Ashwini Kumar Dutta (25 January 1856 – 7 November 1923) was a Bengali

educationist Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Var ...

, philanthropist, social reformer and patriot.

Early life

Ashwini Kumar Dutta was born in an affluent high class

Bengali Hindu Bengali Hindus ( bn, বাঙ্গালী হিন্দু/বাঙালি হিন্দু, translit=Bāṅgālī Hindu/Bāṅāli Hindu) are an ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Benga ...

Kayastha Kayastha (also referred to as Kayasth) denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally locatedthe Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the C ...

Bharadwaja Bharadvaja ( sa, भरद्वाज, IAST: ; also spelled Bharadwaja) was one of the revered Vedic sages (maharishi) in Ancient India. He was a renowned scholar, economist, grammarian and physician. He is one of the Saptarishis (seven great ...

clan Dutta family in Batajore village in the district of

Barisal Barisal ( or ; bn, বরিশাল, ), officially known as Barishal, is a major city that lies on the banks of the Kirtankhola river in south-central Bangladesh. It is the largest city and the administrative headquarter of both Barisal Dist ...

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, now in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

on 25 January 1856. They are a branch of Dutta family of Bally. His father

Brajamohan Dutta Brajamohan Dutta (1826 - 1886) was a Bengali philanthropist and educator. He was the father of nationalist politician Aswini Kumar Dutta. Early life Dutta was born in 1826 at Batajore village, Barishal, British India. He served as a Deputy Magist ...

was a Munsiff and a Deputy Collector who later became a District Judge. He passed the Entrance examination from Rangpur in 1870 and completed his F.A. from

Hindu College Hindu College may refers to several colleges around the world, including: India *Dharmamurthi Rao Bhahadur Calavala Cunnan Chetty's Hindu College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu * Gobardanga Hindu College, West Bengal * Gokul Das Hindu Girls College, Moradab ...

. He went to

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

to study law. After that, he came back to Bengal and completed his M.A. and B.L. from

Krishnagar Government College Krishnagar Government College, established in 1846, is the oldest college in Nadia district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It offers undergraduate courses in arts and sciences and also some postgraduate courses. At first, the college was un ...

Career

Dutta started his career as a teacher at the Krishnanagar Collegiate School in 1878. In the next year, he joined

Chatra Nandalal Institution Chatra Nandalal Institution, in Serampore, was established in 1874 in Hooghly District, West Bengal, India. It is situated on the bank of the Hooghly River and having a river side view of the cantonment town of Barrackpore. Academic affiliatio ...

Serampore Serampore (also called ''Serampur'', ''Srirampur'', ''Srirampore'', ''Shreerampur'', ''Shreerampore'', ''Shrirampur'' or ''Shrirampore'') is a city of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarter of the Srirampor ...

and acted as the Headmaster of the school for seven months. In 1880, he was called to the Bar at

. He built up a lucrative practice and expended his earning in philanthropic activities. At the suggestion of

Ramesh Chandra Dutta Romesh Chunder Dutt ( bn, রমেশচন্দ্র দত্ত; 13 August 1848 – 30 November 1909) was an Indian civil servant, economic historian, writer and translator of ''Ramayana'' and ''Mahabharata''. Dutt is considered a nation ...

, the then Magistrate of Barisal, he established the Brojomohun School in the memory of his father, on 27 June 1884. Ashwini Kumar Dutta was elected as a delegate to the second session of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

, held at Kolkata in 1886. He took the initiative to establish the District Board in Barisal in 1887. He established the ''Bakarganj Hitaishini Sabha'' and a girls' school in the same year. That year he attended the third session of Indian National Congress in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and spoke on the need for reforms in the Legislative Council. In 1888, he was appointed the Vice-Chairman of Barisal Municipality. In 1889, he established the

Brojomohun College Govt. Brojomohun College, Barisal (also BM College) is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Bangladesh. It is located in the city of Barisal in south-western Bangladesh. History On June 14, 1889, Aswini Kumar Dutta founded Brojo ...

as a second-grade college. He served as the honorary lecturer of English at the college for 25 years. In 1897, he was appointed the Chairman of Barisal Municipality. In 1898, he was selected amongst the committee that was empowered to draw up a constitution of the Congress. The Partition of Bengal drew him to the Swadeshi movement. He founded the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti to promote the consumption of indigenous products and boycott foreign goods. When the moderates and the extremists parted ways in the Surat session, he attempted a reconciliation between the two groups. In 1908, the government of the newly formed

Eastern Bengal and Assam Eastern Bengal and Assam was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India between 1905 and 1912. Headquartered in the city of Dacca, it covered territories in what are now Bangladesh, Northeast India and Northern West Bengal. Hist ...

banned the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti 1908 and deported him to the United Provinces where he was interred at the

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

jail. After his release in 1910, he concentrated on sustaining the Brojomohun School and Brojomohun College. He had no other way than to accept government aid. In 1912, he was forced to hand over the management of the school and the college to two different trustee councils. In 1918 he attended the

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

session of the Indian National Congress. He actively undertook relief work after the Barisal cyclone of 1919. In 1921 at the

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

session of the Indian National Congress, he lends the non-violent Non-Cooperation Movement. Mohandas Gandhi arrived in Barisal that year to show respect to the great leader. In 1922, he joined the striking workers of Assam Bengal Railway and Steamer Company in protest against the atrocities on the workers of tea plantations of Assam.

Works

Aswini Kumar Dutta is the founder of Brojomohan college named after his father. Dutta has written a number of books in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

on religion, philosophy, and patriotism. * Bhaktiyoga * Karmayoga * Prem * Durgotsavtattva * Atmapratistha * Bharatgeeti

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutta, Ashwini Kumar 1856 births 1923 deaths Bengali Hindus 19th-century Bengalis 20th-century Bengalis Bengali-language writers Bengali educators Indian philanthropists People from Patuakhali district Indian social workers Indian social reformers 19th-century Indian educational theorists 20th-century Indian educational theorists Indian educators 19th-century Indian educators 20th-century Indian educators Educators from West Bengal Educationists from India Indian educational theorists Indian male writers 19th-century Indian writers 20th-century Indian writers 20th-century Indian male writers 19th-century Indian male writers Indian non-fiction writers Indian male non-fiction writers 19th-century Indian non-fiction writers 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers Indian religious writers Founders of Indian schools and colleges