Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (known as R. C. Majumdar; 4 December 1888 – 11 February 1980)
was a historian and professor of
Indian history
According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...
. Majumdar is a noted historian of modern India. He was a former
Sheriff of Kolkata
The Sheriff of Kolkata is an apolitical titular position of authority bestowed for one year on a prominent citizen of Kolkata (Calcutta). The Sheriff has an office and staff in Calcutta High Court but does not have executive powers. Mumbai (Bo ...
.
Early life and education
Coming from a
Baidya
Baidya or Vaidya is a Hindu community located in Bengal. Baidyas, a caste ('' jāti'') of Ayurvedic physicians, have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the colonial era, the Bhadraloks were drawn primarily, b ...
family, Majumdar was born in Khandarpara,
Gopalganj
Gopalganj may refer to:
Bangladesh
*Gopalganj District, Bangladesh, a district of Dhaka Division
** Gopalganj, Bangladesh, a town and headquarter of Gopalganj district
** Gopalganj Sadar Upazila, an upazila of Gopalganj District
** Gopalganj-1, a ...
,
Bengal Presidency
The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...
,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
(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 4 December 1888, to Haladhara Majumdar and Bidhumukhi.
In 1905, he passed his Entrance Examination from
Ravenshaw College,
Cuttack
Cuttack (, or officially Kataka ) in Odia is the former capital and the second largest city in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised form of ''Kataka'' which literally ...
.
In 1907, he passed F.A. with first class scholarship from
Surendranath College and joined
Presidency College, Calcutta
Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affili ...
.
Graduating in B.A.(Honours) and M.A. from
Calcutta University
The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...
in 1909 and 1911, respectively, he won the
Premchand Roychand
Premchand Roychand was a 19th-century Indian Jain businessman known as the "Cotton King" and "Bullion King" from Bombay.
Life
Premchand Raichand was born in 1832 in a Porwal Jain family. He was the son of Roychand Dipchand, a merchant from Su ...
scholarship from the
University of Calcutta
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, ...
for his research work in 1913.
Career
Majumdar started his teaching career as a lecturer at
Dacca
Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...
Government Training College. Since 1914, he spent seven years as a professor of history at the
University of Calcutta
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, ...
. He got his doctorate for his thesis "Corporate Life in Ancient India". In 1921 he became professor of history in newly established
University of Dacca
The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently it ...
. He also served, until he became its Vice Chancellor, as the head of the Department of History as well as the dean of the Faculty of Arts. Between 1924 and 1936 he was Provost of
Jagannath Hall
Jagannath Hall of Dhaka University is a residence hall for minority students, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and others. It is one of the three original residence halls that date from when the University was founded in 1921, and like them is modelled ...
. Then he became the Vice Chancellor of that University, for five years from 1937 to 1942. From 1950, he was
Principal of the College of Indology,
Benares Hindu University
Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. ...
. He was elected the general president of the
Indian History Congress Indian History Congress is the largest professional and academic body of Indian historians with over 35,000 members. It was established in 1935. The name of any new applicant for membership needs to be proposed and seconded by existing Ordinary or L ...
and also became the vice president of the International Commission set up by the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
for the history of mankind.
Works
Majumdar started his research on ancient India. After extensive travels to Southeast Asia and research, he wrote detailed histories of Champa (1927), Suvarnadvipa (1938) and Kambuja Desa (1944). On the initiative of
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, he took up the mantle of editing a multi-volume tome on Indian history. Starting in 1951, he toiled for twenty-six long years to describe the history of the Indian people from the Vedic Period until the
Independence of India in eleven volumes. In 1955, Majumdar established the College of Indology of
Nagpur University and joined as Principal. In 1958–59, he taught Indian history in the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
and
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
. He was also the president of the Asiatic Society (1966–68) and the
Bangiya Sahitya Parishad (1968–69), and also the
Sheriff of Calcutta (1967–68).
When the final volume of "
The History and Culture of the Indian People
''The History and Culture of the Indian People'' is a series of eleven volumes on the history of India, from prehistoric times to the establishment of the modern state in 1947. Historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar was the general editor of the serie ...
" was published in 1977, he had turned eighty-eight. He also edited the three-volume history of Bengal published by Dacca University. His last book was "Jivaner Smritidvipe".
The proposal to write on "Freedom movement" with Government sponsorship was put forth by in 1948 by R. C. Majumdar. In 1952 the ministry of education appointed Board of Editors for the compilation of the History. Professor Majumdar was appointed by the Board as the Director and entrusted with the work of sifting and collecting materials and preparing the draft of the history. However, the Board as consisting of politicians and scholars, was least likely to function harmoniously. Perhaps this was the reason why it was dissolved at the end of 1955. The scheme remained in balance for a year until the government decided to transfer the work on to a single scholar. To the disappointment of Professor Majumdar the choice of the ministry of education fell on one Tara Chand, a historian but also an ex-secretary of the Ministry of Education. Professor Majumdar then decided to write independently ''The History of the Freedom movement in India'' in three volumes.
Views on the Indian independence movement
When the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...
set up an editorial Committee to author a history of the freedom struggle of India, he was its principal member. But, following a conflict with the then Education Minister
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on the
Sepoy Mutiny
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the for ...
, he left the government job and published his own book, ''The Sepoy Mutiny & Revolt of 1857''. According to him the origins of India's freedom struggle lie in the English-educated Indian middle-class and the freedom struggle started with the
Banga Bhanga movement in 1905. His views on the freedom struggle are found in his book ''History of the Freedom Movement in India''. He was an admirer of
Swami Vivekananda and
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Ramakrishna Paramahansa ( bn, রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; , 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886),——— — also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya,, was an In ...
.
Bibliography
*''The Early History of Bengal'', Dacca, 1924.
*''Champa'', ''Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East'', Vol.I, Lahore, 1927. .
*''Suvarnadvipa'', ''Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East'', Vol.II, Calcutta, 1938.
*''The History of Bengal'', 1943. .
*''Kambuja Desa Or An Ancient Hindu Colony In Cambodia'', Madras, 1944.
*''
An Advanced History of India''. London, 1960. .
*''
The History and Culture of the Indian People
''The History and Culture of the Indian People'' is a series of eleven volumes on the history of India, from prehistoric times to the establishment of the modern state in 1947. Historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar was the general editor of the serie ...
'', Bombay, 1951–1977 (in eleven volumes).
*''Ancient India'', 1977. .
*''History of the Freedom movement in India'' (in three volumes), Calcutta, .
*''Vakataka – Gupta Age Circa 200–550 A.D.'', .
*''Main currents of Indian history'', .
*''Classical accounts of India''
*''Hindu Colonies in the Far East'', Calcutta, 1944, .
*''India and South-East Asia'', I.S.P.Q.S. History and Archaeology Series Vol. 6, 1979, .
*''The History of Ancient Lakshadweep'', Calcutta, 1979.
*''Corporate Life in Ancient India'', Calcutta.
See also
*
Jadunath Sarkar
Sir Jadunath Sarkar (10 December 1870 – 19 May 1958) was a prominent Indian historian and a specialist on the Mughal dynasty.
Academic career
Sarkar was born in Karachmaria village in Natore, Bengal to Rajkumar Sarkar, the local Zamindar ...
References
External links
Interview with MajumdarRemembering Acharya Ramesh Chandra Majumdar: A Century of Spotless Scholarship and Inspiration
{{DEFAULTSORT:Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra
1888 births
1980 deaths
People from Faridpur District
Ravenshaw University alumni
Surendranath College alumni
Presidency University, Kolkata alumni
University of Calcutta alumni
University of Calcutta faculty
Bengali historians
20th-century Indian historians
Historians of South Asia
Vice-Chancellors of the University of Dhaka
Sheriffs of Kolkata
People from Gopalganj District, Bangladesh
Scholars from Kolkata