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CHAPTER III

THE BRAHMO SAMAJ OF INDIA

The schism removed the painful tension of feeling under which both the parties were living for some time and accelerated the enthusiasm of the progressives for the work of propagation they had taken in hand. They had suffered long for want of a regular organisation of their work. From the day of their virtual separation from the Adi Brahmo Samaj in 1864, they had no fixed place of worship where they could gather their fellow-believers. In the absence of such a place they had fixed upon a room in the Calcutta College to hold weekly divine service therein on every Sunday morning. But here even Mr. Sen would not join them in the beginning, perhaps for fear of seeming to give his personal support and countenance to a secessionist movement, at a time when he himself was earnestly seeking reconciliation with Devendra Nath. Accordingly, they were left without the inspiration of his personal presence and cheering words. Of course they daily met him in his house and had much personal communion with men of their own way of thinking in the Sangat Sabha, but the state