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{{Use Indian English|date=September 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Girindra Mukerji
| image = Girindra Mukerji in 1908 in the San Francisco Call.png
| birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date |24|1904|05|15|noage=1}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[British India]]
| education = [[Calcutta University]]<br/>[[Tokyo Imperial University]]<br/>[[University of California, Berkeley]]
| employer = [[Bengal National College]]
| notable_works = The Hindu in America
}}

'''Girindra Mukerji''' (born {{Birth based on age as of date|24|1904|May|15|noage=1}}) was an [[British India|Indian]] anti-British activist, organizer, and agriculturist. His article "The Hindu in America"<ref name="hindu-in-america">{{Cite journal |last=Mukerji |first=Girindra |date=April 1908 |title=The Hindu in America |url=http://www.saadigitalarchive.org/item/20111101-443 |journal=Overland Monthly |access-date=19 June 2022}}</ref> has been widely cited as a document describing early Indian immigration to the United States.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jane Singh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOZtAAAAMAAJ |title=South Asians in North America: An Annotated and Selected Bibliography |publisher=Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-944613-03-0 |page=57}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Melendy |first=Howard Brett |url=https://archive.org/details/asiansinamericaf0000mele |title=Asians in America: Filipinos, Koreans, and East Indians |publisher=Twayne Publishers |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-8057-8414-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/asiansinamericaf0000mele/page/285 285] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Chandrasekhar1982">{{Cite book |last=Chandrasekhar |first=Sripati |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CUOAUsB_yjoC |title=From India to America: a brief history of immigration, problems of discrimination, admission, and assimilation |date=1 April 1982 |publisher=Population Review Publications |isbn=978-0-9609080-0-4 |page=102}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Malik |first=Iftikhar Haider |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dgBuAAAAMAAJ |title=US-South Asia relations, 1784-1940: a historical perspective |publisher=Area Study Centre for Africa, North & South America, Quaid-i-Azam University |year=1988 |isbn=978-969-8013-02-8 |page=371}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gosine |first=Mahin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9whuAAAAMAAJ |title=The East Indian odyssey: dilemmas of a migrant people |publisher=Windsor Press |year=1994 |isbn=9780963931856 |page=195}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/religionsofunite0002unse |title=Religions of the United States in practice. Volume two |publisher=Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-691-18813-3 |editor-last=McDannell |editor-first=Colleen |pages=421}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Mukerji was born in [[Calcutta|Calcutta, India]] in {{Birth based on age as of date|24|1904|May|15|noage=1}}.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |date=May 15, 1904 |title=To Raise India From Caste Life |page=7 |work=[[The Oregon Daily Journal]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/78378898/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> He was, according to the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', the son of a "Judge of one of the higher courts."<ref name=":0" />

In 1901, he received an AB degree from [[Calcutta University]],<ref name=":6" /> then briefly studied in Japan, at the [[Imperial University in Tokyo]], before deciding to study in the United States.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=22 April 1904 |title=Gives Up Caste for Learning |page=10 |work=[[Oakland Tribune]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/73947314/ |access-date=2021-05-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=April 22, 1904 |title=Outcast for Sake of Study |pages=1 |work=[[Berkeley Gazette]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/608358688/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

== Life in the United States ==
Mukerji moved to the United States in 1904,<ref>Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at San Francisco, CA, 1893–1953 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1410, roll 10, line number 11, record id [https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10881-67430/griudra-mukerji-in-california-passenger-lists 004893284_00334_10]).</ref> becoming a student at [[Oregon Agricultural College]].<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t4jm3xw20&seq=143 |title=Annual catalogue of the Agricultural College of the State of Oregon and Announcements for 1905–1906 |publisher=[[Oregon Agricultural College]] |year=1905 |pages=139 |chapter=List of Students|series=Agricultural College bulletin (Corvallis, Or.) }}</ref> While in Oregon, according to Gopal Stavig, he represented the [[Vedanta Society]] at the [[Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition|Lewis and Clark Exposition]] in [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]] in summer 1905.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stavig |first=Gopal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=suKdBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA751 |title=Western Admirers of Ramakrishna and His Disciples |date=2 October 2010 |publisher=Advaita Ashrama |isbn=9788175053342 |page=751 |language=en}}</ref>

He moved to [[Berkeley, California]] in April 1904, hoping to study at the [[University of California, Berkeley]]; he started working to fund his education, and was a student by 1905.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="das">{{Cite journal |last=Das |first=Sarangadhar |date=July 1911 |title=Why Must We Emigrate to the United States of America? |url=http://www.saadigitalarchive.org/item/20101216-154 |journal=Modern Review |page=72 |access-date=19 June 2022}}</ref>

Mukerji was a student leader among Indian students at UC Berkeley, described in the media as "having charge of the colony."<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 17, 1907 |title=Hindu Students Leave Berkeley |page=7 |work=[[The San Francisco Examiner]] |publication-place=[[San Francisco, California]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/457875204 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> His time at UC Berkeley was widely covered by American newspapers.

== Student activism ==
Around 1906, according to British surveillance, Mukerji and [[Tarak Nath Das]] worked together as "agitators against British rule." Subsequently, wrote [[William C. Hopkinson]], "Mookerjee and Dass then got together some five or six other students and formed a society called the [[Anushilan Samiti|Samiti]], which is considered the most secret among all the societies with Hindu affiliations."<ref name=":5" /> The local media would subsequently describe him as a socialist.<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 17, 1907 |title=Starts on a Trip Around the World |pages=2 |work=Berkeley Daily Gazette |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/berkeley-daily-gazette-oct-17-1907-p-2/ |quote=There, he expects to meet Mr. Mukkajee, a Hindoo student, at present in the University of California, who is also a socialist. |via=[[NewspaperArchive]]}}</ref>

In 1907, Mukerji co-founded the Association of Oriental Students at UC Berkeley, the first [[Asian Americans|Asian American]] organization at the university, with members from [[British Raj|India]], Japan, China, and [[Thailand]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 February 1907 |title=Oriental Students at U.C. Form Association |pages=1, 4 |work=[[Berkeley Daily Gazette|The Berkeley Daily Gazette]] |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He served as the organization's president during at least 1907–1908.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=28 November 1907 |title=HE WANTS MORE HINDOO STUDENTS TO COME HERE: President of Association of Oriental Students Writes Booklet on American Colleges. |page=11 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |id={{ProQuest|251664657}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chatterjee |first=Ramananda |date=March 1908 |title=Information about American Universities for Oriental Students |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVAxAQAAMAAJ&q=girindra&pg=PA269 |journal=The Modern Review |volume=3 |pages=269–270 |access-date=8 June 2022}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite news|date=4 December 1907|title=Oriental Student Issues Circular|page=2|work=[[Berkeley Daily Gazette]]|url=https://newspapers.com/image/608614644/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> While a student, Mukerji also worked as a United States immigration officer from March 1907 to March 1908, interviewing immigrants from India and learning about their labor conditions.<ref name="hindu-in-america" /><ref name="das" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Singh |first=Saint Nihal |date=January 1909 |title=The History of Indian Immigration on the Pacific Coast of America |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112079410137&view=1up&seq=71 |journal=[[Modern Review (Calcutta)|The Modern Review]] |volume=5 |pages=55–57 |via=[[Hathitrust]]}}</ref>

In November 1907, he published a booklet on American colleges focused on an Indian audience; the release was covered in newspapers like the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=December 4, 1907 |title=Oriental Students Issue Circular |pages=1 |work=[[The Daily Californian]] |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ucbk.ark:/28722/h2n29pf7m&seq=1 |via=[[HathiTrust]]}}</ref> British surveillance reported that his pamphlets were "circulated…widely through India, Japan, China, and other parts where there were Hindu students…"<ref name=":5" /> A subsequent article, "The Hindu in America," was published in the ''[[Overland Monthly]]'' in April 1908,<ref name=":1" /> and he was interviewed on "The Condition of Hindu Students in America" in ''[[Modern Review (Calcutta)|The Modern Review]]'' in 1909.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Singh |first=Saint Nihal |date=January 1909 |title=The Condition of Hindu Students in America |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112079410137&view=1up&seq=69 |journal=[[Modern Review (Calcutta)|The Modern Review]] |volume=5 |pages=53–55 |via=[[Hathitrust]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gould |first=Harold A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=poFjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT181 |title=Sikhs, Swamis, Students and Spies: The India Lobby in the United States, 1900–1946 |date=3 October 2006 |publisher=SAGE Publishing India |isbn=978-93-5280-346-0 |pages=81 |language=en}}</ref>

In December 1907, Mukerji gave a scathing lecture on the British empire in India to UC Berkeley's Economics Club, which was covered in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', in an article titled "Hindu Arraigns Britons for the Ruin of India: Calcutta Graduate Scores England for Overtaxing of His People."<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 December 1907 |title=Hindu Arraigns Britons for the Ruin of India: Calcutta Graduate Scores England for Overtaxing of His People |page=13 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |id={{ProQuest|251642649}}}}</ref>

In January 1908, after his graduation, he led a student protest against J. Lovell Murray, a Christian evangelist who was in Berkeley to give a talk titled "Awakening the Orient" organized by the local [[YMCA#History|Y.M.C.A.]] Just before Murray was about to enter Stiles Hall to give his lecture, 16 Indian students at UC Berkeley, including Mukerji, asked Murray to remove from his talk any references to the immorality of Hindu priests, and its use in the justification of the occupation of India by the British. Murray refused. Once Murray was finished speaking, Mukerji was invited to respond to the speaker. He spoke against the British occupation, followed by six other students from the group, until the organizers decided to shut down the event.<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 January 1908 |title=Hindu Students Flay Missionary |page=4 |work=San Francisco Call |url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19080118.2.46.12 |access-date=9 June 2014 |archive-url=http://www.saadigitalarchive.org/item/20131129-3487 |archive-date=29 November 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=11 February 1907 |title=Hindus and Y.M.C.A. in Altercation |page=2 |work=[[Berkeley Gazette|The Berkeley Gazette]] |location=Berkeley, California, United States |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=19 January 1908 |title=Hindoo Students Try to Break up Lecture |page=25 |work=[[San Francisco Examiner]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/457413668/ |access-date=2021-05-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

== Agricultural research ==
Mukerji was a student of Professor [[Eugene W. Hilgard]], an expert on agricultural chemistry.<ref name="farewell">{{Cite news |date=16 March 1908 |title=Bid Farewell to Calcutta Student |work=San Francisco Call |url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19080316.2.36.28 |access-date=9 June 2022}}</ref> In 1907–1908, he received a Master of Science from the College of Agriculture at UC Berkeley; his thesis was entitled "A Comparative Study of Soil Columns in the San Joaquin Valley."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mukerji |first=Girindra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xGJIAQAAMAAJ |title=Comparison of Soils in Arid and Humid Climates |date=1907 |publisher=University of California |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007696745 |title=Directory of graduates of the University of California, 1864–1916 |date=1916 |publisher=University of California |location=Berkeley, California |pages=245 |hdl=2027/uc1.b3239863?urlappend=%3Bseq=265}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7uy4uNW8IloC&pg=RA3-PA17 |title=Bulletin: University of California (1868–1952) |publisher=University of California |year=1892 |page=17 |access-date=8 June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=13 May 1908 |title=Sheepskins are Presented to Successful Candidates |page=9 |work=Berkeley Daily Gazette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/608374061/ |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

University President [[Benjamin Ide Wheeler]], who was present at his farewell, spoke highly of his work and cited him as a role model for other Indians.<ref>{{Cite news |date=16 March 1908 |title=Will Establish Hindu School |page=2 |work=[[Berkeley Gazette|The Berkeley Gazette]] |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=17 March 1908|title=Ovation for Hindu|page=4|work=[[Oakland Tribune]]|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/oakland-tribune-mar-17-1908-p-4/|via=NewspaperArchive}}</ref> He hoped to be able to apply his learnings, including Utah [[Dryland farming|dry farming]] techniques, in India.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=3 June 1908 |title=Young Hindus to Study Here: Society for the Advancement of India Aiding Them |pages=12 |work=[[The Sun (New York City)|The Sun]] |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1908-06-03/ed-1/seq-12/ |url-status=live |access-date=2021-02-05 |issn=1940-7831}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Singh |first=Saint Nihal |date=January 1909 |title=Dry Farming for Parts of India |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112079410137&view=1up&seq=68 |journal=[[Modern Review (Calcutta)|The Modern Review]] |volume=5 |pages=52–53 |via=[[Hathitrust]]}}</ref>

== Leaving California, and return to India ==
In 1907, the ''[[Berkeley Daily Gazette]]'' reported that Mukerji was to "return to his home to take the chair of agriculture at the [[Calcutta University|Calcuttat (sic) University]]."<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 December 1907 |title=Successful Students Rewarded |work=Berkeley Daily Gazette |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/california/berkeley/berkeley-daily-gazette/1907/12-23/page-9 |access-date=19 June 2022}}</ref>

Mukerji left for New York City in March 1908,<ref name="farewell" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://records.myheritagelibraryedition.com/research/collection-10705/us-city-directories |title=Manhattan and Bronx, 1909 |publisher=Trow Directory |year=1909 |pages=1032 |quote=Mukerji Girindra lawyer 1142 Park Av}}</ref> where he was associated with the Society for the Advancement of India, supporting Indian students.<ref name=":2" /> He worked with [[Myron Henry Phelps|Myron Phelps]], a supporter of Indian freedom; a ''[[London Daily Express]]'' article critical of the Indian freedom movement described Mukerji as a "clever Hindu agitator" and Phelps' "major-domo."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ganachari |first=Aravind Gururao |year=1991 |title=Myron H. Phelps (1856–1916) : An Early American Advocate of India's Freedom |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44142670 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=52 |pages=650–657 |jstor=44142670 |via=JSTOR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Samanta |first=Amiya K. |title=Terrorism in Bengal: Terrorists outside Bengal deriving inspiration from and having links with Bengal terrorists |publisher=Government of West Bengal |year=1995 |volume=5 |location=India |pages=78}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=July 6, 1909 |title=Mysterious Leader of Hindoos |pages=1, 8 |work=[[Vancouver Daily World]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/64323314/ |quote=…India House in New York and Phelps was appointed President…he appointed as his major-domo a clever Hindu agitator, one Girindra Mukerji, a graduate of Calcutta University, who traveled from California to New York literally living on sedition as the easiest means of support. Into Mukerji's hands passed all the loyal young students who reached New York, and it is safe to believe that most of them were corrupted and sent back to India full of revolutionary ideas and seditious impulses. |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> By 1909, he was living in [[Massachusetts]], developing ideas to create a new library in India.<ref>{{Cite letter|title=May I take the liberty…|first=Girindra|last=Mukerji|recipient=[[Charlotte Perkins Gilman]]|language=English|date=9 March 1909|url=https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:3119401?n=57|location=Newburyport, Massachusetts|publisher=[[Schlesinger Library]]}}</ref> He would later stay at [[Sister Nivedita]]'s apartment in London.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Silvestri |first=Michael |title=Ireland and India: Nationalism, Empire, and Memory |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2009 |isbn=9780230216747 |pages=229 |chapter=Notes |quote=When she returned to London due to health problems, a prominent Bengali revolutionary named Girindra Nath Mukherjee stayed at her flat there. C.A. Tegart, 'A Note on the Ramakrishna Mission' (1914) in TIB IV: 1350-1352}}</ref>

[[Sarangadhar Das]] wrote that after graduating from UC Berkeley in 1908, Mukerji "worked as the Superindending (sic) Chemist in a sugar factory in [[Puerto Rico|Porto Rico]], [[Cuba]], and now is employed in the [[Bengal National College]]."<ref name="das" />

British surveillance records from 1911 placed Mukerji in the "mills of [[Kanpur|Cawnpore]], [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]]," where he was "still carrying on, although quite secretly, his agitation against Britain," while remaining in correspondence with students at UC Berkeley.<ref name=":5">{{cite letter|first=William C.|last=Hopkinson|recipient=William W. Cory, Deputy Minister of the Interior, Canada|subject=I left Seattle on the 6th instant…|language=English|date=13 October 1911|url=http://komagatamarujourney.ca/node/11707|access-date=2021-11-10|author-link=William C. Hopkinson|location=San Francisco, California}}</ref>

In 1914, the ''Hindusthanee Student'' reported that he was "prospecting in the [[Central Provinces]]."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=April 1914 |title=News Notes: Activities of Some Hindusthanee Students Who Have Returned Home |url=https://www.saada.org/item/20110818-298 |journal=The Hindusthanee Student |publisher=Hindusthan Association of America |publication-place=Chicago, Illinois |pages=53 |quote=Girindranath Mukerji, prospecting in the Central Provinces. |via=[[South Asian American Digital Archive]]}}</ref>

==Published works==
* [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2911910 "Comparison of Soils in Arid and Humid Climates"] (1907)
*[http://www.saadigitalarchive.org/item/20111101-443 "The Hindu in America"] ([[Overland Monthly]], April 1908)<ref name="hindu-in-america" />

== See also ==

* [[Tarak Nath Das]]
* [[Ram Nath Puri]]
* [[Sarangadhar Das]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mukerji, Girindra}}
[[Category:Scientists from Kolkata]]
[[Category:Indian independence activists from Bengal]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Indian expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:Indian agriculturalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian botanists]]
[[Category:Asian-American movement activists]]
[[Category:1880s births]]
[[Category:Oregon State University alumni]]
[[Category:Anushilan Samiti]]
[[Category:Indian independence activists from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Indian activists]]
[[Category:Indian American]]

Girindra Mukerji - Revision history

Bot at 19:01, 3 December 2022