ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Vidyasagar's identity through the lens of movement and dislocation. It also explores how the spatial, temporal and narrative movement embodied in a text like Vidyasagar Charita can provide another set of tools with which to address the same problem. The Vidyasagar's autobiography ends with extended praise for Radhamohan's caring and generous nature. Vidyasagar tells that Radhamohan's main aim in life is to lend assistance to local villagers who suffered from disaster or financial ruin. By learning the stories of Ramjay, Durga Devi, Thakurdas and Bhagavati Devi, we begin to understand not just where Vidyasagar came from but what it is that made him. The chapter examines several levels: as a fond homage to Vidyasagar father's strength and resolve; as a sketch of the challenges confronting the urban-migrant in colonial Calcutta; and as an etiology for Vidyasagar's own compassionate attitude towards women and the poor.
