Godavari at 21:54, 16 March 2026

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{{Short description|Bengali scholar (1813–1885)}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Reverend Krishna Mohan Banerjee
| image = Krishna Mohan Banerjee.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = 1886 lithograph of Krishna Mohan Banerjee
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1813|05|24}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{Death date|df=yes|1885|05|11}}
| death_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]], [[British India]]
| occupation = Christian Evangelist, Professor, Litterateur
}}
{{Young Bengal}}
'''Krishna Mohan Banerjee'''<ref>His surname is also transliterated as ''Banerjea'' or as ''Bandyopadhyay''.</ref> (24 May 1813 – 11 May 1885) was a 19th-century Indian thinker who attempted to rethink Hindu philosophy, religion and ethics in response to the stimulus of Christian ideas. He himself became a [[Christians|Christian]], and was the first president of the [[Bengal Christian Association]], which was administered and financed by Indians. He was a prominent member of [[Henry Louis Vivian Derozio]]'s (1808–1831) [[Young Bengal]] group, educationist, linguist and Christian missionary.

==Early life==
[[File:Krishna_Mohan_Banerjea.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait by [[Colesworthey Grant]]]]
Son of the [[Bengali Brahmin]] Jibon Krishna Banerjee<ref name=Banglapedia>{{cite book |last=Murshid |first=Ghulam |year=2012 |chapter=Banerji, Rev. Krishna Mohan |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Banerji,_Rev._Krishna_Mohan |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]] |access-date=29 March 2016 |archive-date=6 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406121455/http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Banerji,_Rev._Krishna_Mohan |url-status=live }}</ref> and Sreemoti Devi, Krishna Mohan was born on 24 May 1813 at Shyampur, [[Kolkata]], Bengal, in the house of his maternal grandfather, Ramjay Vidyabhusan, the court-pundit of Santiram Singha of [[Jorasanko]], who was the great-grandfather of the famous [[Kaliprasanna Singha]].

In 1819, Krishna Mohan joined the [[Hare School|''School Society Institution'']] (later renamed as [[Hare School]]) founded by [[David Hare (philanthropist)|David Hare]] at colootola. Impressed by his talents, Hare took him to his school at Pataldanga, later famous as Hare School in 1822.<ref name="The Times of India">{{Cite news |date=2019-01-07 |title=IIEST on revamp mode for bicentenary year |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/iiest-on-revamp-mode-for-bicentenary-year/articleshow/67414318.cms |access-date=2024-04-23 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}</ref>

Banerjee joined the newly founded [[Presidency College, Kolkata|Hindu College]] with a scholarship.

In 1831, Banerjee started publishing ''The Inquirer''. In the same year he was excommunicated by his family for refusing to apologize for his friends' consumption of beef and beer at his house. This inspired him to write his play, ''The Persecuted: or, Dramatic Scenes Illustrative of the Present State of Hindoo Society in Calcutta'', the first original English-language drama by an Indian. It was never performed. Upon its publication, it was well received by English reviewers at the time for exposing the hypocrisies of Kolkata's Brahmin orthodoxy and for its author's use of the English language.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sapui |first=Meghna |date=2023 |title=Eat, Write, Dramatize: Young Bengal's Gastro Drama |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/900601 |journal=ELH |volume=90 |issue=2 |pages=425–456 |doi=10.1353/elh.2023.a900601 |issn=1080-6547|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

While at college he used to attend the lectures of the Scottish Christian missionary, [[Alexander Duff (missionary)|Alexander Duff]], who had come to India in 1830.

His father died of cholera in 1828.

==Conversion to Christianity==
On completion of his studies in 1829, Banerjee joined ''Pataldanga School'' as an assistant teacher. In 1832, he converted to Christianity, under the influence of Alexander Duff. As a result of his conversion, he lost his job in David Hare's school and his wife, Bindhyobashini Banerjee, was forced to return to her own father's house, only to join him in later life.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sunshine |first=John Stonestreet, Glenn |title=Krishna Banjeree and Christianity's Influence on Education in India - Breakpoint |url=https://breakpoint.org/how-education-redeemed-krishna-banerjee-and-rejuvenated-india/ |access-date=2024-04-23 |website=breakpoint.org |date=8 October 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref> Nevertheless, he later became the headmaster of ''Church Missionary Society School''.<ref name=Banglapedia />

When the missionary society had begun its [[Philanthropy|philanthropic]] activities in Kolkata, Banerjee became the first Bengali priest of Christ Church where he used to preach and deliver sermons in Bengali.<ref name=Banglapedia />

He converted his wife, his brother Kali Mohan, and [[Gnanendramohan Tagore|Ganendra Mohan Tagore]], the son of [[Prasanna Coomar Tagore]] to Christian faith. Subsequently, Ganendra Mohan married his daughter Kamalmani and became the first Indian to qualify as a barrister. He was also instrumental in the conversion of [[Michael Madhusudan Dutt]].<ref name="The Times of India"/>

==Later life==
In 1852, Krishna Mohan was appointed a professor of Oriental Studies at [[Bishop's College, Calcutta|Bishop's College]], Kolkata. He had studied aspects of Christianity as a student of the same college between 1836 and 1839.

In 1864 he was elected to be a member of the [[Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|Royal Asiatic Society]] along with [[Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar]]. In 1876 the [[University of Calcutta]] honoured him with an [[List of University of Calcutta honorary degree recipients|honorary doctorate degree]].

Reverend Krishna Mohan Banerjee died on 11 May 1885 in Kolkata, and was buried at [[Shibpur]] with his wife. The graveyard is currently located inside the campus of [[IIEST]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/iiest-on-revamp-mode-for-bicentenary-year/articleshow/67414318.cms|title=IIEST on revamp mode for bicentenary year|first1=Jhimli|last1=Mukherjee Pandey|date=January 7, 2019|website=The Times of India|language=en|access-date=2019-05-22|archive-date=9 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190109211217/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/iiest-on-revamp-mode-for-bicentenary-year/articleshow/67414318.cms|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Grave_of_Rev._Krishna_Mohan_Banerjee_present_at_IIEST_Shibpur_campus.jpg|thumb|Grave of Rev. Krishna Mohan Banerjee present at IIEST Shibpur campus]]

==Works==
He published a 13-volume English – Bengali adaptation of [[Encyclopædia Britannica]], ''Vidyakalpadruma'' or ''Encyclopædia Bengalensis'' (1846–51).<ref name=Amaresh>{{Cite book | last = Datta | first = Amaresh | title = Encyclopaedia of Indian literature | place = Delhi | pages= 1162–1163| publisher = South Asia Books | year = 1988 | volume = 2 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zB4n3MVozbUC&pg=PA1162 | isbn = 978-81-7201-649-4 }}</ref> He wrote an Indian English drama "The persecuted" in 1831..

His other works include ''[https://archive.org/details/arianwitnessort00banegoog The Arian Witness]'' (1875),<ref>{{cite web|title=The Arian Witness, Or, The Testimony of Arian Scriptures: In Corroboration ...|url=https://archive.org/details/arianwitnessort00banegoog|publisher=Thacker, Spink|access-date=12 July 2017|language=en|date=1875}}</ref> ''[https://archive.org/details/dialoguesonhindu00banerich Dialogues on the Hindu Philosophy]'' (1861), and ''The Relation Between Christianity and Hinduism'' (1881).

== Memory ==
[[File:Krishnamohan_Halt.jpg|left|thumb|Krishna Mohan Halt Station, Sealdah south section.]]
[[File:Tablet - Krishna Mohan Banerjea - Mid-nineteenth Century Cemetery - Bengal Engineering and Science University - Sibpur - Howrah 2013-06-06 8578.JPG|thumb|Gravestone of Banerjee at the Bengal Engineering and Science University]]
[[Krishna Mohan railway station]] in [[Sealdah South lines]] Baruipur - [[Lakshmikantapur]] route is named after Rev. Krishna Mohan Banerjee.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://etrainroute.in/stations/KRXM|title=Trains arriving at and passing through Krishnamohan (halt)|website=Trainroutes|access-date=February 15, 2017|archive-date=3 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903052943/http://etrainroute.in/stations/KRXM|url-status=live}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links| wikt=no | commons=no | b=no | n=no | q=no | s=Author:Krishna Mohan Banerjee | v=no | voy=no | species=no | d=q5565188}}

==Further reading==
* Mayukh Das, ''Reverend Krishnamohan Bandyopadhyaya'' (in Bengali), Kolkata:Paschimbanga Anchalik Itihas O Loksanskriti Charcha Kendra (2014) {{ISBN|978-81-926316-0-8}}
* T. V. Philip, ''Krishna Mohan Banerjea, Christian apologist'' (1982)
* Ramachandra Ghosha, ''A Biographical Sketch of the Rev. K. M. Banerjea'' ed. by Manabendra Naskar & Mayukh Das, Corpus Research Institute, Kolkata (2012)
* Durgadas Lahiri, ''Adarshacharit Krishnamohan'' ed. by Mayukh Das, Kolkata:Paschimbanga Anchalik Itihas O Loksanskriti Charcha Kendra(2012)
* K. Baago, ''Pioneers of Indigenous Christianity'' (1969)
* ''[[Ramtanu Lahiri O Tatkalin Bangasamaj]]'' in Bengali by Sivanath Sastri
* ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (Biographical dictionary) in Bengali edited by Subodh Chandra Sengupta and Anjali Bose
* ''[[Tattwabodhini Patrika]] and the [[Bengal Renaissance]]'' by [[Amiya Kumar Sen]]
* Reverend Krishnamohan Bandyopadhyay Dwi-Shatabarsher Aloye, ed. Sanatkumar Naskar and Kasturi Mukhopadhyay, Ratnabali, 2013

{{Bengal Renaissance}}
{{Protestant missions to India}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Krishna Mohan}}
[[Category:1813 births]]
[[Category:1885 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Bengali people]]
[[Category:Bengali writers]]
[[Category:Young Bengal]]
[[Category:Hare School alumni]]
[[Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Christian clergy from Kolkata]]
[[Category:Bengali Christians]]
[[Category:Indian Anglicans]]
[[Category:Converts to Christianity from Hinduism]]
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[[Category:19th-century Indian scholars]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian male writers]]
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[[Category:19th-century Indian essayists]]
[[Category:Indian male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Indian religious writers]]
[[Category:Indian male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English-language Indian writers]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian translators]]
[[Category:Indian encyclopedists]]

Krishna Mohan Banerjee - Revision history

Godavari at 21:54, 16 March 2026