Brahmabandhav Upadhyay (born Bhavani Charan Bandyopadhyay) (11 February 1861 – 27 October 1907) was an Indian Bengali theologian, journalist and freedom fighter.

At 13 he had undergone the Upanayana ceremony, the investiture of the sacred thread necessary to mark the coming of age of a Brahmin boy.

[5] When Keshub Chandra Sen died in the year 1884, Bhavani Charan came back and slowly got inclined to Christianity.

In February 1891, he was baptized a Christian by the Reverend Heaton of Bishop's college,[5] an Anglican clergyman, and six months later, conditionally, in the Catholic Church of Karachi.

Brahmabandhab claimed himself to be called a Hindu Catholic, and wore saffron clothes, walked barefoot and used to wear an ebony cross around his neck.

In August 1907, two months before his untimely death, he declared to undergo prāyaścitta (expression of reparation in Hindu custom) through a public ceremony for the purpose of readmission into the Hindu society (Samaj), completing a full circle in his religious voyage throughout his life,[14] while explicitly remaining a Catholic Christian by his faith.

He also taught for some time in Union Academy,[6] which was established 1887 as the "Bengalee Boys High School" founded in Shimla under the chairmanship of Sir Nripendra Nath Sircar.

The aim of the school was to teach and propagate the Vedic and Vedantic ideas of life along with modern education among the elite class of the society.

Rabindranath Tagore was very much attracted to this idea of reviving the old Indian ideal of paedagogy and offered them to shift their school to Santiniketan in his father's estate.

His biographer, Julius Lipner, says that Brahmabandhab "made a significant contribution to the shaping of the new India whose identity began to emerge from the first half of the nineteenth century".

According to Lipner, "Vivekananda lit the sacrificial flame or revolution, Brahmabandhab in fuelling it, safeguarded and fanned the sacrifice.

After the movement of partition of Bengal in 1905, there was a boost in nationalist ideologies and several publications took active and fierce role in propagating them, including Sandhya.

"[18] In September 1907 Sandhya wrote, "God gives opportunities to all nations to to [sic] free themselves from their stupor and strength to make the necessary beginning.

Bramhabandhab refused to defend himself in the court, and on 23 September 1907 a statement was submitted through his counsel to the court, Barrister Chittaranjan Das:[3] I accept the entire responsibility of the publication, management and conduct of the newspaper Sandhya and I say that I am the writer of the article, Ekhan theke gechi premer dai which appeared in the Sandhya on the 13th August 1907, being one of the articles forming the subject matter of this prosecution.

But I do not want to take part in the trial, because I do not believe that, in carrying out my humble share of the God appointed mission of Swaraj, I am in any way accountable to the alien people, who happen to rule over us and whose interest is, and necessarily be, in the way of our true national development.

[6] He had undergone a hernia operation but could not overcome his sufferings and succumbed to death on 27 October 1907 under a precarious situation at the age of 46 only.

[5] A detailed account of the last moments of Brahmabandhab Upadhyay and the funeral procession to the cremation ground can be found in Animananda, The Blade[19] (p. 173–178): The news of his death spread fast and crowds began to gather at the Campbell Hospital.