Datta, Akshay Kumar (1820-1886) Born in Burdwan district, West Bengal at a time when Bengal was silently undergoing socio-cultural changes under the impact of western missionary activities, western education, and colonial mode of governance. Datta obtained early education at a European Seminary in Calcutta. In addition to English and Bangla he acquired proficiency in the Indian classical languages such as Sanskrit and Persian. He was a regular contributor to the highly influential Sangbad Prabhakar, which was then edited by Ishwar Gupta. Datta began his career in journalism by starting his own paper, Vidyadarshan, in 1842 but the paper died soon. His erudition and fame as a writer earned him the post of editor of the famous Brahma paper, Tattvabodhini Patrika. His most important and widely discussed publications include Bahjyabastur Sahit Manab Prakrtir Sambandha Bichar (2 volumes 1851, 1853); Charupath (3 volumes 1852, 1854, 1859); Dharmaniti (1856) and Bharatvarsiya Upasak Sampraday (2 vols 1870, 1883).

Akshay Kumar Datta worked as an activist of Tattvabodhini Sabha, a socio- religious association established by his mentor Debendra Nath Tagore (1817-1905). A Hindu of the Brahmo sect, Datta was inclined to accept the supremacy of western arts and sciences. Influenced by 19th century French philosophies, he openly challenged many Brahma assumptions about the Vedantic soul and universe. Later, he came under the influence of iswar chandra vidyasagar and became an activist of his social reform movements. Tormented by conflicting ideas on religion and philosophy Akshay Kumar Datta, in the end, left the brahma samaj and also its organ Tattvabodhini Patrika in 1855.

In his old age Datta abandoned Deism, which he had adopted under the influence of the French Philosophies, and became an agnostic. All these changes in a single life are indicative of the uncertainties that the Bengal neo-literati faced in the nineteenth century. Though immensely critical of Hindu ways of life and thought, Akshay Kumar Datta was widely respected by his western educated contemporaries because of his great contribution to the development of Bangla language, arts and sciences and to contemporary reformist social movements. [Priti Kumar Mitra]