Ramananda Chatterjee ( bn, রামানন্দ চট্টোপাধ্যায়) (29 May 1865 – 30 September 1943) was founder, editor, and owner of 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 ...
based magazine, the ''
Modern Review''. He has been described as the Father of Indian Journalism.
Early life
Chatterjee was born in a middle 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 ...
Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
family, the third child to Srinath Chattopadhyay and Harasundari Devi in the village of Pathakpara in the district 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 ...
. He received his primary education in a Bengali medium school, even though primary education the English medium had become available by then in Bankura. As a child he liked poetry and soon he was drawn to patriotism through the poems of
Rangalal Bandyopadhyay
Rangalal Bandyopadhyay (Bengali: রঙ্গলাল বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়) (Born 21 December 1827 – died 13 May 1887) was a Bengali poet, journalist, and author. . He passed Student-Scholarship Examination in 1875 from Bankura Banga Vidyalaya. He passed the Entrance from
Bankura Zilla School
Bankura Zilla School is one of the oldest and Best schools of Bankura District, West Bengal. Established in 1840 this school is popularly known as Zilla School. The main language of instruction used is Bengali.
History
Bankura Zilla School was ...
in 1883 arrived at
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 ...
to pursue higher education. In 1885, he passed the F.A. from the
St. Xavier's College and took admission in the
City College. In 1888, he appeared in the B.A. from City College and stood first class first in the University of Calcutta. He won the Ripon Scholarship of rupees fifty per month. Pleased at the success of Chatterjee, Heramba Chandra Maitra offered him the post of assistant editor at the ''Indian Messenger'', the mouthpiece of
Sadharan Brahmo Samaj
, native_name_lang = bn
, abbreviation =
, image = Sadharan Brahmo Samaj building in Kolkata 01.jpg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = Sadharan Brahmo Samaj building, Bidhan Sarani, Kolkata
, motto =
, predecessor = Brahmo Samaj
, esta ...
, of which he was the editor at that time. This offer opened up Chatterjee's future career in journalism. In 1890, he completed his Master of Arts degree in English at the University of Calcutta.
Career
In 1893, he joined the City College as a lecturer. Along with
Jagadish Chandra Bose
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose
(;, ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, Botany, botanist and an early writer of science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contr ...
, he founded the children's magazine
Mukul with
Sivanath Sastri
Sivanath Shastri or Sibanath Sastri (31 January 1848 – 30 September 1919) was a Bengali social reformer, writer, translator, scholar, editor philoshoper and historian.সুবোধচন্দ্র সেনগুপ্ত ও অঞ্জ ...
as the editor. In 1895, he decided to move 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 ...
with a teaching job at the
Allahabad Kayastha Pathshala. In 1897, he became the chief editor of Bengali literary magazine
Pradip. He, however left Pradip owing to differences in opinion and subsequently launched
Prabasi
''Prabasi'' ( bn, প্রবাসী) was a monthly Bengali language literary magazine edited by Ramananda Chatterjee.
History and profile
''Prabasi'' was founded by Ramananda Chatterjee in 1901 and ran for over 60 years. It published many i ...
in 1901.
In 1907, Chatterjee launched the English magazine ''Modern Review'' and went on to found two others, the third being the Hindi-language ''
Vishal Bharat (magazine)''.
[Kalyan Chatterjee, ''Media and Nation Building in Twentieth-Century India: Life and Times of Ramananda Chatterjee'' (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020).]
See also
Harish Chandra Mukherjee
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterjee, Ramananda
1865 births
1943 deaths
Bengali writers
Bengali Hindus
20th-century Bengalis
19th-century Bengalis
Brahmos
City College, Kolkata alumni
St. Xavier's College, Kolkata alumni
University of Calcutta alumni
University of Calcutta faculty
People from Bankura district
Indian writers
Indian male writers
Indian essayists
Indian male essayists
Indian journalists
Indian male journalists
Indian columnists
19th-century Indian writers
20th-century Indian writers
19th-century Indian male writers
20th-century Indian male writers
20th-century Indian essayists
19th-century Indian essayists
19th-century Indian journalists
20th-century Indian journalists
Journalists from West Bengal
Indian editors
Indian magazine editors
Indian lecturers
Indian schoolteachers
Indian magazine founders