Romesh Chandra Dutt Biography

Romesh Chandra Dutt, a civil servant, a political and economic thinker and writer, a Bengali Literature personality, he is renowned for both his professional and literary careers. Better known as R.C. Dutt, he was born on 13th August, 1848, to Isan Chandra Das and Thakamani Das, in the renowned Dutt family of Ramnagar, Kolkata.

He passed his entrance exam in the year 1864.Two years later he passed the first Arts Examination from Presidency College, Calcutta. In the year 1868, he went off to London accompanied by Surendranath Banerjea and Behari Lal Gupta. Next year he passed his ICS Examination.

Romesh Chandra Dutt started of his administrative career in the year 1871, as an Assistant Magistrate, Alipore. Later on he worked as Relief Officer in Meherpur, Nadia and in Dakhin Shahbazpur, Bakerganj. He was the District Magistrate of Bankura, Balasore,Bakerganj, Pabna, Mymensingh, Burdwan, Midnapur and other places. He was the Division Commissioner of Orissa, the highest position reached by any Indian ever. He retired in the age of 49, in the year 1897.

Romesh Chandra Dutt did not practice radical politics; he went on to utilize his power and position to reap benefit for his country, by participating in politics, writing and by creating constant public opinion. His publications mainly dealt with the impoverished economic condition of India due to the British rule. He spoke of the deplorable state of agriculture, the peasants, the high revenue rates, de-industrialization and the frequent outbreak of famines. Though he partially believed that British rule in India was doing some good to the country but his write-ups were influential enough to make the situation better. Few of his such works are ‘England and India'(1897), ‘Famines in India'(1900) and others. The most famous of his works in this series is ‘The Economic History’.

Inspite of his busy career as an ICS officer, he never failed to find out time for his ultimate passion, literature. Whenever he could make out time he spent it reading and indulging himself into writing. Some of his famous works are ‘Three Years In Europe'(1872), he published his history of Bengali literature titled ‘Bengali Literature’. His intense interest in the various spheres of literature he also wrote four historical novels ‘Banga Bijeta’, ‘Madhabi Kankan’, ‘Rajput Jiban Sandha’ and ‘Maharastra Prabhat’, all released in the year 1879. He also wrote two social novels ‘Samaj'(1885) and ‘Sangsar'(1893). One of his other major works is the translation of ‘Rig Veda’ into Bangla. He also translated ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’ into English verse.

During his service to the betterment of his country through his literary capacity, Romesh Chandra Dutt expired on 30th November 1909.