“It must be observed that hardly any native, and certainly no Englishman, could hope to wield the same influence over the poorest classes of the natives as that exercised by a man of Mr. S. Banesjee's position. The despised outcast feels himself vastly honoured when a Brahmin, in the teeth of all tradition and time-honoured custom, not only enters his poor hut, but actually eats with him, and chats with him as “a man and a brother.” There must be an eloquence in these ‘angels' visits more potent than that of words. The poor Sudra will hardly require much argument to convince him of the utility of sending his boy to school, nay, even of becoming a pupil himself. Witness, for example, the forty years old standing side by side with urchins of five or six, and doggedly spelling their way to the Temple of Learning through the door of Mr. Sasipad Bannerjee's night school in Barahanagar.”
We take the following from the report of the Baranagar Brahma Samaj written by Pandit Siranath Sastri and incorporated in the Annual Report of the Sadharan Brahma Samaj for 1878. (Miss Collect's Year Book 1880). "Almost all the public institutions of Baranagar originally owe for their existence more or less to the influence of the local Brahmas, especially to that of Babu Sashipada Baunerjee. The “Social Improvement Society,” the “Public Library” and the “Night School" under the management of the Jute Mills Company at Baranagar all came into existence through the exertion of the Brahma Samaj’ of the place.
“They have also a District Savings Bank for the special benefit of the Poor at Baranagar and this Bank was opened here by Government through the efforts of Babu Sashipad Bannerjee, though the Jute Mills Company have been looking after its management from the very day of its opening. “We have not the pleasure of recording much on the head of Anusthan in connection with the Samaj as only one or two of its members are Anusthanic (Practical or thorough-going) Brahmas. However, three Brahmo Marriages took place under its auspices and all of them were inter-marriages and widow-marriages. It might be mentioned here that the wife of the leader of this Samaj was the first Hindu lady who went to Europe in company with her husband. In the matter of Charity they regularly give alms to the poor and really needy on the day of their monthly worship, and Babn Bany Madhub Paul, one of its members, bears all the expenses there of Besides this, they have other occasional acts of Charity.
“The Baranagar Brahmas had a very beautiful place of worship of their own, but it has been wrested from their hands under circumstances very unpleasant to relate. One of their numbers who is the proprietor of the land upon which the building of their Samaj was erected, insisted, unfortunately after the erection of the building, upon having the Samaj made a branch of the Brahma Samaj of India, to which they declined to give their assent on principle. “The proprietor remained deaf to reason, in spite of all their remonstrances and entreaties. The piece of land had been given only orally and not formally and duly conveyed, and they had to give up all hopes of their Samaj ever getting possession of its own building.
“At present the Baranagar Samaj has, properly speaking; no place of worship of its own. Its Prayer meetings are now hold in the hall of the ‘'Baranagar Institute" built for public benefit through the noble exertion of Babu Sashipad Bannerjee, with pecuniary aid chiefly from the late Miss Carpenter and his other friends in England. “There is no regular constitution in the above Samaj, though the members have been striving to have one ever since they lost their former place of worship. The number of its members is about twenty-five (25). This number includes the members of the Bon-hoogly Upasana Samaj which has been amalgamated with it. This Upasana Samaj was established by Babu Nagendranath Bhaduri.”
The Baranager Brahma Samaj inaugurated family prayer meetings in the year 1879 as we find from the Sadharan Brahma Samaj report for that year :—