On 6th August Surendranath Banerji, one of India’s earliest political leaders during colonial rule, passed away.
Surendranath Banerji is considered as one of the founders of modern India. Banerji was also the founder of one of India’s first political organization, the Indian National Association and eventually became a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Surendranath Banerji was also fondly known as Rashtraguru (teacher of the nation).
Born in Kolkata, West Bengal to a Bengali Brahmin family, Surendranath Banerji was greatly influenced by the liberal and open-minded thinking of his father, who was a doctor. Banerji received his education from the Parental Academic Institution at the Hindu College and graduated from the University of Calcutta. In 1868, Banerji travelled to England to sit for the Indian Civil Service Exam. In 1869, Banerji cleared the exam but was prohibited from joining the services because of a dispute over his correct age. Banerji took up the matter in court and once again cleared the exam in 1871 and was posted as an assistant magistrate in the Sylhet District (now in Bangladesh). Unfortunately, Banerji was soon removed from his job because of racial discrimination.
Banerji returned to England to challenge this decision, but met no success. During his stay in England from 1874 to 1875, Banerji studied the works of Edmund Burke and other philosophers, which showed him the way in his protest against the British.
In 1875 Banerji returned to India and became a professor of English at the Metropolitan Institute at the Ripon College. Subsequently, Banerji began making public speeches and lectures on nationalism and Indian history. On 26th July 1876, Banerji along with Anandmohan Bose founded the Indian National Association, one of India’s first political organizations. It was through this organization that Banerji launched action against the issue of age-limit restrictions for Indian students taking the Indian Civil Service Exams. Banerji was against the racial discrimination by the British and made passionate speeches in that regard all over the country, which made him very famous.
In 1879, Banerji published the newspaper The Bengalee. Later in 1883 he was arrested for certain controversial statements published in the paper. Banerji’s arrest was followed by strikes all across Bengal and other parts of India, such as Agra, Pune and Amritsar.
By then the Indian National Association had expanded widely and many members from across India attended its annual conference in Calcutta (now Kolkata). After the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 in Bombay (now Mumbai), Banerji merged the Indian National Association with it, because of their common vision and goals. In 1885 Banerji was elected Congress President in Pune and in 1902 in Ahmedabad.
In 1905 when Bengal was partitioned for the first time, Banerji was one of the most prominent and vocal leaders against the partition. Banerji headed movements and protests and received a lot of support from across Bengal, which ultimately ended in the British reversing their action of partition in 1912.
Banerji was a source of inspiration to other leaders such as Sarojini Naidu and Gopal Krishna Gokhale and served as a senior leader of the Congress who focused on dialogue with the British, as opposed to the extremists who propagated violence and revolution. Banerji also played an important role in the Swadeshi Movement, during which he encouraged the sale of goods manufactured in India, as opposed to British goods.
Gradually, Banerji’s popularity as a moderate Indian politician began to decline and in 1909 he supported the Morley-Minto Reforms which was criticized by most Indians as being meaningless. Banerji also opposed the Civil Disobedience Movement being headed by Mahatma Gandhi. He later accepted the position of a minister in the Bengal Government, a decision which was met with hostility by the public. Banerji later lost the election to the Bengal Legislative Assembly which ended his political career. In 1921 he was knighted by the British for his political support.
As a politician with moderate views, he did not accept extremist views or the Non-Cooperation Movement by Gandhi. Banerji is respected even today for being one of the first people to walk the path of political empowerment for India. Surendranath Banerji is also remembered for publishing a substantial work titled “A Nation in Making”. He was also respected by the British, who referred to him as “Surrender Not Banerji”. Banerji eventually held the position of Minister for Local Self Government from 1921-1924. He passed away on 6th August 1925 in Barrackpore, West Bengal.
Surendranath Banerji’s name has been celebrated through institutions like Barrackpore Rastraguru Surendranath College, Surendranath College, Surendranath Evening College and Surendranath College for Women.
Also on This Day:
1862: The Madras High Court was inaugurated.
1906: Chitta Ranjan Das and other Congress leaders published the newspaper Vande Mataram.
