Brajendranath De: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}

| name          = Brajendranath Dey

| birth_place  = [[Calcutta]] (now [[Kolkata]]), [[West Bengal]], [[India]]

| death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1932|09|20|1852|12|23}}

| death_place  = [[Calcutta]] (now [[Kolkata]]), [[West Bengal]], [[India]]

| occupation    = Orientalist

| years_active  =  

| spouse        = Nagendranandini De (nee Bose) <!-- Name (married nnnn–nnnn) -->

'''Brajendranath Dey''' (23 December 1852 – 20 September 1932) was an early Indian member of the [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|Indian Civil Service]].<ref name="indiasagawhoswho">[http://indiansaga.com/whoswho/brajendra.html Indiasaga Who's Who]</ref>

De studied at [[Hare School]], [[Calcutta]], and then Canning Collegiate School and [[Lucknow University|Canning College, Lucknow]]. Always ranking at the top of his class in school, he was placed in the first division in all his final examinations. He came first from his school in the Entrance examination of Calcutta University and fourth in the first division in the First Arts (F.A.) examination of [[Calcutta University]]. A student of English (Honours), he ranked sixth in the first division in his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) examination. Since he was a first divisioner, he was allowed to take the Master of Arts (M.A.) examination of the Calcutta University soon after the completion of his B.A. (Honours) examination. He was ranked second in the M.A. examination and was awarded the silver medal of Calcutta University.<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>

Later, he travelled to England for his higher studies, on the advice of his grand-uncle, [[Peary Charan Sarkar]] and his father's mentor, [[Raja]] [[Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee]], the taluqdar of Shankarpore, [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]]{{dubious|date=February 2020|reason=United Provinces didn't exist until 1902}} and for some time assistant commissioner of [[Lucknow]]. In England, he joined University College, London to appear in the Open Competitive Services examination. Having taken the examination successfully, he joined the [[Indian Civil Service]] in 1873, emerging 17th in a batch of 35 successful probationers selected from a total of 360 candidates.<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> He was the 8th Indian member of the [[Indian Civil Service|ICS]].<ref name="womenofindia">{{cite book |last=Forbes |first=Geraldine Hancock |author-link=Geraldine Forbes |date=1996 |title=Women in Modern India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjilIrVt9hUC&pg=PA28 |series=The New Cambridge History of India |volume=IV.2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=28–29 |isbn=978-0-521-65377-0 |quote="As one of the first eight Indians appointed to the Indian Civil Service (ICS), Brajendra Nath ... He insisted on educating his daughters and one of them, Saroj Nalini Dutt, led the way in organizing rural women's organizations in the years immediately following World War I."}}</ref> Subsequently, he was called to the [[bar association|Bar]] by the [[Honourable Society of the Middle Temple]] on 7 June 1875.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150213145353/http://hosted.law.wisc.edu/wordpress/sharafi/files/2010/07/Middle-2.0.pdf University of Wisconsin Law Library]</ref> He was admitted to [[St. Mary Hall, Oxford]], where he spent one year, from 1874 to 1875, on a [[Boden Sanskrit Scholarship]], having attended the lectures of [[Professor]] [[Max Mueller]] and Mr. Ruslan.<ref name="oxforduniversitycalender">Oxford University Calendar, 1875, p. 366</ref> He was the first Indian ICS officer to have studied in a college in Oxford.<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>

His second son-in-law was [[Sir]] [[Sarat Kumar Ghosh]], [[Indian Civil Service|ICS]], Chief Justice of Jaipur and Kashmir and the only interim Chief Justice of the High Court of Rajasthan, his fifth daughter and son-in-law were the social reformer [[Saroj Nalini Dutt]], [[Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire|MBE]],<ref name="womenofindia"/> and [[Gurusaday Dutt]], [[Indian Civil Service|ICS]], Secretary, Local Self Government and Public Health, Government of Bengal, his sixth son-in-law was Lieutenant Colonel Jyotish Chandra De, [[Indian Medical Service|IMS]],<ref name="livesless forgotten">[http://rajsaday.com/?p=2089 Lives Less Forgotten: Lieutenant Colonel Jyotish Chandra De]</ref> 2nd Indian Principal of the [[Calcutta Medical College]], his seventh son-in-law was Captain (Hon.) Dr. Paresh Chandra Datta, first Chief Medical Officer of the B.R. Singh Memorial Hospital, Calcutta then of the East Bengal Railway and Director of Public Health, Government of West Bengal and his third son was Major (Hon.) Basanta Kumar De, Traffic Superintendent General and then Commercial Traffic Manager of the [[Bengal Nagpur Railway|BNR]].

 

Two of his grandsons were Ranajit Datta, chairman and managing director of Braithwaite, Burn and Jessop Limited and the historian [[Barun De]], chairman, West Bengal Heritage Commission. Two of his great-grandchildren were the singer [[Uma Bose]]<ref name="liveslessforgotten1">[https://rajsaday.com/?p=2108 Lives Less Forgotten: Uma Bose]{{Dead link|date=October 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and the cameraman [[Subrata Mitra]].<ref name="liveslessforgotten2">[http://rajsaday.com/?p=2001 Lives Less Forgotten: Subrata Mitra]</ref>

He took up his first posting in the civil service as assistant magistrate and collector of Arrah, Behar in 1875. He served in districts where the rulers of erstwhile zamindari estates, such as Darbhanga and Dumrao, had a strong presence. 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 [[Faridpur District|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>{{cite book |last=Heehs |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Heehs |title=The Lives of Sri Aurobindo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EZTFrMZFOvcC&pg=PA33 |year=2008 |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |pages=33 |isbn=978-0-231-14098-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |date=6 August 1893 |title=Govt. Notifications: Orders by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3KopAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT298 |journal=The Liberal and the New Dispensation |volume=XII |issue=30 |location=Calcutta |publisher=R.S. Bhattacharji |pages=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">{{cite book |last=Gupta |first=Tapati Dutta |date=1993 |title=Social Thought of Rabindranath Tagore: A Historical Analysis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0HrBJJBFutsC&pg=PA122 |publisher=Abhinav Publications |page=122|isbn=9788170173021}}</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>{{cite journal |first=Mrinalini |last=Sinha |title=Britishness, Clubbability, and the Colonial Public Sphere: The Genealogy of an Imperial Institution in Colonial India |journal=The Journal of British Studies |volume=4 |issue=44 |date=October 2001 |pages=489–521 |doi=10.1086/386265 |jstor=3070745 |s2cid=143900100 }}</ref> One of his Commissioners once told him not to entertain the thought of wanting to join a British club in the district.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Tony |last1=Ballantyne | authorlink1= Tony Ballantyne (historian) |first2=Antoinette M. |last2=Burton | authorlink2 = Antoinette Burton |year=2005 |title=Bodies in Contact |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YEWulnOX_TgC&pg=PA193 |publisher=Duke University Press |page=193 |isbn=0-8223-3467-4}}</ref>

After retirement he remained actively 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>

===Academic===

While still in service he translated [[Kalidas]]'s 'Vikramarvasi' 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).

In his post-retirement years 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>

He was the translator and editor, in two volumes, [[Nizamuddin Ahmad]]'s ''Tabaqat-i-Akbari''. The third volume, which he had left fully prepared, was published posthumously by Baini Prasad and also 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'"/>

A road in Chinsura, Hooghly is named after him.<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>

 

At the time of his centenary celebration in 1952, his second son, Basanta Kumar De, [[Esq.]], a senior officer of the [[Bengal Nagpur Railway|BNR]]<ref name="liveslessforgotten">[http://rajsaday.com/?p=1950 Lives Less Forgotten: Basanta Kumar De]</ref> took the initiative to publish in three articles sections of his reminiscences in the ''[[Calcutta Review]]''. This work was entrusted to [[Tapan Raychaudhuri]], then of the Department of Islamic History and Culture of the University of Calcutta.<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>

 

In 2001, approximately 2,000 photographs of himself and his family members were given in loan by one of his grandsons, [[Barun De]],<ref name="epw1">[http://thankstoepw.blogspot.in/2013/09/barun-de-situating-eminent-historian.html "Situating an Eminent Historian Eminently" – Sabyasachi Bhattacharya]. Retrieved 2015-03-21.</ref>{{self-published inline|date=February 2020}}<ref name="liveslessforgotten3">[http://rajsaday.com/?p=1958 Lives Less Forgotten: Barun De]</ref> to the photographic archives of the [[Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta]]. Later, when the archive was shifted to the newly established Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, CSSSC, Calcutta, the photographs too were deposited there.<ref name="jsrchr">Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, 2009), p. 7</ref>

 

*(ed. & tran.), [[Kālidāsa]]'s play [[Vikramōrvaśīyam|Vikramorvasi]], 'Vikramorvaçi', Canto I., in ''[[Calcutta Review]]'', Oct. 1884, pp.&nbsp;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).<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>

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[[Category:Bengali people]]

[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]

[[Category:Historians of South Asia]]

[[Category:19th-century Indian historians]]