Psychology and the Bengal Renaissance Education, Literature, and the Formation of an Indigenous Indian Psychology of Education

The emergence of psychology in colonial Bengal represents a unique confluence of Western scientific rationality, Indian philosophical traditions, nationalist consciousness, and literary creativity. During the Bengal Renaissance, intellectuals did not merely adopt European psychological thought but critically reinterpreted it within indigenous epistemological and cultural frameworks. Figures such as Narendranath Sengupta and Girindrasekhar Bose laid the institutional and theoretical foundations of Indian psychology, while thinkers like Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda infused psychological reflection into literature, spirituality, and education. This paper examines the historical, educational, and literary intersections that shaped early psychological discourse in Bengal and argues that colonial Bengal was not merely a recipient of Western psychology but an active site of epistemological reconstruction and cultural reinterpretation. Kinjal Chakraborty "Psychology and the Bengal Renaissance: Education, Literature, and the Formation of an Indigenous Indian Psychology of Education" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-10 | Issue-1 , February 2026, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd100149.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/education/100149/psychology-and-the-bengal-renaissance-education-literature-and-the-formation-of-an-indigenous-indian-psychology-of-education/kinjal-chakraborty