Name Gooroodas Banerjee | Role Film actor | |
Spouse Molina Devi (m. 1917–1977) Movies Sharey Chuattar, Nader Nimai, Nilachaley Mahaprabhu, Bireswar Vivekananda, Kankantala Light Railway Similar People Bimal Roy, Premendra Mitra, Raichand Boral | ||
Sir Gooroodas Banerjee, today also written Gurudas Banerjee, also Gurudas Bandyopadhyay (Bengali Sir Gurudasa Banerjee স্যার গুরুদাশ ব্যানার্জী) (Calcutta, 26 July 1844- Calcutta, 2 December 1918) was a Bengali Indian judge of the Calcutta High Court. In 1890, he also became the first Indian Vice-Chancellor of University of Calcutta.
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Education
He received his education at the Oriental Seminary, the General Assembly's Institution (now Scottish Church College), the Presidency College, Kolkata and at the University of Calcutta.
Career
Banerjee had served as a professor at the Scottish Church College. He was the first Indian to be appointed as the vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta. He was nominated to the post on 1 January 1890 and remained in office till 31 December 1892. He studied at Oriental Seminary which was also attended by the Nobel Laureate poet, Rabindranath Tagore. He also studied at the General Assembly's Institution (now Scottish Church College), the Presidency College, Kolkata and at the University of Calcutta. He became a puisne judge of the Calcutta High Court, and was knighted by the British government on 22 July 1904. He also became one of the teachers of Bengal National College of which the great freedom fighter, Aurobindo Ghosh, was the principal. He made notable contributions to the spread of education by making sure that Narkeldanga High School got raised to secondary standard.
Legacy
There is a prestigious post in the Department of English of the University of Calcutta named after Sir Gooroodas Banerjee. The professor who holds this post comes to be known as Sir Gooroodas Banerjee Professor. There are two undergraduate colleges in Kolkata that commemorate his name, the Gurudas College and the Sir Gurudas Mahavidyalaya.
Banerjee was quite well known for his devotion to his mother who was very orthodox in her ways of life. Every day, he would bring the sacred Ganges water for her mother. She, on her deathbed, ordered her son Sir Gurudas to invite Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar to her obsequies. Vidyasagar had by this time become an object of attack by the orthodox Brahmins owing to his introduction of widow remarriage. Defying all social obstacles, Sir Gurudas invited Vidyasagar to her mother's funeral to fulfill her last wish.