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3 PRESIDENCY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AUTUMN ANNUAL VOLUME XLI The Autumn Annual is published once a year. Views expressed by the authors are their own and do not necessarily represent those of Presidency Alumni Association or members of its Executive Council or the Editorial Board. We invite members of the Association and alumni to contribute articles for the next issue. All text and images should be sent by 31 st July in editable digital form to mentioning the contributor s years and main subject of study at the college EDITOR-IN-CHIEF NABANEETA DEV SEN EDITOR SHYAMA PRASAD MUKHERJEE DESIGNED BY REDIFFUSION Y&R, KOLKATA PRINTED BY CDC PRINTERS PVT. LTD. Plot Nos. 5, 6, 16, 17 Tangra Industrial Estate II, Bengal Pottery 45 Radhanath Chowdhury Road, Kolkata , West Bengal Published by Rupa Bandyopadhyay on behalf of PRESIDENCY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 86/1 COLLEGE STREET KOLKATA INDIA PH: W: Registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act 1961 Registration # S/63071 of
4 Presidency Alumni Association Office Bearers Members of The Executive Council SITTING LEFT TO RIGHT Jayanta Kumar Mitra Dilip Roy Kamalkali Poddar Basabi Bandopadhyay Bhaskar Roy Choudhury Madhushree Ghosh Satyabrata Chowdhury Anindya Kr Mitra Malabika Sarkar Animesh Sen Swapna Kar Alak Banerjee Saswati Mookherjee Rupa Bandyopadhyay STANDING LEFT TO RIGHT Jishnu Dasgupta Bivas Chaudhuri Shyamashree Sen Milan Bhowmik Arnab Kumar Khasnobis Aneek Chatterjee Shreyashi Ghosh Meghan Dass Sudipa Chatterjee Devashish Sen Prabir Dasgupta Harendranath Bhattacharya Kaushick Saha Jaydip Mukhopadhyay ABSENT IN PHOTOGRAPH Mamata Ray Suhas Choudhury Surya Sankar Chaudhuri Presidency Alumni Association Office Bearers Members of The Executive Council Chief Patron Malabika Sarkar President Anindya Kumar Mitra Vice Presidents Animesh Sen Jayanta Kumar Mitra Secretary Bivas Chaudhuri Joint Secretary Prabir Dasgupta Assistant Secretaries Basabi Bandopadhyay Saswati Mookherjee Sudi pa Chatterjee Treasurer Milan Bhowmik Members Alak Banerjee Aneek Chatterjee Arnab Kr Khasnobis Bhaskar Roy Choudhury Devashish Sen Harendranath Bhattacharya Jaydip Mukhopadhyay Jishnu Dasgupta Kamalkali Poddar Kaushick Saha Mamata Ray Madhushree Ghosh Meghna Dass Rupa Bandyopadhyay Satyabrata Chowdhury Shyamashree Sen Sreyashi Ghosh Suhas Choudhury Surya Sankar Chaudhuri Swapna Kar Editorial and Publication Board Editor-in-chief Nabaneeta Dev Sen Editor Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Member-in-charge Rupa Bandyopadhyay Convenor Shyamashree Sen Members Editorial Ayanendranath Bose Aneek Chatterjee Bharati Ray Biswanath Das Mamata Ray Prasad Ranjan Ray Rudrangshu Mukherjee Uma Dasgupta Publication Amitava Sinha Devashish Sen Jishnu Dasgupta Pradeep Guptoo Ram Ray Ujjal Chowdhury Advertising Alak Banerjee Bisakha Ghosh Satyabrata Chowdhury Sudi pa Chatterjee Surya Sankar Chaudhuri 3
5 Subcommittees Cultural Chairperson Swapna Kar Convenor Kamalkali Poddar Members Ardhendu Bikash Sharma Arnab Kr Khasnobis Bisakha Ghosh Devashish Sen Dipika Mazumder Madhushree Ghosh Meghna Dass Milan Bhowmik Prathama Sen Subir Bhattacharya Urmi Chatterji Finance Chairperson Bhaskar Roy Choudhury Convenor Sudhiranjan Sengupta Members Basabi Bandopadhyay Meghna Dass Milan Bhowmik Rupa Bandyopadhyay Satyabrata Chowdhury Satyajit Sen Shyamashree Sen Sreyashi Ghosh Information Technology Chairperson Jaydip Mukhopadhyay Convenor Sreyashi Ghosh Membership & Office Chairperson Basabi Bandopadhyay Convenor Lopamudra Duttagupta Members Alak Banerjee Jishnu Dasgupta Malayasree Bhattacharya Milan Bhowmik Saswati Mookherjee Sudi pa Chatterjee Public Relations Chairperson Shyamashree Sen Convenor Meghna Dass Members Amitava Sinha Arko Datta Atig Ghosh Chandreye Chatterjee Dilip Das Jishnu Dasgupta Pradeep Guptoo Rupa Bandyopadhyay Seminar Chairperson Satyabrata Chowdhury Convenor Dipika Majumdar Members Ajita Mukherjee Amitava Chatterjee Aneek Chatterjee Chaitali Basu Devashish Sen Harendra Nath Bhattacharya Saswati Mookherjee Ritabari Roymoulick Reunion Chairperson Alak Banerjee Convenor Devashish Sen Members Ashim Kr Ganguly Basabi Bandyopadhyay Brajagopal Samanta Bhaskar Roy Choudhury Harendranath Bhattacharya Jishnu Dasgupta Kamal Kanti Ghosh Milan Bhowmik Saswati Mookherjee Sarmistha Das Sreyashi Ghosh Swapna Kar Urmi Chatterji Note: President,Vice-Presidents are permanent invitees, Secretary and Joint Secretary are ex-officio members of all sub-committees. Past Presidents, Vice Presidents, Secretaries and Joint Secretaries Year President Vice President Secretary Joint Secretary Atul Chandra Gupta Satinath Roy JC Gupta Umaprasad Mookerjee Shyamaprasad Mookerjee Benoyendra Nath Banerjee Atul Chandra Gupta Satinath Roy JC Gupta Umaprasad Mookerjee Shyamaprasad Mookerjee Bijan Behari Mitter Atul Chandra Gupta Satinath Roy JC Gupta Biren Roy Shyamaprasad Mookerjee Bijan Behari Mitter Atul Chandra Gupta Satinath Roy JC Gupta Biren Roy Saila Kumar Mukherjee Bijan Behari Mitter Atul Chandra Gupta Satinath Roy JC Gupta Biren Roy Saila Kumar Mukherjee Nilratan Banerjee Atul Chandra Gupta Satinath Roy FJ Friend-Pereira Biren Roy Narendra Kumar Basu Nilratan Banerjee Atul Chandra Gupta Narendra Kumar Basu FJ Friend-Pereira Biren Roy Satinath Roy Nilratan Banerjee Atul Chandra Gupta Sanat Kumar Basu Atul Chandra Gupta Sanat Kumar Basu 1961 Charu Chandra Bhattacharya Sanat Kumar Basu 1962 Hemanta Prasad Ghosh Sanat Kumar Basu Radhabinode Pal Sanat Kumar Basu Radhabinode Pal Jnanendra Nath Banerjee Sanat Kumar Basu Bikash Chandra Ghosh Srikumar Banerjee Aparanath Ganguly Radhabinode Pal Jnanendra Nath Banerjee Sanat Kumar Basu Bikash Chandra Ghosh Srikumar Banerjee Brindaban Chandra Sinha Radhabinode Pal Jnanendra Nath Banerjee Sanat Kumar Basu Bikash Chandra Ghosh Srikumar Banerjee Amalendralal Kar 4 5
6 Year President Vice President Secretary Joint Secretary Srikumar Banerjee Suniti Kumar Chatterjee Sanat Kumar Basu till Bikash Chandra Ghosh Hemendra Chandra Sen Rajendralal Sengupta from Amalendralal Kar Hemendra Chandra Sen Saibal Kumar Gupta Pratul Chandra Mukherjee Alak Banerjee Nirmal Chandra Bhattacharya Parthasarathi Sengupta Hemendra Chandra Sen Saibal Kumar Gupta Pratul Chandra Mukherjee Alak Banerjee Nirmal Chandra Bhattacharya Sudhir Chandra Shome from Parthasarathi Sengupta Nirmal Chandra Bhattacharya Nirmal Chandra Bhattacharya Saibal Kumar Gupta Tarit Kumar Ghosh Pratul Chandra Datta Sanat Kumar Basu Nirmal Chandra Bhattacharya Pratul Chandra Mukherjee till Bijoy Sankar Basak from Jogendra Nath Maitra Bikash Chandra Ghosh Bijoy Sankar Basak Tarit Kumar Ghosh Surojit Kumar Nandy Sanat Kumar Basu Jogendra Nath Maitra till Tarit Kumar Ghosh Bijoy Sankar Basak Sanat Kumar Basu Saibal Kumar Gupta Satya Charan Pain Mihir Mukherjee Saibal Kumar Gupta Tarit Kumar Ghosh Bijoy Sankar Basak Sanat Kumar Basu Satya Charan Pain Mihir Mukherjee Bikash Chandra Ghosh Bijoy Sankar Basak Achintya Kumar Mukherjee Saibal Kumar Gupta Sudhis Chandra Guha Parthasarathi Sengupta Bikash Chandra Ghosh Bijoy Sankar Basak Achintya Kumar Mukherjee Saibal Kumar Gupta Sudhis Chandra Guha Parthasarathi Sengupta Bikash Chandra Ghosh Bijoy Sankar Basak Achintya Kumar Mukherjee Saibal Kumar Gupta Sudhis Chandra Guha Parthasarathi Sengupta Tarit Kumar Ghosh Pratap Chandra Chunder Achintya Kumar Mukherjee Parthasarathi Sengupta Provat Kumar Sengupta Sanat Kumar Basu Satya Charan Pain Pratap Chandra Chunder Sunil Rai Choudhury Sanat Kumar Basu Provat Kumar Sengupta Jibanlal Deb Year President Vice President Secretary Joint Secretary Satya Charan Pain Pratap Chandra Chunder Sunil Rai Choudhury Panchanan Kumar Mukherjee Sanat Kumar Basu Kajal Sengupta Pratap Chandra Chunder Pratul Chandra Datta Sunil Rai Choudhury Panchanan Kumar Mukherjee Sanat Kumar Basu Kajal Sengupta Pratap Chandra Chunder Pratul Chandra Datta Sunil Rai Choudhury Panchanan Kumar Mukherjee Hirendra Nath Neogi Kajal Sengupta Pratap Chandra Chunder Hirendra Nath Neogi Sunil Rai Choudhury till Panchanan Kumar Mukherjee Asoke Krishna Dutt Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay from Kajal Sengupta Pratap Chandra Chunder Sunil Rai Choudhury Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay Panchanan Kumar Mukherjee Asoke Krishna Dutt Kajal Sengupta Pratap Chandra Chunder Sudhindranath Gupta Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay Ranjan Kumar Ray Asoke Krishna Dutt Alak Banerjee Asok Mitra Hirendra Nath Neogi Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay Nirode Baran Banerjee Sujay Gupta Debabrata Ghosh Sachidananda Banerjee Arun Charan Neogi Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay Manotosh Dasgupta Sujay Gupta Alak Banerjee Sachidananda Banerjee Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay till Manotosh Dasgupta Sujay Gupta Nitai Charan Mukherjee from Alak Banerjee Sachidananda Banerjee Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri Nitai Charan Mukherjee Manotosh Dasgupta Sujay Gupta Alak Banerjee Sachidananda Banerjee Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri Nitai Charan Mukherjee Manotosh Dasgupta Sujay Gupta Alak Banerjee Pratap Chandra Chunder Arun Charan Mukherji Nitai Charan Mukherjee till Manotosh Dasgupta Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri Amitava Chatterjee from Parthasarathi Sengupta Pratap Chandra Chunder Arun Charan Mukherji Amitava Chatterjee Manotosh Dasgupta Jayanta Mitra Di pika Majumdar Pratap Chandra Chunder Arun Charan Mukherji Amitava Chatterjee Manotosh Dasgupta Jayanta Mitra Di pika Majumdar 6 7
7 Contents Year President Vice President Secretary Joint Secretary Pratap Chandra Chunder Arun Charan Mukherji Amitava Chatterjee Dipika Majumdar Jayanta Mitra Devashish Sen Pratap Chandra Chunder Chittatosh Mookerjee Amitava Chatterjee Dipika Majumdar Jayanta Mitra Devashish Sen Pratap Chandra Chunder Chittatosh Mookerjee Amitava Chatterjee Dipika Majumdar Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri Aneek Chatterjee Ramaprasad Goenka Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri Mamata Ray Aneek Chatterjee Parthasarathi Sengupta Bivas Chaudhuri Ramaprasad Goenka Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri Mamata Ray Bivas Chaudhuri Parthasarathi Sengupta Shanta Sen Ramaprasad Goenka Jyotirmoy Pal Chaudhuri Mamata Ray Bivas Chaudhuri Parthasarathi Sengupta Shanta Sen Jyotirmoy Pal Chowdhury Alak Banerjee (Sr.) Sanjib Ghosh Bivas Chaudhuri Parthasarathi Sengupta Urmi Chatterji Jyotirmoy Pal Chowdhury Alak Banerjee (Sr.) Sanjib Ghosh Surya Sankar Chaudhuri Parthasarathi Sengupta Kaushick Saha Anindya Kumar Mitra Jayanta Mitra Amitava Chatterjee Bivas Chaudhuri Animesh Sen Surya Sankar Chaudhuri Anindya Kumar Mitra Animesh Sen Bivas Chaudhuri Surya Sankar Chaudhuri Jayanta Mitra PRESIDENCY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Autumn Annual Presidency Alumni Association Office Bearers Members of The Executive Council Subcommittees 5 Past Presidents Vice Presidents Secretaries Joint Secretaries 11 Editorial Nabaneeta Dev Sen 13 About Ourselves Malabika Sarkar 15 Dwijendralal The patriot, poet, dramatist Dili pkumar Roy 18 The Oxford Story Amita Das 21 Globalisation Arabinda Ray 23 ëšø[îìl [X A ìºì\¹ è t w[ àìk šk > šàk > "ìåàa Aå ³à¹ t ºàšày 26 Presidency College, Calcutta: An unfinished history Benjamin Zachariah Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty Rajat Kanta Ray 32 Living History Bhaskar Majumdar 36 ¹[ k àaå ì¹¹ Kà>: l üv ¹à[ A ๠* l üv ¹o [ ì A ¹àÚ 44 Sir Dorabji Tata An Unlikely Pioneer of the Indian Olympic Movement Boria Majumdar 56 The Idiom of India Chhanda Chatterjee 61 Sir Asutosh Mookerjee and the Presidency College, Calcutta Chittotosh Mookerjee 8
8 65 The day after memories of Presidency University Deep Kanta Lahiri Choudhury 67 "à\p [ >Ú, "à\p [ >Ú, Î[t A àì¹¹ A =à ëkàšà ƒv ì ï[³a 76 Ñ à³ã [ ì A γà\[ ` àì>¹ >tå > [ƒåà[¹ ³ì>àìt àè ƒàåp œ 80 When the glass was shattered on December 9 Mukul Majumdar 85 ³ÎèÚà ë=ìa Îå[A Úà >à¹àúo j àw à 91 Remembering a dream Neena Sircar Putatunda 94 Curzon's Paean to Calcutta! Nityapriya Ghosh 98 &A [JøÐ àì>¹ "àuà>åîþê à>: [ Åt ìè ë¹ àì¹ Aõ Ì ì³àò> àšà àú-&¹ ³èº àú> šøo Aå ³à¹ W ìj àšà àú 102 International Anecdotes Probir Roy 106 P o P œ ƒàåp œ šøtå º ³åìJàšà àú 107 " àša t àšî ³\å³ƒà¹ Ñ ¹ìo ¹à³šøÎàƒ ëî>p œ 113 The Essential Tagore Reba Som 117 Essence of Law Enforcement Sankar Sen 119 The amazing story of Higgs Boson Soumitra Sengupta 123 One day in the life of Eden Hindu Hostel Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty 131 Search of the Higgs Boson at the Large Hadron Collider Sunanda Banerjee 135 The Code of life: Origin & Evolution Supratim Sengupta 139 &A [i W àìú¹ "àî¹ Îè ÅS ¹ ¹àÚ 140 Swami Vivekananda on his 150th birth anniversary Swami Tyagarupananda 143 P ¹ç Aå º àî š : ëšø[îìl [X A ìº\ t š> ¹àÚìW ï å¹ã 151 šø[t ì ƒ> 2012 [ àî ëw ï å[¹ From the Desk of the Editor-in-Chief So here we are again with our autumn harvest. Let me confess that I never did like the name of our journal. It bothered me that our Alumni Association s publication should be called Autumn Annual. It sounds sad, as if you are winding up, getting ready for winter, preparing for the end. There could be two reasons behind the journal s name: either it is supposed to appear every autumn, or it belongs to people in their autumn years. Well, Autumn Annual usually appears in January, around the 20th, the old students Reunion Day. So it is probably not meant for autumn, as a seasonal product. Oh well. There is no denying it: we are all getting older. Some of us are also getting pretty old. But why should the warm space treasured by the Presidency College old boys and girls the world over focus on personal autumns? Besides, our journal belongs as much to the fresh young alumni as to those of us who graduated half a century ago. So most of us are in our spring and summer, at least in spirit. NABANEETA DEV SEN But this is Bengal, and autumn does not herald a white, shivering, lonely winter for us. It could just be a period of shedding yellow leaves to make space for the green, like ex-students make way for new students. Or, it could be the time for nabaanna, for peethey-paayesh autumn is harvest time, too. That s okay then. I already feel at peace with the rather unusual title of our journal. As we step forward especially with age we tend to look backwards, which has more on offer than what lies ahead. It is time to check our personal balance-sheets. As an annual exercise it can be quite exciting when so many of us share our stories, our ideas, our work and our reminiscences on these pages. Autumn Annual is a fine tribute to a season of wisdom. It s a gentle, reassuring voice telling you who you are. Hence I return to my opening statement. We bring you our autumn harvest for 2012, with much warmth and good wishes for a long, healthy and active future. Take care, and let us stay close to our college mates as long as we can! Incidentally, there is something bothering me. Now that Presidency College is not a college anymore but Presidency University, how do we associate ourselves with the future students of the present institution? Since we happen to be both Calcutta University Alumni and Presidency College Alumni at the same time, we cannot be Presidency University Alumni. Just Presidency Alumni, may be? What do you think? As you know, our journal is bilingual. In this issue, a third of the contributions are in Bangla. Sadly, though, Autumn Annual does not have an alternative title in Bangla, neither a Rabindrik Hemantika or Haimanti, nor a simple, no-nonsense name like Hemanter Pata (Autumn Leaf/Page) or Hemanter Patra (Autumn Letter/Leaf). Hence, I felt the journal demanded its editorial in English not in Bangla to go with its English language identity. But I firmly believe that all of us in the Alumni Association should feel free to write what we want and in whichever language we want in our Autumn Annual. After all, this is our personal space for selfexpression, and not an academic journal which needs a different kind of editorial discipline and readership awareness. The only 11
9 criterion is that the piece should match the expected aesthetic and intellectual standard of the Presidency College Alumnus. This year we proudly offer 30 articles. One is a very special piece, a reprint from the Centenary volume. Of the rest ten are in Bangla and nineteen in English. The topics vary from Lord Curzon s Paean to Calcutta to Higgs-Boson, Dwijendralal and Rabindrasangeet, while memories of our college life travel from Presidency College to Lady Margaret Hall. We need to thank the magazine sub-committees, including the publication group, the Editorial Board and the crucially important advertisement raising group. And a big thank you to all our advertisers! In the Editorial Board, several members shared the basic editorial work, going through the articles and making preliminary selections. Among them Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Uma Dasgupta, Prasad Ranjan Ray, Bishwanath Das, Ujjal Chowdhury, Ayan Basu, Aneek Chatterjee and Jishnu Dasgupta need special mention. And we are also thankful to all our friends for the photographs that were collected and submitted on time. The heaviest, back-breaking editorial organising has been done by Rupa Bandyopadhyay, quietly, from behind the scenes. Her disciplined mind and gentle tenacity allow people to give their best, which makes this journal possible every year. She is ably supported by a team which includes, among others, Surya Sankar Chaudhuri, Gopa Datta, Milan Bhowmik, Amitava Sinha and Shyamashree Sen. Sadly, like other alumni associations, we too have our moments of mourning. Every year, when we meet, among the faces absent are some that would from now on be missing forever. This year too we have lost some of our very dear friends. Among them were Jnanabrata Mukherji, Pradip Kumar Gangopadhyay and Pranab Kumar De. Our heartfelt condolences to their families. We wish you all a peaceful 2013, blessed with good health and much happiness! Alumnus (English/ ) About Ourselves Twelve months have gone by since I wrote my first About Ourselves for the Presidency Autumn Annual. It has been an incredible year, with so much happening, a new university taking shape on the foundations of a nearly two hundred year old institution. It is a challenging task for all of us, but at the heart of it all is the comforting, sustaining thought that what abides, through all these changes, is the spirit of Presidency that we all recognize. Between May and November 2012, more than 120 faculty selections have been made. Distinguished subject experts from across India spent time at Presidency to select its first faculty. The result is a wonderful mix of old and new. Many teachers of Presidency College were selected for faculty positions at Presidency University. Inevitably, some were not and will be moving to other colleges. Applications had been received online as well as through conventional processes and interviews included many conducted through video conferencing. Amongst the faculty selected some are Presidency alumni but many are not, some are moving from post-doc positions at premier universities MALABIKA SARKAR Vice Chancellor, Presidency University in the US and other countries, others from other universities and institutions in India. Some of the new professors have moved from top positions in their field, international as well as national. Three foreign nationals have been selected, and it is hoped they will join soon. This transparent, meritbased selection of Presidency University s first faculty has ensured that the best available talent has been invited to join this institution. Excellence in higher education is being much debated both in this city and throughout the country. In this context, the faculty recruitment process of Presidency University has been recognized nationally as a unique model that has strengthened the foundations of excellence at this university. In putting all of this together, I have received great support from my office, the small team of young, talented, dedicated assistants who have worked far beyond normal office hours to make what has been achieved in the few short months possible. During the year, the administration of Presidency University has been strengthened with the addition of three new officers Registrar, Controller of Examinations, and Dean of Students whose capability, dynamism and integrity have earned them respect from students, faculty and the nonteaching staff. Presidency today demands a huge commitment from its outstanding faculty. While the intellectual atmosphere is vibrant, the state of the infrastructure is anything but inspiring. Classrooms and faculty offices in the main building need to be renovated and made dust-free. Two new wings need to be built in continuation of the existing two wings of the main building, creating the quadrangle that it was always meant to be, so that classrooms and other facilities can be accommodated. The majestic Baker Building, which will be celebrating its centenary in 2013, needs urgent repairs. Generous research funding has been promised from funding agencies, but until the infrastructure is attended to, these funds cannot be utilized. We urgently need financial support. This can only come from alumni and well-wishers as brick and mortar funding is not available from those who fund research. If you look at the Presidency University website, you will find details of funding opportunities. Whatever be the quantum of your contribution, it will be gratefully received and acknowledged in the fund that the Presidency University Council chose to name the Presidency University Vice Chancellor s Fund for Excellence. I appeal to all alumni and wellwishers for help at this critical hour. I know I can count on your 12 13
10 generosity and your commitment to Presidency. There have been several high points in the life of Presidency this year. In January, Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics, delivered the Dipak Banerjee Memorial Lecture to a packed audience in the Derozio Hall. On 31 st January, 2012, the Royal Society of Chemistry presented a plaque to Presidency in honour of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray the first time that such a plaque was offered outside Europe in recognition of his pioneering work in Chemistry. In July 2012, Professor Ashoke Sen, alumnus and the youngest FRS in India, member of the Presidency Mentor Group and the Presidency University Council, was awarded the inaugural Yuri Milner Fundamental Physics Prize in recognition of his work in the field of String Theory. On 15 th September 2012, IEEE of the United States presented a milestone plaque to Presidency its first in India in recognition of Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose s work in the field of millimetre wave propagation. These instances of international acknowledgment of Presidency s intellectual wealth are truly inspiring. Not surprisingly, the Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, Professor Andrew Hamilton, chose to host a reception jointly with me at Presidency University on 24 th March 2012, an event attended by Oxford alumni of eastern India together with members of Presidency University. And on 29 th November, 2012, Trinity College, Dublin, the top university in Ireland, with a prestigious position in the international rankings of universities, signed an MOU with Presidency University for faculty exchange, student exchange, and research collaborations. Writing About Ourselves in the Autumn Annual of Presidency is a sharing of thoughts, of hopes and anxieties, among those who will understand this crucial moment in the history of this great institution. I dare to hope that the first few critical steps we have taken in the past year have been in the right direction. Let me share with you my aspirations for the year ahead. Presidency has acquired a second campus, a ten-acre corner plot at Rajarhat, on the way to the airport. Plans will have to be made for this second campus with the hope that it will be ready by 2017, the bicentenary year. But it is the College Street campus, the heart of Presidency for all of us, which should first be attended to, both to preserve its heritage status and to enhance its efficiency in teaching and research. As that happens, we hope to achieve excellence in the sciences the physical sciences, the life sciences, the mathematical sciences, and the earth sciences and in the humanities and social sciences. There are no plans to venture into management or law or any other new field. We must focus on our strength areas, concentrating our intellectual resources and our funding on developing these and taking them to the highest levels possible. With the commitment of Presidency s outstanding faculty and officers, and the involvement and academic merit of its students, perhaps the moment is not too far away when Presidency will be recognized as one of the finest universities in the country. Alumnus (English/ ) Dwijendralal The Patriot, Poet, Dramatist SIR WALTER SCOTT wrote what Dwijendralal was wont to quote often with his heart s endorsement: Breathes there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, This is my own my native Land! Whose heart hath ne er within him burned As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand? Dwijendralal loved these lines as he was a lover of India from a child. With years this love grew into a grande passion, so much so that he could never take it lying down when the sahibs of those days slashed, as they often did gratuitously, at all that India stood for. To give one or two instances. He sailed for England on a State Scholarship in 1885, a youth of DILIPKUMAR ROY twenty-two, in a ship chock-full of Anglo-Indians. He wrote about his experiences while wandering on a foreign strand to his elder brother, which were published serially in Calcutta in 1886, entitled Bilat Prabasir Patra, that is, Letters of a Sojourner in England. Here is an excerpt from his first letter : A sahib said once to me aboard the steamer : The Hindu religion is all bunkum. Why? I asked, Because, he replied, Your God is an idle idol. I retorted: Your religion is grotesque How do you mean? he roared, stung. I mean, I answered placidly, Your God is nothing if not incompetent and frail into the bargain. For it not only took His Omnipotence six long days instead of one to create this world, but He got so dead tired thereafter that He actually had to rest, in order to recoup, for full twenty-four hours. The sahib left in high dudgeon. On another occasion, Dwijendralal reports, another sahib, a perfect John Bull, said to me : I should like to see how you Indians would fare if we left you suddenly in the lurch and some other nation came and ground you all to dust. I smiled and rejoined: And I, for myself, should like to see how you Englishmen would be starving if you quitted India. He sniffed and bantered: You are a full-fledged patriot, aren t you? I replied: I can t claim such a high title. But he could claim it, and with truth, for ever, since his boyhood days he had been an ardent lover of the India of Krishna, Buddha, Sri Chaitanya, Sankaracharya and galaxy of saints, not to mention the India of heroes like Rana Pratap, Guru Govinda and others about whom he wrote passionately in a sheaf of poems entitled Aryagatha (Songs of the Aryans) in 1882, then a bare stripling of nineteen. In his next book of poems entitled, Lyrics of Ind (published in London in 1886 and praised generously by the poet Edwin Arnold) he wrote, an idealistic patriot-poet of twenty three : o dear Bharat: my beautiful maiden! o sweet Ind! Once the queen of the world! But the dominant note of his patriotism was love and reverence for all that had made India truly great. He held no truck with the cheap braggadocio of the chauvinist who looks on other races with his holier-than thou attitude of self-superiority. He aspired, indeed, to build India on 14 15
11 the rock of her eternal spiritual traditions which made him write later India, my India, where first humankind awoke to heavenly light, All Asia s holy place of pilgrimage, great Motherland of might! World-mother, first giver to humankind of philosophy and sacred love! Knowledge thou gavest to man, Godlove, works, art, religion s opened door. (Sri Aurobindo s translation) He cherished the immemorial India whose soul stood for Godlove and dharma, brotherhood and living in harmony with all sentient creatures. And he admired our great past, not to rest on our laurels, but to build greater monuments of human achievement. He castigated all his life every type of jingo and braggart among our countrymen. But he did believe that India stood, first and last, for Godrealisation and divine humanism, compassion and tolerance, largeness and generosity. That is why he sang in the last song he wrote a few days before his death (May 17, 1913): o even with all that grandeur dwarfed or turned to bitter loss and maim, How shall we mourn who are thy children and can vaunt thy mighty name?... Before us still there floats the ideal of these splendid days of gold, A new world in our vision wakes. Love s India we shall rise to mould. This spirit of flame-pure love glowed flickerlessly in his heart all his life. That is why even when in England he was yearning to live for love, as against hatred, and wrote in his Lyrics of Ind : No better heaven than when men love us, And when we love our brothers well; A life both hating and deserted, Why, that is torment, that is Hell. But he was not only a patriot but a poet as well. That is why his first love was Shakespeare, to be followed by Shelley and Keats, Wordsworth and Browning. His poet-heart simply thrilled to the supreme beauty of English poetry. He wrote ecstatically in his Preface to Lyrics of Ind : Whereas the one (India) makes poetry of religion, the other (England) makes a religion of poetry. If I had space I would have loved to give here long excerpts from his heart-warming dramas to substantiate my thesis that he had imbibed, while in England, the best elements of English culture to enrich his loyal Indian soul, the rich soul of a minstrel of the highest values, of the Spirit. But since that is not possible, I shall confine myself to quoting from two of his soul-stirring dramas: one in verse (Sita) and the other in prose (Mevar-patan), as they achieved, at their loftiest, almost the peak of poetic utterance. The earlier drama, whose theme was Sita s immaculate devotion to Rama, was written in Its message was that love is the culmination of the aspiration of humanity to transcend its human limitations. In the drama, Vasishtha Rama s Guru avers that the King s love for Sita must be subordinated to his duty (as a king) to keep her in exile. He asks Valmiki somewhat sententiously: Prem na kartovya barho: Which is greater love or duty. You asked, Sage, which is greater: love or duty? I am unlettered: I hold love supreme. Love s the pathfinder: duty follows her lead. Love is the Queen: duty her orderly. Tis she lays down the law: he only obeys. Love s no chimera nor a delirious dream Of fantasy: she is Truth and Holiness; Nor parleys ever with falsehood. She would only Consort with dharma never house with sin. Does not this universe proclaim love s rule? Is not the Maker and Pilot of the world A Being of love? Is not our civilization Built on the one plinth of love? Her will cements The marriage of soul with soul and new-makers life. Duty is a dumb, prone, frozen, hard and amorphous Stone from the quarry which only love, the sculptress, Can chisel into flawless forms. One is A bare skeleton which the other drapes With the garb of flesh and hues. Upon dead twigs Love sprouts in all-fulfilling blooms and foliage. To the scorched earth she comes caressing as night, With her trail of cooling breeze and virgin dear; On the brooding brow of care she lights as sleep With soft footfall. Duty greater than love? Behold: this beautiful world s aflower with love! Tis she makes the unwalled blue diaphanous. In love still rise the myriad rapturous stars, Great sun rains warmth, fair moon her silver laughter, The rivers flow and cascades sing and dance, Green bowers sway with termless, lovelit blossoms. In darkness tis love holds the candle of vision, The world s unfathomed agonies are redeemed By the Elysian music of love s lyre. I can still recapture the quiver that tingled through my blood whenever, before an enraptured audience, he recited this paean to Love, his voice half-choked with emotion. When he once played the role of Valmiki on the stage it sounded like a temple-hymn whose magic cadence throbbed on even when his lovely voice had trailed off into silence. I will end with an excerpt from my own translation of his greatest drama in prose, Mevar-patan, which is published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan under the title, Fall of Mevar. The drama rises in a crescendo from flaming patriotism, through clash of warring human insistences, to the summit of Godintoxicate vision of the One World. But, alas, the poet-dramatist asks, how could such a world come into being if we continue to stave it off with our suicidal hatred and passions, our power-puffed slogan-building and unashamed exploitation of the weak? Today we are celebrating the centenary of the advent of one of India s noblest sons, a lover of man and God and, above all, a dreamer of the new India that is going to rise out of the ashes of bygone India, like the mythical Phoenix, with the light of morning in her eyes. At such a time we could best pay our homage to the idealist in him only by singing with him, with our heart s staunch allegiance, his message of peace and fraternity, God-rapture and dharma: Shed tears, O brothers, now no more, Nor sigh: Our freedom s gone! Sing, sing from manhood s pinnacle: We ll live for Truth alone. Wherefore would you the others blame? First your small egos learn to tame; Not for others are we fallen: Tis falsehood holds us down. The reference to the centenary of Dwijendralal may have been a slip on the part of Dilipkumar Roy since centenary year of Presidency College was 1955, eight years prior to centenary of Dwijendralal Sing, sing from manhood s pinnacle: We ll live for Truth alone. All over the world two forces battle: Darkness affronting Light. Aligned with Heaven s own radiant legion Defy Hell s hordes of Night. There s no alien, there s no foe: All all are friends incognito: The unfrontiered earth s your cradle and home: The house of self disown. Sing, sing from manhood s pinnacle: We ll live for Truth alone. If you would slay, the abysmal gloom, Waken Love s Sun within And in its new Dawnrise behold: All hail you as their kin! Affianced to your sentinel soul, With God on high as the Gleaming Goal, Disclaim the cry of race and clime, For you belong to none But the Lord of Love and Truth so sing : We ll live for Him alone. PRESIDENCY COLLEGE CENTENARY VOLUME, 1955 (Published in 1956) Alumnus ( ) 16 17
12 The Oxford Story Each time I think of Oxford I am reminded not just of Mathew Arnold s immortal verses but also of another poet, Tickell, who described the grandeur of the University in the following words: Oxford! the goddess muse s native home / Inspir d like Athens and adorn d like Rome. Truly, as one approaches this spectacular University town, it is impossible not to be impressed by its magnificent towers, domes and spires which rise majestically out of the neighbouring countryside, a horizon of undulating green which, even today, survives the onslaught of modern technology. My years at Oxford as a postgraduate student of History gave me a unique opportunity to learn and contemplate. It was a tremendous culture change but I immediately liked my College, Lady Margaret Hall, an institution founded in 1878 to commemorate Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII. A stone and brick building designed in the French Renaissance style, the college was founded by Edward Stuart Talbot, sometime warden of Keble College and his wife Lavinia. Their symbol, two Talbot dogs, are featured in the College Coat of Arms. So are a portcullis, symbol of Lady Beaufort, and a bell. The AMITA DAS last named item represents the Wordsworth family. Elizabeth Wordsworth, grand-niece of the poet, was the first Principal of Lady Margaret Hall. The College is set in manicured lawns rolling down to the Cherwell. I had a room all to myself on the ground floor of the Deneke wing with a view of the garden. The room included a bed, a chest of drawers, a writing desk and an armchair. The Vice Principal, Miss K.M. Lea, was my moral tutor which meant she kept a tab on my work as well as my well-being. Lady Margaret Hall was initially meant for the education of women. Since 1979, it has become co-educational. Weekly seminars were the way to go for postgraduate Oxford scholars. My subject being colonial history, I was part of a group whose fields of research were similar to mine. We worked under Dr C.C. Davies, the noted historian, who specialised in the period of Indian history under Warren Hastings and the North West Frontier. Each of us would in turn be assigned to present a paper on his/her subject of research and the topic would then be thrown open for discussion. They were lively sessions involving much intellectual jousting. The rest of the time was spent in libraries and attending lectures of one s choice. My work took me frequently to the India Office Library in London, where the food served in the canteen was reputed to be the worst in the British Empire and also to the National Library in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the Minto Papers had just been opened. At Oxford you have to be extremely enterprising not to be hard working! Dr Davies took a keen interest in all his students, as did Prof Harlow and Dr Madden who talked about the methodology of historical research and aspects of British Colonial History at the Commonwealth History Seminar to those of us who attended these sessions. Life was challenging but exciting and, needless to add, I fell in love with the beauty of Oxford and the surrounding countryside. I felt very privileged to be where I was. I recall two memorable occasions while I was a student at Oxford. The first was the visit of the reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, to Lady Margaret Hall, when she was invited to inaugurate the new Library building. The second, in my final year, was the visit of independent India s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru addressed the Oxford Union and spoke for almost an hour. Later, he mingled with the students and shook hands with a few of us who had gathered backstage to greet him. I returned to Oxford a few years later on a Nuffield Fellowship. I was attached to the Commonwealth Institute in London to contribute to its redevelopment plans and to study new ideas and concepts on museum design and historical displays. British museum technology had undergone revolutionary changes in terms of sites, audio visual effects, and three dimensional models. One of the reasons which prompted me to study these displays was to try and incorporate a few ideas for the permanent exhibition on India s history The Discovery of India, spanning over 5,000 years, which I was coordinating at the Nehru Centre in Mumbai. Some of the more memorable visits were to the Yorvick Museum in York built on the archaeological dig of an old Viking settlement, the Canterbury Tales display in Canterbury which brought to life Chaucer s immortal epic, the Natural History Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, and many others in Britain. Inevitably, my work brought me to my old University where a new permanent exhibition depicting the story of Oxford had been set up to inspire students and visitors alike. It was the Nuffield Foundation s newest gift to the University in partnership with the Heritage Trust of England with three dimensional exhibits which, with the help of a portable recorder and earphones, enables the visitor to travel through 800 years of Oxford s history in about an hour. The journey begins at a Freshers gathering at the beginning of Michaelmas Term and ends with a gallery highlighting Oxford s famous women, including Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, and Benazir Bhutto. In-between are lifelike displays of students and teachers in various occupations with realistic dioramas, lighting and sounds harking back to the 14 th and 15 th centuries and beyond. About this time, Oxford became notorious for granting asylum to the Lollards, a heretical sect which challenged the basis of medieval Christianity. In the 16 th century, Archbishop Cranmer, and Bishops Ridley and Latimer, the chief I recall two memorable occasions while I was a student at Oxford. The first was the visit of the reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, to Lady Margaret Hall, when she was invited to inaugurate the new Library building. The second, in my final year, was the visit of independent India s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru addressed the Oxford Union and spoke for almost an hour protagonists of Protestantism, were imprisoned at Oxford and later burnt at the stake. Be of good courage, Master Ridley and play the man, for we shall this day light such a candle by God s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out. These words echo through Oxford s halls to mark the end of an era and the beginning of another. An iron cross in the middle of Broad Street marks the spot where the fatal fires were lit. During the reign of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I it became fashionable for the English gentry and aristocracy to send their sons to Oxford as preliminary to a career in politics and the civil service. Learning flourished until the Civil War in 1642 when teaching largely ceased and Oxford became a Royalist stronghold. Oxford s colleges gave their gold and silver to King Charles I to be melted down and minted as coins to pay for the war. All this is vividly shown in the exhibition. Victorian and Edwardian England also come to life as we journey through Oxford s past. In the final displays we come face to face with the Methodists, Gladstone, Harry Mosely, father of nuclear physics, not to speak of the leisured lifestyles of the young Edwardian upper classes who came to the University to study. Outside the walls of the Oxford Story, the real Oxford continues to live and breathe as it did generations ago: the Oxford of scholars and townspeople, of young lovers and champagne, proctors and discreet scouts. We stood back and watched the new generation of undergraduates, young men and women, going briskly about their business. It was the end of Trinity Term and Schools, the Final Examinations had just begun. At this time the wearing of subfuscs or the formal academic dress including a cap and gown, is still obligatory. Sometimes a rose or carnation is worn in buttonholes for luck. But if all this looks and sounds like some street opera, the fun really starts after Schools. Oxford bursts out with parties, concerts, plays and picnics and many colleges host formal Balls. The college gardens bloom adding colour to the stately grey and gabled buildings. College cooks, butlers, and their assistants gear up to produce their best to live up to the reputation of their respective 18 19
13 institutions. On this occasion I went along to my College Gaudy, an annual get together of alumni usually in June, with Pradip and my friend Verna. Tea was laid out in the garden where the flowering trees and flower beds provided a riot of colour. I met a few of the alumni some of whom were in college in the 1920s. After tea we walked through the adjoining University Parks under sycamore and silver birch trees, past the cricket ground where Pataudi and Abid Ali had earned their Blues. The rest of the afternoon was spent chasing clouds on a punt. My other notable experience was dining at the High Table at St Anthony s at the invitation of Dr Tapan Raychaudhuri, a Fellow of St Anthony s. Including Jan Morris, the writer who had come into focus by a sex change, we were a group of twelve. I recall the four course gourmet meal, each served with a different wine from the College cellar. This was followed by coffee out of a silver service in the College basement, to the accompaniment of dessert and liqueur in sparkling crystal. Conversation flowed easily ranging from Jan Morris s latest book to India s development plans. We parted company at midnight. I left Oxford not with a little nostalgia, clinging as I always seem to do, to the memory of its dreaming spires and the timelessness that is forever the magic of this University town and somehow, intrinsic to it. Alumnus (History/ ) Globalisation Globalisation has been a buzzword on everybody s lips for some time now. It is used to explain why economic growth is taking place at the present rate and, with equal conviction, it is used to explain the growth of poverty elsewhere. It explains the availability of hitherto unknown products in certain markets and the growing knowledge of the world without traveling. The modern craze with the word began with the explosion in the field of connectivity both physical and representative. Globalisation, in principle, had existed from the earliest days of mankind when the descendants of Lucy spread out all over the world; when Phoenician sailors looked for products to buy from and sell to distant lands. When over one millennium ago spices from Malacca and Timor Islands passed through several seas and countries to arrive in Rome it was globalisation in operation just as the voyage of Columbus and the serendipitous discovery of America was. When a few persons sitting in London could rule over the destinies of millions spread all over the world globalisation operated in principle if sometimes iniquitously. An idealistic globalisation was assiduously sought in Wendell Willkie s One World in the midst of the Second World War. ARABINDA RAY However, one has to get away from semantics and appreciate the realities of today s globalisation. When we see it in terms of the movement of human beings and products across national boundaries we are really looking at a change in terms of degree and not in a qualitative sense. Today s globalisation is different because of the easy, seamless, instant flow of information which the revolution in the electronic world has brought about which made Thomas Friedman famously declare the world to be flat. It was accompanied by faster and ever faster means of locomotion. Against these wondrous achievements which make us committed devotees of globalisation there are some much overlooked facts which Pankaj Ghemawat earlier of Harvard and now at the IESE Business School in Spain (who married the daughter of our distinguished alumnus botanist, Sandhya Ghosh, later Mittra) points out in his recent book World 3.0. According to Ghemawat many indicators of global integration are surprisingly low. Only 2% of students are at universities outside their home countries and only 3% of people live outside their country of birth. Only 7% of rice is traded across borders. Only 7% of the directors of S&P 500 companies are foreigners; only 1% of all American companies have any foreign operation. Exports are equivalent to only 10% of global GDP. He goes on to add that, contrary to popular perception, some of the most vital arteries of globalisation are badly clogged : air travel is restricted by bilateral treaties and ocean shipping is dominated by cartels. If movement of people is to be taken as a trend towards globalisation there has been nothing to match in recent years the massive emigration of the Irish and the Norwegians a century ago. There were no visas to worry about in those days. Today the world spends $88 billion a year on processing travel documentation and in a tenth of the world s countries a passport costs more than a tenth of the average annual income. Capital, it is true, moves across international borders far more voluminously and rapidly than it ever did before. Acquisitions of assets by foreigners is certainly a sign of global integration as is the outsourcing of data processing. However, when it comes to manufacturing there is probably a check and reverse flow in the offing. Boston Consulting Group feels that the advantages of labour arbitrage which primarily encouraged American manufacturers to go international are now diminishing and it is in their interest to bring manufacture back home and concentrate on improving productivity instead. However, there can be no disagreement about the miraculous advances that have been made in the field of 20 21
14 instant communication through internet, satellite telephoning, digital photography and a host of such modern inventions. If by globalisation we refer to these which have now invaded our daily lives, that would be quite appropriate. The ready availability of foreign or distantly grown items may be seen as globalisation but this is in large measure due to the application of today s communication system in accessing foreign markets by new concepts in marketing. In the ultimate analysis this is only an extension of world trade which has existed even from the days of sailing ships. Certainly, it is an unprecedented experience to call the local railway enquiry sitting in London and get over the telephone instantly full information for the projected trip from a person who is probably sitting before a computer in Bangalore; or be in the United States and get the firm s daily accounts from Gurgaon on the push of a button. From the material field we can move to the realm of ideas and beliefs. When Christianity spread all over Europe and then on to the Americas, Africa, and large parts of Asia, Buddhism swept through Eastern and South Eastern Asia and the vigour of Islam covered large parts of Asia and Africa one should argue that these too were clearly aspects of globalisation. The birth of Socialism some two centuries ago and its ultimately failed attempt at globalisation in the last century is the last movement we have seen in the realm of ideas. We await the advent of a new Messiah in tune with the principles of globalisation as we understand it today. History confirms that this is bound to come even if the form may be totally unconventional. Already one could say that the sweep of technology falls in that category. Education today is affected by globalisation. Previously students learnt the geography and history of other countries. Now they have teachers from different countries in elite institutions of advanced nations. Hopefully, they impress upon their students the totality of life as distinct from the narrow confines of one s immediate vicinity. Presidency in its new form will garner the fruits of this process let us hope Human migration has been a continuous process of history and so also money being sent from one country to the family living in another. Today, not only is the volume astronomically high but also foreign remittances reach out to all corners of the world providing regular uninterrupted succour to the dependants of the remitter in some hitherto totally unfamiliar part of the world. Here again it is not the act but the scale and the speed made possible by modern technology that is the hallmark of today s globalisation. 22 Education today is affected by globalisation. Previously students learnt the geography and history of other countries. Now they have teachers from different countries in elite institutions of advanced nations. Hopefully, they impress upon their students the totality of life as distinct from the narrow confines of one s immediate vicinity. Presidency in its new form will garner the fruits of this process let us hope. Globalisation has also moved deeply into the world of education. Before, students went abroad for higher studies. Today teachers from many different countries teach in the elite institutions of advanced nations occupying chairs in many places. Students come from American and European countries to India to follow courses that are available in their own countries. Thanks to television, a really interested student even at school level can acquire knowledge which he would otherwise find difficult to garner. From recent trends one is heartened to see that India is now enjoying a reverse brain drain; that corporate recruiters from abroad come to raid the output of our leading management and engineering institutions and law students can sit at home and advise on cases abroad. Let us hope Presidency in its new form will be another nest of scholars from all over the world both teaching and learning yatro viswang bhabatyokneerram - like the world famous institution a great son of Bengal established nearly a century ago and will be more enduring Alumnus (Chemistry/ ) ëšø[îìl [X A ìºì\¹ è t w[ àìk šk > šàk > "à\a ຠîƒ[>a Î} àƒšy Jåìº šøàúòü ëƒjìt šàòü ëšø[îìl [X [ Å«[ ƒ àºìú¹ Î šìa >à>à> J ¹àJ ¹ ú ëšø[îìl [X A ìº\ t ³àì> [ Å«[ ƒ àºìú š[¹ot ÒìÚìá & } &Jàì> [ [ Ä [ ÈìÚ šøl àåå>à * Kì Èo๠³à> l üäúì> Î ¹A ³ šøìw Ê à ÒìZá ú ë ì K ì à ÒÚ &Òü ëšø[îìl [X A ìºì\òü "à[³ [t ÒìÚ[áºà³ 1956 Îàìº ƒ[û o A ºA àt ๠&A Îà à¹o ÑHåþº [W v ¹g> l üzw [ ƒ àºú ë=ìa ÑHåþº ó àòü> ຠš¹ãû àú l üv ão ÒìÚ ú &Òü '[t Ò ³[r t A ìºì\¹ Îå>à³ t J> Îà¹à à¹t ìè Òü á[øl ìú [Ạú [ ` à> * A ºà [ àìk¹ Îå[ J àt Î " àša ¹à "à³à샹 šøl àìt > ú š[æw ³ ìu¹ [ [ Ä ë\ºà¹ >à³a ¹à ÑHåþ캹 Aõ t ã áàìy¹à [t Òt "à³à샹 A ìºì\ ú &³>[A [ Ò๠& } "> à> šøìƒå ë=ìa * àáàòü A ¹à [A áå áày "àît &Òü A ìºì\ šøl ìt ú "à³à¹ ³ì> "àìá "à³à샹 "àòü.&î[î. Aà àìî 2/1 \> "à[óø A à> áày* [Ạú [ t ãú ìè l üìk ëƒjºà³ ë Å A ìúa \> [Î[>Ú¹ ëa [ ö\ šàå áày "à³à샹 ÎìU ë àkƒà> A ì¹ ú t à샹 " Å "à³à샹 ÎìU š¹ãû ๠šø[t ì à[kt àú "Îå[ àú šøl ìt Òt ³àc šì= [t Ò*ÚàÚ ú šø=³ È [ ` à> Aà àìî W tå = [ ÈÚ [ÒÎàì \ã [ ƒ à, è t w, è ìkຠÒüt à[ƒ ë>*ú๠Îå[ à [Ạ"à³à샹 ú [t Ò*Úà¹ Î³Ú " àa ÒìÚ \à>ºà³ ÑHåþº ó àòü> ຠš¹ãû àú šø=³ ƒå\ì>¹ ³ì šøàú 6/7 \>Òü W tå = [ ÈÚ [ÒÎàì è t wìa ë ìá [>ìú [ ` à> "ìåàa Aå ³à¹ t ºàšày [ àìk [t ÒìÚ[áº, [ƒ* ÑHåþ캹 t J>A ๠šàk ÎèW ãìt &Òü [ ÈÚ[i ëa à=à* [Ạ>à & } & [ ÈìÚ "à³à샹 ëa à>¹a ³ à¹oà A ¹à* Î ± Òìt à >à ú [t ¹ [ƒ> ëƒjºà³ ºàÒüì> ƒòà[øl ìú "à³à¹ [k A ëšáì>òü ëî áì¹¹ ÑHåþº ó àòü> ຠš¹ãû àú šø=³ Ñ à>à[ A à¹ã Åøã [>t àòüw ¹o ³åJà\ ã ú Jå Òü * K ">å A [¹, [A áå[ƒ> "àìkòü ët à íƒ[>a š[ya àú t ๠á[ ëƒìj[áºà³ ú [t Ò*Ú๠[A áå[ƒì>¹ ³ì Òü &ìa &ìa [ [ Ä [ ÈìÚ Aà àî Åå¹ç ÒÚ & } "à³¹à [ [ Ä [ àkãú " àša 샹 ÎìU yû ³Å š[¹[w t Òìt =à[a & } ÎÒšà[k 샹 ÎìU* Þêå â«òú ú "à³¹à ë ƒåìa è t w [ àìk šøl àç >à A [¹, ëî γÚi à "à³à¹ ³ìt [Ạ&Òü [ àìk¹ Ñ o åk ú š¹ t ã γìÚ ">åîþê à> A ì¹ ë\ì>[áºà³ ë š¹š¹ ë Å A ìúa á¹ ì¹ ÑHåþº ó àòü> àìº šø=³ Îà[¹¹ "ì>a Aõ t ã áày¹à &Òü A ìºì\ W tå = [ ÈÚ è t w [>ìú [t Òt & } t à샹 ³ì ë=ìa "ì>ìa Òü š¹ t ã \ã ì> Ñ >à³ > ÒìÚ [ [ Ä ëšåàú Îåšø[t [Ë t ÒìÚ[Ạú ëîi à Î ± ÒìÚ[Ạè t w [ àìk¹ [ [ÅÊ * Jå Òü ë àk " àša 샹 "Aà à z šøìw Ê àú ú ëî Î³Ú 23 ë A \> " àša &Òü [ àìk¹ ÎìU åv û [áìº> tò à¹à Î Òü è [ ` àì>¹ [ [ Ä [ ÈìÚ Kì Èoà A ì¹ ëƒìå¹ ³ì Jå Òü Îå>à³ "\ > A ì¹[áìº> ú &³>[A tò à샹 Kì Èoàšy [ ìƒìå* è ÚÎã šøå}îà ºà A ì¹[Ạú t àòü è t w [ àìk¹ Îå>à³ à¹ìt ¹ [ [ Ä šøìƒìå á[øl ìú šìøl [áìºà ú š¹ t ã š àìú &Òü [ àk Î ìþê Î[ Ñzàì¹ [º[š ý A ¹à¹ ÒüZáà "àìá ú ëšø[îìl [X A ìºì\¹ ÎåšøàW ã> šø à> à[øl [i (Main Building) ë Jàì> "à³à샹 à}ºà, Òü}¹à\ã, ¹ÎàÚ> Òüt à[ƒ [ ÈÚ šøl àì>à Òt "àòü.&î[î. 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16 Presidency College, Calcutta: An Unfinished History Introduction BENJAMIN ZACHARIAH SUBHAS RANJAN CHAKRABORTY RAJAT KANTA RAY The history of Presidency College of Bengal, and of its earlier avatar, the Hindu College, is intimately entwined with the intellectual life of Bengal and India. Coming into being in the early years of what came to be called the Bengal Renaissance, and later, by extension, the Indian Renaissance, the Hindu College was the earliest major experiment in colonial higher education; and Presidency College became the model institution for the propagation of secular Western learning. Education was at the core of the imperial mission, and the Hindu College and its successor often found themselves at the centre of the debates surrounding education. Although the college itself was not a site of contention in the most intense educational debates of its early times, the contest between Orientalist and Anglicist views on education in India it was established in order to fill the need, expressed by a number of Calcutta s leading native notables, for an institution for giving a liberal education to the children of the members of the Hindu community its peculiar relationship in its early years with the two model institutions of Orientalist learning, the Sanskrit College and the Calcutta Madrasa, reflected what was then, and largely remained, the inner tension of colonial rule in its attitude to Indian society: to transform or not to transform. This was also largely to become the central dilemma of the rising Indian middle class, and of their nationalism: to be, or not to be, transformed; or to what degree to be transformed, by Western education and its concomitant values and cultural norms. Hindu College, later Presidency College, provided the first major stage for debate on this theme. The history of the college and the writing of that history (inasmuch as the most articulate histories are those written of and by elites, the history of Hindu College Presidency College is the history of modern Bengal) reflects, therefore, the profound ambivalence with which the Indian professional middle class, and the bhadralok in particular, approach their educational and intellectual heritage: colonial, elitist, Orientalist (in the Saidian sense), but at the same time in some sense, universal. This, was no unconscious state: the mostly gentle, occasionally sharp, self-parody of the bhadralok recognising his strange and hybrid identity is an old tradition, again with strong connections with the college. At the same time, the quest for the universal principles in an education system emerging out of colonial rule never quite receded; and science, economics, statistics and development, intimately related to the great professed ideals of the modern Indian nation, had strong roots in Presidency College. Intellectuals from Presidency College, in residence or in diaspora, still seem to hold on to some of these universals in an age of fragmented identities, divided selves and multiplying sub-nationalisms, perhaps logically: to deny universal validity to certain basic principles of their intellectual training the applicability of standards of rationality to the knowable world would undermine the framework of post-enlightenment modernity on which they stand. The college s elite orientation has always been too apparent to be denied, despite the lack of respectability attached to the term in certain periods of consciously cultivated plebeian values. An aristocracy of wealth in its early days, wealthy baboos inviting the scorn of missionaries, later moving closer to its ideal of a meritocracy of education through the establishment of various means of financial assistance to promising students, incorporating previously excluded groups as it went along, it remained an institution rather well-lookedafter by the government of India and later the government of Bengal until quite recently, with the Left Front Government s aversion to elite education making itself felt. Even then, it fared better than other colleges. It has sought intellectually to escape these boundaries; only occasionally have groups from the college sought to bridge the gap between thought and action and reach out across the barriers imposed by the college s elitism. These moments, though, have been exceptional moments; in less exceptional times, those associated with the college have been content to engage in quiet intellectual activity and to communicate amongst themselves or with those of their peers in the outside world who could understand the idiom they were accustomed to use. The earlier Avatar: Hindu College, The institution established on Monday, 20 January, 1817, took some time to grow into its rather grandiose designation of college, and certainly had no pretensions to being the pioneering institution of higher education it became. The original rules provide an indication of the rather limited parameters within which it was expected to operate. The college s primary object was defined as the tuition of the sons of respectable Hindus in the English and Indian languages, and in the literature and science of Europe and Asia ; admission of pupils was to be at the discretion of the Managers of the institution, and the college was to consist of a school (pathshala) and an academy (maha pathshala) the former to be established immediately, the latter as soon as may be particable. The college had in its early days a precarious and somewhat nomadic existence: classes began at a rented house belonging to Education was at the core of the imperial mission, and the Hindu College and its successor often found themselves at the centre of the debates surrounding education Gorachand Bysack at Garanhatta, Chitpore Road, shifted in January 1818 to another, and a year later to another in the same locality, known as Feringhee Kamal Bose s House ; shifted to Bowbazar, and then, in May, 1827, to the new building constructed for the Sanskrit College, two wings of which were earmarked for the Hindu College. Finances were never sound; an experiment, from January 1819, with the abolition of fees and depending on voluntary contributions and the interest on the amount originally subscribed, had to be abandoned in 1824, the firm of Joseph Baretto and Sons, with which the original funds had been invested, went into liquidation, and on David Hare s advice, Hindu College had to apply for financial assistance from the government, and the managers petitioned that the college be removed to the vicinity of the Sanskrit College, which was about to be founded, so that the two could share lectures, the use of scientific apparatus and so on. The Government agreed, and a grant was also provided to the college. The price to be paid for increased government involvement was a loss of the formal independence enjoyed by respectable Hindus in the management of what they saw as their institution. The identity of Presidency College The Presidency College of Bengal started working as a government college on 15 June, 1855, open to all communities, abandoning the Hindu exclusivism of its predecessor institution. Muslims were now admitted to the college, as were other communities. Chittaranjan Das and Fazlul Haq both studied at Presidency College in the second half of the nineteenth century; until the end of the century, however, Muslim presence on the campus was weak. In the period , the community-wise break-up of students read: Hindu 828; Muslim 11; European/Eurasian 4. While there was no bar to the admission of lower castes, dining facilities were separate in the Eden Hindu Hostel which came up later. In 1874, when the college shifted to the present campus, it had on its staff 19 members of whom no less than 15 were European, the other four being Hindu. The first Muslim teacher of the college, Syed Ameer Ali, joined the college as Lecturer in Law in He 26 27
17 soon distinguished himself as a pioneer of Muslim awakening. Delawar Hosaen Ahmed, who has been identified by intellectual historians of Bangladesh as the harbinger of modern rationalist thought among the Bengali Muslims (Ameer Ali belonged to the Urdu-speaking Muslim élite), graduated from the college in 1861, the first among the Muslim graduates of Calcutta University. Delawar Hosaen Ahmed was, in his day, a deputy magistrate. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Nabin Chandra Sen, graduates of the first two batches of the Calcutta University (established in 1857), could rise no higher than the positions of deputy magistrate and government pleader, respectively, despite their brilliance. However, four other early students broke the barrier and joined the celestials : Satyendra Nath Tagore (the first Indian to join the ICS), Romesh Chunder Dutt (author of the famous Economic History of India), Bihari Lal Gupta, and Ananda Ram Barua (a distinguished Assamese litterateur). Another early graduate of the college, Syed Hosain Bilgrami, rose high as an educationist in Hyderabad. Saligram Singh became a wellknown public figure in Bihar. Presidency College and its Environs The college shifted to its present campus on 31 March, 1874, under the initiative of its distinguished Principal J. Sutcliffe. The main building with its grand staircase and the turret clock (donated by Nafarchandra Palchaudhuri) was inaugurated. A new hostel, named Eden Hindu Hostel, was opened in The Baker Laboratory building to house the science laboratories was completed in An astronomical observatory block was added to the main building in An extension of the Baker Laboratory building was made in 1953 to accommodate the expanded Zoology department. New constructions since then include a new building to house the Economics and Political Science departments and the Chemistry department. The Derozio Hall, an auditorium for the college for which a need was long felt, was inaugurated in The latest addition is the Netaji Subhas Block which came up in the north western corner of the play-ground. This was formally inaugurated in A girls hostel, built with finance made available by the Planning Commission, was completed the same year. It was formally inaugurated in The physical expansion of the college kept pace with its changing environs. The College Street, on which the college is situated, has always been a fascinating locality housing numerous schools, colleges, and bookshops. The old book shops which have been an essential part of the college s traditions, can still reveal a gem or two (Michelet s History of France, for example). Quite understandably, the old laid-back ambience of the last century or the earlier part of this century is now lost. Many of the old landmarks like Jnan Babur Cabin (famous for its delicate snacks) or Paragon (a watering hole for the connoisseur of iced sharbat in all conceivable flavours) are now defunct. The Coffee House was the haunt of the students in the 1950s and the 1960s, when the college did not have a canteen ( heady discussions in the coffee house drugged by the aroma of the excellent coffee and phenomenal doses of the boys cigarette fumes which we girls passively inhaled ). It provided a home to lonesome poets, budding historians, scientists in the making with the same warmth as the firebrand revolutionaries of the late 1960s. It has since been superseded by the college canteen, presided over by Pramodda, while old-timers still remember the war-time canteen once run by Ray Mashai. The Teaching Tradition He was neither a fluent nor an eloquent speaker, the Oriental Magazine said of Derozio, but the little that he said contained bone and sinew, and furnished a large stock of accurate information. If Tarak Nath Sen belonged to this austere tradition, his master Prafulla Chandra Ghosh would fit better with what Macaulay had told Capt. Richardson: I may forget everything about India, but your reading of Shakespeare, never. Nearly half the teachers of the Hindu College were Indians. By contrast the Presidency College, which the government filled with Oxbridge-trained European staff belonging to the Imperial Education Service, had few Indian teachers in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Presidency College inherited from the parent body three Indian teachers who developed basic texts for the new type of education that was then being imparted in the schools: Peary Charan Sircar produced the basic primer of the English language, the First Book of Reading, Ram Chandra Mitter prepared in 1850, a map of Europe in Bengali character and this was lithographed at the government press; and Prasanna Kumar Sarvadhikari the ingenious mathematician who transplanted the arithmetic and algebra of Europe into the vernacular of Bengal. The new breed that transformed the character of the institution as it made the transition from the Hindu to the Presidency College was the all-white Imperial/ Indian Education Service. Theirs was the power, but some also had the glory: James Sutcliffe, E.B. Cowell, C.H. Tawney, Alfred W. Croft, Alexander Padlar, William Booth or Hugh William McCann (on whose sudden death his pupils, headed by the union secretary Ashutosh Mookerjea, erected a plaque in his memory in the library). The last two decades of the nineteenth century saw the coming of the first batch of acclaimed Indian Professors: H.M. Percival (an Anglo-Indian), Bipin Vehary Gupta, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Ray, Prasanna Kumar Ray, Benoyendra Nath Sen, Haraprasad Sashtri and Manmohan Ghosh, to name a few. All of them were condemned, at least initially, to the Provincial Education Service, victims of a system of racial discrimination. Harinath De, a versatile linguist, was the first Indian to be appointed directly to the Indian Education Service at the turn of the century. He, however, did not serve his old college for more than a couple of years ( ). As the new century progressed, more Indians were appointed to the IES: Jahangir Coyajee, Kuruvila Zachariah, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. Their worthy and illustrious colleagues like Subodh Chandra Mahalanobis, Hem Chandra Dasgupta, Prafulla Chandra Ghosh, Srikumar Banerjee were, however, still in the Provincial Service. It is indeed very strange that an eminent scholar like Charuchandra Bhatacharya was a Demonstrator in the department of physics. Shortly after the First World War, Bhupati Mohan Sen and Surendra Nath Dasgupta joined the distinghished group of Indian teachers. A new generation of outstanding Indian teachers now entered the Senior Common Room: Kules Chandra Kar, Taher Razwi, Jogish Chandra Sinha, Muhammad Qudrat-I-Khuda, Jyotirmoy Ghosh, Susobhan Chandra Sarkar, Sobodh Chandra Sengupta, U.N. Ghosal, Tarak Nath Sen, Gaurinath Bhattacharya (Sastri), Gopinath Bhattarcharya, Pratul Chandra Rakshit. The college tradition of breeding its outstanding teachers in its classrooms was well established by the mid-twentieth century. ( One s brilliant pupils in due time becoming one s valued colleagues. ) The tradition continued through the 1950s and 1960s when former pupils acquired eminence as brilliant teachers. Any list of such names can at best be illustrative and not exhaustive. Among the more prominent were Ashin Dasgupta, Amalesh Tripathi, Dilip Kumar Biswas (History), Sukhomoy Chakraborty, Dipak Banerjee, Mihir Rakshit, Amiya Kumar Bagchi (Economics), Amal Bhattacharya, Sailendra Nath Sen, Arun Dasgupta, Sukanta Chaudhuri (English), Mihir Chaudhuri (Chemistry), Sivatosh Mukherjee (Zoology), Satyesh Chakraborty (Geography), Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, and many others. Students and Politics Presidency College s student politics, despite the occasional attention it has received, has been, with one major exception, relatively quiet. Other incidents have attracted attention as well; but the crowning moment for student politics at Presidency College, both in the organisational sense as well as in terms of its significance, was the period now referred to as the Naxal period a term which was given with retrospective effect from 1966, when the beginnings of the radical left movement which later claimed that name were being felt at the college. A history of Presidency College student politics therefore needs to foreground that period; if this hasn t been done already, it is mainly due to the reticences the memories involved still provoke. Nevertheless, there were other periods in the College s history when student politics created a certain impact; it is these periods which this section seeks to address. The Derozians were a recognisable group comprising students of the Hindu College. It is with this group, or in its wider appellation of Young Bengal, that organised student activity, it is possible to argue, started. Such activities centered round the different debating societies like the Academic Association or The Society for the Acquisition of General Knowledge. Many students of the Hindu College were recognised as rebels against social and religious orthodoxy and, quite often, such rebellions 28 29
18 took the form of puerile excesses like throwing bones of cows into the houses of orthodox Hindu gentlemen. For many, the youthful non-conformism did not go beyond imbibing alcoholic drinks and eating beef. Their confused intellectual growing up did reveal complexities which they did not appreciate. Many of them later settled down with confortable jobs in the middle levels of colonial bureaucracy. Yet their rebellion was not without a point. What was important was the identity of Hindu College students, an identity that was further cemented after the conversion of the Hindu College to Presidency College. Conflict between the students and the college authorities was not unknown Bipin Chandra Pal narrates an incident. An English professor offended the dignity of a student by asking him to stand like a schoolboy in front of the class. This led to a demonstration of the first and second year classes and even an assault upon the professor. The boy responsible for the assault was expelled. Another teacher caused a students strike by scoffing at the temerity of Surendra Nath Banerjea and other Indians during the Ilbert Bill controversy. This led to students demonstrations in Calcuttta and Dacca. The students, however, were yet to be formally organised. It is interesting to note that a Presidency College Union was founded on 8 September, 1877, by J.V.S. Pope, Professor of English Literature, Presidency College, to root out the feeling of disunion prevalent among students and to unite them as fellow-workers in the cause of self-improvement. Thus the first attempt to provide an official forum to the students, though not on democratic lines, came from the teachers. The union held only three meetings during the year, but of its activities nothing is known. There was a conspicuous lack of interest, it would seem, among the students The Derozians were a recognisable group comprising students of the Hindu College. It is with this group, or in its wider appellation of Young Bengal, that organised student activity, it is possible to argue, started and the union almost died a natural death. However, some first year and third year students gave it a new lease of life. The most eminent of these students was Ashutosh Mookerjea. A meeting was held on 25th February, 1882, and the students present resolved not to let die the noble object of the founder-president Prof. Pope. Prof. H.M. Percival was requested to preside at the meeting and he readily agreed. In July, a halfyearly meeting was held with Mr. Bellet, the Principal in the chair. For some time a lively interest in the union was taken both by the students and some teachers, including the Principal. It would seem that the union was little more than a debating society and appeared to have emulated the example set by the Derozians. A special meeting of the union was held on 1 July, 1884, to condole the death of Dr McCann. After the meeting a subscription list was opened to collect funds to raise a suitable memorial for Dr. McCann. No records of the functioning of the union from 1888 to 1904 are available. However, an attempt to revive the college union seems to have taken place about 1905 when Dr. P.K. Ray, the first Indian Principal of the college, drew up a set of union rules. Nothing very substantial emerged out of this attempt, though the union did function for some time amd elected as secretary Rajendra Prasad, who later became the first President of the Indian republic. In 1914, Principal H.R. James set up a Consultative Committee of student representatives. The Committee was however, suspended in 1916 on account of disturbances in the college Students in Bengal came into maintream nationalist politics from the time of the Swadeshi movement, though Presidency College students were not prominent in that period. The first organised students association in Bengal was formed in 1924, with Acharya P.C. Ray of Swadeshi and Bengal Chemical fame, and a teacher in the Chemistry department of Presidency College as its first chairman. Among the society s professed aims were to foster friendship between students of different colleges; to organise Volunteer Corps with students of different colleges to serve needy people and students in all spheres of life; to start a students home for needy students; to start education lectures with the help of eminent scholars of the country; to arrange financial assistance to poor student. This organisation lasted up to The All Bengal Students Association gave a call to the students of Calcutta to join the hartal on the occasion of the Simon Commission visit on 3 February, Pramod Ghosal was elected secretary of the college union in 1927; on 20 January, 1928, the College s Foundation Day, he gave a speech touching on the country s aspirations for freedom in the course of which he mentioned Subhas Bose (who had been expelled following the Oaten incident) as one of the distinguished ex-students of the college; the function also witnessed the singing of Bande Mataram and the wearing of tricolour badges symbolic of the Congress flag. The college authorities called on Ghosal to explain his conduct; he was suspended for refusing to recant. Following this, in February 1928, there was significant unrest in the college, followed by police action. On the night of 3 February, according to information received by Principal H.E. Stapleton, Subhas Chandra Bose visited the Hindu Hostel to organise a strike against the visit of Simon Commission to India. Stapleton injudiciously called the DPI, E.F. Oaten, to inspect the happenings in the college on 4 February. This angered the students who remembered the Oaten incident quite well. The police beat up some students during the strike and Pramod Ghosal sustained injuries. The Principal is said to have been quite indifferent when excited students informed him of Ghosal s injuries. The situation took an ugly turn when a body of infuriated students started throwing stones into the Principal s room. That he escaped with his life on that day was attributed by the Prabasi magazine to the timely intervention of the head of the department of philosophy, Surendranath Dasgupta. According to Stapleton s report to the government, he left the college premises in the car of Jehangir Coyajee (the head of the department of economics). Pramod Ghosal was expelled from the college. Excerpts from Benjamin Zachariah, Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty and Rajat Kanta Ray, Presidency College: An Unfinished History in Mushirul Hassan (Ed.), Knowledge, Power and Politics: Educational Institutions in India (Roli Books, New Delhi, 1998) Benjamin Zachariah Alumnus (History/ , Teacher since November 2012) Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty Alumnus (History/ , Teacher since 1988) Rajat Kanta Ray Alumnus (History/ , Teacher , Emeritus since 2006) 30 31
19 Living History I entered the hallowed portals of Presidency College in 1972, in awe of its history, its heritage, its luminaries, its famous teachers and its contribution to society at large. So much so that it was at times easy to forget that it was primarily a center of excellence for undergraduate teaching. It was actually much more. The department of Economics that I joined was a UGC supported Center for Economic Studies, the Statistics department had the distinction of having given birth to the Indian Statistical Institute, the Physics and Chemistry departments were at the cutting edge of knowledge in the pure sciences. The History and English departments not only had some of the great teachers of the time but the prettiest and trendiest crowd on campus. It was a heady mix of a great student life and experience of a society in transition. The maelstorm of the late sixties ( ) was behind us and we happily immersed ourselves into the enjoyment of life as normal undergrads. The lessons of the chaotic sixties were perhaps subconsciously absorbed and the majority concentrated on activities that normal undergraduate students should be doing concentrating on studies, on fragile relationships, sports, music and the important business of growing up and BHASKAR MAJUMDAR getting educated. The big man on campus was no longer the leftist idealist trying to bring in social change through armed struggle. The events of the sixties, in fact, had the effect of keeping students away from active politics on campus during our time. Students had their political views and these were debated and discussed, but engaging in active politics had been relegated to a fringe activity even though political parties had been trying to exert control from outside. The political honchos were not in control of student life at Presidency, a situation that would change for the worse years later. This was also the time that the Presidency cultural festival Melee was introduced. While the student body reflected society at large, there was change in the air. Figure hugging jeans and T-shirts were to be seen more often and Dylan and Floyd could be heard in the portico, corridors and canteen, though this segment was not in the majority. The surprising thing was that the Westernized and the traditional were not at odds with each other but wonderfully interacted and felt comfortable with each other. It said something about the liberal atmosphere on the campus, which, like it or not, was definitely elitist, not in terms of the social background that students came from, but intellectually. It is this base of good students coming together to meet a great body of teachers that set Presidency apart. It led to a cross-fertilization of ideas and, as a result, it avoided the one-dimensional syndrome with which we might label many of the engineering students that come out of India s institutes today. My thinking is that it is through a happy coincidence rather than planned institutional design that some outstanding academics and teachers had come together at Presidency in those days. Many had international experience and passed on their values to us. Sukanta Chaudhuri returned from Oxford University in 1973 and began teaching at the department of English. At the Department of Economics, Amiya Bagchi was from the University of Cambridge, Dipak Banerjee was from the University of California at Berkeley and they passed on their eclectic values to us pushing us towards heightened curiosity and intellectual exploration. Amartya Sen used to visit his alma mater often and we were the beneficiaries of excellent visiting professors from other universities in India and abroad. Importantly, unlike some other places of higher learning, ideology of any kind was not imposed, subtly or directly. We were well aware of Professor Bagchi s leanings toward the Left, but he never had a one sided approach. We were informed of the alternatives and urged to reason it out for ourselves. That many of them did not think much of the antiquated course structure of Calcutta University was obvious. One day, at a first year macro economics class, Dipak Banerjee urged us to learn the principles and concepts of economics and not restrict ourselves to the syllabus of Calcutta University. So we were gently encouraged to travel well beyond the textbooks and syllabus, into contemporary research papers and think conceptually and solve problems. The bane of an Indian education learning by rote, was conspicuous by its absence. The rigid structure of the Calcutta University syllabus had to be taken in our stride, as we could do little to change it. Unlike many other colleges, at Presidency the study of mathematics was compulsory for all students taking Honours in Economics. However, we had to study the subject with fellow students from the Physics department for whom the syllabus had been originally structured. Thus, as students of Economics it was compulsory for us to learn the mathematics of astronomy, but not some of the mathematics that is relevant to applications of Economics. It will now be easier for Presidency University to structure its own courses and pedagogy than in our days. While we enjoyed life on College Street, with endless discussions at the Coffee House, visits to Putiram, playing for the college cricket team, following the domination of the Presidency Debating and Quiz teams, or romping off to Khajuraho on field trips with the History department, there were some negatives that could not be wished away. The maintenance of infrastructure within the college was appalling. Though many like to romanticize Promodeda s canteen, it was like a roadside dhaba and not fit for a college like Presidency. A visit to the student cafes at St. Stephens, the Delhi School of Economics, the Physics cafeteria at Delhi University, if not to While we enjoyed life on College Street, with endless discussions at the Coffee House, visits to Putiram, playing for the college cricket team, following the domination of the Presidency Debating and Quiz teams, or romping off to Khajuraho on field trips with the History department, there were some negatives that could not be wished away the universities of the West, would show what undergraduate students experience elsewhere, even in state run institutions. The cafeterias elsewhere were also great places for interaction between teachers and students and segregating them is not a very good idea. In our days one entered the toilettes of the college at one s own risk, they were so unhygienic and unclean. It perhaps reflected our society s nature to keep things clean and hygienic within our homes, but dangerously unclean outside. The Hindu Hostel has no standard to talk about. The living and hygienic standards are no better than slums. For a university and center for excellence halls of residence must uniformly be of a high standard. This is a basic requirement for universities world-wide. Universities in Bengal do not seem to realize this. Perhaps a visit to the Halls of Residence at Delhi University or JNU will show what minimum standards should be. Over the years, the illegal bookshops outside the college gates have been romanticized. They hide the façade of the wonderful main building, the statue and make it look like some slum area, definitely unfit for the campus of Presidency University. Just as productivity improves at a well lit and refurbished office or work place, well designed and better infrastructure will have a positive influence on students and teachers alike and a wonderful opportunity has presented itself now. The new university should deviate from the old approach of the PWD and embrace contemporary practice in developing infrastructure both physical and digital. Over the years, party politics spread its wings in the College and the transformation was complete during the long reign of the Left Front. This is in sharp contrast to the atmosphere at, say, the University of Delhi, or any university in the West. At the centre of it was the party doctrine that education must be rid of the control of elitists and made democratic. Presidency was, to the dominant party, the ultimate symbol of elitism in education in Bengal. The misplaced anti- English campaign at the time was also part of the same political agenda. But dismantling elitism and democratizing education was 32 33
20 the ideological mask for a political design. It was the party s way of infiltrating the middle classes and exercising social control. This was the beginning of a sorry decline of Presidency in recent years saved only by its recent transformation to the status of a university. The ruling party wanted Presidency to become like the lowest common denominator be like every other mediocre state college. The easiest way to achieve this was through transfer of like-minded teachers from places which are not known for academic excellence into Presidency, and not to invest in infrastructure. It worked. The party machine and its ideology managed to systematically destroy the excellence that Presidency stood for. The job at hand now is to reverse this process. While it would not be an easy task, the university must do its utmost to stamp out party politics from campus and bring in the free flowing shared intellectual atmosphere of old. It must aspire to be far more than what the old college used to be. This obviously means that greater resources would be required. My friend and contemporary Chiranjit Banerjee points out that Presidency has not been known to mint millionaires, much less billionaires who can contribute as alumni. The college has leant very heavily on government largesse and, as long as the college does that, there would be a yawning mismatch between lofty aspirations and progress on the ground. We studied at Presidency nearly free of cost. Those days are over. Those who become used to heavily subsidized education rarely want to change, as depicted by recent student protests in Montreal or in Britain. Obviously this attitude would need to change. Other models are available for funding the development of Presidency University. Fund raising could come from a combination of Corporate partnerships, government support (though without total reliance), private endowments/ benefactors, alumni contributions, targeted fundraising programs, professional fund management Presidency has traditionally placed great emphasis on and has always honoured its academic luminaries who have made their mark in the academic profession and returns from investment and contributions from parents of enrolled students on voluntary basis. Not everyone will be able to afford higher fees, hence there would be a need for merit and needbased scholarships as well as loan programs. Most people are unaware that there are existing student loan programs from banks like SBI which are generous and can be repaid over the very long term when one starts earning. I am sure, the mentor group and university administration have ideas on how to go about this. But, managing a college and a modern university require different skill sets and professional advice should be sought for going forward. Presidency has traditionally placed great emphasis on and has always honoured its academic luminaries who have made their mark in the academic profession. I think the new university needs to draw significantly from the experience of its alumni from all walks of life as their significant successes go unrecognized. There is a view that in the past, Presidencians have remained in academics, become journalists or bureaucrats and there are hardly any names to talk about in the corporate world, business and other fields, where possibly our friends from St. Xavier s College or St. Stephen s have had greater impact. The argument against this view is that we should not expect an educational institution like Presidency, or any other undergraduate college of its kind, who are part of a University with its own curriculum, to impart special training to its students to become captains of commerce. The purpose of education is to educate and, in the process, to develop the ability to think on one s own and act as good citizens and that is preparing for life. The rest must be left to individuals, their inclinations and abilities. Presidency has traditionally produced people for more cerebral activities than purely vocational pursuits. My guess is that the number of Presidencians who have done their PhDs or done other specialist qualifications after postgraduation is relatively higher than most other undergraduate colleges in India. Also, the path that one takes depends on the subject that you choose and one s inclination. If one has done History or English in college, chances are that you will find them in the world of journalism, advertising, teaching or authorship. Chitra Banerjee Divakarune (Mistress of Spices etc) was my contemporary at Presidency in the English Department and she gets a million dollar advance for every book that she writes, other than showing a great deal of compassion in the charitable and social work that she does. Anita Mehta my contemporary (Physics) was awarded and recognized as India s leading female physicist and is in high demand across the research world. Even here in Kuwait where I currently work there are a number of Presidencians in the Energy (Oil and Gas) sector who are originally from the Geology department of Presidency and who honed their skills with corporations like ONGC. I know of many who have excelled and are very successful in the legal and financial worlds in India and abroad. The world of hi-tech and Information Technology is full of successful Presidencians. Many of my colleagues, who are not professors, can be found in the IMF and World Bank. There is a huge amount of diversity that is probably unmatched elsewhere. Many of my colleagues, who are not professors, can be found in the IMF, World Bank. There is a huge amount of diversity that is probably unmatched elsewhere This does not take us away from the fact that the old Presidency College did not have a tradition of recognizing the contributions of its non-academic stars and acknowledged success only in the narrow field of academics with academics judging other academics. Success in the rough and tumble of the real world continues to be overlooked. Going forward, the college has to recognize this and the new university would do well to chart a new course. It will give it the opportunity to draw from the collective expertise of its illustrious alumni who have excelled in building institutions and much more. Here are some more luminaries from non-academic fields including the corporate world and there are many more S M Datta, CMD of Hindustan Lever, Arun C Mukherjee, ex-chairman of LIC, D N Ghosh, ex-chairman SBI, Philips and L&T during the eightees and ninetees, the late Supriya Gupta, founder CMD of Axis Bank (then UTI Bank) etc. Datta and Ghosh continue to be very famous men in business circles and continue to chair many leading companies in a nonexecutive capacity. D N Ghosh has written many books, the latest being Business and Polity where he sweeps economic history of the world for the last three millennia and offers an interesting thesis. Through these examples, I can make a generalization. Whatever the field of one s choice, Presidencians have never curbed their intellectual curiosity throughout their lives and gone beyond mere vocational excellence. However, the achievements and greatness of its teachers and its alumni have been much too individualistic and there is a significant gap in an institutionalized set of traditions. It is this that the new Presidency University needs to build as it becomes a center of excellence once again, only this time, pitched much higher. Alumnus (Economics/ ) 34 35
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