Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya

Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya was a pandit and one of a group of Hindu nationalists who held a benevolent view of the traditional role of caste in Indian society at a time, in the late nineteenth century, when social reformers were challenging the concept. He called the traditional varna system, comprising a four-tier ritual hierarchy, a "golden chain" that had been willingly worn by the population, and he expounded on his beliefs in an 1896 book - Hindu Castes and Sects - which was, in the opinion of Susan Bayly, "one of the first modern anthropological treatises to be produced by an Indian scholar." He had previously written Commentaries on Hindu Law and it was that which provided the impetus for his 1896 work.

Bhattacharya had graduated from the University of Calcutta. He became president of the Bengal Brahman Sabha, an organisation that claimed to represent a wide range of Brahmins within its territorial remit. He also headed a Brahmin organisation that claimed to provide rulings regarding what it considered to be matters of Hindu tradition, and which was known as the Nadia College of Pandits.