History of Jadavpur University

09 June 2023

 

Jadavpur University has a long and distinguished heritage that is deeply connected to the glorious history of the partition of Bengal and Swadeshi movement. The years 1905-1906 were a memorable time period in the history of Bengal, and India. During this period, the British Government attempted to partition Bengal, which led to an intense nationalist movement with significant economic and cultural implications. The economic aspect of the movement found expression in the production and use of Swadeshi goods, while the cultural impact was felt in the regeneration of Indian art and music. Most importantly, the movement reacted against the prevalent system of education and devised an alternative that was planned entirely on national lines and directed towards serving the national interest.

 

The creation of Jadavpur University is linked to this history, and elite thinkers like Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore, barrister Rasbihari Ghosh, Sister Nivedita, Subodh Chandra Basumallik, Tarak Nath Palit, Bhupendranath Bose, Nagendranath Ghosh, Neelaratna Sarkar, and others were involved. Students, imbued with nationalistic spirit, played a vital role in building the "university for the people" of the country.

 

When the Partition of Bengal took effect in 1905, R.W. Carlyle, then-Chief Secretary to the Bengal Government, instructed the District Magistrate and Collector from Darjeeling in a secret circular that students should not join political meetings, especially those advocating the 'Boycott' of British goods and the 'Swadeshi' Civil Society movements.

 

Vigilance campaigns against students in schools and colleges started in every district, leading to many students being fined, expelled from schools, and even teachers being expelled.

 

In 1905, brilliant students like Rabindranath Ghosh, Nripendra Chandra Bandyopadhyay, Radhakumud Mukhopadhyay, and Vinay Kumar Sarkar started a students' movement by boycotting the government-controlled Calcutta University, refusing to take the examination. A large gathering of students held a meeting against the 'Carlyle Circular' in Calcutta. On the following day, Satish Chandra Mukhopadhyay, the Founder of Don Society, called on students to sever ties with Calcutta University and boycott examinations.

 

On November 9th, 1905, Subodh Chandra Basumallik announced in a meeting that he would donate one lakh rupees to establish a national university in Bengal. Mr. Bipin Chandra Pal announced that zamindar Brajendra Kishore Roychowdhury of Mymensingh Gouripur, a friend of Satish Chandra Mukhopadhyay, would donate five lakh rupees to this cause. Sister Nivedita gave an emphatic speech on "Present Crisis and Establishment of National University."

 

In March 1906, the National Council of Education (NCE) Bengal was formed with a 92-member team. The objective was to provide alternative education to students who were expelled from government schools and colleges involved in the Swadeshi Movement. The team included political figures and the country's top educators, philosophers and thinkers like Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, revolutionary Aurobindo Ghosh, Satish Mukhopadhyay, Radhakumud Mukhopadhyay, Vinay Sarkar, Kshirodprasad Vidyavinod, Sir Gurudas Banerjee. Rabindranath Tagore said, "After a long time, today Bengali got something right."

 

On August 14, 1906, the Bengal National College and School was established in a meeting of the NCE Bengal at Calcutta Town Hall. Barrister Rash Behari Ghosh announced that Maharaja Suryakant Acharya Bahadur of Mymensingh had provided additional funding, and Gurudas Bandyopadhyay promised to pay 50 rupees a month as long as he lived. Barrister Byomkesh Chakraborty also promised to pay 250 rupees a month as long as he practiced law.

 

However, not everyone was in favor of boycotting Calcutta University as a whole. Some members, such as Gurudas Bandyopadhyay, Subodhchandra Bose Mallick, and Hirendranath Dutta, held extreme views, while others, such as Tarak Nath Palit, Bhupendranath Bose, Nagendranath Ghosh, and Neelratan Sarkar, were moderates. From the day of the establishment of the NCE Bengal, there were practically two opposing doctrines and ideologies, and a strong debate also started on the question of what subjects the students would study.

 

Tarak Nath Palit, who had been closely associated with the Council since November 16, 1905, could not accept the three-pronged education plan proposed by the NCE Bengal and was also not included in the 92-member Education Council. On the day the National Council of Education (NCE) was registered, Tarak Nath Palit and others formed a rival organization called the 'Karigari Shiksha Prasar Samiti’ or Society for the Promotion of Technical Education. Rash Behari Ghosh, the President of the NCE Bengal, was also the President of the 'Society for the Promotion of Technical Education'. As a result, as the NCE Bengal established the Bengali National College and School (BNC), the Society for the Promotion of Technical Education established the 'Bengal Technical Institute' in Baganbari on Upper Circular Road with a rent of more than 300 rupees per month.

 

The four years from 1906 to 1910 were spent in a virtual tussle between the NCE Bengal and the Society for the Promotion of Technical Education. Finally, the dispute was settled in 1910 on the condition that the Departments of Arts and Pure Sciences would be named the Bengal National College, and the Departments of Technical and Applied Sciences would be called the "Bengal Technical Institute". These institutions would be managed by two separate committees under NCE Bengal. The merger took place on May 25, 1910, on which day the office of the NCE was shifted to Parsibagan at 92 Upper Circular Road. The name of the two affiliated educational institutions under NCE Bengal was "National College and Technical Institute of Bengal".

 

Tarak Nath Palit had initially opposed the amalgamation of the NCE and the Society for the Promotion of Technical Education. However, he allowed the "Bengal Technical Institute" to remain at 92 Upper Circular Road (Persi Bagan) until the end of 1912. Later, he donated the land of Parsi Bagan to Calcutta University with the mediation of Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee. The old building was demolished and became the Science College of Calcutta University.

 

The Bengal National College did not survive long, but the Bengal Technical Institute continued. In 1921, when Sir Rash Behari Ghosh passed away, he bequeathed his property of ten lakh rupees and his house in Alipur for two and a half lakh rupees to the Bengal Technical Institute. With that money, the NCE bought 33 acres (about 100 bigha) of land in Jadavpur, and in 1922 Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee laid the foundation stone of the new campus.

 

In 1924, the Engineering College was shifted to the present site of Jadavpur Campus, which was leased out by Calcutta Corporation under the guidance of its Mayor Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. The Aurobindo Bhavan, which currently houses administrative offices, used to be the teaching venue of the Engineering College. The first Principal of the Bengal National College was Sri Aurobindo, and among the teachers were luminaries such as Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore, Sir Gurudas Banerjee, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Surendra Nath Banerjee, Ramendra Sundar Trivedi, Radha Kumud Mukherjee, Benoy Kumar Sarkar, Sakharam Ganesh Deoskar, and others.

 

In 1929, the Bengal Technical Institute was renamed the "College of Engineering and Technology." However, its students, who graduated from the College, had no access to government jobs, even if they received their bachelor's degrees from foreign universities, which persisted until 1938. Finally, in 1939, the College of Engineering and Technology received official recognition.

 

After India’s independence in 1947, the Government of West Bengal, with the consent of the Government of India, passed the necessary legislation to establish Jadavpur University on December 24, 1955. Jadavpur became a full-fledged university in 1955, and Triguna Sen became its first vice-chancellor.

 

In the late 1960s, the Naxalite movement caused a significant setback to the university's progress and academic excellence. In December 1970, then JU vice-chancellor Gopal Chandra Sen was murdered on the campus during the height of the movement.

 

In 1981, a new Jadavpur University Act was passed. It aimed to reconstitute Jadavpur University to enable it to function more efficiently as a university, encouraging and providing instruction, teaching, training, and research in various branches of learning and courses of study, promoting advancement and dissemination of knowledge and learning, and extending higher education to meet the growing needs of society. The constitution of various authorities or bodies of the university was also made more democratic, consistent with the objectives of the NCE, Bengal.

 

Many scholars claim that the nationalists/educationists founded the NCE Bengal in opposition to the British, and Jadavpur University was born out of NCE Bengal, it is also true that the history of Jadavpur University is deeply intertwined with the glorious history of the Partition of Bengal and the Swadeshi movement.

 

About Founders:

 

Acknowledgement:

 

Annual Report, Jadavpur University, 2021 – 2022]

 

Prof. Pinaki Bhattacharya, Chemervescence 2023

https://jadavpuruniversity.in/about/history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z_HbhmL4v4