Brajendranath De

2022-01-29T09:12:17Z

2402:3A80:1CD6:B70A:778:5634:1232:5476: /* Career */

{{more citations needed|date=September 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Brajendranath De
| image = 
| alt = 
| caption =
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1852|12|23}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1932|09|20|1852|12|23}} ({{lang-bn|৮০}})
| death_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal]], [[British India]]
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = Civil Servant
| years_active = 1873-1910
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse = Nagendranandini De ({{lang-bn|নগেন্দ্রনন্দিনি দে}}) (nee Bose) ({{lang-bn|বসু}}) 
| children = 12
}}

'''Brajendranath De''' ({{lang-bn|'''ব্রজেন্দ্রনাথ দে'''}}) (23 December, 1852 – 20 September, 1932) ({{lang-bn|১০ পৌষ, ১২৫৯ - ০৪ আশ্বিন, ১৩৩৯}}) was an early Indian member of the Indian Civil Service.<ref name="indiasagawhoswho">[http://indiansaga.com/whoswho/brajendra.html Indiasaga Who's Who]</ref>

==Early life and education==
De, a member of a Kayastha-Brahmo family of Calcutta, was born to Durgadas De (দূর্গাদাস দে), an early student of Hindu College, Calcutta (later renamed Presidency University) and Trailokyamohini Debi (ত্রৈলোক্যমোহিনী দেবী). He studied at [[Hare School]], [[Calcutta]], and then Canning Collegiate School and Canning College, Lucknow,<ref name="Full Text of 'Tabaqat-i-Akbari'">[https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.116007/2015.116007.The-Tabaqat-i-akbari-Of-Khwajah-Nizamuddin-Ahmad-Voliii_djvu.txt Full Text of 'Tabaqat-i-Akbari']</ref> where he was a pupil of Saiyid Husain Bilgrami.

Later, he travelled to England for his higher studies, joining University College, London to appear in the Open Competitive Services examination. He joined the ICS in 1873,<ref>{{cite book |last=India Office, Great Britain |date=1905 |title=The India List and India Office List 1905 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2NPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA447 |publisher=Harrison and Sons |page=447}}</ref> becoming the 8th Indian member of the steel frame.<ref name="womenofindia">Geraldine Forbes, 'Women in Modern India', The New Cambridge History of India, Volume IV.2, (Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 28–29</ref> Subsequently, he was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple on 7 June 1875.<ref>Renu Paul (in consultation with Mitra Sharafi), 'South Asians at the Inns of Court: Middle Temple, 1863-1944', compilation based on H. A. C. Sturgess, (eds.) Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. From the Fifteenth Century to the Year 1944 (London: published for the Hon. Society of the Middle Temple by Butterworth & Co., 1949), volumes II (1782-1909) and III (1910-44), p. 2.</ref> He was admitted to St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he spent one year, from 1874-1875, on a Boden Sanskrit Scholarship, attending lectures of Max Mueller and Monier-Williams.<ref name="oxforduniversitycalender">Oxford University Calendar, 1875, p. 366</ref><ref name="bkde'snote"> Note written by his third eldest son, Basanta Kumar De, on the occasion of his mother's 50th death anniversary in 1969.</ref>

His fifth eldest daughter was [[Saroj Nalini Dutt]]<ref name="womenofindia"/> and his third eldest son was [[Basanta Kumar De]], whose son was [[Barun De]].

==Career==
He took up his first posting in the civil service as assistant magistrate and collector of Arrah, Behar in 1875. After serving in a number of districts in Behar, he was posted in Raniganj, Bengal in 1881.<ref>[http://www.mocavo.com/The-New-Annual-Army-List-Militia-List-and-Indian-Civil-Service-List-1881-Volume-1881/393337/783 Military and ICS Manual]</ref> He officiated as the district magistrate and collector of Bankura, Burdwan and Faridpore. He served as the full district magistrate and collector of Khulna, where he was befriended by Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh, the civil surgeon of the district, and the father of Aurobindo Ghosh.<ref name="sriaurobindo"> Peter Heehs, 'The Lives of Sri Aurobindo', (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2008), p. 33</ref><ref name="governmentnotifications">Government Notifications: Orders by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, 6 August, 1893, in 'The Liberal and the New Dispensation', Volume XII, Issue 30, Calcutta, R.S. Bhattacharji, p. 9</ref> He became the magistrate and collector of [[Balasore district|Balasore]] in [[Orissa]] and then of [[Malda district|Malda]] and [[Hooghly district|Hooghly]].<ref name="Bengalee">"Mr. B. De", in ''Bengalee'', 7 September 1910; see also ''Indian Daily'' News, 3 September 1910</ref> He was the first Indian to be elected as chairman of the Hooghly Municipal Corporation. He was an (acting) commissioner of the Burdwan Division.<ref name="socialthoughtofrabindranathtagore">Tapati Dutta Gupta, 'Social Thought of Rabindranath Tagore: A Historical Analysis', Abhinav Publications, p. 122, 1993</ref><ref name="liberty">"Late Mr. B. De.: Passing Away of an Old Civilian" in ''Liberty'', Friday, 30 September 1932</ref>

As the district officer of Hooghly, he started the Duke Club there which was meant to be exclusively for Indians.<ref name="britishness">Mrinalini Sinha, 'Britishness, Clubbability, and the Colonial Public Sphere: The Genealogy of an Imperial Institution in Colonial India', in 'The Journal of British Studies', Volume 4, Issue 44, October 2001, pp. 489–521</ref> One of his commissioners once told him not to entertain the thought of wanting to join a British club in the district.<ref name="bodiesincontact">Tony Ballantyne, 'Bodies in Contact', Duke University Press, 2005, p.193</ref>

De retired from active service in 1910.

==Post-Retirement==
After retirement he remained involved in the work of the Calcutta Improvement Trust.<ref name="latemrbdepassingawayofanoldcivilian">'Late Mr. B.De: Passing Away of An Old Civilian' in ''Liberty'', Friday, 30 September 1932</ref><ref name="latemr.b.decalcuttacorporationtributes">"Late Mr. B. De, Calcutta Corporation Tributes", in ''Liberty'', Saturday, 1 October 1932</ref> He served as a vice-president of the council of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.<ref name="birthcentenaryofbdecelebrated">"Birth Centenary of B.De Celebrated" in ''The Statesman'', Wednesday, 24 December 1952</ref><ref name="latemrbdecelebration">"He Rehabilitated Persian in Bengal: Tributes to Late B.De: Birthday Celebration" in ''Amrita Bazar Patrika'', Wednesday, 24 December 1952</ref>

==Academic==
De translated Kalidasa's 'Vikramorvasi' and 'Manichudabadana' from Sanskrit to English.<ref name="latemrbdepassingawayofanoldcivilian"/> He edited an English-Bengali dictionary<ref name="liberty"/> and published an article on inter dining in the Madras Social Reformer (1910).

He was the translator and editor, in two volumes, of [[Nizamuddin Ahmad]]'s '' The Tabaqat-i-Akbari''. The third volume, which he had left fully prepared, was posthumously published by Baini Prasad and M. Hidayat Hosain.<ref name="mr.b.dedeadretiredmemberofthecivilservice">"Mr.B.De Dead Retired Member of the Civil Service" in ''The Statesman'', 30 September 1932</ref><ref name="thestatusofmuslimwomeninmedievalindia">[https://books.google.com/books?id=yF4lDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT120&lpg=PT120&dq=Tabaqat+i+Akbari+-+Beni+Prasad&source=bl&ots=jpsDUeBIsE&sig=9Z1X7kHfL-B_-mTgLvZz8RuvAiU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJn-XwhNnOAhXLNo8KHV7XDlgQ6AEIITAB#v=onepage&q=Tabaqat%20i%20Akbari%20-%20Beni%20Prasad&f=false Sudha Sharma, ''Status of Muslim Women in Medieval India'', Allahabad]</ref><ref name="Full Text of 'Tabaqat-i-Akbari'"/>

==Legacy==
A road in Chinsura, the headquarter of Hooghly district<ref name="mapofchinsura">[https://www.google.com/maps/place/B.Dey+Rd,+Hooghly,+West+Bengal+712101/@22.9025053,88.3949378,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x39f893f96abb29e3:0x854c02d1d9d97a7d!8m2!3d22.9025053!4d88.3971265 Map of Chinsura, Hooghly, Bengal]</ref> and a hall in Malda, the headquarter of Malda district<ref name="mapofmalda"> [https://www.google.com/search?q=B.De+Hall%2C+Malda&oq=B.De+Hall%2C+Malda&aqs=chrome..69i57.15054j0j7&client=ms-android-samsung-gj-rev1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#istate=lrl:mlt&trex=m_r:1,m_t:gwp,rc_q:B.De%2520Hall%252C%2520Malda,rc_ui:1,ru_gwp:0%252C6,ru_q:B.De%2520Hall%252C%2520Malda,trex_id:A9QtDb Map of Malda, Bengal]</ref> are named after him.

==Publications==

*(Ed. & tran.), Kālidāsa's play [[Vikramōrvaśīyam|Vikramorvasi]], Canto I., in ''[[Calcutta Review]]'', Oct. 1884, pp. 440–2.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Schuyler, Jr.|first=Montgomery|title=Bibliography of Kālidāsa's Mālavikāgnimitra and Vikramorvaçī|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|date=1902|volume=23|pages=93–101|jstor=592384|doi=10.2307/592384}}</ref>
* (Ed. & tran.), ''The Tabaqat-i-Akbari of Khwaja Nizamuddin Ahmad: A History of India from the Early Musalman Invasions to the Thirty-eighth year of the Reign of Akbar'' (in 3 Vols.), (Calcutta, reprint, 1973)<ref>[http://www.lppindia.com/servlet/lppgetbiblio?bno=000476 Tabaqat-i-Akbari by Khwaja Nizamuddin Ahmed]</ref>
* "Reminiscences of an Indian Member of the Indian Civil Service", in ''Calcutta Review'', (1953–5) (in 3 parts).<ref>[http://dspace.wbpublibnet.gov.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10689/12810/10/Bibliography.pdf Reminiscences of an Indian Member of the Indian Civil Service' in the Calcutta Review]</ref><ref name="feministpostcolonialisttheory">[https://books.google.com/books?id=ccFuGe-hBt0C&pg=PA456&lpg=PA456&dq=Brajendranath+De+-+Presidency+College&source=bl&ots=K2kq_JjbhL&sig=V-I5vHvmGjlu79Vk2GPSfn-c9QY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiD0cvf8u7ZAhVMo48KHYq3CRU4ChDoAQgyMAM#v=onepage&q=Brajendranath%20De%20-%20Presidency%20College&f=false Mrinalini Sinha, "Reconfiguring Hiararchies: The Ilbert Bill Controversy, 1883-84", in Reina Lewis and Sarah Mills, ''Feminist Post-Colonialist Theory: A Reader'', New York and London, Routledge, 2003, p. 456]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
* [http://www.asiaticsocietycal.com/ The Asiatic Society, Calcutta]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:De, Brajendranath}}
[[Category:1852 births]]
[[Category:1932 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Mary Hall, Oxford]]
[[Category:Bengali historians]]
[[Category:19th-century Bengalis]]
[[Category:20th-century Bengalis]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:Brahmos]]
[[Category:Historians of South Asia]]
[[Category:Indian barristers]]
[[Category:Indian civil servants]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]
[[Category:Indian orientalists]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian historians]]
[[Category:People from Hooghly district]]
[[Category:Persian–English translators]]
[[Category:Sanskrit–English translators]]
[[Category:Hare School alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:University of Lucknow alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian historians]]
[[Category:Scholars from Kolkata]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian lawyers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian lawyers]]
[[Category:Members of the Middle Temple]]
[[Category:19th-century translators]]

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Brajendranath De