 Ashutosh Mukherjee | |
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| Nationality | Indian |
| Ethnicity | Bengali |
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Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, CIE (Bengali: আশুতোষ মুখোপাধ্যায়) (1864–1924) was a prolific Bengalieducator and the first Indian Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta from 1906 to 1924. Perhaps the most emphatic figure of Indian education, he was a man of great personality, high self-respect, courage and towering administrative ability. He became the first student to be awarded a dual degree (MA in Mathematics and Physics) from Calcutta University and received the prestigious Premchand-Roychand scholarship.
Mukherjee was responsible for the foundation of the Bengal Technical Institute in 1906 and the Calcutta University, College of Science in 1914. The Calcutta Mathematical Society was also founded by Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee in 1908 and he served as the founder president of the Society during 1908 to 1923.[1][2] He was the first president of the inaugural session of the Indian Science Congress in 1914. Ashutosh Mukherjee was knighted in 1911. For his intransigence attitude with British Govt., high self-respect, courage and academic integrity he was known as the "Tiger of Bengal". He was the father of famous Syama Prasad Mookerjee the founder ofBharatiya Jana Sangh.
Early life
Ashutosh Mukherjee's father was the well known doctor Ganga Prasad Mookerjee, who was also the founder of South Suburban School in Calcutta. He was born on June 29, 1864 at Bowbazar, Kolkata and showed an early aptitude for mathematics. Brought up in an atmosphere of science & literature at home, young Asutosh went to the Sisu Vidyalaya at Chakraberia, Bhowanipore. When he was young, he met Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. These meetings were a source of major inspiration. In 1879 when he was just fifteen, he passed the entrance exam of the Calcutta university. He stood third and received a first grade scholarship. In the year 1880, he took admission in the premiere College of Kolkata, Presidency College. Luminaries like P.C. Ray, Narendranath Dutta (later Swami Vivekananda) were his classmates. In 1885, he completed his M.A. degree with major in Mathematics. In 1886, he did his masters in physical science. In the same year he married to Jogomaya Devi. In 1883 he came first in the BA examination at Calcutta University and was awarded the Premchand-Roychand scholarship to complete a postgraduate degree in mathematics. Two years later he also acquired an MA in physics, making him the first student to be awarded a dual degree from Calcutta University. However, he turned down an offer of a job in the Department of Public Instruction in favour of completing his Bachelor of Law degree. Nevertheless, he continued to publish scholarly papers on issues in mathematics and physics. At the age of 24, Ashutosh Mukherjee became a Fellow of the Calcutta University and soon transformed it from an examining body into a great teaching and research centre in Indian subcontinent. He was Vice-Chancellor from 1906 to 1914 and again from 1921 to 1923 but dominated the University affairs throughout his life. He has an eye for talent and among his "discoveries" were Dr. C.V. Raman and Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.
He defied the request of Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, on the strength of his fathomless devotion for his mother. Lord Curzon made a request to Sir Ashutosh to pay a visit to England so that the Britons could see a glimpses of the scholars produced by British education in India. As his mother would not allow her son to cross the seas, Ashutosh had to decline the request of the Governor-General of India. At this Lord Curzon wrote: "Tell your mother the Viceroy and Governor-General of India commands her son to go." Asutosh didnt show slightest trace of fear. He replied: "Then I will tell the Viceroy and Governor General of India that Ashutosh Mukherji refuses to be commanded by any other person except his mother, be he Viceroy or be he somebody higher still."
| “ | Had this Bengal Tiger been born in France, he would have exceeded even Georges Clemenceau, the French Tiger. Ashutosh had no peer in the whole of Europe. | ” |
Career in law
Mukherjee dabbled in politics while practicing law, but gave it up when he was appointed as a judge of the Bengal High Court in 1904. He approached different people to raise funds for the establishment of the Calcutta University College of Science, which became the foremost institute of scientific education and research in the country. In 1906 he was appointed Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University. He died in 1924 near Patna high court, after being defeated by the Shia Bihari Barrister Syed Hasan Imam, one time president of the Congress party and descendent of the private tutor of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
Contribution to education
Ashutosh Mookerjee had a vision of the kind of education he wanted young people to have, and he had the acumen and courage to extract it from his colonial masters. He set up several new academic graduate programs: comparative literature, anthropology, applied psychology, industrial chemistry, ancient Indian history and culture as well as Islamic culture. He also made arrangements for postgraduate teaching and research in Bengali, Hindi, Pali and Sanskrit. The diverse range of subjects offered by Calcutta University is largely a result of his labor. Scholars from all over India, irrespective of race, caste, and gender, came to study and teach there. He even persuaded European scholars to teach at his university. He was one of the first persons to recognize the worth of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Lord Curzon's education mission in 1902 identified the universities, and Calcutta University especially, as centres of sedition where young people formed networks of resistance to colonial domination.[3] The cause of this was thought to be the unwise granting of autonomy to these universities in the nineteenth century. Thus in the period 1905 to 1935 the colonial administration tried to reinstate government control of education. In 1923, when Lord Lytton tried to impose conditions on his reappointment as Vice Chancellor, Mookerji indignantly refused the post. For his intransigence and academic integrity he was known as the Tiger of Bengal. For his contribution to education, the Govt. of India issued a stamp on him in 1964.
Other positions held
Mukherjee was a member of the 1917-1919 Sadler Commission, presided over by Michael Ernest Sadler, which inquired into the state of Indian education. He was three times president of the Asiatic Society,and in 1910 of the Imperial (now National) Library Council. He donated his entire personal collection of 80,000 books to the Library and it is arranged in a separate section. He was the president of the inaugural session of the Indian Science Congress in 1914. He was learned in Pali, French and Russian, and was awarded the titles of Saraswati and Shastravachaspati by the pandits of Bengal for his service to Indian education. Mukherjee was knighted in 1911.
The epitaph beneath his marble bust at the Ashutosh Museum of Arts at the University of Calcutta reads:
| “ | His noblest achievement, surest of them all/ A place for his mother tongue --- in step mother's hall. | ” |
you should include the story of coat and boot.
ReplyDeletePeople of Bengal know very little about such A GREAT PERSON. SHOULD BE ARRANGED FOR.
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