About Presidency College...

Translated from:

Presidency College-r Itibrittwa. Author: Biswanath Das. Published by Thema (Kolkata), 2011.

I started translating rather arbitrarily, but pounced upon some nuggets. 

Dr. Rajendra Prasad (155)

At the opening ceremony of the centenary celebrations of  Hindoo College/Presidency College, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President of India, spoke in Bengali. He said, ‘It is my firm belief that if one were to write the history of Bengal in the last hundred years and on the great personalities who helped to shape it, it would be nothing else, but the history of Presidency College’.  With great humility he confessed that whatever service he had been able to render the nation so far, was due to his internship in this august institution, where he had not only been exposed to its great ideals, but had studied with some of the most gifted of teachers, and had had the opportunity of mingling with some of the most outstanding of peers.

(page 135)

At one point, the Education Minister of Bengal, Ajijul Haq, was supposed to visit Presidency College.  he teachers awaited his arrival. However, Professor Prafulla Chandra Ghosh, started out for home at his usual time. When there was some consternation among his colleagues over his unwillingness to wait beyond his usual time of departure, he broke out with irritation, ‘I don’t really care to be formally introduced to someone who is after all an ex-student of this college!’

Peary Charan Sarkar (49)

This idealist and exemplary student of Hindu College could have easily obtained a high governmental posting had he wished. However, he chose to become a teacher and consequently embraced a life of constrained means. From the position of Head Master at Kolutollah Branch School (later named Hare School), he joined Presidency College as Assistant Professor (pl. check exact nomenclature) in 1864. Later in 1874, he was appointed as Assistant Professor (Lecturer?) in the Department of English. During those days, a teacher could teach anything. There was no steadfast rule that a particular teacher had to teach a particular subject, only. It all depended on whether the teacher had the required competence to teach a specific subject. Peary Charan’s general sweetness of temper, gentleness of conduct and deep commitment to students, succeeded in winning them over completely. His early demise in 1875 caused his students to be deeply grief stricken. 

Peary Charan’s First, Second, Third and Fourth Book of Reading were considered fundamental to the teaching of English at schools all over India.

It is not widely known that Peary Charan donated 70,000 rupees, which constituted his entire life earnings, to his dear friend Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, to help build a school for upper caste Hindu widows. He also set up a girls’ school at his own residence in Chorbagan