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{{short description|Bengali educator, jurist, barrister and mathematician (1864-1924)}}
{{for|the writer Ashutosh Mukherjee|Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = '''[[Sir]]'''
| name = Ashutosh Mukherjee
| image = Sir Asutosh Mukharji.JPG
| honorific_suffix = <small>[[Order of the Star of India|CSI]], [[Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh|FRSE]], [[Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society|FRAS]], [[Physical Society of London|FPSL]], [[Royal Irish Academy|MRIA]]</small>
| alt =
| caption = Ashutosh Mukherjee
| pseudonym = The Tiger of Bengal <br> বাংলার বাঘ
| office = Vice Chancellor of [[Calcutta University]]
| term1 = 31 March 1906 - 30 March 1914
| predecessor1 = Alexander Pedler
| successor1 = Devaprasad Sarvadhikary
| term = 4 April 1921 - 3 April 1923
| predecessor = Nilratan Sircar
| successor = Bhupendranath Basu
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1864|06|29}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British India]] (now [[Kolkata]], [[West Bengal]], [[India]])
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1924|5|25|1864|06|29}}
| death_place = [[Patna]], [[Bihar and Orissa Province]], [[British India]] (now in [[Bihar]], [[India]])
| resting_place = Russa Road, [[Calcutta]] (Now 77 Ashutosh Mookerjee Road, Kolkata – 700025)
| occupation = Educator and the second Indian [[Vice-Chancellor]] of the [[University of Calcutta]] Judge of the [[Calcutta High Court]] (1903-1924)
| nationality = [[India]]n
| citizenship = British
| education =
| alma_mater = [[University of Calcutta]] ([[B.A.]], [[M.A.]], [[M.Sc]], [[LL.D.]])
| period =
| genre =
| subject =
| notableworks =
| spouse = Jogomaya Devi
| children = Rama Prasad Mukherjee, [[Syama Prasad Mukherjee]], Uma Prasad Mukherjee, Bama Prasad Mukherjee
| awards = [[Knight Bachelor]] (1911)<br>Companion of the [[Order of the Star of India]] (CSI, 1909)
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| website =
| portaldisp =
| relative =
}}
'''Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CSI|FRAS|FRSE|FPSL|MRIA}}<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/><ref name="Asutosh_maths"/> (anglicised, originally '''Asutosh Mukhopadhyay''',<ref name="Asutosh_maths">{{cite web|title=The mathematician in Asutosh Mukhopadhyay|url=http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/107/08/1339.pdf|website=[[Current Science]]|access-date=29 September 2017}}</ref> also anglicised to '''Asutosh Mookerjee''') (29 June 1864 – 25 May 1924) was a prolific [[Bengali people|Bengali]] educator, jurist, barrister and mathematician. He was the first student to be awarded a dual degree (MA in Mathematics and MSc in Physics) from [[University of Calcutta|Calcutta University]]. Perhaps the most emphatic figure of Indian education, he was a man of great personality, high self-respect, courage and towering administrative ability. The second Indian [[Vice-Chancellor]] of the [[University of Calcutta]] for four consecutive two-year terms (1906–1914) and a fifth two-year term (1921–23), Mukherjee was responsible for the foundation of the ''Bengal Technical Institute'' in 1906, which later known as [[Jadavpur University]] and the University College of Science ([[Rajabazar Science College]]) of the [[Calcutta University]] in 1914.

Mukherjee also played a vital role in the founding of the University College of Law popularly known as [[Hazra Law College]]. The [[Calcutta Mathematical Society]] was also founded by Mukherjee in 1908 and he served as the president of the Society from 1908 to 1923.<ref>Patrick Petitjean, [[Catherine Jami]] and Anne Marie Moulin eds. (1992) ''Science and Empires'', Boston Study in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 136, Kluwer Academic Publishers. {{ISBN|978-94-011-2594-9}}, {{DOI|10.1007/978-94-011-2594-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.calmathsoc.org |title=Calcutta Mathematical Society |publisher=Calmathsoc.org |access-date=12 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531145908/http://calmathsoc.org/ |archive-date=31 May 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was also the president of the inaugural session of the [[Indian Science Congress]] in 1914 held at the [[Rajabazar Science College]], which he founded. The [[Ashutosh College]] was also founded under his stewardship in 1916, when he was Vice-chancellor of [[University of Calcutta]].

He was often called "''Banglar Bagh''" ("Tiger of Bengal") for his high self-esteem, courage and academic integrity.<ref>{{cite web|title=Asutosh Mukhopadhyay: An eminent educator who made Bengalis proud|url=http://www.anandabazar.com/patrika/ashutosh-mukherjee-an-eminent-educator-who-made-bengalis-proud-1.960305}}</ref>

According to historian D.R. Bhandarkar, the epithet ‘Vikramaditya’ is also ascribed to Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee.<ref>{{cite news|title=First in class|newspaper=The Hindu
|date=29 June 2013
|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/first-in-class/article4862894.ece
|last1=Dutta
|first1=Ashis
}}</ref>

== Family history ==
Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee's ancestral town was [[Jirat]] in [[Hooghly District]] , [[West Bengal]] .<ref name = "Ghatak1">Ghatak, Atulchandra, ''Ashutosher Chatrajiban Ed. 8th'', 1954, p 1, Chakraborty Chatterjee & Co. Ltd.</ref> His grandfather actually came to Jirat from another village named Digsui, situated also in the Hooghly District and settled down there . Sir Ashutosh's father Ganga Prasad Mukherjee was born in [[Jirat]] , [[Hooghly District]] on 16th December , 1836 .<ref name = "Ghatak1">Ghatak, Atulchandra, ''Ashutosher Chatrajiban Ed. 8th'', 1954, p 1, Chakraborty Chatterjee & Co. Ltd.</ref> He was a very meritorious student and he came to [[Kolkata]] to study in [[Medical College]] with the help of the wealthy people of [[Jirat]]. Later he settled down in [[Bhawanipore]] area of [[Kolkata]] .

==Early life==
Ashutosh Mukherjee was born on 29 June 1864 at [[Bowbazar]], Kolkata in a [[Brahmin]] family to Jagattarini Devi and Ganga Prasad Mukhopadhyaya, a well-known doctor who founded the South Sub Urban School in Calcutta. Among his ancestors were several distinguished Sanskrit scholars, including Pandit Ramchandra Tarkalankar, a professor of ''[[nyaya]]'' who had been appointed by [[Warren Hastings]] to that chair at the Sanskrit College in Kolkata.<ref name="Asutosh_life">{{cite web|title=Sir Asutosh Mukherjee: educationist, leader and institution-builder|url=http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_078_12_1566_1573_0.pdf|website=[[Current Science]]|access-date=29 September 2017}}</ref> Brought up in an atmosphere of science and literature at home, young Asutosh went to the Sisu Vidyalaya at Chakraberia, [[Bhowanipore]] and showed an early aptitude for mathematics. When he was young, he met [[Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar]] who was a major influence on him. He was a student of [[Madhusudan Das]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.mslawcollege.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84&Itemid=29 |title=Our History |work=mslawcollege.org |year=2012 |quote=Ashutosh Mukherjee, the then Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University who was a student of Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das |access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref>

==Accomplishments as a mathematician==
In November 1879, at the age of fifteen, Mukherjee passed the entrance exam of the [[Calcutta University]] in which he stood second and received a first grade scholarship.<ref name="Asutosh_life"/> In the year 1880, he took admission at the [[Presidency College, Kolkata|Presidency College]] now (Presidency University) in [[Kolkata]] where he met [[Prafulla Chandra Roy|P.C. Ray]] and Narendranath Dutta who would later become famous as [[Swami Vivekananda]]. Later that year, though only a first-year undergraduate, he published his first mathematical paper, on a new proof of the 25th proposition of Euclid's first book.<ref name="Asutosh_life"/>

In 1883, Mukherjee topped the BA examination at [[Calcutta University]]<ref>{{cite book |author=Rachana Chakrabarty |year=2012 |chapter=Premchand Roychand Studentship |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Premchand_Roychand_Studentship |editor1=Sirajul Islam |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2=Ahmed A. Jamal |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> to complete a postgraduate degree in mathematics. In 1883 S.N. Banerjee wrote an article in the newspaper ''Bengalee'' against the orders of the Calcutta High Court and he was arrested in contempt of court. Protests and ''hartals'' erupted across Bengal and other cities, led by a group of students headed by Mukherjee at Calcutta high court. In 1884, he won the Harishchandra Prize for academic achievements, and completed an M.A. with first-class honours in mathematics in 1885.<ref name="Asutosh_life"/> In 1886, he was awarded a second Masters in Natural Sciences, making him the first student to be awarded a dual degree from Calcutta University.<ref name="Asutosh_life"/> In the same year he was married to Jogomaya Devi, and also published his third mathematical paper, "A Note on Elliptic Functions." The paper was praised by the distinguished British mathematician and Fellow of the [[Royal Society]] [[Arthur Cayley]] as a contribution of "outstanding merit."<ref name="Asutosh_life"/> Mukherjee was recognised for his achievements by the grant of the Premchand Roychand Fellowship in Mathematics and Physics, Pure and Applied.<ref name="Asutosh_maths"/> Still only aged 22, he was further recognised by his election as a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] (FRSE).<ref name="Asutosh_maths"/> By 1888, Mukherjee was a lecturer in mathematics for the recently established [[Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science]] (IACS).<ref>''IACS - Annual Report for the Year 1888''</ref>

Mukherjee continued publishing scholarly papers on mathematics and physics into his 30s. By 1893, aged 29, Mukherjee had been further elected to the fellowships of the Physical Society of France and the Mathematical Society of Palermo, and was a member of the [[Royal Irish Academy]]. He subsequently became a member of the [[London Mathematical Society]], the Paris Mathematical Society and the [[American Mathematical Society]] (1900).<ref name="Asutosh_maths"/><ref name="Asutosh_life"/> Although after 1893 he largely abandoned his mathematical pursuits for a legal career, Mukherjee has been recognised as the first modern Indian mathematician to enter the field of mathematical research, and founded the Calcutta Mathematical Society in 1908. Among his mathematical contributions, Mukherjee determined several crucial derivations of [[Gaspare Mainardi]]'s answer to determining the oblique trajectory of a system of confocal ellipses. He also made lasting contributions in [[differential geometry]], developing analytical methods of simplifying [[Gaspard Monge]]'s interpretation of his general differential equation for conics.<ref name="Asutosh_maths"/><ref name="Asutosh_life"/>

==Lawyer, jurist and educationist==
At the age of 24, Mukherjee became a Fellow of the Calcutta University. Turning down a job offer in the Department of Public Instruction in order to complete his Bachelor of Law degree, he received his degree in 1888 and enrolled as a ''vakil'' of the Calcutta High Court. By 1897, he had received an [[LL.D.]] and was appointed the Tagore Professor of Law of the Calcutta University in that year. In 1904, he was appointed a [[puisne judge]] of the High Court, and subsequently served as its acting Chief Justice for a couple of years.<ref name="Asutosh_life"/>

Mukherjee was influential in the University affairs throughout his life. From the age of 25, he was a member of its Syndicate, serving on the University Senate and Syndicate for the next 16 years. He served as President of the Board of Studies in Mathematics for 11 years, and represented his university in the [[Bengal Legislative Council]] from 1899 to 1903. He was appointed Vice-Chancellor from 1906 to 1914 and again from 1921 to 1923.<ref name="Asutosh_life"/> He was instrumental in discovering the talents of [[C. V. Raman]] and [[S. Radhakrishnan]].The French scholar [[Sylvain Lévi]] commented :{{quote|Had this Bengal Tiger been born in France, he would have exceeded even [[Georges Clemenceau]], the French Tiger. Ashutosh had no peer in the whole of Europe.}}

==Academic career and later life==
Ashutosh Mukherjee had a vision of the kind of education he wanted young people to have, and he had the acumen and courage to extract it from his colonial masters. He set up several new academic graduate programs at the Calcutta University: [[comparative literature]], [[anthropology]], [[applied psychology]], [[industrial chemistry]], ancient Indian history and culture as well as [[Islamic culture]]. He also made arrangements for postgraduate teaching and research in [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Hindi]], [[Pali]] and [[Sanskrit]]. Scholars from all over India, irrespective of [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]], [[caste]], and [[gender]], came to study and teach there. He even persuaded [[European ethnic groups|European]] scholars to teach at his university. He was one of the first persons to recognise the work of [[Srinivasa Ramanujan]]. He also established [[Asutosh College]] in [[South Kolkata]] in 1916. He laid the foundry stone of [[Jagadbandhu Institution]] in 1914 and [[Santragachi Kedarnath Institution]] in 1925.

Curzon's education mission in 1902 identified the universities including the Calcutta University, as centres of sedition where young people formed networks of resistance to colonial domination.<ref>Aparna Basu (1974) ''The Growth of Education and Political Development in India, 1898–1920'', New Delhi: Oxford University Press.</ref> The cause of this was thought to be the unwise granting of autonomy to these universities in the nineteenth century. Thus in the period of 1905 to 1935, the colonial administration tried to reinstate government control of education.

In 1910, he was appointed the President of the [[National Library of India|Imperial (now National) Library]] Council to which he donated his personal collection of 80,000 books which are arranged in a separate section. He was the president of the inaugural session of the [[Indian Science Congress Association|Indian Science Congress]] in 1914. Mukherjee was a member of the 1917–1919 [[Sadler Commission]], presided over by [[Michael Ernest Sadler]], which inquired into the state of Indian education. He was thrice elected as the president of [[The Asiatic Society]]. Having served as a fellow and subsequently as a vice-president of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science since the 1890s, in 1922 he was elected President of the IACS and held the office until his death.<ref>{{cite web|title=IACS - Annual Report for the Year 1924|url=http://arxiv.iacs.res.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10821/434/1/ANNUAL%20REPORT-1924.pdf|website=Archive - IACS|access-date=2 October 2017}}</ref>

After serving five terms as Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University, Mukherjee declined to be reappointed to a sixth term in 1923 when the university's Chancellor, [[Governor of Bengal]] the [[Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton|Earl of Lytton]], tried to impose conditions on his reappointment. Shortly thereafter, he also resigned his judgeship on the Calcutta High Court and resumed his private practice of law. While arguing a case in Patna the following year, Mukherjee died suddenly on 25 May 1924, a month before his sixtieth birthday. His body was returned to Kolkata and cremated at a funeral service which drew crowds of mourners.<ref name="Asutosh_life"/>

==Recognition and legacy==
[[File:Ashutosh Mukherjee 1964 stamp of India.jpg|thumb|Mukherjee on a 1964 stamp of India]]
Mukherjee was a polyglot learned in [[Pali]], [[French language|French]] and [[Russian language|Russian]]. Apart from his fellowships and memberships in several international academic bodies, he was recognised by an award of the title of ''Saraswati'' in 1910 from ''pandits'' in [[Nabadwip]], followed by that of ''Shastravachaspati'' in 1912 from the Dhaka Saraswat Samaj, ''Sambudhagama Chakravarty'' in 1914 and ''Bharat Martanda'' in 1920.<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/> Mukherjee was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) in June 1909,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28263 |date=22 June 1909 |page=4855 |supp=y |nolink=y}}</ref> and [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in December 1911.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28559 |date=8 December 1911 |page=9365 |supp= |nolink=y}}</ref>

In his lifetime, he was appointed to numerous academic societies:
*Fellow of the [[Royal Astronomical Society]] (FRAS, 1885)<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy">{{cite journal |last1=Sar |first1=Satyabachi |date=July 2015 |title=Asutosh Mukhopadhyay and his Mathematical Legacy |url=https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/reso/020/07/0575-0604 |journal=Resonance: Journal of Science Education |volume=20 |issue=7 |pages=575–604 |access-date=23 June 2019 }}</ref>
*Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] (FRSE, 1886; Member: 1885)<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/>
*Member of the Bedford Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching (1886)<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/>
*Fellow of the [[Physical Society of London]] (FPSL, 1887)<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/>
*Fellow of the [[Edinburgh Mathematical Society]] (1888)<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/>
*Membre de la ''[[Société mathématique de France]]'' (1888)<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/>
*Member of the ''[[Circolo Matematico di Palermo]]'' (1890)<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/>
*Membre de la ''[[Société française de physique]]'' (1890)<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/>
*Member of the [[Royal Irish Academy]] (MRIA, 1893)<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/>
*Fellow of the [[American Mathematical Society]] (AMS, 1900)<ref name="Mukhopadhyay_legacy"/>

The Government of India issued a stamp in 1964 to commemorate Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee for his contribution to education.

The [[epitaph]] beneath his marble bust at the Ashutosh Museum of Arts at the University of Calcutta reads:

{{quote|His noblest achievement, surest of them all/ A place for his mother tongue --- in step mother's hall.}}

[[File:Ashutosh Mookerjee Statue at Statesman House - Wikimedia Photowalk Kolkata 20111218 IMG 4527.jpg|220px|thumb| Ashutosh Mukherjee Statue in front of the Statesman House, Kolkata]]
[[File:Ashutosh_Mukherjee_Statue_at_Santragachi_Kedarnath_Institution_Howrah.jpg|220px|thumb|A white stone statue of [[Ashutosh Mukherjee]] in [[Santragachi Kedarnath Institution, Howrah]]]]

==Personal life==
Mukherjee married Jogamaya Devi in 1885. The couple had seven children, Kamala (born 1895), Rama Prasad (1896-1983),<ref>{{cite book|pages=3|title=Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: Annual Report for 1983-84 |year=1984}}</ref> Syama Prasad (1901-1953), Uma Prasad (1902-1997), Amala (born 1905), Bama Prasad (born 1906) and Ramala (born 1908). His son [[Syama Prasad Mookerjee]], the most notable of his children, founded the [[Bharatiya Jana Sangh]], the direct precursor to the modern [[Bharatiya Janata Party]]. Rama Prasad became a judge in the [[High Court of Calcutta]] while Uma Prasad became famed as a himalayan trekker and a travel writer.<ref name="Life">{{cite book |isbn=9789350488812|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7sTfDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT23 |author=Tathagata Roy |date=2014 |title=The Life & Times of Shyama Prasad Mookerjee |publisher=Prabhat Prakashan |page=11}}</ref> His grandson [[Chittatosh Mookerjee]] was the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Grandson-of-Sir-Ashutosh-Mukherjee-upset-at-Mamatas-silence-on-letter/articleshow/19181275.cms|title=Grandson of Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee upset at Mamata's silence on letter|website=timesofindia.indiatimes.com|access-date=15 May 2018}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Bengal Renaissance}}
{{University of Calcutta Vice chancellors}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mukerjee, Ashutosh}}
[[Category:1864 births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Bengali people]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:Brahmos]]
[[Category:Scholars from Kolkata]]
[[Category:Indian academics]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian mathematicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian mathematicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian educational theorists]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Star of India]]
[[Category:Indian knights]]
[[Category:Vice Chancellors of the University of Calcutta]]
[[Category:Founders of Indian schools and colleges]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian lawyers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian lawyers]]
[[Category:Indian barristers]]
[[Category:Presidents of The Asiatic Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Irish Academy]]

Ashutosh Mukherjee - Revision history

208.80.222.74: updated details

>বাক্যবাগীশ: Use post-nominals