Sri Sri Harichand Thakur

Harichand Thakur, sometimes known as Sri Sri Harichand Thakur, (ca. 1812-1878) worked among the untouchable people of Bengal Presidency, who considered him to be a god.

Harichand Thakur is variously said to have been born in 1811 and 1812. His family were peasant farmers of the Namasudra(Namassej) community and he was born in the Gopalganj area of what was then Bengal Presidency (now a part of Bangladesh). Named Haricharan Bairagi at birth, he moved to Orakandi, Faridpur District.

At a very early age, Thakur accepted the path of religious reformation for giving service to and uplifting the untouchable people of Bengal. He experienced atmadarshan (self-realisation) and preached his ideologies and religious philosophy in twelve commandments and asked his followers to pursue his works.

Thakur, whose family were Vaishnavite Hindus, founded a sect of Vaishnavite Hinduism called Matua. This was adopted by members of the Namasudra community, who were then also known by the pejorative name of Chandalas and considered to be untouchable. The sect was opposed to Brahmanical Hinduism and, according to Sipra Mukherjee "[inspired] the community towards education and social upliftment". It has subsequently attracted adherents from other caste communities that were marginalised by the upper castes, including the Chamars, Mahishyas, Malis, and Telis.

Thakur's followers consider him as God (hence calling him Thakur) Harichand and as an avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu or Krishna. Thus, he became known as Sri Sri Harichand Thakur. However, adherents of mainstream Hinduism do not accept this, despite often assimilating offshoots of their faith, because, according to the Dalit activist Debendralal Biswas Thakur, to do so in this instance would be to undermine the basis of their religion.

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