>Rlink2 Bot at 01:54, 31 December 2021

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{{Short description|Parsi businessman, judge, reformer and proponent of female education from Bombay}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
'''Manockjee Cursetjee''' (also '''Manakji Kharshedji Shroff''')<ref>{{cite book|author=Dosabhai Framji Karaka|title=History of the Parsis Including Their Manners, Customs, Religion and Present Position|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKzR3PXY5D4C&pg=PA262|access-date=22 June 2013|date=1 June 2004|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|isbn=978-1-4179-2168-3|page=262}}</ref> (1808–1887)<ref>{{cite book|author=Jesse S. Palsetia|title=The Parsis of India: Preservation of Identity in Bombay City|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R6oNt3M_yLgC&pg=PA74|access-date=23 June 2013|date=1 January 2001|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-12114-0|page=74}}</ref> was a [[Parsi]] businessman and judge from [[Bombay]], remembered as a reformer and proponent of [[female education]].
[[File:Manockjee Cursetjee Brockedon.jpg|thumb|Manockjee Cursetjee, 1841 drawing by [[William Brockedon]]]]

==Life==
Cursetjee was the son of Cursetjee Manockjee Shroff,<ref name="Palsetia2001">{{cite book|author=Jesse S. Palsetia|title=The Parsis of India: Preservation of Identity in Bombay City|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R6oNt3M_yLgC&pg=PA150|access-date=22 June 2013|date=1 January 2001|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-12114-0|page=150}}</ref> and had an English education, under a Mr. Mackay at Joliffe's school, near [[St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai|St. Thomas's Church]].<ref>James Douglas, ''Glimpses of old Bombay and western India, with other papers'' (1900), p. 21; [https://archive.org/stream/glimpsesofoldbom00dougrich#page/20/mode/2up archive.org.]</ref> In the 1830s, he knew [[John Wilson (missionary)|John Wilson]], whom he met socially in 1829.<ref name="Douglas">James Douglas, ''Bombay and Western India, a series of stray papers'' vol. 2 (1893) p. 131–2; [https://archive.org/stream/bombaywesternind02doug#page/130/mode/2up archive.org.]</ref> He obtained a government post in the [[Bombay Presidency]], and became a member of the [[Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|Royal Asiatic Society]].<ref>{{cite book|author=George Smith|title=Life of John Wilson, D.D. F.R.S.: For Fifty Years Philanthropist and Scholar in the East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iZYqwdb1ZUEC&pg=PA332|access-date=23 June 2013|date=7 June 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-05045-6|page=332}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n2mGL4CLCNsC&pg=PA292|access-date=23 June 2013|year=1837|publisher=Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland|page=292 note 2}}</ref> In 1843 he became a Fellow of the [[Royal Geographical Society]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Royal Geographical Society|title=The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society: JRGS|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ByFDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PR20|access-date=23 June 2013|year=1854|publisher=Murray|page=xx}}</ref>
[[File:A few passing ideas.jpg|thumb|left|Title page from an 1862 book by Manockjee Cursetjee, published by [[Emily Faithfull]]]]
Cursetjee was a noted [[Anglophile]], and came into conflict with the local Parsi ''[[Panchayat]]''. He began to criticise them, in the ''[[Bombay Times]]'', in 1844–5.<ref name="Palsetia2001"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Shefali Chandra|title=The Sexual Life of English: Languages of Caste and Desire in Colonial India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cuhciewLjbUC&pg=PA37|access-date=23 June 2013|date=2 May 2012|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-5227-3|page=37}}</ref> He visited the United Kingdom three times. On one visit to London, he met [[Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington]], whose father [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Arthur Wellesley]] had been entertained by his own father in Bombay at a garden party.<ref name="Douglas"/>

In 1859 Cursetjee started the first English school for Indian girls. Initially it was in his house, "Villa Byculla", with an English governess and his daughters as staff. The initiative gained the support of [[Kharshedji Nasarwanji Cama]] and [[John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune]]. In 1863, with a land grant and a donation from Cursetjee, the [[Alexandra Native Girls' English Institution]] set up in its own premises.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jesse S. Palsetia|title=The Parsis of India: Preservation of Identity in Bombay City|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R6oNt3M_yLgC&pg=PA151|access-date=23 June 2013|date=1 January 2001|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-12114-0|pages=151–}}</ref>
[[File:Social Science Congress 1865 Maneckji Cursetji.jpg|thumb|At the 1865 Social Science Congress in Sheffield, Manockjee Cursetjee speaks on female education in India]]
In 1863, also, Cursetjee joined the Faculty of Law of [[Bombay University]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Bombay University Calendar for the Year 1869–70.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuQNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA130|access-date=23 June 2013|year=1869|page=130|last1 = Bombay City|first1 = Univ}}</ref> In 1866 he addressed the [[Social Science Congress]] in [[Sheffield]], England, on education in India.<ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of Social Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=81wJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA23|access-date=23 June 2013|year=1866|publisher=Chapman and Hall|page=23}}</ref>

==Legacy==
The school Cursetjee founded, the Alexandra Girls' English Institution named after [[Alexandra of Denmark]] (originally the Alexandra Native Girls' Institution),<ref>{{cite book|author=Emily Faithfull|author-link=Emily Faithfull|title=Victoria Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=brIRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA187|access-date=22 June 2013|year=1868|publisher=Emily Faithfull|page=187}}</ref> still exists.<ref>[http://www.alexandragei.com/?page_id=91 ''Alexandra Girl's English Institution, History''.]</ref>

Cursetjee set up a public monument, now known as the "Khada Parsi", to commemorate his father.<ref name="Marpakwar Mirror 2014">{{cite web | last1=Marpakwar | first1=Chaitanya MarpakwarChaitanya | last2=Mirror | first2=Mumbai | title=Iconic Khada Parsi statue restored | website=Mumbai Mirror | date=19 June 2014 | url=http://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/other/Iconic-Khada-Parsi-statue-restored/articleshow/36786876.cms | access-date=15 December 2016}}</ref><ref>[http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/blogs/blogs-end-of-the-day/article4643578.ece ''The Hindu'', Restoring the ruptured heritage.]</ref> Its location is now between two flyovers in Byculla.<ref>[http://www.dinodiamumbaiphotos.com/Khada_Parsi_Statue_at_Byculla_Mumbai_India-7-146.html dinodiamumbaiphotos.com, ''Khada Parsi Statue at Byculla; Mumbai; India.''] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130624221032/http://www.dinodiamumbaiphotos.com/Khada_Parsi_Statue_at_Byculla_Mumbai_India-7-146.html |date=24 June 2013 }}</ref>

==Family==
His second son Cursetjee Manockjee studied at Oxford University and [[Lincoln's Inn]].<ref>Foster, Joseph (1885). ''[[s:Page:Men-at-the-Bar.djvu/339|Men-at-the-Bar Men-at-the-Bar]]''. Hazel, Watson and Viney, Ltd. p. 339.</ref> He was the first Indian to be admitted as an Oxford undergraduate in 1864.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Simpson|title=Diary of a Journey to Abyssinia, 1868: With the Expedition Under Sir Robert Napier, K.C.S.I.: the Diary and Observations of William Simpson of the Illustrated London News|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_JaMy4u-npcC&pg=PA166|access-date=22 June 2013|year=2002|publisher=Tsehai Publishers|isbn=978-0-9723172-1-4|pages=166 note 1–5}}</ref> Another son, Jehangir Manockjee Cursetjee, matriculated at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] in 1867.<ref>{{acad|CRSY867JM|Jehanghir Manockjee}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cursetjee, Manockjee}}
[[Category:1808 births]]
[[Category:1887 deaths]]
[[Category:Parsi people from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Mumbai]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian businesspeople]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian judges]]
[[Category:Indian women's rights activists]]
[[Category:Indian social reformers]]
[[Category:Activists from Maharashtra]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian educational theorists]]

Manockjee Cursetjee - Revision history

>Rlink2 Bot at 01:54, 31 December 2021