The essence of Calcutta University - Part 1

Two of India's presidents, Three( can be four) Nobel prize winners, many veteran scientists, and philosophers through ages, patriots, artists and famous writers – are engaged either as a student or simply because of work purpose with this historical university. The amount of glory, historical value, and heritage this university possess it will be unwise to compare it with any other university in India. Which university I am talking about? Well, you may guess the name of it. Yes, I am talking about our very 'own' Calcutta University. Don't feel upset because of the recent state of it, especially the anger among the young generation through social media. Though it has been a long long journey for this university it still holds tremendous strength. If you look down at the memory lane of history you will find some real gems produced by this institution. 

   

For this university, Kadambini Ganguly and Chandramukhi Basu became the 1st female graduates not only in India but also in the whole British Empire. Kadambini Ganguly became the 1st Indian female doctor thanks to this university. This was the first university that built India's first university museum in 1937 and also the first business school in 1953. you can find one of the finest libraries here in this institution which has its place just after the National Library. Except for Calcutta University, there is no other university outside the United Kingdom that presented the degree of "Dr Of law" to not one, not two but three kings of the British Empire. These three are – Edward the Third, George the Five and Edward the Eight. These three got their degrees when they were princes. Not only that, they came to Kolkata to sign and receive the award themselves. Not only from Great Britain, the Prince of Prussia, Fredrikh Augustus had also been presented by the same award in 1911. We all know about Scientist Gopal Bhattacharya, who didn't receive any degree for his internationally acclaimed research on insects. Calcutta University gave him the honorary D.Sc for his great contributions to science. Before, this institution the concept of university existed in India, but this was the first university ever which provided teaching to every student by not discriminating them into caste, religion or colour. It created a great paradigm by changing the law against it, which is well known as Act II, 1857.  

• Background of the establishment:

The preparation for the establishment took place throughout the first half of the 19th century. By the endeavour and support of some well known administers and educationalists like- Governor Lord Minto, Governor Lord Moyra, Raja Rammohan Roy, David Hare, William Kerry, Dwarakanath Thakur, Macula, Lord William Bentinck, an urge to learn about the western education had emerged through Bengal at that point of time. Learning English can improve the financial status and also it can open many windows of opportunities- for these reasons people from all over Bengal especially from the Higher class and middle class came forward and show interest to learn English. For this, many schools and colleges were established by the administers throughout Bengal. Considering this situation very urgent F.Millet, C.C. Egerton, Rosomoy Dutta and Prasanna Kumar Thakur held a meeting with the secretary of Education Legislative of that time- Dr Fredric J. Mouat. They proposed to Dr Mouat to build a university as London University in Kolkata(Calcutta). This proposal then passed down to the Board of Directors of East India Company in 1845. But, the higher authority of England declined this proposal. Dr Mouat wanted to build an education system where students can easily properly learn Science, Literature etc. At that point, many colleges were founded all over Bengal as I mentioned earlier. But these colleges have no similarities in their studies and education system. Hindu College, Sanskrit College, Hoogly Mohsin College, Bengal Engineering College ------

created their system and chose various topics to teach but in a very di-organised manner. In this hour of need, when the demand of a University was rising, in England a protest has formed this matter. Leader of the liberal party, Gladstone raised his voice to increase the western educational culture in India to strengthen the communication between the British and the people of India. 

In 1853, When the question arose whether to give a certificate to East India Company or not, two committees were formed ( Lords and Commons) to investigate the results and the occurring problems due to the rule of the British East India Company in India. These two committees received a large number of reports and applications from those who were appointed in a higher position in various departments. Among them, there was an application of utmost importance, which was sent by Charles H. Cameroon, who had a significant influence on English studies in our country. He was the fourth member of Indian Council, President of the Indian Law Commission and also president of the Education Ministry of Bengal. He was aware of the situation that the youth of Bengal no rights to go to England for higher studies as per the discrimination of caste, religion and colour goes. He was also aware the youth of Bengal has a tremendous urge to learn English and has a great interest in English Literature. So, to ensure that these young students can learn in a proper way he passed down three laws which will provide consent to build at least three Universities in India. These laws were covered under the "Wood's Despatch". Under this act, the British Government permitted to build Universities in Calcutta( Kolkata), Bombay( Mumbai) and Madras( Chennai) and also to hand out degrees to the students just like any Europian University. 

So, this was the background hustle for the establishment of "Calcutta University". In my next blog, I will tell you how this university was established, who were the pioneers of the early stages and of course the role of "Lord Curzon".

Old age home and the elderly

It was a sunny day one of those kinds of days where you could feel the joy and happiness in this world, a big expensive SUV stopped in front of a big bunglow type house. The passengers included a women maybe 60 or 70 but still she had sharp yet kind eyes, and a man old enough to be her son. She looked out of the car and the bunglow was infact an old age home and yes the man was her son. After all these years of taking care of her child this is the gift she receives, but she didn't argue and got out of the car took her luggage looked at her son for one last time you feel the despair in those eyes but no, no resentment. And then a third charecter arrives, the security guard upon recognising the women asked the man why she was here, he asked the guard "you know her?" To which he replied "yes she was a very kind women who used to come here to help with all kinds of stuff but for one incident he said he could never forget her" he paused for a bit and then said "some 30 years back someone left a child in front of this home and without having any second thoughts she took the child in her care to give him a loving home and a proper opportunity to build a bright future, really an unbelievable women".
This was just an advertisement i had seen sometime ago, i just thought it was relevant to the topic at hand, each and every aspect of our lives are made with bits of sacrifices made by our patents. And no it's not something they have to do it's something they choose to do, i guess something inside of a person changes when he or she becomes a parent. But in this day and age the gift they receive from their children is a one way ticket to an old age home, no it is not true in every case but it's just becoming a norm in our modern society. And i say this because when people hear about this they don't get shocked anymore neither do they feel pity.

Now as Indians we often boast about our rich heritage and culture. The same culture that teaches us to respect our elderly and that one's parents are above all, after all who hasn't heard the story of 'shravan kumar'. And we often curse the westernisation of our society that it has changed our children. But you cannot blame everything on the west after all they too have old age homes. But things work a little differently there after a certain age a child is supposed to take care of himself, and their parents too live their own life accordingly they do not just rely on their children , they have their savings and they take care of themselves.
So in my opinion it has nothing to do with kids being exposed to the western culture too much. Someone once said to me if you want to climb to the top you have to lessen your baggage.
Anyways Why is such a culture spreading so much i don't know but what i do know is while life is not fair and you don't always get what you deserve but the tears of a helpless father or a heartbroken mother can never make you happy. And if it does make you happy you are not human anymore.
                                             Writer:  আলোর পথযাত্রী

Father of Indian Boxing

Hello friends. A friend of mine suggested a movie couple of months ago. I haven't seen that movie since it was released. The name of that miviemis ' Chaamp'. It is a bengali movie which was acted by bengali actor Dev. Frankly speaking I am not a big fan of him and I don't like his movies at all. But in this movie, he had done something which is very nice. For that I would like to thank him. In a dialogue in this movie mentioned a name which is almost forgotten. The name is P.L.Roy or Paresh Lal Roy - the ' Father of Indian Boxing'. 

For you may it is hard to believe that a boy from a race which is subsisting on rice playing boxing. Well you never know. But first of all the Bangals( বাঙাল) can raise their collars. It is because P.L.Roy was born in Borishal ( Bangladesh) on 20th December, 1893. He was born in a very highly educated Bengali-Christian family. His father was a Barrister and his uncle was Surya Kumar Gudiv Chakroborty, one of India's first Doctors. P.L.Roy was born in Borishal but his family lived in London from 1901. He went to St. Poul school there and started learning boxing at the age of 10. Famous boxers of England tought him, naturally he became school champion. From there to Cambridge, there also champion. Finally in 1914, he became champion of England in the bantamweight catagory. In 1919, he came back to Bengal and started working for Bengal Railways. At that time boxing wasn't that much popular among bengali boys. He made it popular. He set up the first boxing ring at Ballygunge and also formed the Bengal Boxing Federation. Pramatha Chowdhury, Fanindra Krishna Mitra, Nagen Chatterjee so many bengalees learned boxing from him. It is very sad that Bengalees don't remember this icon that much but his office didn't forget him. In 2011, the Bengal Railways named an indoor stadium after him and built a statue in ode of him. Not only that, few years back, Sashi Tharoor participated in Oxford Union Debate. In that debate, he stated that--  one sixth of all the British forces were Indians. 54,000 Indians were dead fighting for the British. 65,000 were wounded and other 4000 were missing. In this group, P.L.Roy and his brother were also there. His brother, Indra Lal Roy was the flying ace or fighter pilot in the First World War. His tomb is in France but P.L.Roy is rested in peace in Kolkata.

 At D.L.Khan Road , there is Bhawanipur cemetery and on the top of his tomb you can still see a pair red boxing gloves.

An open letter

To 
All my friends,
                         Today instead of just writing a mere blogpost I am writing a letter to all my friends. This idea dawned upon me yesterday not because today is a special day. But today can be the starting point of many special days in our life. Today is 23rd January. 

We all know the significance of this date I don't have to give a reminder to you. When I was a child, a question often asked to me by my friends, teachers, relatives etc. No, No, don't think they just asked me, What do you know about 'Netaji'? Or what do you think about him? These questions were just to keep us updated about one of the greatest sons of this country. The most famous question then was this : What do you think about his death? Do you believe that he is still alive? For 61 years this question is one of the hot topics that Bengalees discuss among themselves. Obviously it is now official that he died on 18th of August 1945. He wasn't fortunate enough to watch his country gaining freedom after 200 years of British raj. In 2016 our central Government released the classified files about Bose's death. I know today all over Bengal people will gather and celebrate his birthday. Garlands of flowers, songs of patriotism, cultural events and many more things will happen to remember him. This things are required but I just want to say something. It is good mental exercise to theorize how he died. There are several theories about him being alive. Gumnami Baba, Photo bombing in a picture of our former Prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri etc. But just put this things aside and analyze his life not about his death. If you put these theories aside you will see a man of action, a person who's fire never deemed after going to jail for so many times. He revived a whole Indian Army to fight the war of freedom. So try to be fearless like him. Try to follow his footsteps. Lastly, as Netaji has spoken to me over the internet :" One individual may die for an idea, but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives". 
Let's start this today if we hope to see a better tomorrow. 
                            Happy Birthday Netaji
                                                                             From
                                                         Kathaandkahini

The most beautiful woman in British India

Hi friends. In 1997, a classic was released and it is considered as one of the greatest movies in the map of world cinema. Yes, I am talking about 'Titanic'. when I watched that movie I was just mesmerized with its enormous beauty. For our generation, who were born in the mid-'90s or late '90s this movie is one of the pieces of the recollections of our childhood. I did a survey among all my friends and they actually said this-" The moment we saw Rose( Kate Winslet) on the screen, we thought that she is the most beautiful woman we have ever seen". But, wait, why I am talking about this. Well, it is just the prologue before my actual story today( I hope you don't get bored). When you hear this term ' British India', what comes to your mind first? Obviously, you can neglect all the bad stuff and think of something good( and believe me there was some good stuff). Maybe Ronald Ross, for discovering the antidote of malaria or maybe David Hare for founding school. But I don't think you know about the most beautiful woman in British India. She was only remembered as the celebrated Ms. Sanderson in the faded pages of history. I am talking about that time when East India Company was ruling and for work, a lot of young people were coming to India. Now, if a lot of young people stay far away from home together, then some undesirable problems arrive for them. For that, some undesirable diseases take place( use the naughtiest part of your brain to understand these two lines). East India Company had a solution for this, which was called ' The Fishing Fleet'. In this arrangement, they gave a lot of money and legal passports to a lot of single young girls from England and sent them to India with only one objective. " You have one full year to spend here in Kolkata, find a HUSBAND". Whoever had the luck found a very young eligible bachelor. But who was not that much lucky had to return to England with shame. But there were some girls who went to England from here to complete their schooling and returned after finishing college. Daughter of Robert Sanderson, Elizabeth Jane was one of them. The moment Elizabeth set foot in Kolkata, news spread like a fragrance of lavender that there is no other girl in Kolkata as beautiful as her. Dozen's of young boys formed a line to see just a glimpse of her. Everybody wanted her to be their life-partner and like every foolish man they thought 'She will be mine and only mine'. The fun fact is, Elizabeth knew about this and sometimes she actually mocked them for this. I will give you a quick story. 16 young eligible bachelor approached Elizabeth to go to a Ball with them. She individually said those 16 young people that " I will go to the ball only with you. You know, if you wear a pig green coat with some pink leather piping on it, it will be a perfect match with my gown". As a result, those 16 young people came to the ball wearing the same clownish green coat. People jeered at them but they took it sportingly. Elizabeth also danced with them individually. At night, those 16 young people accompanied Elizabeth and they marched with flare beside her carriage and sang melodies for her. 

After that what happened it is some kind of irony with these beautiful women. Elizabeth chose Ricard Barwell as a husband, who was a friend of Hasting. It is known that Richard had the habit of both gambling and ladies. 13th September 1776, they got married. After two years on the 9th of November 1778, Elizabeth passed away in the age of 23 only, from the complications arising out of childbirth. You may not remember her name but after her death, she found a place among the great of rage, in South ParkStreet Cemetry. The obelisk of her tomb is one of the tallest there and you can still read on the ensis of the marble- ' Elizabeth Jane Barwell- the celebrated Ms. Sanderson'. 

Black Hole of Kolkata

Hello friends. In 1756, the last independent Nawab of Bengal Siraj-Ud-Doullah attacked Kolkata, which I mentioned a couple of times in my earlier posts. Siraj targeted the old Fort William, which was near Lal Dighi. In that place, we have GPO today. The number of British in Kolkata at that time was merely 300 but Siraj attacked with 50,000. As a result, the British lost the battle and had to surrender. 20th June 1756 Nawab Siraj-Ud-Doullah entered Fort William through a gate which is now probably near Fairly Place's Railway Office. At that time the Governor of the Fort William was Roger Drake whose arrogance lead the British to this consequence, had already run away from Kolkata. From the behalf of the British, John Zephaniah Holwell surrendered to Siraj. Nawab decided to stay at Fort William for that night only. But there were a lot of British who were official 'Prisoners of War' then were present in Fort William. What will happen to them? Siraj ordered," If this is a fort, there must be a jail here. lock these people up there for one night".  There was a room of 14 foot by 18 foot with two small windows as a jail in Fort William, which was called ' Balck Hole'.

 On that night 146 British people were being locked up in that room. In the month of June and with it's unbearable, the languor of war, the smoke of the burning objects poured into that small room made the atmosphere terrifying on that night in Black Hole. Next morning, when the door opened among 146 people only 23 survived. The British named this incident as the "Black Hole Tragedy". In Bengali " অন্ধকূপ হত্যাকান্ড". For the memory of this incident, John Zephaniah Holwell founded a monument, which is nowadays in the junction of  N.S road and B.B.D.Bagh. But for the lack of maintenance, this monument became obsolete in some years, so the British Government ordered to demolish it. I just want to mention one thing here that there are a lot of controversies about this 'Black Hole Tragedy'. Many people say that no such incident took place at that time. But in 1899, George Nathaniel Curzon came to India as the Viceroy. He had a keen interest in history and he read about the war of 1756 on his way to India. So he ordered to restore the map of the old Fort William. To mark the positions of the walls they implanted lines of brass. You can see those line even now also on the steps of GPO. 

So where is the Black Hole? Where is that infamous room? In the northern side of the GPO, between GPO and collectorate's building, there is a small passage. This passage has a gate and behind that, a cannon is peeping at you. In 1756, that canon was used in the war and behind that gate there once was the 'Black Hole' of Kolkata.  

Howrah Bridge

Hi friends. There was an old nursery rhyme, I hope you all know about it. It is called 'London Bridge is falling down'. Well, if you say so for Kolkata it will not be 'London Bridge' but it will definitely be 'Howrah Bridge' and that bridge hasn't fallen down yet. But do you know what was there before instead of our 'Rabindra Setu'? Well, the city of Howrah was planned as a small industrial brother of Kolkata. It is because of all the mills, factories were there in Howrah. Now if there are factories then there is a need to maintain the supply line of goods through some smooth routes. You can't carry everything in a boat to Kolkata. You will be amazed to know the fact that the first plan of building a bridge was chalked out even before the Sipahi Mutiny. That bridge was finally built in 1874. But that was not our today's 'Rabindra Setu'. So what happened to that old bridge.

 Well, that bridge was like a pontoon bridge and the bridge was used to float over some boats. When a ship used to pass by that bridge it could open from the center. But there was a problem. The lions share of the traffic over the bridge was Bullock cart. So in the times of high tides, the height of the bridge increases too much and the carts couldn't even get up on the bridge. As the time flowed by the traffic increased on the bridge and that's when the Government decided to build a new and large bridge. But, it is India you know( doesn't matter ruled by whom). The discussion began in 1906 that we need a new bridge. But again, a million dollars question arrived. " Excuse me, sir. if the new bridge will be established in the place of the old bridge unless the new bride is fully complete how will the people pass? by swimming? The Government said " It doesn't matter. We will come up with some alternative" and gave the permission to build the new bridge. But, again. The First World War arrived to ruin the party and the work was being delayed till 1921. Then again the famous discussion of this country began. "Sir, what kind of bridge we are going to build? Arch? Floating? Suspension? The discussion lasted for 14 years( Ram er Vanavas). Finally, it started in 1935 and it took 8 years to build it. In 1943, 3rd of February we finally had the fourth cantilever suspension bridge with four-lane traffic, two tram lines and wide pavements on both sides.

 There is a fun fact though. The companies, which were related to this humungous project, they still exist and I hope you know their names. The contract of the constructions was given to Braithwaite, Burns, and Jessop.  26500-ton steel was supplied by Tata Steel and to lighten up the bridge Phillips Chipped in. In 2005, while passing by under the bridge, a steamer got stuck there and caused huge damage. For repairs, the government had to write a letter to Tata Steel asking one more time for that Steel of 1943.