Rashtraguru,Sir Surendranath Banerjee | |
|---|---|
 S. N. Banerjee | |
| 11thPresident of the Indian National Congress | |
| In office 1895–1896 | |
| Preceded by | Alfred Webb |
| Succeeded by | Rahimtulla M. Sayani |
| Succeeded by | Lalmohan Ghosh |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1848-11-10)10 November 1848 |
| Died | 6 August 1925(1925-08-06) (aged 76) |
| Citizenship | British Raj |
| Political party | Indian National Congress (1883–1919) Indian National Liberation Federation (1919–1925) |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Academic • politician • |
| Known for | Founder of Indian Liberation Federation,Indian National Association, Co-founder ofIndian National Congress |
| Signature |  |
SirSurendranath Banerjee (Bengali:সুরেন্দ্রনাথ বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়; 10 November 1848 – 6 August 1925), often known asRashtraguru (lit. 'Teacher of the Nation') was an Indian nationalist leader during theBritish Raj. He founded theIndian National Association to bring Hindus and Muslims together for political action. He was also one of the founding members of theIndian National Congress. Unlike Congress, however, Surendranath supportedMontagu–Chelmsford Reforms, and with manyliberal leaders he left Congress and founded a new organisation, Indian National Liberation Federation, in 1919.[1]
Surendranath Banerjee was born in Calcutta, in the province ofBengal to aRarhiKulin Brahmin family, suggesting that the ancestral seat of the family was atRarh region of present-dayWest Bengal. His ancestors had migrated to East Bengal at some point of time and settled in a village called Lonesingh inFaridpur district. It was his great-grandfather Babu Gour Kishire Banerjee who emigrated and settled in a village called Monirampur near Barrackpore. He was deeply influenced in liberal, progressive thinking by his father Durga Charan Banerjee, a doctor.[2] After graduating from theUniversity of Calcutta, he travelled to England in 1868, along withRomesh Chunder Dutt andBehari Lal Gupta, to compete in theIndian Civil Service examinations.[3] He cleared the competitive examination in 1869, but was barred owing to a claim he had misrepresented his age. After clearing the matter in the courts by arguing that he calculated his age according to the Hindu custom of reckoning age from the date of conception rather than from birth,[4] Banerjee cleared the exam again in 1871 and was posted as assistant magistrate inSylhet.[5] Banerjee also attended classes atUniversity College, London. He took his final exams in 1871 and returned to India in August 1871. In 1874, Banerjee returned to London and became a student at theMiddle Temple.[6]
Banerjee was soon dismissed for making a serious judicial error. He went toEngland to appeal his discharge, but was unsuccessful because, he felt, of racial discrimination. He would return to India bitter and disillusioned with the British.[7] During his stay in England (1874–1875), he studied the works ofEdmund Burke and other liberal philosophers. These works guided him in his protests against the British. He was known as the Indian Burke.[8] For his tenacity he was called 'Surrender Not Banerjee' by the British.[9]
Surendranath was influenced by the writings of Italian nationalistGiuseppe Mazzini. He studied the writings of Mazzini in his stay in England (1874–1875) on Anandmohan's suggestion.[10]
Upon his return to India in June 1875, Banerjee became anEnglish professor at theMetropolitan Institution, theFree Church Institution[11] and at theRippon College, now Surendranath College, founded by him in 1882[12] and he inspired his students with a new spirit of nascent Indian nationalism. Among the most prominent of the students that he inspired wasBirendranath Sasmal. He began delivering public speeches on nationalist and liberal political subjects, as well as Indian history. He founded theIndian National Association withAnandamohan Bose, one of the earliest Indian political organizations of its kind, on 26 July 1876.[13] In 1878 in a meeting to preach the Indian people he said 'The great doctrine of peace and goodwill between Hindus and Muslims, Christians and Paresees, aye between all sections of our country's progress. Let the word "Unity" be inscribed therein characters of glittering gold... There may be religious difference between us. There may be social difference between us. But there is a common platform where we may all meet, the platform of our country's welfare'. He used the organization to tackle the issue of the age-limit for Indian students appearing for ICS examinations. He condemned discrimination against Indians under colonial rule through speeches all over the country, which made him very popular.[citation needed]
In 1879, he bought the newspaperThe Bengalee (founded in 1862 byGirish Chandra Ghosh) and edited it for 40 years.[4] In 1883, when Banerjee was arrested for publishing remarks in his paper, incontempt of court, protests andhartals erupted across Bengal, and in Indian cities such asAgra,Faizabad,Amritsar,Lahore andPune.[14] He became the first Indian journalist to be imprisoned. The INC expanded considerably, and hundreds of delegates from across India came to attend its annual conference in Calcutta. After the founding of theIndian National Congress in 1885 inBombay, Banerjee merged his organization with it owing to their common objectives and memberships in 1886. He was elected theCongress President in 1895 at Poona and in 1902 at Ahmedabad.[15]
Surendranath was one of the most important public leaders who protested the partition of theBengal province in 1905.[4] Banerjee was in the forefront of the movement and organized protests, petitions and extensive public support across Bengal and India, which finally compelled the British to reverse the bifurcation of Bengal in 1912. Banerjee became the patron of rising Indian leaders likeGopal Krishna Gokhale andSarojini Naidu. Banerjee was also one of the senior-most leaders of themoderate Congress — those who favoured accommodation and dialogue with the British — after the "extremists" — those who advocated revolution and political independence — led byBal Gangadhar Tilak left the party in 1906.[4] Banerjee was an important figure in theSwadeshi movement – advocating goods manufactured in India against foreign products — and his popularity at its apex made him, in words of admirers, the "uncrowned king" of Bengal.[16][better source needed]
The declining popularity of moderate Indian politicians affected Banerjee's role in Indian politics. Banerjee supported theMorley-Minto reforms 1909 – which were resented and ridiculed as insufficient and meaningless by the vast majority of the Indian public and nationalist politicians.[17] Though Banerjee was a critic of the proposed method ofcivil disobedience advocated byMahatma Gandhi, he added that he "admire[d] the supreme solicitude and the earnest efforts of Mr. Gandhi to secure Hindu-Muslim unity".[18][4] Surendranath Banerjee, a moderate and veteran leader of Congress were in favour to accept the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms. They left the Congress and founded Indian Liberation Federation. They were termed as Liberals and they lost their relevance in Indian National Movement thereafter.[19] Accepting the portfolio of minister in the Bengal government earned him the ire of nationalists and much of the public, and he lost the election to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1923 toBidhan Chandra Roy, the candidate of theSwarajya Party[20] — ending his political career for all practical purposes. He wasknighted for his political support of the British Empire. Banerjee made theCalcutta Municipal Corporation a more democratic body while serving as a minister in the Bengal government.[21]
He is remembered and widely respected today as a pioneer leader of Indian politics — for being among the first treading the path for Indian political empowerment.[citation needed] But nationalist politics in India meant opposition, and increasingly there were others whose opposition was more vigorous and who came to center stage. Banerjee could accept neither the extremist view of political action nor the non-cooperation of Gandhi, then emerging as a major factor in the nationalist movement. Banerjee saw theMontagu–Chelmsford Reforms of 1919 as substantially fulfilling Congress's demands, a position which further isolated him.[4] He was elected to the reformed Legislative Council of Bengal in 1921, knighted in the same year[22] and held office as minister forlocal self-government from 1921 to 1924.[4] His defeat at the polls in 1923 brought his political career to a close and he went on to write the widely acclaimedA Nation in Making, published in 1925. He died atBarrackpore on 6 August 1925.
His name is commemorated in the names of the following institutions:Barrackpore Rastraguru Surendranath College,Raiganj Surendranath Mahavidyalaya,Surendranath College,Surendranath College for Women,Surendranath Evening College,Surendranath Law College (formerlyRipon College) and theSurendranath Centenary School inRanchi and the Surendranath Banerjee Road (popularly known as S. N. Banerjee Road).
In the end, Banerjea lost his job by committing a serious judicial mistake, dismissing a case recording the complainant and his witnesses absent while whey were actually present in his court. Banerjea went to England to lodge an appeal ... He concluded that his appeal failed because he was an Indian. This was the basic reason for his becoming a nationalist.
The author cites a unique instance in India's colonial history when Surendranath Banerjea, one of India's most prominent nationalist leaders, tried to have himself anointed and crowned in 1906 at the height of the Swadeshi movement
Democracy was ushered into the Municipal Government of Kolkata by making provision for election of a Mayor annually, by Sir Surendranath Banerjee, who as the first Minister of Local Self-Government in Bengal was the architect of Calcutta Municipal Act of 1923.
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