>Lakshmikanta Manna at 11:41, 22 May 2021

2021-05-22T11:41:32Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee
| image = Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee.jpg
| image_size = 150px
| caption =
| birth_date = 2 October 1814<ref name="Sansad">{{cite book | title=Sansad Bengali Charitabhidhan Vol.I | publisher= Sahitya Sansad,Kolkata | author=Subodhchandra Senguta & Anjali Bose | year=2016 | pages=280,281 | isbn=978-81-7955-135-6}}</ref>
| birth_place = [[Kolkata]]
| death_date = 15 Jul 1878
| death_place = [[Lucknow]]
| occupation = Social reformer
| spouse = Jnadasundari Debi
Basanta Kumari
}}'''Raja Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee''' ({{lang-bn|দক্ষিণারঞ্জন মুখার্জ্জী}}) was the ''[[Taluqdar]]'' of the formerly confiscated ''[[taluq]]'' of [[Shankarpur]] in the West Bengal (2 October 1814 – 15 July 1878). He was one of the leaders of the [[Young Bengal]] group in 19th-century [[India]]. As an orator, editor of several periodicals, and a social reformer, he donated land for the [[Bethune School]] and assisted [[David Hare (philanthropist)|David Hare]] in his social works.<ref name = "Bose202">Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), (1976/1998), ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (Biographical dictionary){{in lang|bn}}, Vol I, p 202, {{ISBN|81-85626-65-0}}.</ref> His descendants are based in [[India]], [[Australia]], and [[North America]].

==Early life==
Jaganmohan Mukherjee, Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee's father, was originally from [[Bhatpara]] and married into the [[Pathuriaghata]] branch of the [[Tagore family#The Pathuriaghata family|Tagore family]]. Following his marriage, he agreed to be a ‘[[Gharjamai|ghar-jamai]]’, a groom who remains with his in-laws as part of their family. Little is known about Dakshinaranjan's mother.

Dakshinaranjan studied at the [[Hare School]] and, later, at [[Presidency College, Kolkata|Hindu College]]. While a student of Hindu College, he was influenced by [[Henry Louis Vivian Derozio]], the Indian writer who created the [[Young Bengal]] movement. When his friend [[Krishna Mohan Banerjee]] was turned out of his house for converting to [[Christianity]], Mukherjee provided him protection and support.<ref name="Bose202" />

==Activities at Kolkata==
{{quote box|width=250px|quote= In 1838 was established the Society for Acquisition of General Knowledge which had 200 members in 1843. On 8 February 1843, Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee read in a meeting of the society his well-known essay on ''Present Conditions of the East India Company’s Courts of Judicature and Police under the Bengal Presidency''. "The delivery of the essay", observed the ''Bengal Harkaru'' on 2 March 1843, "was interrupted, as our readers will recollect, by the Principal of the Hindoo College, on the ground of its seditious and treasonable tendency. The attempts made to throw ridicule upon the intelligent natives of their country, for their laudable efforts to acquire knowledge of the government under which they live, and to aid in the removal of its abuses, appear to us as most ungenerous and illiberal".<ref>Sengupta, Nitish, (2001/2002) ''History of the Bengali-speaking People'', p282 UBS Publishers' Distributors Pvt. Ltd., {{ISBN|81-7476-355-4}}.</ref> |source= '''Sengupta, Nitish'''}}
While a student, Mukherjee published the magazine ''Jnananneswan'' in 1831;<ref>''Jnananneswan'' sought to instruct the Hindus in the science of government and jurisprudence. Ref: Sengupta, Nitish. P 283.</ref> the following year the magazine was published in two languages. He spoke against suppression of newspapers by the government. He was one of main initiators for the establishment of the British Indian Association and contributed regularly to the ''Bengal Spectator''. He practiced as a lawyer and was the first Indian to be appointed as a collector of [[Kolkata Municipal Corporation|Calcutta Municipality]].<ref name=banglapedia>{{cite book |last=Dastider |first=Shipra |year=2012 |chapter=Mukherji, Raja Dakshinaranjan |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Mukherji,_Raja_Dakshinaranjan |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> Later he worked as the deputy collector of the [[Raja]] of [[Burdwan]] and the ''[[dewan]]'' of the [[Nawab]] at [[Murshidabad]].<ref name = "Bose202"/>

He loaned [[Rupees|Rs.]] 60,000 to David Hare. As Hare was unable to pay back the loan, he gave Mukherjee some land in lieu of it. Mukherjee, in turn, donated that land in 1849 to [[John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune]] for the establishment of Kolkata’s first secular school for girls.<ref name = "Bose202"/><ref>Acharya, Poromesh, ''Education in Old Calcutta'', in ''Calcutta, the Living City'', Vol I, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, pp 85-94, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-563696-1}}.</ref>

==Personal life==
After the death of [[Bardhaman Raj#Tejendra|Maharaja Tej Chandra Ray]] of [[Bardhaman]] in 1832, Mukherjee visited the family home in connection with some legal disputes. He met Tej Chandra’s young widow, [[Basanta Kumari]], the maharaja's 8th wife, whom Mukherjee later married by registration. The episode created a sensation in [[Calcutta]], since Mukherjee and Basanta Kumari, chose to elope, but were caught by the girl's father, Pran Chand Kapoor.<ref name="jalrajapratapchandra">See Gautam Bhadra, ''Jal Rajar Galpa: Bardhamaner Pratap Chand'', [Calcutta: Ananda Publishers, 2002] [in Bengali]</ref>

Basanta Kumari, however, escaped her father's custody to reunite with Mukherjee, with whom she migrated to [[Lucknow]] in 1851. Mukherjee and his wife, who was older than he was, remained in [[Lucknow]] until the end of their lives. {{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

==Lucknow==
Mukherjee prospered in [[Lucknow]]. For helping the British during the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Sepoy Mutiny]], he was rewarded with the Shankarpur taluk in 1859. He was made honorary assistant commissioner of [[Lucknow]] and [[Awadh]]. He started publishing ''Lucknow Times'', ''Samachar Hindustani'' and ''Bharat Patrika'' from Lucknow. He established the Canning College at Lucknow. He was honoured with the title of 'Raja' by the [[Governor General of India|Viceroy]], [[Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo|Lord Mayo]] in 1871.<ref name = "Bose202"/>

He established the Awadh British Indian Association in 1871 and campaigned for the formation of a provincial government with equal number of nominated and elected legislators costing him some favour with the British government.<ref name = "Bose202"/> Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee died in [[Lucknow]] on 15 July 1878.<ref name=banglapedia/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Bengal Renaissance}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mukherjee, Dakshinaranjan}}
[[Category:1814 births]]
[[Category:1898 deaths]]
[[Category:Hare School alumni]]
[[Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni]]
[[Category:Bengali people]]
[[Category:Writers from Kolkata]]
[[Category:Writers from Lucknow]]
[[Category:Young Bengal]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:Founders of Indian schools and colleges]]
[[Category:Indian social reformers]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian educational theorists]]
[[Category:Indian publishers (people)]]
[[Category:Journalists from West Bengal]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:Journalists from Uttar Pradesh]]

Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee - Revision history

>Lakshmikanta Manna at 11:41, 22 May 2021