DHURRUMTOLLAH STREET: WAY TO BENGAL RENAISSANCE

A triple portrait of the East India Company ship Royal Charlotte – Indiaman (1758-1770. Oil on canvas by Robert Dodd. Couresy: National Maritime Museum,

নবজাগরণের যাত্রাপথে ঐতিহাসিক ধর্মতলা স্ট্রিট

LEAD UP
As early as in May 1772 when Dean Mohamet (1784–1851) arrived, Calcutta was already a major center of commerce for the English East India Company, prosperous and entrepreneurial. [Dean Mahomet] Calcutta was then just a township desperately in need to grow into a city to fulfill the common ambition of the Company Bahadur and the British colonialism under the administration of Lord Clive and his immediate followers. It is interesting to note that the Industrial Revolution, the critical turning point in modern history, had its origin in village Sutanuti cotton market that allured the British traders to settle and exploit. The wave of Industrial Revolution, which had started a decade ago in Britain with manufacturing of textiles, reached the shore of river Hughly by then, and let its impact felt in the planning for Town Calcutta expansion beyond the up-coming Fort William at Govindpore. Its chronicle gradually discloses a co-relation between industrialization and urbanization.

It all started with the initiation of the new Fort that set off huge mobilization of the Europeans southward and of the natives of Govindpore to Kumartooly, Sobhabazar, and Burrabazar at north and to Taltola at east. Both the parties had to spend lengthy time experimenting with new realities before they settled themselves in changed environment. That was the time since when new occupations being introduced as the unheard-of opportunities coming up as a result of scientific inventions and industrial diversification. Calcutta in the process of urbanization started experiencing effect of industrialization. The external economic orientation of Calcutta to England emerged in18th and 19th centuries, provided the young city with an industrial prospect. It took however pretty long time to develop some minimum indigenous technological systems of production, transportation, construction, and the logistics required for large concentrations of people in urban areas. [Ghose] The progress slowed down because of the typical political apathy and cultural lethargy of colonial Calcutta.

Merchant Ship at Old Fort ghat Calcutta. c.1798. Artist Francis Balthazar Solvyns. Source: Peabody Essex Museum

Calcutta Merchants. Diversified group of Persians, Arab, Jews, Marwarrees, Armenians, Mundrazees. Cashmeerees, Malabars, Goojratees, Goorkhas, Affghans, Seiks. Turks. Parsees. Chinese, Burmese, and Bengalees. 1849. Lithograph byColesworthey Grant.

THE CLIMATE

Until 1813 the commercial relations between India and England was free from industrial capitalist exploitation. Trade with India had been relatively small. Its huge potential, however, was foreseen by the industrial capitalist who wasted no time to frame policies for maximizing capital gain to feed British machine industry. They defined their policy with the objective, set out by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, to make India an agricultural colony of British capitalism, supplying raw materials and buying manufactured goods. British rule brought the destruction of traditional handicrafts as well as their technical proficiency, carried off plunder, and revenue extraction. [Sarkar] By 1814 the Company servants themselves had begun to invest their capital in Agency Houses born out of an alliance between the private trading interests of the Company’s servants and the Free Merchants. This unseemly alliance had been continuing since early days of East India Company. We understand from a scholarly note on the Company’s ship Royal Charlotte – Indiaman (1758-1770) featured at the top, that the Company placed bulk orders for official goods with the ships’ captains and supercargoes encouraging the flourishing network of private trade that supported the regular inflow of luxury commodities into Europe. This form of ‘regulated corruption’ was sanctioned through indulgences in Company policy. [Davies]

Despite all the mighty negative forces driven by the political machinery, industrialization happened in Bengal as well as other provinces in India at uneven pace mostly on European initiatives, excepting few instances of Indian entrepreneurship. Calcutta and its neighborhood were on the threshold of a small scale industrial revolution. The local business community embarked upon a broad range of steam-powered industries. Calcutta became ‘a seat of numerous extensive manufactories, vying with many British cities.’ [Stocqueler] The scenario changed in the second half of the 19th century. Faster transportation, and a uniform legal framework, in particular, expanded possibilities of capital and labour movements. ‘The Empire encouraged factor-market integration, increased the scope of public-private partnership and the separation of banking from trading and of trading from manufacturing. This diversification of risk was a key impetus to the industrialization drive.’ [Ray] It was the English who exploited the opportunities most. The natives of Calcutta missed it almost because of their so called entrepreneurial backwardness – a deeply-seated socio-cultural attitude. ‘Power over land, not mercantile or industrial enterprise, was the economic hallmark of social statuses.’ Trade was associated with low ranking castes, Brahmins and Kayasthas considered only the intellectual and administrative professions as proper occupations. Thus the indigenous Bengali elite turned its back on business and left modern industry and international commerce in Calcutta to Europeans. [Sarkar] Neither the shrewdness of colonial policy nor the apathy of general Bengalese toward business could stop Industrialization Revolution that brought forth radical and innovative changes in manufacturing and transportation from manual to mechanical mode. We may note in this context that it all had started with the bonanza of British textile industry at the cost the death of Indian cotton hand mill tradition. The first textile industry in India, Bowreah Cotton Mills, was established in 1818 by British at Fort Gloster near Calcutta; the first jute mill at Rishra started spinning in 1855 when they brought its machinery from Dundee. Industrialization produced a new market economy, and most importantly, a new society desirous of using innovative products and transports to set the revolution go.

Dhurrumtollah Bazar – a section of the coloured lithograph depicting Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart created before 1838 (pub. 1848) by Sir Charles D’Oyly. Courtesy Heidelberg U Univ.

DHARRUMTOLLAH IN CONTEXT

Walking around the Dhurrumtollah Street we may still find few footprints of Industrial Revolution that modernized the ‘process of manufacturing consumer goods and capital goods and of building infrastructure in order to provide goods and services to both individuals and businesses.’ The industrial orientation was discernable more markedly in the new township around the Fort covering the entire southern expansion up to Surman’s Park including villages of Govindpore, Birji, Chowringhee and sections of Colinga – the area commonly understood today in terms of east and west Dhurrumtollah. That time Taltola, or Talpooker, with its segment Jaunbazar was an undeveloped swampy land of Colinga mouza nearest to ‘Bazar of Govindpore on the site of Fort’ (also referred to as ‘Dhurrumtollah Bazar). The only landmark it had was a shrine of Dharmathakur, or the Dharmatala. A road to Dharamtala that known to exist in 1762 as a causeway immediate north of Dingabhanga or Jala Colinga was reinforced with Birbhum gravel in 1796 just after the new Dhurrumtollah Bazar established. [Setton-Kerr]

Old Jaunbazar Native Shops. Chromolithograph By William Simpson. 1867. Courtesy: BL

Portrait of Rani Rashmoni recreated based on an anonymous painting.

As we have already noticed, during the time of expansion of the Town Calcutta and construction of the new Fort, there had been massive mobilization from all directions. The Europeans moved toward south, the Govindpore villagers toward north and east where the later had to take up new occupation for living. In addition, there had been a steady inflow of people from outside India of varied cultural background and expertise for doing business or working as professionals or employees in government and private institutions. The uprooted Govindpore folks gained prospect of living in civil areas and availing new job opportunities in exchange of homes they lost. The opportunities were not limited to serving the European and the Native aristocracy as domestics, but also in public places and at the Fort site as coolies, road-labourers, or palanquin-bearers who in those early days were customarily natives of Bengal. So far we understand, the Hindu settlers from Govindpore had no serious involvement in the process of developing Dhurrumtollah into a neighborhood of historical importance. In our collective mind, the area of ‘Dhurrumtollah’ today no more includes the eastern part of Jaunbazar, which found its own identity after Pritaram Das had built his palatial house in 1810s – the hallowed site where Rani Rashmoni, his daughter-in-law, lived her distinguished life of spiritual, social and political significance. As we conceive, Dhurrumtollah of recent time comprises the entire area between the Lindsay Street and the Dhurrumtollah Street. The road was widened up in 1836 allowing the adjacent land to develop fast into a modern colony next to Chowringhee, but unlike Chowringhee, it was for people of all shades, not white alone. So to speak, such liberal inclusion was a striking exception to the administrative directions pronounced for removing ‘native inhabitants from the black town and to build houses for themselves on another spot, at a greater distance from the fort’. We gather from the English traveler, Edward Ives that this was ‘owing to the governor and council’s resolution in consequence of Colonel Clive’s advice, to enlarge and well secure Fort William, which could not be done, whilst the Indian town was standing. [Ives]

Roman Cathooic Church on Dhurrumtollah Street. (post card picture)

Dhurrmtollah Street in 1880s. Photograph: Johnston and Hofman. c1880s

Westward view of Dhurrumtollah Street. n,d. (picture Postcard) Courtesy: Ebay

Methodist Church from Wellington Crossing

From The Statesman House rooftop. Glenn S. Hensley. 1944

The White Town concentrated around the Tank Square. The region centering on the Govindpore Fort, including Chowringhee, Park Street, Dharmatala, Esplanade, formed the European part of the town. [Wallace] Dharmatala, though commonly designated as a European district, can hardly justify so by its mixed populace and liberal lifestyle, which has been encouraged to diversify further culturally and economically, keeping pace with the changes taken place in global societies through ever increasing Calcutta connections.

Of the Nations Most Known in Hindoostan. Solvyns, Les Hindous, Vol. III. 1811

The crowd of Dhurrumtollah Street is always different from anywhere else in Calcutta – “full of the People of India, walking in family parties and groups and confidential couples. And the people of India are neither Hindu nor Mussulman — Jew, Ethiop, Gueber, or expatriated British” (like James Augustus Hickey, Justice Le Maitre, or a David Drummond). “They are the Eurasians, and there are hundreds and hundreds of them in Dhurrumtollah now.” [Kipling] Because of the presence of British insiders, Dhurrumtollah milieu is essentially more inclusive than the grey town Murgihatta, and may be justly called a global town. On this road, Rev. C Cesry found in 1881 many faiths, many occupations, and many institutions existing next to each other. [Cesry] The road becomes congested with swelling population and their multifarious activities – commercial, professional, humanitarian, devotional, and recreational.

Calcutta may aptly be called ‘a city of shop-keepers’ if ‘getting and spending’ proves to be the essence of its economic life. This was what Sambhoo Churn wrote in Mookherji’s Magazine in 1861. The most respectable of its inhabitants were merchants, and the next might be the judiciary and law practitioners in Calcutta. Those days their profession found highly profitable. So were the medical practitioners. Englishmen in those days carried on other professionals as well. They were jurymen. Besides, they were engaged in different trades as coach-making, watch-making, tavern-keeping, tailoring, wine-dealing, shoe-making, hair-dressing, tanning and the like. [Biswas]

NEW PHENOMENA
A glance through the street directories of late 18th century or early 19th century Calcutta should show the changing pattern of occupations in Dhurrumtollah Street with “addresses of Engineers, Under¬takers, Chemists, Doctors, Midwifes, Photographers, Professors of Music, Horse Doctors, Auctioneers, Jewelers, Book-sellers, Publicans, Barbarians, Scythians, Bond and Free. [Cesry] There were more, most importantly the teachers who contributed singularly to awakening of a new Bengal. The role of Dhurrumtollah Academy of David Drummond and certain other extraordinary institutions carried out gently their grand missions on this rowdy street of ‘shops and bazars’. To Rudyard Kipling the street was like Hammersmith High¬way – the main shopping street in Hammersmith, London.

Bourne & Shepherd. Initially established by William Howard in 1840 as Calcutta Studio. ; renamed in 1866 by Samuel Bourne and Charles Shepherd.

Daguerreotype camera used in the early 19th century in the physics lab Presidency College Courtesy@TimesFreshFace

Annapurna Dutta, a Bengali photographer, appeared on the scene in the 1920s.

Gauhar Jaan. The first singer recorded in gramophne in 1902

As we have elsewhere discussed at length about the old bazars of Dhurrumtollah, including the Chandney Market that still exists. [puronokolkata] The old Chandney was altogether a different class of market. It was set to cater raw materials like cloth lengths, threads and needles, or tools like scissors, knives, hammers or a fishing rod, but barely any ready-made consumer goods like garment to wear or fishes to eat. It was also a good shopping centre for household wares. I believe it still continues with the tradition to a large extent. This apart, I like to draw your attention to the variety of specialty shops in Dhurrumtollah locality that sale, repair and offering services and products of modern technology.

Madan Theatre by Night” by Gaganendranath Tagore. Held at National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. Image Courtesy: NGMA

There was no dearth of photographic studios, camera shops, professional cameramen, gramophone players, and music records, projectors and films, and above all there was the pioneering Indian cinema production company, the Madan Theatres to show how very receptive the ambience of Dhurrumtollah has been to innovative merchandise. Even today one goes there for a treasure hunt for rare music records, and some finds the master mechanic for gramophones and cameras in its lanes and bi-lanes. Such experience veritably takes us back to the old days of Dhurrumtollah.

Camel Carriage. Coloured lithograph by F. Jones after Captain G.F. Atkinson. 1860

The scenario Kipling described did not grow overnight but an outcome of a slowly built tradition since 1762 – the time when Dhurrumtollah Street was a muddy road frequented now and then by animal-drawn carts pulled by bullocks, horses, and possibly elephants and camels.
The road became wider in 1867; building plots were numbered in 1843 and revised in 1869. Along with the continuous improvement of the Street and its surroundings, changes take place not only in mode of transportation, or form of vehicle, but in people’s lifestyle and the design of the institutions within the orbit of Dhurrumtollah Street.

OBSERVATIONS
Dhurrumtollah Street is, as we see, one of the few roads of the 18th century Calcutta that may claim to be a distinctive reserve for augmenting the history of making Calcutta a modern City out of the colonial ‘Town Calcutta’. The Street carries the traces of the socio-cultural progress on the route to urbanization basking in the glow of Industrial Revolution. It turned up in Dhurrumtollah rather than in any other part, because of two reasons, I believe. First, it was a free society and a learning society, continuously adjusting itself with new ideas and technological inventions. Second, the resolute role of institutions and few little-known, liberal forward-looking people that made it all happened.

CHAPIN PUMPING ENGINE.Dwarkanath imported this technology from England for his business ventures

Contrary to this view, there is a general notion that ‘the early and prolonged exposure to British administration resulted in the expansion of Western education, culminating in development of science, institutional education, and social reforms in the region, including what became known as the Bengali renaissance.’ [Bengal Chamber] When there is no denying that India owes to the British for the revival of its heritage, the British had little to contribute to the formation of the liberal spirit of Bengal Renaissance simply because they never had such values in their national character founded on the rock of convention.

Neither the contemporary business world had much to effect a change in Bengali mind-set. We know many illustrious names of the 19th century business and industrial leaders, British and Indian, from Andrew Yule to Octavius, from Dwarkanath to P C Ray. Among the Indian entrepreneurs there were many great public figures but hardly any persuasive leader capable of being an agent of social change. When Dwarkanath launched his firm, Young Bengal found a hero, and expected the Bengalis to ‘compete with the nations of Europe and America, not only in English literature, but in fine arts, sciences and commerce’. [Sarkar]

Lithograph by C. E. Pierre Motte (1785 – 1836), after a painting by A Geringer, published by Marlet & Co., later hand coloured c1830

‘Dwarkanath Tagore. Portrait by Count D’Orsay – an album assembled by Lady Georgiana Codrington. [1850s] Cortesy:Alamy

David Hare

William Carey and Pundit. Engraved by J Jenkins after Home Courtesy:NPG

There had been however many renowned adorable renaissance men, including foreigners like a David Hare, and many more unacknowledged people who readied the Calcutta society at large with their open and inquisitive mind imbibed with liberal values. The society was shaped by those extraordinary minds behind the scene that produced leaders to instill new values in public mind, and influence politics of the land. While the industry, the political power, the social elites all had their respective roles to back the new society to flourish, essentially it was the work of the unaccounted activists – the mind-makers.

ENDNOTE
To illustrate my views I shall present few cases, starting with Chandney Bazar, an obscured offshoot of the industrial age. It will be followed by profiles of some magnificent men who left their invisible signatures on some very important chapters of Calcutta history leading to Bengal Renaissance. They came from dissimilar walks of life at different points of time – two horsemen, one Caribbean the the other French by birth, a atheist teacher of Scottish birth, and one Brahmoite American Unitarian activist. Hopefully, you would enjoy their stories so far unheeded, when come out on puronokolkata pages before long.

REFERENCE
[Anonymous]. 1816. Sketches of India; or, Observations Descriptive of the Scenary, Etc in Bengal. London: Black, Purbury and Allen. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=tEcVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Bengal Chamber of Commerce. 2016. Discover Bengal: A Guidebook Of Business Prospects In West Bengal. Calcutta: Bengal Chamber. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi77uKz1PnhAhUk63MBHQ8vDkYQFjAAegQIAxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bengalchamber.com%2Feconomics%2Fdiscover-bengal.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1V8wDJ0_pSUMaxTwj7VrZ9.
Bengal Hurkaru. 1838. Bengal Directory and Annual Register 1838. Calcutta: Samuel Smith. https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.14012/page/n5.
Biswas, Oneil. 1992. Calcutta and Calcuttans From Dihi to Megalopolis. Calcutta: Firma KL. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.149376.
Cesry, Rev. C. 1881. Indian Gods Sages And Cities. Calcutta: Catholic Orphan Press. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.128152.
Chunder, Bholanauth. 1869. Travels of a Hindoo; to Various Parts of Bengal and Upper India; Vol.1. London: Trubner. https://archive.org/stream/travelsahindoot00chungoog#page/n9/mode/2up.
Davies, Pauline. 2013. East India Company and the Indian Ocean Material World at Osterley, 1700-800, East India Company at Home (May 2013). https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/osterley-park-middlesex/osterley-case-study-winds-of-trade/
Dean Mahomet. 1997 The Travels of Dean Mahomet: an eighteenth-century journey through India; ed. By Michael Fischer. California: UCPress,1997 https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520207172/the-travels-of-dean-mahomet
Forbes, James. 1834. Oriental Memoirs: A Narrative of Seventeen Years Residence in India; Vol.2. 2nd ed. London: Bentley, Richard. https://archive.org/details/orientalmemoirs00montgoog/page/n10.
Ghose, Benoy. 1960. “The Colonial Beginnings of Calcutta Urbanisation without Industrialisation.” The Economic Weekly, no. August 13: 1255–60. http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1960_12/33/the_colonial_beginnings_of_calcuttaurbanisation_without_industrialisation.pdf?0=ip_login_no_cache%3Dfc8386086015fc6e2268f71b76bece16.
Kipling, Rudyard. 1899. City of Dreadful Night. New York: Alex. https://archive.org/details/citydreadfulnig02kiplgoog/page/n7
Puronokolkata. (2018). Durrumtollah And Its Old Bazars. Retrieved from https://puronokolkata.com/2018/05/08/dhurrumtollaha-bazars/
Roy, Tirthankar. 2014. “Trading Firms in Colonial India.” Business History Review 88 (1): 9–42. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007680513001402.
Sarkar, Suvobrata. 2013. “Bengali Entrepreneurs and Western Technology in the Nineteenth Century: A Social Perspective.” Indian Journal of History of Science 48 (3): 447–75. http://www.insa.nic.in/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol48_3_4_SSarkar.pdf.
Sen, Amit pseud. [i.e. Susobhan Sarkar] ]. 1947. Notes on Bengal Renaissance. Bombay: People’s pub. https://archive.org/details/notesonthebengal035527mbp/page/n6.
Setton-Karr, W. S. 1865. Selections from Calcutta Gazettes; Vol.2. Calcutta: Military Orphan Press. https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.44506/2015.44506.Selections-From-Calcutta-Gazettes–Vol-2#page/n3/mode/2up/search/beerbhoom.
Stocqueler, J.H. 1845. Handbook of India: A Guide to the Stranger and the Traveller, and a Companion to the Resident. 2nd ed. London: Allen. https://books.google.co.in/books?id=SelHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA348&lpg=PA348&dq=a+seat+of+numerous+extensive+manufactories,+vying+with+many+British+cities.&source=bl&ots=O-V1sg-gc6&sig=ACfU3U1bRKpuM94feKVkwAc3A7wwaWsOPg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8hbmhlO3hAhWKP48KHYEm.
Wallace, Robert Grenville. 1822. Fifteen Years in India; or, Sketches of a Soldier’s Life Being an Attempt to Describe Persons and Things … U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. London: Longman. https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-6870(73)90259-7.

May 9, 2019 2

Bengal National College, Calcutta, 1906

SubodhmullickHouse12WellingtonSq — PLACE OF ORIGIN

বঙ্গীয় জাতীয় মহাবিদ্বালয়, কলকাতা, ১৯০৬

The urge for setting up an institution that would impart education along nationalist lines was strongly felt by the early 20th century intelligentsia when Bengal was torn apart by the Curzon administration to reinforce British dominance politically and culturally. Backed by the Universities Act of 1904 the Calcutta University Senate and Syndicate were reshuffled co-opting more white members to ensure sufficient government control in policy making. The government also decided to disaffiliate certain new private colleges, which were looked upon by them as hotbeds of nationalist agitation. These offensive measures of the then Government frustrated the sentiment of educated middle class and incited a move for alternative systems of education.

A protest meeting was organized on November 5, 1905 under the auspices of the Dawn Society of Satish Chandra Mukherjee. The meeting was addressed by Rabindranath, Satish Chandra Mukherjee and Hirendranath Datta urging the students to severe all connections with the Government controlled university.
On November 9, a mass meeting was held at the Field and Academy Club. In that meeting it was decided that if it is the aim of the British government to destroy the freedom movement and if they exert such tyranny and oppression on young students, the people of the country would establish a national university. Subodh Chandra Mullick pledged a donation of one lakh Rupees.

Many others came forward to donate generously for the cause, including some native kings and princes and other like-minded dignitaries like Brojendra Kishore Roy Choudhury, Maharaja Suryya Kanto Acharya Choudhury. Leaders like Chitta Ranjan Das, Bipin Pal, Ramendrasundar Trivedi began to address Subodh Chandra as the ‘Raja’. Rabindranath congratulated the endeavour saying that after a long time, the Bengalis received a gift. Subodh Chandra’s contribution to the nationalist education movement seems however far greater than the sum he donated. He committed to establishing nationalist university even before its idea mooted, played a critical role in designing the institution incognito, and remained a part of its history ever since.

To challenge the British rule over education a huge meeting was sponsored by the Landholders’ Society at Park Street on November 16, 1905, attended by around 1500 delegates together with Rabindranath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghosh, Raja Subodh Chandra Mullick and Brajendra Kishore Roychowdhury.

Bengal National College-191_bowbazar_streetxtr2x — 191/1 Bowbazar Street where BNC held its classes

Minutes. Exec Committee Meeting July 21, 1906

On 11th March, 1906, the National Council of Education, Bengal, or Jatiyo Siksha Parishad was founded to provide a platform for ‘a system of education – literary, scientific & technical – on national lines & under national control’ following a declaration made in a meeting held in Bengal Landholders’ Association. With Dr. Rashbehari Ghosh as the president, plans were afoot to establish a national college & school in Calcutta. In a public meeting, held on the 14th August, 1906 at the Town Hall, the Bengal National College & School was inaugurated.
The institution started to work from 15th August, 1906 in a rented house on 191/1, Bowbazar Street with Sri Aurobindo Ghosh as Principal and Sri Satish Chandra Mukherjee as an Hony. Superintendent. The institution had four departments – Literary, Scientific, Technical & Commercial. Scholars like Sakhram Ganesh Deuskar, Radhakumud Mukhopadhyay, Binay Sarkar, Khirode Prasad Vidyabinode voluntarily agreed to serve this new university. Rabindranath agreed to lecture on literature, Ananda Coomaraswamy on Oriental Art, Sir Gurudas Bandyopadhyay on Mathematics, Hirendranath Dutta on Upanishads.

The same time, another nationalist body, the Society for Promotion of Technical Education in Bengal, was set up with contending ideas by Taroknath Palit under patronage of Maharaja Manindra Chandra Nandy, Bhupendra Nath Bose, Nilratan Sircar and others who laid stress on the technical education alone. Under its management the Bengal Technical Institute was establish on July 25, 1906 with the objectives of spreading technical education among the masses.
In 1910 the two societies merged. The two colleges were virtually the faculties of “Humanities and Science” and of “Technology” of the National Council of Education. Several national schools also were founded in this period at different places in Bengal. Even after the merger, it was painfully observed that ‘not a student cared to come for a literary and scientific instructions along national lines’ See S. N. Sen

Sri Aurobindo clinically analyzed the conditions that failed the nationalist education movement originated in 1905. Some of the major causes of its collapse he pointed out were given here in a nutshell. To the majority of Council members, he thought, Nationalist Education was merely an interesting academic experiment, and regarded it merely as the ladder by which they climb and busy trying to kick it down. To others the only valuable part of it was the technical instruction given in its workshops. They really were shutting off the steam, yet expect the locomotive to go on. He also stressed on the unrealistic approach of its planning and designing. Curriculum of the Council is extraordinarily elaborate and expensive, as it was on the vicious Western system of driving many subjects at a time, serving as ‘a brain-killing and life-shortening machine’. See Sri Aurobindo –

The institution had many ups and downs in its struggling history before being reincarnated in the form of the present-day Jadavpur University.

The photograph featured at the top shows the house of Raja Subodh Chandra Mullick, at 12 Wellington Square. This was where the idea of national university in nationalist line was seeded and grown into Bengal National College with the initiative and care of Subodh Chandra and Aurobindo who stayed with him as his honourable guest. When he served as the Principal, Aurobindo would go from the Bengal National College to the evening gathering at this house to exchange views and plans in nationalist line.

October 4, 2015 2

Bethune Society, Calcutta, 1851

বেথুন সোসাইটি, কলকাতা, ১৮৫১

Bethune_John_Elliot_Drinkwater — Eliot Drinkwater Bethune

The Bethune Society, a literary association named after Eliot Drinkwater Bethune, was established in Calcutta jointly by some liberal Europeans and enlightened natives in December 1851. The Society was set up for the consideration and discussion of questions connected with literature and science ‘with the object of promoting the spirit of inquiry and knowledge among the Bengalis on the one hand, and establishing racial harmony between the Europeans and the natives on the other’ [See Sirajul Islam]. It was Dr FJ Mouat, the Secretary to the Medical College and of the Council of Education who actually initiated and brought about this noble institution of non-political and non-theocratic character to carry on the name of the Hon’ble Mr. Bethune, Legislative Member of the Supreme Council and President of the Government of Education, then lately deceased, and to commemorate his great services and boundless liberality in promoting the cause of the Native Female Education.

Mouat_frederic johnx — Frederic John Mouat

In contemporary society, he was well known for his liberal views and acts. Bethune drafted a bill making the Europeans and Indians equal in the eye of law. In the first meeting held on 11 December 1851 in the Medical College Theatre, Mouat explained how a society ‘not so serious as the Asiatic Society and nor so light-hearted as many others around’ was necessary for serving the rising middle class of the country. He also proposed to bear personally the entire operational cost of the Society for one year.
The first Council of the Society was formed with the FJ Mouat (President), Ramgopal Ghosh and Rev. James Long (Vice-President), Peary Chand Mitra (General Secretary), and the Major GT Marshall, Rev Krishnamohan Banerjee and Debendranath Tagore as founder members. There had been quite a large number of learned dignitaries enrolled themselves as honorable members of the Society, namely, Dr Spunger, Dr Goodeve Chackerbutty, L Chat Esq, Baboo Ramgopal Ghose, Radhanath Sikdar, Ram Chandra Bose, Kylas Chandra Bose, Huro Mohan Chatterjea, Jagadisnath Roy, Nabin Chandra Mittra, Peary Mohun Sircar, Russick Lal Sein, Prassunna Kumar Mitra, Gopal Chandra Dutt, Hurry Chandra Dutt, Dukhina Ranjan Mookerjee. Begun with only 21 members, the Society’s membership rose to 250 in 1860.

pearychandmittraStatueGld — Peary Chand Mittra

The Bethune Society lasted for forty years. The Society, for the impressive contributions it made all these years toward the intellectual improvement of the society at large deserves a special place in the social as well as educational history of the country. The Hall of the Medical College in which the Society used to hold its meetings resounded time and again with the eloquence of learned men like Dr Mouat, Dr Duff, Collonel Goodwyn, Dr Rever, Gr Chevers, Rev. Dall, Goodeve Chackerbutty, Rev K M Banerjee, Rev Lal Behari Day, Koylas Chunder Bose,Grish Chunder Ghose, Kissory Chand Mittra, Peary Churn Sircar, Prossunno Coomar Surbadhicary, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Ramchandra Mitra, Haramohan Chattopadhyaya, Radhanath Sikdar, Raja Pratapchandra Singha, Nabin Kristo Bose, Rajendralala Mitra, Dr Mahendra Lal Sircar”.

On the invitation of the Bethune Society, young Rabindranath, made his first public reading on the subject of Music at the Medical College Hall, the evening before he started on the voyage to England in 1878. The event was presided by Reverend K. M. Banerji. [See Tagore. Reminiscence] The lectures delivered were subsequently published as articles in Society’s Transactions, or separately in book form [ see B.S. Selections]. Due to their inherent values the Society publications are referred to even today in studies on indigenous arts and sciences. ‘In those days H E the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal and the highest officials did not hesitate to attend the meeting of the Society without special invitation to listen to the lectures of the eminent speakers’ [see Manmathanath].
Though short lived, the Bethune Society was successful in achieving its objects: it could help develop scientific outlook among many Bengalis and promote understanding and toleration between the Indians and the Europeans. [Sirajul Islam]

The painting featured at the top depicts the front view of the Medical College Hospital, Calcutta where the meetings of the Bethune Society were held. This is a Company school of painting inscribed ‘W.H.CA Vendis’ at lower right, dated c1835. Courtesy: Christie’s

August 28, 2015 0

Calcutta School-Book Society, Calcutta, 1817

কলকাতা স্কুল-বুক সোসাইটি, ১৮১৭

The thriving desire among the Bengali communities for learning English and western sciences marked the beginning of the 19th century Bengal with the establishment of Fort William College in 1800 by Marquis Wellesley. For Bengali Hindus, in particular, the urge for English education was so desperate that they went to establish institutions at their own cost. It was largely because of the fact that English was the language of the Rulers, and their language brought many occupational and professional advantages. This trend of thoughts led to the founding of the Hindu College and the Oriental Seminary in early part of 19th century. Further move toward educational progress was taken place with the establishment of a School Book Society in Calcutta in 1817. [See Salauddin Ahmed]

The want of elementary books in Bengali and Hindustani languages had for some time been experienced at Fort William College. An establishment of an independent Institution to take charge of such business was being considered in the light of existing trend of thoughts. Presumably, some enthusiast within the circle of Fort William College, like a David Hare, might have actually initiated the idea and helped in forming an association for careful inquiry and deliberation on the subject.
The association set up for this purpose led to a more extended meeting in the month of May 1817, at the College of Fort William, when some preliminary rules were framed for the Institution, proposed to be established under the name of the Calcutta Book Society. A provisional Committee was appointed, with Sir Cecil Beadon, Esq as its President, and eight Members, namely D. Elliott, W Gordon Young, W. N Leer, J Wanger, H Woodrow, Kalikrishna Bahadur, Kashiprasad Ghosh, and Ramgopal Ghosh. The Bank of Bengal was the Treasurer. The Committee was formed: to take measure for making its purpose known to public; to procure it pecuniary support of all classes of the community; and to gather ‘the aid of labours and advice of learned men’. On receiving the report of the Provisional Committee, the School Book Society was finally organized and ‘instituted’ on the 4th July of 1817 with a set of operative statements of objectives, such as,
That the Institution was to be denominated ‘The Calcutta School-Book Society’;
That the Society was to manage preparation, publication, and cheap or gratuitous supply of works useful to Schools and Seminaries of learning;
That the Society was not to furnish religious books but free to supply of moral tracts non-interfering with religious sentiments of anyone;
That the Society was to furnish books of school instructions in English and Asiatic languages; and more.
The remaining objectives defined the constitution of the Society, delineated the rights and privileges of its members, ‘who may be of whatever nation, subscribing any sum annually to the funds of the Society’, and allowed formation of School-Book Associations auxiliary to the Society for the benefit of obtaining school books worth full amount of their annual subscriptions at cost price. [See Provisional Committee Report]

‘The Calcutta School-Book Society, in fact, was the first institution of its kind, which was sponsored by a number of public spirited individuals belonging to different religious denominations and situations.’ Thus the first managing committee of the Society for the year 1817-18 included orthodox Hindus like Pundit Mrityunjay Vidyalankar, Radhakanta Deb, Ramkamal Sen and Tarinicharan Mitra. The Muslim members of the Committee were Maulvi Aminullah, Maulvi Karam Hussain, Maulvi Abdul Wahid and Maulvi Abdul Hamid. The missionaries and churchmen were represented by William Carey and the Rev. J. Parson and the Rev. T. Tomason; while among the officials were W.B. Bayley, who was elected President of the Society, Sir Edward Hyde East and J H Harrington. The two Indian secretaries of the Society were Tarinicharan Mitra and Maulvi Abdul Wahid. The Society was patronized and subscribed to by the Governor-General Lord Hastings and his wife and many English officials and businessmen and also by a considerable number of Hindu and Muslim zamindars and merchants. Even the orthodox Hindu and Muslim communities were so much enthused over the prospect of English education that they unhesitatingly joined hands with the Christian missionaries and Britishers in developing the Society. [See Charles Lushington]

Shortly, it became clear that the objectives of the Society could not be advanced proficiently unless a sufficient number of schools was there to utilize Society’s publications. Hence the Calcutta School Society came into existence in September 1818 to set up elementary schools and support those already existed. [See puronokolkata]
The Second Annual General Meeting of the Calcutta School Book Society was held on September 21, 1819 at the Town Hall, Calcutta with the Honourable Chief Justice W.B. Bayley as the Chairman. It was reported that last year an amount of Rs. 5290 as donation and Rs 2935 as subscription were collected by the Society. During its initial four years, the Society produced and distributed as many as 126446 copies useful works in different languages without financial support of the Government. However, an annual Government Grant of Rs.7000 was made available from 1821 onward. On the motion of Rev. Dr. Carey it was ‘Resolved unanimously, that the special thanks of this meeting be presented to the Native gentlemen, whether in or out of the Committee, for their seasonable and zealous exertions in the various departments of the Society’s undertakings, without whose valuable cooperation the numerous works described in report could never have been accomplished.’
In July 1830, the Society obtained permission to reprint books published by the London Society for Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The same year, Calcutta Christian Observer openly admired the Society as a ‘truly valuable Institution’ while reviewing its 10th Annual Report, and reported that the copies issued from the depository within the given period, 1832-33, amounted to 26,380. Of these no fewer than 14,792 were books in the English language. They also noted with some pleasure the decrease in the demand for books in the Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian languages, being the spoken language of no one. [See Calcutta Christian Observer. V.3]
The Society gained its importance on two grounds: Preparation of School Books, and Procurement of School Books. “The elementary Class-Books in English which are used in the Government Schools were for the most part compiled under the direction of the Calcutta School Book Society. They consist of a series of English Headers, and of Treatises on Arithmetic, Geography and History. It does not appear that any difficulty whatever was experienced by the Society in procuring books. The Branch Depositories of the Calcutta School Book Society in every part of the country supplied all the ordinary Class-Books; and such other books as were required could easily be procured in Calcutta or direct from England”.
In regard to Vernacular Class Books, James Kerr reported, “The preparation of classbooks in the Vernacular languages, was one of the first objects that engaged the attention of the friends of Native Education. Long before the re-organization of the Educational Committee in 1835, the Calcutta School Book Society had commenced its useful labours, and had published and brought into circulation many thousands of class books. The Society still exists, and has only relaxed in its efforts, because a large number of books, all those are most useful for the purpose of a good elementary education, have now been prepared.” [See James Kerr]

Much later, the Calcutta School-Book Society and the Vernacular Literature Society was amalgamated on the 22nd April. The stock of books of the Vernacular Literature Society was taken over next October. The current address of the Society was no.9 Government Place East. The Society’s Depository was removed from Lower Circular Road to 12 Lal Bazar next month.
As it was amply verified, by the old records and reviews available today, that the Calcutta School-Book-Society admirably served the purpose for which it was started.

The above colored acquaint painted by James Baillie Fraser in 1826 depicts the Town Hall of Calcutta, erected in 1813, where most of the meetings of the Calcutta School-Book Society took place.

August 18, 2015 1

Oriental Seminary, Calcutta, 1829

গৌরমোহন আঢ্যের ওরিয়েন্টাল সেমিনারি, কলকাতা, ১৮২৯

In 1813 the renewal of Company Charter brought about a change that affected both language and culture of Indian people. Knowledge of English became the key to professional services, and business careers. The Hindu College (1816) introduced instructions attuned to the viewpoints of the Orientalists and the Anglicisers both. The Calcutta School Book Society (1817) and the Calcutta School Society (1818) came into existence chiefly to promote education beyond the government initiatives. The Government supported Sanskrit College (1824) taught English and western science, besides classical literature. The Oriental Seminary, the first private English school in India was founded in 1829 by an extraordinary man, Gourmohun Addy. This school was different on many counts. See Jones.

OrientalSeminary-Lantern — Lantern. Seminary Archives

This was the oldest, the largest, and the most respectable independent native school in Bengal. “Though Oriental Seminary was in no degree dependent on Government support, or that of any public society, or distinguished individual, it has never been unnoticed or uncommended by those whose approbation was an honor”. [See Manmathanath Ghosh: Forgotten citizens of Calcutta, 2013] The British dignitaries like Sir Edward Ryan, Sir Henry Seton, Sir Lawrence Peel, Lord Auckland, Lord Jocelyn, Mr. Bethune, graced school events with their royal presence, and admiration. Their patronage provided moral support to the institution from the beginning.
Oriental Seminary, primarily a Hindu-supported school, was open to all castes. It was first housed at Benshohata, changed locations thereafter thrice before moving into its own building on Chitpore Road. The building, now a heritage structure, was constructed by Martin Burn, and inaugurated by the then Governor, Lord Carmichael in 1914. Later three branches of the institution were set up in Chitpur, Bhowanipur and Belghoria.

orientalSeminaryGlobe2x — Globe. Seminary Archives

The founder of the Seminary, Gourmohun was a self-taught man of strong natural abilities. He soon acquired a sufficient knowledge of English literature and Science to enable him to direct the studies of the school, and see that his several teachers did their duties in effectual manner. He took full share of teaching also. Though a strict disciplinarian, and having to do with the boys whose attendance is dependent on their own will, he commanded the respect of all, and was beloved by many. See Cal Rev, 1850
Good spoken and written English skills being his prerogative, Gourmohan did not hesitate to invite reputed British teachers like the eminent Shakespearean scholar Captain D.L. Richardson and others. Richardson also taught English in the school later. He appointed Eurasians for the junior classes and Bengali teachers in the intermediate classes, and for the upper classes he appointed highly qualified Englishmen or Bengalis. When the student rolls exceeded 200, Gourmohun took a Mr. Turnbull into partnership. After the death of his colleague Gourmohun conducted the school himself. He was rather fortunate in enlisting Hermann Geoffroy, a frustrated barrister, as Headmaster. Geoffroy was a Frenchman of great learning and master of several languages. During his tenure the school rose to great importance.
On the death of Gourmohun on Feb 23rd 1845, his brother, Hurrakisto Addy, took over the charge of the Seminary and worked most devotedly for betterment. He regulated all the details of the school, and took part in teaching as well. There were 913 pupils on the rolls. Most of those in the upper school required to pay monthly fees of 3 to 4 rupees, and 8 annas in Pathsala. The overall school expenses were on so large a scale that the income was not more than equal to the outlay. With its shoestring budget the Seminary managed to achieve enduring reputation for its high teaching standard and was considered most justly as “the one next in excellence to the Hindu College”. See Oriental Seminary. Annual Report, 1854
In the history of English education in Bengal, the position of Oriental Seminary remains stand out ever for its brand of tutoring design responsive to the emergent needs of the contemporary Hindu society. Oriental Seminary came in at a critical juncture when “many Hindoo parents, while apprehending the usefulness of English education, showed reluctance in sending their boys to English schools.” They felt insecured having seen the way the Derozians of the Hindoo School recklessly disregard Hindu values and customs, and how Dr. Alexander Duff and other Christian missionaries were insidiously shaking the faith of Hindoo boys in the name of imparting high English education. [See Manmathanath]. At this time of uncertainty and turmoil the Oriental Seminary of Gourmohun appeared with an alternative environment and reassured the Hindu parents of the best English education in his school. The school “had for its object the instillation into the young mind of wholesome principle of morality and the formation of a strong groundwork for useful knowledge, amiable manners and social virtues. In fine it aimed at making sensible men and worthy citizens.” [See Hindoo Patriot 16 Mar1854] A few examples of the illustrious personalities it produced are: Akshay Kumar Datta, Sambhunath Pandit, Kailash Chandra Bose, Grish Chandra Ghose, Krishnadas Pal, Girish Chandra Ghosh, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Gooroodas Banerjee, and many others.
Oriental Seminary still exists. Long back its creator Gourmohun passed away untimely in 1845 leaving no portrait behind for us to commemorate the great man as “a pioneer of English education in Bengal … [who] deserves to be ranked with those of Hare and Duff”. See Madge & Dhur

August 1, 2015 1

The Hon’ble Company’s Botanic Garden, Calcutta, 1787

বোটানিকাল গার্ডেনস, শিবপুর, কলকাতা, ১৭৮৭

The idea for a botanical garden was first tabled in the summer of 1786 by Robert Kyd, a Secretary to the Board in the Military Department of Fort William, as a potential safeguard against famine. But it soon became something much bigger and more ambitious.

Ten years earlier he had visited the western borders of Assam, and from there he had brought young plants of a species of cinnamon growing wild there. Within the next few years other specimens had been obtained from Bhutan, and still other plants of the true cinnamon from Ceylon. All these plants were “deposited in the Governor-General’s garden,” the garden of Warren Hastings’ old house in Alipore. There the plants throve very well to prove their successful transplantation to Bengal. As Ceylon and the profitable cinnamon trade was at that time in the hands of the Dutch, the Board of Directors readily agreed to a proposal which seemed to promise a prospect of successful competition, the proposed garden was sanctioned, and Colonel Kyd was appointed honorary superintendent, a post which he held till his death. See

Botanic Garden House -1775 — Shalimar, the house where Col. Kyd lived. A lithograph by Charled D’Oyly

In a letter dated 20 November 1787, Kyd sets out his vision for the garden to be part of the wider pursuit of scientific knowledge. Gradually the East India Company (EIC) did begin to actively support Kyd’s initiatives. The botanical garden in Bengal was one of the first instances of this support and it made the Gulf a part of an expanding European scientific enquiry that Kyd hoped might ‘add to the Fund of General Knowledge’. In response to an official request, the EIC Resident, Edward Galley, received in October 1787 from Persian Gulf a gift of six exotic plants. Besides the ‘Bussora Date Tree’ and the ‘famous Persian Tobacco’, there was also a tree that produces Varnish Gum.

Basra Date Palm, the Botanical Garden in Bengal--photo-430_8_0018_webcrop_2 — Persian Flora

BassoraPalmDateForBotanicalGardenCal — Basra Date Palm

The garden was established in 1787 with its official name ‘The Hon’ble Company’s Botanic Garden, Calcutta’. Subsequently, it was renamed ‘The Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta’ in the early 1860s. This amazing garden is laid out on a sprawling 272 acres of lush greenery on the west bank of river Hooghly. Over 12,000 trees and shrubs belonging to 1400 species together with thousands of herbaceous plants are in cultivation in the open in 25 Divisions, Glass houses, Green Houses and conservatories. The best-known landmark of the garden is The Great Banyan, an enormous banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) that is reckoned to be the largest tree in the world, at more than 330 metres in circumference. They are also famous for their enormous collections of orchids, bamboos, palms, and plants of the screw pine genus (Pandanus). See

The featured image above is of the Great Banyan Tree at botanical gardens, Calcutta – a black and white photograph (albumen print) by Bourne & Shepherd. Undated. Source: Smithsonian Institution

April 30, 2015 0

Hindu College, Gol Dighi, Calcutta, 1817

হিন্দু কলেজ, গোল দিঘী, কলকাতা, ১৮১৭
“Previous to 1835, all the larger educational establishments supported by Government, with the exception of Hindu College of Calcutta, were decidedly oriental in character” [Review/ James Kerr] . The Hindu College, Calcutta was the earliest institution of higher learning in the modern sense in Asia.
The idea of setting up institution like the Hindu College dawned in the minds of Bengal intelligentsia a year after the Court of Directors of the Company had expressed concern about two distinct propositions – first, the encouragement of the learned natives of India for the revival and improvement of literature; and secondly, the promotion of a knowledge of the sciences amongst the inhabitants of that country. The Board advised the Indian Government not to take initiative in the matter of the education of the people of this country. It was the people themselves who had to take the initiative and to do the needful. See
Sometime in April 1815, Raja Rammohun Roy discussed among few friends about the pressing need for uplifting the society from the swamp of idolatry and superstitions to a higher moral plane and the critical role the proposed Atmiya Sabha might play there. David Hare differed from Raja’s views and suggested founding a College for the education of native youths in Western literature and science, which would be a far more effective means of enlightening them with rational understanding of truth. The proposal was earnestly accepted by Rammohun. Mr. Hare himself soon after drafted a proposal for establishing the College. The proposal was handed over to Sir Edward Hyde East by Baboo Baidyanath Mukherjee, a close associate of Rammohun. On 14th May 1816, Sir Hyde East called a meeting of distinguished native gentlemen and pundits at his house and it was resolved “that an establishment be formed for the education of native youth”. See
The meeting proved to be quite satisfying to Sir Hyde East. Four days after he wrote to J A Harrington, his friend, that one of the singularities of this meeting was that it had brought together members belonging to various castes whom nothing else could have done. This letter did no mention of the name of David Hare, though he was the ‘originator of the plan’, neither the meeting papers did. That might be because of Hare’s usual reluctance to come in the forefront. The case of Raja Rammohun Roy however was different. Although his august name has almost always been found in history books in association with the Hindu College, the fact remains that “Rammohun retired, even before the foundation of the College was formally resolved upon.” He decided to step aside to ensure cooperation and supports of the orthodox Hindus who were not in a mood to help the cause if Raja Rammohun remains connected. The meeting was received with unanimous approbation of all those present including the most eminent pundits, who sanctioned their express support. A large sum of money was immediately subscribed. The fund was later multiplied by the donations presented by Maharaja Tej Chand of Burdwan (Rs 12,000), Gopee Mohun Tagore of Pathuriaghata (Rs 10,000), and the Mullicks of Burrabazar (Rs 25,000). The second meeting, held on Tuesday the 21st May 1816, resolved that the name of the proposed institution was to be “Hindoo College”, and a General Committee was to be appointed for setting its objectives. The Committee was composed of 10 Europeans and 20 Indians – all elite and enlightened members. In its next meeting on the 27th May, Lt.-Col. Francis Irvine and Dewan Baidyanath Mukherjee were appointed as the European and ‘Native’ Secretaries, respectively. The European members, however, withdrew themselves in a body when the Committee met next on 11th June. Their withdrawal was volunteered in accordance with the contemporary governmental policy of non-interference with the local educational affairs, as indicated earlier. Committee continued to work at the same venue. On the 25th June, a sub-committee was appointed, which worked out the Rules for the College, and submitted those on 20th August 1816 to the General Committee for finalization. The Rules, 34 in number, were divided in 3 sections, viz. Tuition, Funds & Privileges, and Government. The primary objective of the institution was defined under the Rule 1 as “the tuition of the sons of the respectable Hindoos, in the English and Indian languages and in the literature and science of Europe and Asia. The set of Rules provided the essential functional framework for the College to begin with. It stated that “the College would include a School designated ‘Pathsala’, and an Academy, designated ‘Mahapathsala’”; that “the work of the school should commence first”; that “the English language shall not be taught to boys under eight years of age, without the permission of the managers in each particular instance.”; that “In the school shall be taught English and Bengali, Reading, Writing, Grammar and Arithmetic by the improved method of instruction”; that “in the Academy besides the study of such language as cannot be so conveniently taught in the School, instruction shall be given in History, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, and Mathematics, Chemistry, and other sciences”; and many other.
The Committee met on December 12th 1816 to settle appointments of teachers. In its next two meetings on the 6th and the 13th of January 1817 the Committee completed the groundwork for the College to take off. The first batch consisting of 20 male students,13 of them as ‘free scholars’, hailing from Bengali Hindu families, attended their class in a rented house of Gorachand Basak at 304 Chitpur Road, Garanhata, marking the beginning of Hindu College. Between the year 1817 and 1823, the school moved about from place to place. From Basak’s the class shifted to the house of Roopchand Roy in Chitpur Road, and thereafter to the house of Firinghi Kamal Bose, a friend of Rammohun, at 51 Upper Chitpur Road, the place where the General Assembly’s Institution publicly started later. Its next flight was into the heart of the Bow Bazar, and from there the College moved off to a scarcely more congenial vicinity — the well known Tiretta Bazar. In the mean time the Government had resolved to establish a Sanskrit College supported by an annual grant of Rs 30 thousand. The building was planned by B. Buxton and constructed by Burn & Mackintosh. See the – hindu-college--019PHO0000247S3U00003000[SVC2] Hand-coloured photo-print, by Frederick Fiebig in c.1852 Agreeing with the proposal initiated by David Hare, the Government decided later to accommodate the pathsala and the Mahapathsala sections of the Hindu College under the same roof of the proposed two-storied Sanskrit College building in its two one-storied wings. For the erection of the building the Government granted Rs. 1,24,000 and “Mr. David Hare gave up for the benefit of the College the piece of land he owned on the north side of the Gol Dighi. The foundation stone of the building was laid on the 25th February 1824. Three years elapsed before it was ready for the reception of the students. [C. R., June, 1852, pp. 346-48].

On 15th June 1854, the upper section of the school, the Hindu Mahapathshala or the Hindu College, was made an open center for modern liberal education and was separated as Presidency College. The junior section, Pathsala, gained independent status as ‘Hindu School’ – a national heritage of institutional education, history and reform.
The Hindu College, produced the brilliant flowers of ‘Young Bengal’. Kindled by the teachings of their tutor Vivan Derozio, youngmen like Dakhinaranjan Mookherjee, Ram Gopal Ghose, Tarachand Chakravarty, Krishnamohan Banerjee, Ramtanu Lahiri and many others, brought out a revolutionary change in the society by their thoughts and deeds. By them, “a powerful and gigantic social movement was unleashed in Bengal the repercussions of which were felt all over India”.
See

Above, the black and white sketch of the three-part building, captioned HINDU COLLEGE, with the pond GOL DIGHI in front, was drawn by an anonymous contemporary artist.

February 22, 2015 0

Hindu School, Gol Dighi, Calcutta, 1817

হিন্দু স্কুল, গোলদিঘী, কলকাতা, ১৮১৭
Hindu School, the junior section of the Hindu College, is reputed to be the oldest and leading institution in India to impart modern education to the young students in European and Oriental subjects. The School, designated Pathsala, was established in 1817 along with the Hindu College, designated Mahapathsala, by stalwart educationalists like David Hare, Diwan Baidya Nath Mukherjee, Maharaja Radhakanta Deb, and others in a ahead-of-era intent.
It all started in the year 1815 when Raja Rammohun Roy entertained a few friends at his house and suggested the establishment of Atmiya Sabha for improving the moral conditions of our countrymen. The Raja was animated with a fervent desire to lift the society from the swamp of idolatry and superstitions to a higher moral plane. David Hare differed from his views and suggested establishment of a College. It was Hare’s considered opinion that education of native youths in Western literature and science would be a far more effective means of enlightening them with rational understanding of truth. The proposal was enthusiastically accepted by Rammohun. That was how the idea of Hindu School and College sprouted.

The General Meeting was held on the 21st May 1816, in a house on the Old Post Office Street that was lately occupied by Chief Justice Colvile, and tenanted afterwards by Messrs. Allen Judge and Banerjee, and a conclave of other lawyers. Among those who did not attend the meeting was Raja Rammohun Roy. Though he had heartily entered into the plans of David Hare, and zealously aided in their development, Rammohun willingly allowed himself to be laid aside lest his active co-operation should mar the accomplishment of the project, saying— “If my connection with the proposed college, should injure its interests, I would resign all connection.” The meeting resolved that an institution for promoting education be established. The institution shall include a Patshala, or a School, and an Academy, Maha Patshala, The former to be established immediately, the latter as soon as may be practicable. The primary object of this Institution is the tuition of the sons of respectable Hindus in English and Indian language, and in the literature and science of Europe and Asia. The English language shall not be taught to boys less than eight years of age, without Manager’s permission. The school shall teach English and Bengali, Reading, Writing, Grammar and Arithmetic by the improved method of instruction. On January 20th , 1817 , The first batch consisting of 20 male students hailing from affluent Bengali Hindu families of Calcutta, met at the rented house of Gorachand Basak at 304 Chitpur Road in Garanhata marking the beginning of Hindu School.

In 1825, with the help of the British Government, a school building was built for 1 lakh 24 thousand rupees, towards the north of Goldighi, now College Square, on a land donated by David Hare. Dewan Baidya Nath Mukherjee was deputed to collect the subscriptions for the new school. Sir Edward Hyde East, Chief Justice of the Calcutta Supreme Court was invited to chair the committee and Joseph Baretto became the Treasurer. The principal donors being the Maharajah of Burdwan Tejchand Bahadur and Gopee Mohun Thakur, each contributing Rupees 10,000. On the opening day there were 20 pupils on the rolls but within the next three months the number swelled to 69.

On 15th June 1854, the upper section of the school, the Hindu Mahapathshala or the Hindu College, was made an open center for modern education including eastern and western philosophy and science and was separated as Presidency College. The junior section, Pathsala, gained independent existence as Hindu School – a national heritage of institutional education, and educational reform. Here, in this Hindu College, by De’rozio and other teachers, a group of young men of Bengal was baptised with the teachings of modern science and social philosophy. It produced Dakhinaranjan Mookherjee, Ram Gopal Ghose, Tarachand Chakravarty, Krishnamohan Banerjee and others, the brilliant flowers of Young Bengal, the makers of Modern Bengal. The tree of education had already taken root and the blossoms everyone could see around. By these students of Hindu College, a powerful and gigantic social movement was unleashed in Bengal the repercussions of which were felt all over India.
See Pearychand Mitra. 1877

The Sketch of the Hindu College building is reproduced from the Calcutta Christian Observer, v. 2, 1833

February 8, 2015 0

Calcutta Vernacular Literature Society, Calcutta, 1851

বঙ্গভাষাপ্রকাশিকা সভা, কলকাতা, ১৮৫১

Modernization of Indian literature … gained space where the English education was spread along with vernacular education, and where the English educated class took interest in the mother-tongue See Sisir Das
Along with the English-vernacular schools, there had been many dedicated societies in Bengal and other provinces for the promotion of literature in mother-tongues. Bangabhasa Prakashika Sabha in Calcutta was the pioneer among those, launched in 1836 under the leadership of Gourishankar Tarkabagish. later in 1853, Bidyotsahini Sabha was set up by Kaliprasanna Singha. The main objectives of these institutions were to promote Bengali education by means of polemics and build up public opinion. There were also many institutions of a different kind, established in response to the demand of the English-vernacular schools for language study books.
In Bengal, a Committee was formed in 1851 to initiate establishment of Banga Bhashanubad Sabha for the purpose of enriching the Bengali language by translating English works in Bengali. It was largely an initiative of Jaya Krishna Mukhopadhyay of Uttarpara. The Sabha was later became well known as the Vernacular Literature Society, which produced magazines and translations in Indian vernacular languages of well-known juvenile books such as Robinson Crusoe. The Society continued to function for little over a decade under the guidance of important personalities like J.R. Colvin, M. Wylie, W. Seton-Karr, J. Long, R.B. Chapman, W. Kay and H. Woodrow. In March 1862, following a proposal of its Secretary, the Vernacular Literature Society was amalgamated with the School Book Society. It was expected that, by the union of the two Societies, the objects of each would be better carried out. In accordance with the proposal, a conference of the two Societies was held on the 22nd April 1862, and eventually the two were united. Stock of books of the Vernacular Literary Society was taken over by the School Book Society in next October.
The Above featured painting of a Calcutta vernacular school belongs to the album entitled ‘A collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings’ of Franz Balzac Solvyns, published in 1799

January 12, 2015 0

Calcutta School Society, Calcutta, 1818

কলকাতা স্কুল সোসাইটি, কলকাতা, ১৮১৮
With the change of socio-political scenario and as an impact of the growing influences of the orientalist movement, the policy guidelines of the Calcutta Free School Society founded in 1789 raised a serious question as to the extent of benefits it may provide to the indigenous people. Shortly after the renewal of the Charter of the East India Company the Court of Directors wrote In their letter to the Governor-General in Council of Bengal, dated 3rd June 1814, that they apprehend neither of the two government propositions, about (1) the revival and improvement of literature; and (2) promotion of knowledge of the sciences amongst the inhabitants be obtained through the medium of public colleges, if established upon a plan similar to those that have been founded at our Universities. That is because the natives of caste and of reputation will not submit to the subordination and discipline of a college. So the Indian Government did not take the initiative in the matter of the education of the people of this country. It was the people themselves who had to take the initiative and to do the needful.
An independent educational institution, The Calcutta School Society, set up in Calcutta on 1 September 1818. Like the Calcutta School-Book Society (1817), it was established jointly by Europeans and educated Indians. The Calcutta School Society was largely an initiative of David Hare and William Carey. Its aim was to introduce identical teaching methods at different schools, reconstruct and develop old schools, and build new ones if necessary. In the beginning, the managing committee of the School Society consisted of 24 members, of which 8 were Indians like Moulvi Mirza Kazim Ali Khan, Moulvi Belayet Hossain, Moulvi Dervesh Ali, Moulvi Nurunnabi, Babu Radhamadhab Bandyopadhyay, Babu Rasomaya Dutta, Babu Radhakanta Deb, and Babu Umacharan Bandyopadhyay. Mirza Kazim Ali and M Montaigue were its secretary and corresponding secretary, respectively. To bring the Bengali Schools under direct and systematic supervision, the city was divided into four districts,—to Baboo Doorga Churn Dutt was given the control of 30 schools having nearly 900 boys, to Baboo Ramchunder Ghose, 43 schools possessing 896 boys, to Baboo Oomanundun Thakoor, 36 schools possessing nearly 600 boys, and to Radhacaunt Deb, 57 schools posseasing 1136 boys. It is said “that these gentlemen entered very warmly into the views of the Society and expressed their entire willingness to take charge of their respective divisions.
The Calcutta School Society was a brainchild of David Hare. Hare, Raja Radhakanta Deb, and William Carrey were the main force behind its success in assisting and improving existing institutions, and preparing select pupils of distinguished talents by superior instruction for becoming teachers and instructors. It established two regular or, as they were termed, “normal” schools, rather to improve by serving as models than to supersede the existing institutions of the country. They were designed to educate children of parents unable to pay for their instruction. Both the Tuntuneah and the Champatollah school, চাঁপাতলা স্কুল, were attended with remarkable success. The former was situated in Cornwallis Street, nearly opposite the temple of Kali, ঠনঠনে কালীবাড়ি, and consisted of a Bengali and English department. The latter was held in the house afterwards occupied by Babu Bhoobun Mohim Mitter’s school, and which was entirely an English school. The two schools were amalgamated at the end of 1834. The amalgamated school was known as David Hare’s School. After a few years of successful running, the society fell into financial difficulties. However, it was given a government donation of Rs. 6000 and managed to continue for some time longer. In 1824, 66 schools with 3487 students were brought under the supervision of the society. The change in government regulations concerning language and teaching, the internal conflict among those following eastern and western ideologies, and the lack of initiative and enthusiasm on the part of Indians were some of the reasons why this private institution lost its importance and eventually ceased to exist in 1833. See
It may however be remembered that the tirelessly endeavor of a man like David Hare, who not only established some schools but gainfully experimented with new methods of teaching, at such places as Thanthania, Kalitala and Arpuly,আরপুলি পাঠশালা, where he visited everyday and met almost every student. It was much later that Alexander Duff or Henry Louis Vivian Derozio came on the scene and influenced the course of events. This Society contributed substantially to the flowering of the Bengal Renaissance.
Champatola-Colootola-map-(Plan of Calcutta. Survey of India.1854) where Calcutta School Society had their base

December 28, 2014 3

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