Romesh Chunder Dutt ( bn, রমেশচন্দ্র দত্ত; 13 August 1848 – 30 November 1909) was an Indian civil servant,

economic historian Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and inst ...

, writer and translator of ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

'' and ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

''. Dutt is considered a national leader of the pre-Gandhian era, and was a contemporary of

Dadabhai Naoroji Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917) also known as the "Grand Old Man of India" and "Unofficial Ambassador of India", was an Indian political leader, merchant, scholar and writer who served as 2nd, 9th, and 22nd President of t ...

and

Justice Ranade Mahadev Govind Ranade (18 January 1842 – 16 January 1901), popularly referred to as Justice Ranade, was an Indian scholar, social reformer, judge and author. He was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress party and owned ...

.He was one of the prominent proponent of Indian economic nationalism.

Early life and education

Dutt was born into a distinguished Bengali

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 ...

family. His parents were Thakamani and Isan Chunder Dutt, a Deputy Collector in Bengal, whom Romesh often accompanied on official duties. He was educated in various

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 ...

District schools, then at

Hare School Hare School is one of the oldest schools in Kolkata, India, teaching grades one to twelve under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. It is a state government-administered boys sc ...

, Calcutta. After his father's untimely death in a boat accident in eastern Bengal, his uncle, Shoshee Chunder Dutt, an accomplished writer, became his guardian in 1861. He wrote about his uncle, "He used to sit at night with us and our favorite study used to be pieces from the works of the English poets." He was a relative of

Toru Dutt Toru Dutt ( bn, তরু দত্ত; 4 March 1856 – 30 August 1877) was an Indian Bengali translator and poet from British India, who wrote in English and French. She is among the founding figures of Indo-Anglian literature, alongside Henry ...

, one of nineteenth century Bengal's most prominent poets. He entered the

University of Calcutta 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 ...

, Presidency College in 1864. He passed the First Arts examination in 1866, ranking second in order of merit and won a scholarship. While still a student in the B.A. class, without his family's permission, he and two other friends,

Behari Lal Gupta Behari Lal Gupta was a member of the Indian Civil Service and a politician. Early life and education Gupta was born in Calcutta into a Vaidya family. His parents were Chandrasekhar Gupta and Rajeshwari, who was the elder sister of Narendranat ...

and

Surendranath Banerjee Sir Surendranath Banerjee often known as Rashtraguru ( bn, Rāṣṭraguru, Teacher of the Nation; 10 November 18486 August 1925) was Indian nationalist leader during the British Rule. He founded a nationalist organization called the Indian Nati ...

, left for England in 1868.Jnanendranath Gupta, ''Life and Works of Romesh Chandra Dutt, CIE'', (London: J.M.Dent and Sons Ltd., 1911); while young Romesh came out unnoticed, Beharilal, possibly his closest friend ever, was chased all the way down to the Calcutta docks by his "poor" father, who could not, however, successfully persuade his son to return to the safety of his parental home. Later, in England, both the friends took the civil service examination successfully, becoming the 2nd and 3rd Indians to join the ICS. The third person in the group, Surendranath Banerjee, also cleared the test, but was incorrectly disqualified, as being over-age. At that time, only one other Indian, Satyendra Nath Tagore, had qualified for 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 ...

. Dutt aimed to emulate Tagore's feat. For a long time, before and after 1853, the year the ICS examination was introduced in England, only British officers were appointed to covenanted posts. At

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, Dutt continued to study British writers. He qualified for the Indian Civil Service in the open examination in 1869,"Selected Poetry of Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848–1909)"
University of Toronto (2002). taking third place. S. K. Ratcliffe (1910
A Note on the Late Romesh C. Dutt
in the

Everyman's Library Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division of Weidenfeld & Ni ...

edition ''The

and the

Condensed into English Verse''. London: J.M. Dent and Sons and New York: E.P. Dutton. p. ix. He was called to the bar by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple on 6 June 1871.Renu Paul (2010-10-07
South Asians at the Inns: Middle Temple
law.wisc.edu His wife was Manomohini Dutt and his children were Bimala Dutt, married to Bolinarayan Bora, the first civil engineer from Assam, Kamala Dutt, married to

Pramatha Nath Bose Pramatha Nath Bose (12 May 1855 – 1934) was a pioneering Indian geologist and paleontologist. Bose was educated at Krishnagar Government College and later at St. Xavier's College of the University of Calcutta when he obtained a Gilchrist s ...

, Sarala Dutt, married to Jnanendranath Gupta, ICS, and Ajoy Dutt, who became a Member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1921. His grandsons were Indranarayan Bora,

Modhu Bose Modhu Bose (1900–1969), was an Indian film director, actor, singer and screen writer during the thirties to sixties. He was born on 12 February 1900 at 63 Dharmatala Street, Kolkata. His mother was Kamala Dutt Bose, an renowned educator who ...

and Sudhindranath Gupta, who retired as the first Indian Commercial Traffic Manager of the BNR.

Career

Civil service

Pre-retirement

He entered the

as an assistant magistrate of Alipur in 1871. A famine in

Meherpur Meherpur ( bn, মেহেরপুর, pron: ''meɦeɾpuɾ'') is the northwestern district of Khulna Division in southwestern Bangladesh. It is bordered by the Indian state of West Bengal to the west, and by the Bangladeshi districts of Kushtia ...

district of Nadia in 1874 and another in Dakhin Shahbazpur (

Bhola District Bhola District ( bn, ভোলা) is an administrative district (''zila'') in south-central Bangladesh, which includes Bhola Island, the largest island of Bangladesh. It is located in the Barisal Division and has an area of 3403.48 km2. It i ...

) in 1876, followed by a disastrous cyclone, required emergency relief and economic recovery operations, which Dutt managed successfully. He served as administrator for

Backerganj Backergunge, Backergunje, Bakarganj, or Bakerganj was a former district of British India. It was the southernmost district of the Dacca Division. The district was located in the swampy lowlands of the vast delta of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra ...

Mymensingh Mymensingh ( bn, ময়মনসিংহ) is the capital of Mymensingh Division, Bangladesh. Located on the bank of Brahmaputra River, about north of the national capital Dhaka, it is a major financial center and educational hub of north ...

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, ...

, Donapur, and

Midnapore Medinipur or Midnapore (Pron: med̪iːniːpur) is a city known for its history in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the West Medinipur district. It is situated on the banks of the Kangsabati River (variously known as '' ...

. He became Burdwan's District Officer in 1893, Commissioner (''offtg''.) of

Burdwan Division Burdwan Division is one of the 5 administrative division in the Indian state of West Bengal. The headquarters of the Burdwan division is situated at Chinsurah while the largest city in this division is Asansol. This division is known for its h ...

in 1894, and Divisional Commissioner (''offtg''.) for

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 ...

in 1895. Dutt was the first Indian to attain the rank of divisional commissioner.

Post-retirement

Dutt retired from the ICS in 1897. In 1898 he returned to England as a lecturer in Indian History at

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

where he completed his famous thesis on

economic nationalism Economic nationalism, also called economic patriotism and economic populism, is an ideology that favors state interventionism over other market mechanisms, with policies such as domestic control of the economy, labor, and capital formation, incl ...

. He returned to India as

dewan ''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the el ...

Baroda State Baroda State was a state in present-day Gujarat, ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty of the Maratha Confederacy from its formation in 1721 until its accession to the newly formed Dominion of India in 1949. With the city of Baroda (Vadodara) as its c ...

, a post he had been offered before he left for Britain. He was extremely popular in Baroda where the king,

Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III Sayajirao Gaekwad III (born Shrimant Gopalrao Gaekwad; 11 March 1863 – 6 February 1939) was the Maharaja of Baroda State from 1875 to 1939, and is remembered for reforming much of his state during his rule. He belonged to the royal Gae ...

, along with his family members and all other staff members used to call him ‘Babu Dewan’, as a mark of personal respect. In 1907, he also became a member of the Royal Commission on Indian Decentralisation.

Politics

He was president of the

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 ...

in 1899. He was also a member of the

Bengal Legislative Council The Bengal Legislative Council ( was the legislative council of British Bengal (now Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal). It was the legislature of the Bengal Presidency during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After reforms wer ...

Academics

Literature

He served as the first president of

Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Bangiya Sahitya Parishat is a literary society in Maniktala of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Established during the time of the British Raj, its goal is to promote Bengali literature, both by translating works in other languages to Bengali and ...

( bn, বঙ্গীয় সাহিত্য পরিষদ) in 1894, while

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

and Navinchandra Sen were the vice-presidents of the society. His '' The Literature of Bengal'' presented "a connected story of literary and intellectual progress in Bengal" over eight centuries, commencing with the early

Sanskrit poetry Sanskrit literature broadly comprises all literature in the Sanskrit language. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as s ...

Jayadeva Jayadeva (; born ), also spelt Jaideva, was a Sanskrit poet during the 12th century. He is most known for his epic poem ''Gita Govinda'' which concentrates on Krishna's love with the '' gopi'', Radha, in a rite of spring. This poem, which presen ...

. It traced Chaitanya's religious reforms of the sixteenth century,

Raghunatha Siromani Raghunatha Shiromani ( bn, রঘুনাথ শিরোমণি, IAST: Raghunātha Śiromaṇi) () was an Indian philosopher and logician. He was the head ( The Chancellor ) of the Ancient Mithila University also known as Mithila Vidyapeet ...

's school of

formal logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

, and

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar CIE ( bn, ঈশ্বর চন্দ্র বিদ্যাসাগর; 26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891), born Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay, was an Indian educator and social reformer of the nineteenth century. ...

's brilliance, coming down to the intellectual progress of the nineteenth century Bengal. This book was presented by Thacker, Spink & Co. in

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

Archibald Constable Archibald David Constable (24 February 1774 – 21 July 1827) was a Scottish publisher, bookseller and stationer. Life Constable was born at Carnbee, Fife, son of the land steward to the Earl of Kellie. In 1788 Archibald was apprenticed to Pe ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1895, but the idea had formed earlier in Dutt's mind while he managed famine relief and economic recovery operations in

Dakhin Shahbazpur Bhola Island (also called Dakhin Shahbazpur) is the largest island of Bangladesh with an area of 1,441 km2. It is most of the land area of Bhola District in Barisal Division. Geography It is situated at the mouth of the Meghna River. Ther ...

. It had appeared originally under the disguise of an assumed name in 1877. It was dedicated to his esteemed uncle, Rai Shashi Chandra Dutt Bahadur.

History

He was a major economic historian of India of the nineteenth century. His thesis on de-industrialization of India under the

British rule The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

remains forceful argument in

Indian historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have st ...

. To quote him:

India in the eighteenth century was a great manufacturing as well as great agricultural country, and the products of the Indian loom supplied the markets of Asia and of Europe. It is, unfortunately, true that the East Indian Company and the British Parliament ... discouraged Indian manufactures in the early years of British rule in order to encourage the rising manufactures of England . . . millions of Indian artisans lost their earnings; the population of India lost one great source of their wealth.

He also directed attention to the deepening internal differentiation of Indian society appearing in the abrupt articulation of local economies with the world market, accelerated urban-rural polarisation, the division between

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...

and

manual labour Manual labour (in Commonwealth English, manual labor in American English) or manual work is physical work done by humans, in contrast to labour by machines and working animals. It is most literally work done with the hands (the word ''manual'' ...

, and the toll of recurrent devastating

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...

Awards

* Companionship of the Indian Empire (1892)

Death

While still in office, he died in Baroda at the age of 61 on 30 November 1909.

Works

* * ; ed. Narahari Kaviraj, Calcutta, Manisha (1980) * ; 3rd ed., ''Cultural Heritage of Bengal'' Calcutta, Punthi Pustak (1962). * ''Mādhabī kaṅkaṇa'' in Bengali (1879) * ''Rajput jivan sandhya'' (1879); ''Pratap Singh: The Last of the Rajputs, A Tale of Rajput Courage and Chivalry, '' tr. Ajoy Chandra Dutt. Calcutta: Elm Press (1943); Allahabad, Kitabistan, (1963) * ''Rig Veda'' translation into Bengali (1885): ''R̥gveda saṃhitā / Rameśacandra Dattera anubāda abalambane ; bhūmikā, Hiraṇmaẏa Bandyopādhyāẏa'', Kalakātā, Harapha (1976). * ''Hinduśāstra : naẏa khaṇḍa ekatre eka khaṇḍe / Rameśacandra Datta sampādita'', Kalikātā, Satyayantre Mudrita, 1300; Niu Lāiṭa, 1401

994 Year 994 ( CMXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * September 15 – Battle of the Orontes: Fatimid forces, under Turkish gener ...

* ''A History of Civilization in Ancient India, Based on Sanscrit Literature.'' 3 vols. Thacker, Spink and Co.; Trübner and Co., Calcutta-London (1890) Reprinted, Elibron Classics (2001). * ''A Brief History of Bengal'', S.K. Lahiri (1893).
''Lays of Ancient India: Selections from Indian Poetry Rendered into English Verse.''
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner (1894); Rupa (2002). * ''Reminiscences of a Workman's Life: verses'' Calcutta, Elen Press, for private circulation only (1896); Calcutta: n.p. (1956). * ''England and India: a record of progress during a hundred years, 1785–1885'' (1897); New Delhi, India : Mudgal Publications, 1985. * ''

: the epic of India rendered into English verse'', London: J. M. Dent and Co., 1898.
''Maha-bharata, The Epic of Ancient India Condensed into English Verse'' Project Gutenberg, on line.
* ''The

: the epic of Rama rendered into English verse'', London: J.M. Dent and Co., 1899. * ''The Ramayana and the Mahabharata: the great epics of ancient India condensed into English verse'', London: J.M. Dent and Co., 1900.

reprint (London: J.M. Dent and Sons; New York: E.P. Dutton, 1910). xii, 335p
Internet Sacred Texts Archive.
* ''Shivaji; or the morning of Maratha life'', tr. by Krishnalal Mohanlal Jhaveri. Ahmedabad, M. N. Banavatty (1899). Also: tr. by Ajoy C. Dutt. Allahabad, Kitabistan (1944).
''The Civilization of India'' (1900)

''Open Letters to Lord Curzon on Famines and Land Assessments in India'', London, Trübner (1900); 2005 ed. Adamant Media Corporation, Elibron Classics Series
.
''Indian Famines, Their Causes and Prevention'' Westminster, P. S. King (1901)
* ''The lake of palms. A story of Indian domestic life'', translated by the author. London, T.F. Unwin (1902); abridged by P.V. Kulkarni, Bombay, n.p. (1931).
''The Economic History of India Under Early British Rule. From the Rise of the British Power in 1757 to the Accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.'' Vol. I. London, Kegan Paul, Trench Trübner (1902) 2001 edition by Routledge
. On line, McMaster
''The Economic History of India in the Victorian Age. From the Accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the Commencement of the Twentieth Century'', Vol. II. London, Kegan Paul, Trench Trübner (1904) On line. McMaster
* ''Indian poetry. Selected and Rendered into English by R.C. Dutt'' London: J. M. Dent (1905).
''History of India'', Volume 1 (1907)
* ''The Slave Girl of Agra: An Indian Historical Romance'', Based on Madhavikankan. London: T.F. Unwin (1909); Calcutta, Dasgupta (1922). * ''Vanga Vijeta''; in translation, ''Todar Mull: The Conqueror of Bengal'', trans. by Ajoy Dutt. Allahabad: Kitabitan, 1947. * ''Sachitra Guljarnagar'', tr. by Satyabrata Dutta, Calcutta, Firma KLM (1990)

References

External links