Rai Bahadur Hem Chandra Bose ( bn, হেমচন্দ্র বসু) was an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

police officer and mathematician at the

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 ...

Anthropometric Bureau (later the Fingerprint Bureau). Supervised by

Edward Henry Sir Edward Richard Henry, 1st Baronet, (26 July 1850 – 19 February 1931) was the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (head of the Metropolitan Police of London) from 1903 to 1918. His commission saw the introduction of police dogs to ...

, he and Azizul Haque developed the

Henry Classification System The Henry Classification System is a long-standing method by which fingerprints are sorted by physiological characteristics for one-to-many searching. Developed by Hem Chandra Bose, Qazi Azizul Haque and Sir Edward Henry in the late 19th century fo ...

for cataloging

fingerprints A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surf ...

Life and career

Bose was born in 1867 in

Damurhuda Upazila Damurhuda ( bn, দামুড়হুদা) is an upazila of Chuadanga District in the Division of Khulna, Bangladesh. Geography Damurhuda is located at . It has 37,279 households and a total area of 308.11 km2. Dumurhuda Upazila is bou ...

of the then

Nadia District Nadia () is a district in the state of West Bengal, India. It borders Bangladesh to the east, North 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts to the south, Purba Bardhaman to the west, and Murshidabad to the north. Nadia district is highly influentia ...

of Bengal Presidency, currently

Chuadanga District Chuadanga ( bn, চুয়াডাঙ্গা, tʃuaɖaŋga), is a district of the western Khulna Division of Bangladesh. It is bordered by the Indian state of West Bengal to the west, Meherpur District to the northwest, Jessore District to ...

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 ...

, in a Kayastha family. His father was a postman. After topping the matriculation examination in the year 1883 from

Jessore Zilla School Jashore Zilla School is the fifth oldest school in Asia, the second oldest in Bangladesh, and the oldest school in Jashore southwest of Bangladesh. It was established on 3 February 1838 and named Jessore Zilla School after 1872. Though the school ...

, he studied

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

at the

Sanskrit College The Sanskrit College and University (erstwhile Sanskrit College) is a state university located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It focuses on liberal arts, offering both UG and PG degrees in Ancient Indian and world history, Bengali, English, Sa ...

of Calcutta on a Scholarship from the

Natore Raj Zamindars of Natore were influential aristocratic Bengali Zamindars (rent-receiving landholders), who owned large estates in what is today Natore District in Bangladesh . They contributed to the development of East Bengal and later Bangladesh t ...

, and completed his Bachelor of Science in 1888. He joined the Bengal Police Service as a

sub inspector Sub-inspector (SI), or sub-inspector of police, is a rank used extensively in South Asia: in the police forces of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka, which is primarily based on the British model. It was formerly used in most British col ...

in 1889. Between 1889 and 1894 he was posted as an investigating officer in police stations in districts including Madhubani,

Saharsa Saharsa is a city and Municipal corporation in the Saharsa District in the eastern part of the state of Bihar, India. It is situated near the eastern banks of the Kosi River. It serves as the administrative headquarters for Saharsa District an ...

Pabna Pabna ( bn, পাবনা) is a city of Pabna District, Bangladesh and the administrative capital of the eponymous Pabna District. It is on the north bank of the Padma River and has a population of about . Etymology * According to the histo ...

and

Narail Narail ( bn, নড়াইল, pron: ''nɔɽail'') is a district in south-western Bangladesh. It is a part of Khulna Division. History Narail town was named after a feudal lord (a zamindar). The zamindars established a market at Roopgonj, als ...

of the then United Bengal. His keen detective work was noticed and in 1894 he was posted at the Directorate Headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department, or CID, of Bengal Police in Calcutta. There he worked on the fingerprinting system, and remained posted at the CID headquarters, except for a short stint as Instructor at the Sardah Police Training School in 1914–1917, until his retirement as a DySP in 1925. After his retirement he lived in a small apartment in

Maniktala Maniktala is a residential area of North Kolkata, in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India. Etymology The tomb of Manik Pir is located in lane near Maniktala crossing. Some people say, the neighbourhood is named after Manik Pir. Others say, M ...

in Calcutta with his family, till his death from natural causes in 3/1 April 1949. His grandson Amiya Bhusan Bose joined the West Bengal Police Service in the 1952 batch of the WBCS, and retired as a

DIG Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil, sand or rock (geology), rock on the surface of Earth. Di ...

of West Bengal Police in 1988.

Haque and Bose (1897)

On 12 June 1897, the Council of the

Governor General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

approved a committee report that fingerprints should be used for classification of criminal records. After that year, 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 ...

Anthropometric Bureau became the world's first Fingerprint Bureau. He was working in the Calcutta Anthropometric Bureau (before it became the Fingerprint Bureau) with Azizul Haque. He and Haque were the two Indian fingerprint experts credited with primary development of the

(named for their supervisor,

Edward Richard Henry Sir Edward Richard Henry, 1st Baronet, (26 July 1850 – 19 February 1931) was the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (head of the Metropolitan Police of London) from 1903 to 1918. His commission saw the introduction of police dogs t ...

). The

is still used in all English-speaking countries (primarily as the manual filing system for accessing paper archive files that have not been scanned and computerized).

Bibliography

*''Finger Print Companion'' (1927)

References

External links

The Detective
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bose, Hem Chandra Police officers from Kolkata Year of birth missing Year of death missing Scientists from Kolkata

Life and career

Haque and Bose (1897)

Bibliography

See also

References

External links