SISTER NIVEDITA

BANERJEE, SURENDRANATH (1848 -1925): A brilliant student. He went to England in 1868 to appear for the Indian Civil Service examination which he passed within a year. But his success was refused on grounds of inappropriate age. He fought against the decision, won, and eventually began his career in India as an Assistant Collector. Three years later he was dismissed allegedly for falsification of returns, an irregularity for which Europeans were easily condoned, if not overlooked. He tried to become a barrister, but the stigma of dismissal stood in the way. Surendranath began as a professor of English at the Metropolitan Institution, Calcutta, concurrently he taught English at the Free Church Institution. In 1882 he founded the Rippon College, where he taught for long years. But before this, Surendranath embarked upon his political and journalistic life. In 1876, together with Ananda Mohan Bose, he launched the first political organisation in India - Indian Association, seemingly to channelise the growingly radical nationalistic aspirations. In 1883 the Association organised an All India National Conference. Two years later, the Indian National Congress had its birth. Meanwhile in 1879, Surendranath took over the Bengalee, a weekly English paper, and ran it for the next 40 years. Since 1900 the paper became a daily. Since the Calcutta Session of the Congress in 1886, Surendranath began to play a vital role in the activities of the National Congress; he twice became its President - in 1895 and 1902. As more and more rifts began to appear between the moderates and the radicals in the Congress Party since the Swaraj Movement, culminating in the Surat Session where the mantle went to the latter, the hold and involvement of men like Surendranath began to decline in national politics. Finally when Mahatma Gandhi entered Indian politics and the Congress Party moved more and more towards mass politics, Surendranath decided to say adieu and concentrate on writing his autobiography aptly named A Nation in Making - a must read for anyone interested in knowing the gradual progress of Indian freedom movement.

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BOSE, ANANDA MOHAN (1847-1906): The first Indian Wrangler of the Cambridge University. He came back as a barrister and began a successful career at the Calcutta High Court. Ananda Mohan married the sister of Dr J. C. Bose. He was active on all fronts - professional, social, and political. He was elected the President in the session of the Indian National congress in 1878. In the same year when the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj made its appearance, Ananda Mohan became its first President. His contribution in furthering education in Bengal is still remembered. He was a true renaissance man of the nineteenth century, who was an example of erudition, integrity, philanthropy, with active interest in furthering the cause of the nation.

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BOSE, BHUPENDRANATH (1859-1924): A brilliant student and a most successful lawyer of his time. Between 1904 and 1910 he was a member of the Bengal Legislature. During this time he also was associated with the Swadeshi Movement as a moderate member of the Congress Party. At the Bengal Provincial Conference at Mymensingh in 1905, Bhupendranath was selected as the President. His name was proposed by his contemporary Surendranath Banerjee. He was also elected President in the Madras Session of Indian National Congress in 1914. The growing influence of the radicals in national politics drew Bhupendranath closer to the Government. Between 1917 and 1923 he served as under-secretary in the Council of State for India before becoming the member of the Executive Council of the Governor of Bengal. Thrice he went to West with political or administrative assignments, the last being in 1922 when he travelled to Geneva to represent the Indian Government at the Labour Conference. His active interest and role in furthering education was also notable. Immediately after Sir Asutosh Mookerjee's death, Bhupendranath took over as the Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University. He remained in that post almost till his death.

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BOSE, DR JAGADIS CHANDRA (1858-1937): Indian plant physiologist and physicist of world repute. His invention of highly sensitive instruments for the detection of minute responses by living organisms to external stimuli enabled him to anticipate the parallelism between animal and plant tissues. Bose's experiments on the quasi-optical properties of very short radio waves (1895) led him to make improvements on the coherer, an early form of radio detector. This had its impact on the development of solid-state physics.

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BOSE, MRS ABALA: (MRS J. C. BOSE, 1864-1951): Able and accomplished wife of Dr Jagadis Chandra Bose. She was known for her various social activities in the areas of women's education and alleviation of the conditions of widows.

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CHATTERJEE, RAMANANDA (1865-1943): A life dedicated to the cause of nation building through the great magazines he envisaged, edited and continued publishing, which eventually charted the norms of Indian publications in later days. The Prabasi (Bengali) and Modern Review (English) still remain the ideal of today's journalism in many ways. Among his friends and admirers were men like Rabindranath Tagore and Sir Jadunath Sircar.

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CHITTARANJAN DAS (1870-1925) : A barrister-at-Law of the Inner Temple, London. He joined the Calcutta High Court after his return from England a short while before the mid 1890s. He appeared as the defence lawyer of Brahma Bandhav Upadhyay and Bipin Chandra Pal when they were prosecuted for sedition in 1907. But this case had to be closed after the death of the former in the same year. Later, though his way of defence was much praised, Bhupendranath Dutta had to go behind prison on charge of sedition as the editor of Jugantar. Name and honour came to Deshbandhu in the Alipore Bomb Case, also known as the Muraripukur conspiracy or Manicktolla bomb conspiracy in 1908 when his brilliant defence ensured acquittal of Aurobindo Ghose. Chittaranjan was greatly admired for his handling of both civil and criminal cases. His advent in the forefront of national politics began when he was invited to preside over the Bengal Provincial Conference at Bhowanipur in 1917. His inspiring patriotism, sincerity and oratorical power quickly earned him all India fame. Released from political imprisonment in 1922, Chittaranjan was elected President for the Congress Session at Gaya. But discordent political views voiced there, prompted him to resign as the President and form the Swarajya Party within the Congress with eminent members like Motilal Nehru and a few others. He advocated Swaraj for the masses, not for the classes. His priorities were constructive work in the villages, national education in vernacular medium, and that the people should be educated first to take part in the national movement. He still is admired as an apostle of Indian nationalism.

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COOMARASWAMI, ANANDA K. (1877-1947): Born in Ceylon to a Tamil father and English mother. Early death of his father took him to England where he got his education as a geologist. But his tryst with art changed his life and he became a distinguished art historian. His vast writings in areas of visual art, aesthetics, literature and language, folklore, mythology, religion, and metaphysics still amaze people. He understood the religions of both East and West. This allowed him a deeper perception to interpret arts, crafts, mythologies, cultures, folklores and symbolisms in his own unique ways. In 1906 he founded the Ceylon Social Reform Society to encourage revival of traditional arts and crafts, social values and customs - and discourage thoughtless imitation of Western life and lore. Between 1900 and 1913 he closely linked himself with India and took great interest in the changing scenario during the Swadeshi movement.

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DUTT, ROMESH CHUNDER (1848-1909): Went to England in 1868 with Bihari Lal Gupta and Surendranath Banerjee and sat for the Indian Civil Service Examination in 1871. In the same year he was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple, London. In 1883 Romesh Chunder became the first Indian to become a district magistrate. At the age of 49 he resigned from the civil service as the divisional commissioner of Orissa. He became the first president when the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad began its journey. He entered active politics in the late nineteenth century as a Congressman and was invited to preside over the fifteenth session of the Indian National Congress held in Lucknow in 1899. But before this, he was appointed as a professor of Indian History at the University College, London, in 1897. In 1904 he came back to India as the Revenue Minister of the Baroda State, where he remained for three years before going to England again and became a member of the Royal Decentralisation Commission. He returned to India in 1908 to be the Dewan of the Baroda State. Some of the books written by him are : 1. The Ramayana, 2. The Mahabharata, 3. The Economic History of India (in 2 Vols.), 4. History of India, 5. A History of Civilisation in Ancient India, 6. Early Hindu Civilisation B.C. 2000 to 320, 7. Later Hindu Civilisation AD 500 to AD 1200, 8. Cultural Heritage of Bengal. Romesh Chunder had many other books and writings to his credit, besides great contributions in political, educational, and social services which are too vast to include here.

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GHOSE, AUROBINDO (1872-1950): He was sent to England to study for the Indian Civil Service at King's College, Cambridge. After his return to India in 1893, he served at Baroda College as a French teacher, where he later became the Vice-Principal. In Baroda, he also came in contact with Sister Nivedita. The Swaraj Movement following Curzon's partition of Bengal in 1905 took him to Calcutta. With joining the Congress Party, began his political life - more and more radical in approach as days went. Through his inspiration and leadership secret revolutionary groups began to come up in Calcutta. During this time, he formed the Anushilan Samity. Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki of this Samity were arrested on charge of throwing bomb at a carriage in Muzaffarpur on 30 April 1908 that caused death to some unintended persons. The many persons arrested in connection with the case, known as the Alipore Bomb Case, had Aurobindo among them. But the brilliant defence of his lawyer Chittaranjan Das brought him out of prison a year later. Six weeks after his release, Aurobindo launched the Karmayogin, a weekly review of Indian religion, philosophy, literature, science, etc. He edited this magazine till February 1910 when he left Calcutta for Chandernagore, and later settled at Pondicherry till his passing away in 1950.

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GHOSH, GIRISH CHANDRA (1844-1912) : Belonged to the leading lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He was a legend in his own time and beyond - as actor, playwright, poet and pathfinder of the modern Bengali theatre. He reined the Bengali stage for about fifty years. But all his earthly achievements, as he himself knew better, became pale to his love and admiration for Sri Ramakrishna. And he boasted that he could never match the unstinted love and spiritual shelter he earned from Sri Ramakrishna.

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GOKHALE, GOPAL KRISHNA (1866-1915): Great Indian statesman known to be the mentor of Mahatma Gandhi. Once a professor of history and political economy at the Fergusson College, Pune, where he resigned in 1902 and fully engaged himself in the national movements. In 1895 he became the Secretary of the Indian National Congress and rose to be its elected President in 1905. His deep concern for social reform led him to found the Servants of India Society in 1905 to inspire the willing Indians to devote themselves to work for the rural and tribal underprivileged people disregarding ethnicities and religions. Gokhale was against untouchabilities and ill-treatment to low-caste people; he was also actively concerned for the impoverished Indians in the South Africa.

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MAITRA, HERAMBA CHANDRA (1857-1938) : A leading member and Acharya of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, and a great educationist. He succeeded Umesh Chandra Dutta as the principal of the City College in Calcutta and remained 30 years in that position. He also taught English at the Calcutta University. His research works on Emerson brought him the Griffith Memorial Prize from the Calcutta University. He was among the founders of the Sanjivani, a Bengali Weekly, and the editor of the Indian Messenger, the organ of the Brahmo Samaj. The doyen of Indian journalism, Ramananda Chatterjee, while teaching at the City College, used to assist Heramba Chandra in editing both the magazines, apart from contributing regular columns. Maitra also travelled to Europe and America as a preacher of the Brahmo Samaj. He was a regular contributor to the Modern Review. In 1926, Heramba Chandra was elected as a member of a delegation by the Calcutta University to attend the World Conference of the Universities of the British Empire held in London in 1926. The other members of the delegation were Dr J. C. Bose, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Dr Bidhan Chandra Ray.

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MITRA, KRISHNA KUMAR (1852-1936): He married the fourth daughter of Rajnarayan Basu. Krishna Kumar was a teacher at the City School and professor of history at the City College from 1879 to 1908. When the English government threatened to invalidate the accreditation of the college if he remained with the Swadeshi Movement, Krishna Kumar resigned from the College. He was a staunch Brahmo and on the day of his marriage - Narendranath Dutta, more known later as Swami Vivekananda, sang two songs written by Rabindranath Tagore. In association with Dwarakanath Ganguli, Heramba Chandra Maitra and others, he founded the Bengali weekly Sanjivani in 1883 and became its editor. It was through a series of articles there which made the English government provide legal protection to the tea-garden workers. Through the Sanjivani, Krishna Kumar percolated his nationalistic views, expressed against partition of Bengal, and supported Boycott. The magazine also acted as the mouthpiece of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. He joined Surendranath Banerjee's Indian Association in 1876, and later became a member of the Indian National Congress in 1885. In 1890, Krishna Kumar participated in the indigo cultivators' agitation. Resorting to the Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1908, the English government deported nine Bengali leaders to Agra Jail. None of the deportees knew what the exact charge against him was and remained confined till their release in February 1910. Krishna Kumar was one among them.

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PADSHAH, BURJORJI J. (1864-1941): He helped J. N. Tata in planning and executing his educational ambitions and projects. Padshah's father had been a friend to both J. N. and his father Nusserwanji Tata. When Padshah completed his studies at Cambridge in 1887, he joined the Sindh Art College in Karachi as the Vice-Principal. In 1896 he left Sindh College when J.N. entrusted him to translate his educational ideas. Padshah forthwith went to Europe and USA and visited scientific and medical research institutions and universities for about 18 months between 1896 and 1898 and amassed ideas and information for the proposed institution under Tata endowments. His association with the educational projects of the Tatas continued till 1911, when he took an appointment in the newly erected Iron and Steel Works of the Tatas at Sakchi, which since 1919 became Jamshedpur.

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PAL, BIPIN CHANDRA (1858-1932): A journalist who later became one of the early leaders of Indian nationalist movement. His ability to write and power to speak was legendary, which proved to be of great impact during the Swadeshi movement. In fact, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Bipin Pal's presence and impact on national politics was too great to be overlooked. He began as a moderate leader in the Indian National Congress, but later drifted to radicalism which drew him to Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Soon a time came when his name was pronounced together with Tilak and Lala Lajpat Roy in the way which still is remembered by many: Lal-Bal-Pal. This is a proof of how he rose to Indian National Politics. But alongside his journalistic ability ran uninterrupted. In his early youth he started Sylhet Weekly and Paridarshak. Later on, he edited The Tribune of Lahore during 1887-88, began English weeklies like New India in 1901 and edited it for a year, Bande Mataram in 1906 which later was suppressed by the government, Swaraj in London during his exile from India (1908-11). He also founded the English monthly journal Hindu Review (1902), edited the daily Independent, Allahabad (1919-20). These apart, he wrote regularly in the Modern Review, Amrita Bazar Patrika, Statesman, etc. till his last. But after 1920, Bipin Chandra left active politics for good and remained with his writings alone.

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Sarkar, Sir Jadunath (1870-1958):  Eminent Indian historian. Studied English literature at the Presidency College and began his teaching career. Later while at Patna College during 1902-17 he changed his subject to history. He chose Aurangzeb, the last eminent Mughal emperor, as his main area of work. His first book entitled India of Aurangzib was published in 1901. It took twenty five years for him to complete his five-volume History of Aurangzib which was published in 1924. He devoted the next twenty five years to complete his four-volume Fall of the Mughal Empire and completed it in 1950. Among his single-volume works are Chaitanya: His Pilgrimages and Teachings (1913), and Shivaji and His Times (1919). All his works demonstrate his vast knowledge of Persian-language sources and are skillfully written in English. Sarkar served as vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta between 1926 and 28) and had been on the Bengal legislative council during 1929-32. He was knighted in 1929.

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SEN, DINESH CHANDRA (1866-1939): Legendary scholar, historian and researcher. His contribution in salvaging the wealth of various unpublished and almost irretrievable Bengali manuscripts by visiting different villages, and later getting them published, will always be remembered. His scientific researches in Bengali literature, pioneering contribution in furthering studies in Bengali literature at the University of Calcutta, and the various scholastic books he wrote have earned him enduring fame.

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SIRCAR, DR NILRATAN (1861-1943): A medical practitioner, educationist and philanthropist. By faith he was a Brahmo. He began as a private practitioner and soon earned great success. But Dr Sircar never lost his compassion for the poor and needy people. For 17 years he remained the President of the Calcutta Medical Club. He is said to have worked hard to contribute a code of medical ethics for Indian physicians, and free the dominance of the British Medical Association on this profession. His glorious roles behind the foundations of the Calcutta Medical School, the School of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Jadavpur Tubercular Hospital could hardly be over emphasised. For a time he was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Indian Medical Association. In 1918 he was knighted by the British. Among the great responsibilities shouldered by him were as the Vice Chancellor of the Calcutta University, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Science, Trustee of Rabindranath Tagore's Viswa Bharati University, and Member of the Executive Committee of the Bose Institute. He also served as the President of the Indian Association for Cultivation of Science. The Campbell Medical School was upgraded to Campbell Medical College in July 1945, and in August 1950 this institution was renamed after one of its alumni - Dr Nilratan Sircar.

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TAGORE, ABANINDRANATH (1871-1951): He was the great-grandson of illustrious Prince Dwarakanath Tagore. His formal training in watercolour, pastel and life-study began in 1897 under the Italian artist Signor Gilhardi, the then Vice-Principal of the Calcutta Govt. School of Art. Later on he went to the English artist Charles Palmer to add efficiency in oil painting and portraiture. His attainments during this time enabled him to complete an oil painting within two hours. His work so impressed E.B. Havell, the Principal of Calcutta Govt. School of Art, that Abanindranath became the Vice Principal of the same school. He began to study various Indian art forms under Havell. Apart from the influence and tutelage of Havell, two more things left great impact on Abanindranath's work. The first was obviously what Sister Nivedita tried to instill into the Indian art movement in general, and upon the budding Indian artists in particular. Secondly, his short interactions with Kakuzo Okakura when the latter was in India, and subsequently with Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunso, two Japanese artists who came on the heels of Okakura, allowed great glimpses of techniques which Abanindranath absorbed with his own genius and interpreted subsequently into his work. Abanindranath is acknowledged as the pioneer who gave leadership to the modern art movement in Bengal and convincingly proved through his work and legacy that Indian art and artists are at par with the best in the world.

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TAGORE, DEVENDRANATH (1817-1905): Born into a wealthy and renowned family in Calcutta. He was a saintly person who was conversant with Eastern as well as Western philosophy. He became a follower of the Brahmo Samaj since his young age and eventually rose to be a leading personality in giving shape to this reform-movement. Devendranath with his young reformist friend Keshab Chandra Sen aimed at bringing about many changes in society, for example: to bring education within the reach of all, and infuse modernity within orthodox Hinduism. But as days went by, differences in their religious priorities resulted in a schism in the Brahmo Samaj in 1866. Devendranath went on with his focus on removing many abuses in the society, as well as preaching the futility of worshipping God through idols or images. But gradually he became disinterested in such purposes and distanced himself from public life, though his earnest followers remained loyal and attached to him. In 1863 he founded a retreat in rural Bengal and named it Shantiniketan. Here in this abode where Devendranath known to have found peace and solace to his soul, his Nobel laureate son Rabindranath Tagore would start his dream project on 22 December 1901 - a school named Brahmacharya Ashrama designed in conformity with the ancient gurukula tradition.

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TAGORE, RABINDRANATH (1861-1941): The renowned Bengali Nobel Laureate poet, littérateur, philosopher, who today is globally recognized as among the all time leading thinkers and humanitarians of the world.

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TRIVEDI, RAMENDRA SUNDAR (1864-1919) : Brilliant academic career. Became a professor of physics and chemistry at the Ripon College, Calcutta, where he later became the Principal. His literary excellence has its mark in various writings which were published in many leading magazines. He has about 14 books to his credit besides a few text books as well.