Basanta Kumar De: Difference between revisions

'''Basanta Kumar De''' (9 March, 1897 - 31 August, 1975) was a senior officer of the [[Bengal Nagpur Railway|BNR]].<ref name="frontline1">[http://www.frontline.in/other/obituary/historian-and-administrator/article4995294.ece Aniruddha Ray, "Historian and Administrator", 'Frontline', 2013] Retrieved 2015-03-03</ref>  

De was born in Balasore, Orissa. He was born in to a Brahmo family of Calcutta. He was the second son of [[Brajendranath De]], Esq., ICS, the first Indian Magistrate and Collector of Hooghly and Commissioner (offg.) of Burdwan Division in Bengal and Nagendranandini De (née Bose). He completed his education at [[Hare School, Calcutta]] and [[Presidency College, Calcutta]], where he completed his B.A. (Hons.) in English. He attended [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], where his moral tutor was J.D. Anderson, Esq., ICS. Later he was also admitted to The Honourable Society of [[Middle Temple]].<ref name="awomanofindia">Kundu, Rajib, (tr. & ed.), Saroj Nalini: Shankhipta Jibani, (Ababhash, Kolkata, 2014) (in Bengali), (translation of her husband Gurusaday Dutt's, A Woman of India: Being the Life of Saroj Nalini (Founder of Women's Institute Movement in India (with a forward by Rabindranath Tagore), (Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1941)</ref> His son was the historian, [[Barun De]].

He was recruited in to the BNR in London in 1921. His first posting was as Assistant Commercial Officer. In that capacity he played an important role in the building of the BNR Hotel in Puri. As a young officer posted in Kharagpore he witnessed the first railway workshop strike there led by V.V. Giri in 1927.<ref name="districtgazetteers">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/44156392?loggedin=true&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Irfan Habib, "Professor Barun De (1932-2013)" in ''Proceedings of the Indian History Congress'', Volume 73, 2012, pp. 1553-1555]</ref>

De was recruited as a Major in the Corps of Engineers of the Indian army during the Second World War years. He served as Regional Controller of Railway Priorities (RCRP) under the Railway Board and then as Traffic Superintendent General. In 1950, he was appointed as Commercial Traffic Manager. In the last two years of his career, he attended meetings chaired by the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Bidhan Chandra Ray. De retired from active service at the end of 1952.

After retirement he was offered membership of the Railway Recruitment Board in Gorakhpur, which he declined. He took the initiative to publish large segments of his father, Brajendranath De's, memoir in the ''Calcutta Review'', on the occasion of the latter's birth centenary in 1952. As an original Trustee of the Estate of the Late Gurusaday Dutt, he recommended as well as contributed to the formation of the Gurusaday Dutt Folk Arts Museum, which is now under the Bratachari Society.

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