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{{Use Indian English|date=October 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lal Behari Dey
| image = Lal Behari Dey1.jpg
| alt = 
| caption =
| birth_name = Lal Behari Dey
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1824|12|18}}
| birth_place = Sonapalasi, [[Bardhaman]], [[Bengal Presidency]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1892|10|28|1824|12|18}}
| death_place = [[Calcutta]], Bengal Presidency, British India
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
[[Reverend]] '''Lal Behari Dey''' ({{lang-bn|লাল বিহারী দে; also transliterated as Lal Behari Day}}) (18 December 1824 – 28 October 1892) was a [[Bengali people|Bengali]] [[India]]n journalist, who [[religious conversion|converted]] to Christianity, and became a Christian missionary himself.

==Biography==
Lal Behari Dey was born on 18 December 1824 to a [[Kayastha]] caste family at Sonapalasi near [[Bardhaman]]. After primary education in the village school he came to [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] with his father and was admitted to Reverend [[Alexander Duff (missionary)|Alexander Duff]]'s General Assembly Institution, where he studied from 1834 to 1844. (Duff's Institution is now the [[Scottish Church Collegiate School]]; he was one of the first five boys admitted by Duff/[[Scottish Church College]].){{Clarify|date=March 2017|reason=Collegiate School or College?}} Under Duff's tutelage he formally embraced [[Christianity]] on 2 July 1843. In 1842, a year before his [[baptism]] he had published a tract, ''The Falsity of the Hindu Religion'', which had won a prize for the best essay from a local Christian society.

From 1855 to 1867 Lal Behari was a missionary and minister of the [[Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900)|Free Church of Scotland]].

From 1867 to 1889 he worked as professor of [[English literature|English]] in Government-administered colleges at [[Baharampur|Berhampore]] and [[Hugli-Chinsura|Hooghly]]. After having served in several churches in the prime of his career, he joined the Berhampore Collegiate School as Principal in 1867. Later he became Professor of English and Mental and Moral Philosophy in Hooghly Mohsin College of the University of Calcutta and stayed with it from 1872 to 1888. Being a devout Christian but pro-[[British Raj]], he protested against any discrimination practised by the ruling class against the natives.

Known for his profound knowledge of the English language and literature, he wrote two books in English, ''Govinda Samanta'' (1874, later renamed ''Bengal Peasant Life'') and [[Folk-Tales of Bengal]] (1883) both of which were widely acclaimed.<ref name=fairy/> Like [[Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay]], [[Peary Chand Mitra]] and [[Dinabandhu Mitra]], Lal Behari also felt very passionately for the poor and oppressed peasantry of Bengal. In 1874 his ''Govinda Samanta'' won the prize of [[Rupee|Rs]] 500 offered by Baboo Joy Kissen Mookerjea of [[Uttarpara]], one of the most enlightened [[zamindar]]s in Bengal, for the best novel, written either in Bengali or in English, illustrating the "Social and Domestic Life of the Rural Population and Working Classes of Bengal". [[Charles Darwin]] wrote a letter on 18 April 1881 to the publishers saying,

:"I see that the Reverend Lal Behari Day is Editor of the Bengal Magazine and I shall be glad if you would tell him with my compliments how much pleasure and instruction I derived from reading a few years ago, this novel, Govinda Samanta."

Though Lal Behari's writings were mostly in English, he edited a Bengali monthly magazine, ''Arunaday'' (1857) and penned a Bengali narrative, ''Chandramukhee''. He was also the editor of three English magazines, ''Indian Reformer'' (1861), ''Friday Review'' (1866) and ''Bengal Magazine'' (1872). Apart from writing in these magazines, Lal Behari also contributed articles to ''[[Calcutta Review]]'' and ''Hindu Patriot''. He was a member of many associations like the Bethune Society and the Bengal Social Science Association.

He was made a Fellow of the [[University of Calcutta]] from 1877.

Lal Behari died on 28 October 1892, at Calcutta.{{disputed|date=March 2017}}

==References==
{{Reflist |refs=
<ref name=fairy>
{{Cite web|url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Fairy_Tales|title=Fairy Tales |publisher=[[Banglapedia]] (en.banglapedia.org) |access-date=2016-03-25}}</ref>
}}

==External links==

* [http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Day,_Rev._Lalbehari "Day, Rev. Lalbehari (1824–1894)"] at ''Banglapedia''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061210050258/http://www.multifaithnet.org/images/content/seminarpapers/FromKrishnaPaltoLalBehari.htm "From Krishna Pal to Lal Behari Dey: Indian Builders of the Church in India or Native Agency in Bengal 1800–1880"] by Dr E.M. Jackson, University of Derby, at MultiFaithNet.org (archived 2006-12-10)
* {{Gutenberg author | id=Day,+Lal+Behari | name=Lal Behari Day}}
* {{Librivox author |id=9487}}
* {{LCAuth|n80025702|Lal Behari Day|10|ue}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Bengal Renaissance}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dey, Lal Behari}}
[[Category:Scottish Church Collegiate School alumni]]
[[Category:Scottish Church College alumni]]
[[Category:Bengali-language writers]]
[[Category:Bengali writers]]
[[Category:Converts to Protestantism from Hinduism]]
[[Category:Indian Christian theologians]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:1824 births]]
[[Category:1892 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Ministers of the Free Church of Scotland]]
[[Category:Indian Christian clergy]]
[[Category:Presbyterian missionaries in India]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta faculty]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Fellows of the University of Calcutta]]
[[Category:Indian Presbyterian missionaries]]
[[Category:People from Purba Bardhaman district]]
[[Category:Journalists from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Indian Christian writers]]

Lal Behari Dey - Revision history

CleanupBot II at 21:45, 13 August 2023