Yet we can have an idea about the condition of the then society through the following instance.

Inspired by the preaching of Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa, when Swami Vivekananda was trying to establish the ‘rich’ cultural outlook and heritage of India at the World Convention in Chicago, Harimohan Maity (aged 35) of North Calcutta indulged in such brutal physical contact with his daughter-in-law Phoolmani (aged 11) that the latter died at her father’s residence the very next day. There was hardly any uproar over this incident. Instead the middle-class Bengalees were more keen to have their daughters married before they reach the age of eight years. A person social reformer of Bombay, Barrister Bairanji Malavari rushed to Calcutta and got a law enacted by which physical interaction of girls less than 12 years of age was prohibited. Strangely enough, not only the orthodox Bengali elites, but even those who were known to be liberal social reformers opposed this act during February, 1891. According to the famous law analyst Shri A.N. Saha (who died only recently) logical reasoning of theses people could not accept such sort of prohibition.

Shri A. N. Saha has also presented a table which gives the marital ages of certain greats-Maharshi Debendranath Tagore married at the age of 14 when the bride was just 6 years old, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, at the age of 22, married Mrinalini Devi when she was 11 years old, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s bride at the time of weeding was 8 years old while the former was 14 years of age, Bankimchandra had his first marriage at the age of 11 years while the bride was a 5-year minor.

Bairanji Malavari wrote two informative essays in English on child marriage and untimely widowhood, reading which one can understand the social condition of the so-called Renaissance era.

Let us now turn on to the condition of the common labourer during that period and the mentality of the so-called cultured and educated people towards them. In the beginning of the 20th century, the member of workers in the big factories, tea gardens and coal mines of Bengal was three – and – a half lakhs which shot up to one lakh more a few days later.

In the textile mills, children below 9 years were made to work for at last 8 hours a day as ‘half-timers’. The adult workers were earning just Rs.10 per month. Needless to say, many workers had to face untimely deaths. But what is found to be surprising is that a famous ‘nationalist’ newspaper Amrita Bazar Patrika wrote "A higher death rate among the workers is acceptable but this growing industry should in no way be harmed", Sumeet Sarkar’s look provides further evidence of this.

Hemendralal Chowdhury, manager of Bangalakkhi Cotton Mills, Bengalees’ dream project, while testifying to the Factory Commission demanded that the age limit of child labourers should not be raised above 9 years. The epitome of Nationalist Movement, the very own of the Bengalees, Bangalakkhi had workers working for at last 13 hours a day. Hemendralal told the government that there was no need for doctors in the factory and no impediments should be imposed on the working of 8-years old girls. Even their duty hours should be similar to that of males. No criticism was discernible against this type of mentality.