Brajendranath Dey (23 December 1852 – 20 September 1932) was an early Indian member of the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

.Indiasaga Who's Who
/ref>

Early life and education

De studied at Hare School,

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, and then Canning Collegiate School and Canning College, Lucknow. Always ranking at the top of his class in school, he was placed in the first division in all his final examinations. He came first from his school in the Entrance examination of Calcutta University and fourth in the first division in the First Arts (F.A.) examination of

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

. A student of English (Honours), he ranked sixth in the first division in his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) examination. Since he was a first divisioner, he was allowed to take the Master of Arts (M.A.) examination of the Calcutta University soon after the completion of his B.A. (Honours) examination. He was ranked second in the M.A. examination and was awarded the silver medal of Calcutta University.Full Text of 'Tabaqat-i-Akbari'
/ref> Later, he travelled to England for his higher studies, on the advice of his grand-uncle, Peary Charan Sarkar and his father's mentor,

Raja ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested f ...

Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee, the taluqdar of Shankarpore, United Provinces and for some time assistant commissioner of

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 ...

. In England, he joined University College, London to appear in the Open Competitive Services examination. Having taken the examination successfully, he joined the

in 1873, emerging 17th in a batch of 35 successful probationers selected from a total of 360 candidates. He was the 8th Indian member of the ICS. Subsequently, he was called to the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple on 7 June 1875. He was admitted to St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he spent one year, from 1874 to 1875, on a

Boden Sanskrit Scholarship The Boden Scholarship at the University of Oxford was established in 1833 to support students learning Sanskrit. History and scholars Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Boden, after whom the scholarship is named, served in the Bombay Native Infantry of the ...

, having attended the lectures of

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Max Mueller and Mr. Ruslan.Oxford University Calendar, 1875, p. 366 He was the first Indian ICS officer to have studied in a college in Oxford. His second son-in-law was

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Sarat Kumar Ghosh, ICS, Chief Justice of Jaipur and Kashmir and the only interim Chief Justice of the High Court of Rajasthan, his fifth daughter and son-in-law were the social reformer

Saroj Nalini Dutt Saroj Nalini Dutt (''née'' De) MBE (9 October 1887 – 19 January 1925) was an Indian feminist and social reformer. Background She was born in her father, Brajendranath De’s, country house in Bandel, near Hooghly, in Bengal Province. Sh ...

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

, and

Gurusaday Dutt Gurusaday Dutt (1882–1941) was a civil servant, folklorist, and writer. He was the founder of the ''Bratachari'' Movement in the 1930s. Early life and education Gurusaday was the son of the Ramkrishna Dutta Chaudhuri and Anandamayee Debi. ...

, ICS, Secretary, Local Self Government and Public Health, Government of Bengal, his sixth son-in-law was Lieutenant Colonel Jyotish Chandra De, IMS,Lives Less Forgotten: Lieutenant Colonel Jyotish Chandra De
/ref> 2nd Indian Principal of the

Calcutta Medical College Calcutta Medical College, officially Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, is a public medical school and hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It is the oldest existing hospital in Asia. The institute was established on 28 January 1835 ...

, his seventh son-in-law was Captain (Hon.) Dr. Paresh Chandra Datta, first Chief Medical Officer of the B.R. Singh Memorial Hospital, Calcutta then of the East Bengal Railway and Director of Public Health, Government of West Bengal and his third son was Major (Hon.) Basanta Kumar De, Traffic Superintendent General and then Commercial Traffic Manager of the BNR. Two of his grandsons were Ranajit Datta, chairman and managing director of Braithwaite, Burn and Jessop Limited and the historian

Barun De Barun De (30 October 1932 – 16 July 2013) was an Indian historian. He served as the first professor of social and economic history of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, founder-director of the Centre for Studies in Social Sci ...

, chairman, West Bengal Heritage Commission. Two of his great-grandchildren were the singer Uma BoseLives Less Forgotten: Uma Bose
/ref> and the cameraman

Subrata Mitra Subrata Mitra (12 October 1930 – 7 December 2001) was an Indian cinematographer. Acclaimed for his work in ''The Apu Trilogy'' (1955–1959), Mitra often is considered one of the greatest Indian cinematographers. Early life and educati ...

.Lives Less Forgotten: Subrata Mitra
/ref>

Career

Administrative

He took up his first posting in the civil service as assistant magistrate and collector of Arrah, Behar in 1875. He served in districts where the rulers of erstwhile zamindari estates, such as Darbhanga and Dumrao, had a strong presence. After serving in a number of districts in Behar, he was posted in Raniganj, Bengal in 1881. He officiated as the district magistrate and collector of

Bankura Bankura () is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Bankura district. Etymology In the Mahabharata, Bankura was described as Suhmobhumi. The word or (in Nagari: rāḍh) was introduced af ...

Burdwan Bardhaman (, ) is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of Purba Bardhaman district, having become a district capital during the period of British rule. Burdwan, an alternative name for the city, ...

and Faridpore. He served as the full district magistrate and collector of

Khulna Khulna ( bn, খুলনা, ) is the third-largest city in Bangladesh, after Dhaka and Chittagong. It is the administrative centre of Khulna District and Khulna Division. Khulna's economy is the third-largest in Bangladesh, contributing $53 b ...

, where he was befriended by Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh, the civil surgeon of the district, and the father of

Aurobindo Ghosh Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...

. He became the magistrate and collector of

Balasore Balasore or Baleswara is a city in the state of Odisha, about north of the state capital Bhubaneswar and from Kolkata, in eastern India. It is the largest town of northern Odisha and the administrative headquarters of Balasore district. It i ...

Orissa Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of Sch ...

and then of Malda and Hooghly."Mr. B. De", in ''Bengalee'', 7 September 1910; see also ''Indian Daily'' News, 3 September 1910 He was the first Indian to be elected as chairman of the Hooghly Municipal Corporation. He was an (acting) commissioner of the

Division."Late Mr. B. De.: Passing Away of an Old Civilian" in ''Liberty'', Friday, 30 September 1932 As the district officer of Hooghly, he started the Duke Club there which was meant to be exclusively for Indians. One of his Commissioners once told him not to entertain the thought of wanting to join a British club in the district. After retirement he remained actively involved in the work of the Calcutta Improvement Trust.'Late Mr. B.De: Passing Away of An Old Civilian' in ''Liberty'', Friday, 30 September 1932"Late Mr. B. De, Calcutta Corporation Tributes", in ''Liberty'', Saturday, 1 October 1932

Academic

While still in service he translated

Kalidas Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and ...

's 'Vikramarvasi' and 'Manichudabadana' from Sanskrit to English. He edited an English-Bengali dictionary and published an article on inter dining in the Madras Social Reformer (1910). In his post-retirement years he served as a vice-president of the council of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta."Birth Centenary of B.De Celebrated" in ''The Statesman'', Wednesday, 24 December 1952"He Rehabilitated Persian in Bengal: Tributes to Late B.De: Birthday Celebration" in ''Amrita Bazar Patrika'', Wednesday, 24 December 1952 He was the translator and editor, in two volumes,

Nizamuddin Ahmad Khwaja Nizam-ud-Din Ahmad Bakshi (also spelled as Nizam ad-Din Ahmad and Nizam al-Din Ahmad) (born 1551, died 1621/1030 AH) was a Muslim historian of late medieval India. He was son of Muhammad Muqim-i-Harawi. He was Akbar's ''Mir Bakhshi''. His w ...

's ''Tabaqat-i-Akbari''. The third volume, which he had left fully prepared, was published posthumously by Baini Prasad and also M. Hidayat Hosain."Mr.B.De Dead Retired Member of the Civil Service" in ''The Statesman'', 30 September 1932Sudha Sharma, ''Status of Muslim Women in Medieval India'', Allahabad
/ref>

Legacy

A road in Chinsura, Hooghly is named after him.Map of Chinsura, Hooghly, Bengal
/ref> At the time of his centenary celebration in 1952, his second son, Basanta Kumar De,

Esq. Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman a ...

, a senior officer of the BNRLives Less Forgotten: Basanta Kumar De
/ref> took the initiative to publish in three articles sections of his reminiscences in the ''

Calcutta Review The ''Calcutta Review'' is a bi-annual periodical, now published by the Calcutta University press, featuring scholarly articles from a variety of disciplines. History The ''Calcutta Review'' was founded in May 1844, by Sir John William Kaye an ...

''. This work was entrusted to

Tapan Raychaudhuri Tapan Raychaudhuri (8 May 1926 – 26 November 2014) was a British-Indian historian specialising in British Indian history, Indian economic history and the History of Bengal. Early life and education He was the son of Prativa and Amiya Kuma ...

, then of the Department of Islamic History and Culture of the University of Calcutta.Mrinalini Sinha, "Reconfiguring Hiararchies: The Ilbert Bill Controversy, 1883-84", in Reina Lewis and Sarah Mills, ''Feminist Post-Colonialist Theory: A Reader'', New York and London, Routledge, 2003, p. 456
/ref> In 2001, approximately 2,000 photographs of himself and his family members were given in loan by one of his grandsons,

,"Situating an Eminent Historian Eminently" – Sabyasachi Bhattacharya
Retrieved 2015-03-21.Lives Less Forgotten: Barun De
/ref> to the photographic archives of the

Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC) is a social science and humanities research and teaching institute in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. History Established in 1973 jointly by the Indian Council of Social Science Research and ...

. Later, when the archive was shifted to the newly established Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, CSSSC, Calcutta, the photographs too were deposited there.Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, 2009), p. 7

Publications

A member of a Kayastha family of Bengal, he was a scholar of Persian and Sanskrit. He edited and translated a few works from those languages into English. They were as follows: *(ed. & tran.),

Kālidāsa Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and t ...

's play Vikramorvasi, 'Vikramorvaçi', Canto I., in ''

'', Oct. 1884, pp. 440–2. * (ed. & tran.), ''The Tabaqat-i-Akbari of Khwaja Nizamuddin Ahmad: A History of India from the Early Musalman Invasions to the Thirty-eighth year of the Reign of Akbar'' (in 3 Vols.), (Calcutta, reprint, 1973) * "Reminiscences of an Indian Member of the Indian Civil Service", in ''Calcutta Review'', (1953–5).Reminiscences of an Indian Member of the Indian Civil Service' in the Calcutta Review
/ref>

References

External links

The Asiatic Society, Calcutta
{{DEFAULTSORT:De, Brajendranath 1852 births 1932 deaths Alumni of St Mary Hall, Oxford Bengali historians 19th-century Bengalis 20th-century Bengalis Bengali Hindus Brahmos Historians of South Asia Indian barristers Indian civil servants Indian Civil Service (British India) officers Indian orientalists 19th-century Indian historians People from Hooghly district Persian–English translators Sanskrit–English translators Hare School alumni University of Calcutta alumni University of Lucknow alumni 20th-century Indian historians Scholars from Kolkata 19th-century Indian lawyers 20th-century Indian lawyers Members of the Middle Temple 19th-century translators 20th-century Indian translators Indian scholars 20th-century Indian scholars 19th-century Indian scholars