregistered organization malignly rejected the offer. No good sense prevailed and unity was not restored. Sadharan Brahmo Samaj had never intended to spilt the Brahmo Conference and step aside upholding essential unity.  But in recent times it has become much needed since social and religious threat are looming in Brahmo Samaj. It is therefore decided to revive Brahmo Conference under its original registered constitution and hold Conference on 5^th and 6^th of December, 2025 at Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. 

Report

In the evening of 5^th December,2025 special Divine Service was held as a precursor of ensuing Brahmo Conference. The Service was conducted by Amit Das. Devotional hymns were performed by Koushik De, Tania Ghosh and others. 

On 6^th December morning conference began with great fervour. The iconic Prayer Hall was nicely decorated with flowers and all delegates were greeted with conference folders. Following the Brahmo ritual, Conference started with Kirtan by Koushik De, which was followed by a Divine Service and Devotional songs. Amit Das acted as a Minister and conducted Divine Service. Koushik De, Tania Ghosh, Doyel Chakraborty, Gairika Bose, Tamali Bose, Sudeshna Roychowdhury, Pranati Das, Dhritabrata Bose, Sourya Mukherji and Pratibhash Gupta performed Devotional songs. 

Next to Divine service, Welcome Address followed. Thespian Actor Sri Barun Chanda was the President of the 135^th session of Brahmo Conference. In his address he highlighted growing apathy of young people to involve in Samaj activities and requested to think about some measures which makes them attracted towards the Brahmo Samaj. Chief Guest, Padmashri Dr. Bimal Roy, former Director, Indian Statistical Institute and currently serving as Chairperson, National Statical Commission, Govt. of India, in his address lauded Dr. Prashanta Chandra Mahalonobis, founder of Indian Statistical Institute, for his extraordinary work in the field of Statistics and making it inevitable in daily lives. Chairman of the Session Sri Debashish Raychaudhuri narrated in-depth history of Brahmo Conference and purpose for holding this conference. 

“Growing up in the Brahmo way” the subject of first discourse was conducted by Sri Barun Chandra and Sri

Asoke Viswanathan. Both of them recapitulated their younger days and their involvement with the Brahmo Samaj. Sri Braun Chanda emphasized on education where Brahmo Samaj can take an important role as it did in the past. Sri Asoke Viswanathan taking cue from his previous orator referred some books and quoted from there to make attractive for young children. This was an inter-active session and question also came from the Delegates. At the end both of them both had agreed in one point – Presence and relevance of Brahmo Samaj needs to be augmented in society. 

Post Discourse, there was open forum for participating Brahmo Samajes. Delegates from Indore, Baniban, Tezpur, Dhubri, Giridih, Harinavi, Konnagar, Dhaka to name a few, narrated current status and work that needs to be done for their respective Samajes.   

In the afternoon session Panel Discussion on” Relevance of Brahmoism Today” was conducted by Sri Sunrit Mullick. Dr. Nandini Jana, Research Scholar and professor and Sri Amit Das were the participants. Dr. Jana discussed about her study on different Brahmo Samajes. Sri Sunrit Mallick on his concluding comment called Brahmoism as a monotheistic eternal religion. On this occasion Book titled “A Genealogy and History of the

Brahmo Religion” was released. Next session was Paper Reading. Dr. Clare Midgeley from Sheffield Hallam University read out and discussed from her research material on ”Brahmoism, Unitarians and the Woman Question”.  At the end of this session a customary Vote of Thanks was given by Sri Amit Das. 

In the evening a cultural programme was held, where Debashish Raychaudhuri performed Brahmosangeet and Koushik De and his troupe sang Bhajans written by different lyricists. About 130 delegates and Doners attended this conference. They were entertained with Breakfast, Tea, Coffie, Lunch and Dinner. 

The 135^th Session ended with a pledge to reunite at Darjeeling on 23^rd and 24^th October 2026 for the 136^th Session of All India Brahmo Conference.         

We appeal to all Brahmos to join the conference in Darjeeling on 23rd and 24th October and make it a resounding success. We solicit your presence not only through physical participation but also volunteering in the conference activities, contributing articles for the souvenir, etc.  For participation and other details you can email Sadharan Brahmo Samaj at brahmosamaj.sadharan@gmail.com or contact Amit Das at +919830694003