{{Short description|Indian jurist and scholar (1844–1918)}} {{About|Gurudas Banerjee, the judge|the actor|Gurudas Banerjee}} {{Use Indian English|date=May 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = [[Sir]] | name = Gooroodas Banerjee | honorific_suffix = | image = Sir Gooroodas Banerjee.jpg | caption = Bust of Gooroodas Banerjee at the [[University of Calcutta]] | birth_date = {{birth date|1844|01|26|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[Company Raj|British India]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1918|12|2|1844|01|26|df=y}} | death_place = Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, [[British India]] | occupation = Jurist, scholar, professor | alma_mater = {{ubl|[[Oriental Seminary]]|[[Scottish Church College]]|[[University of Calcutta]]}} }} [[Sir]] '''Gooroodas Banerjee''' (also '''Gurudas Bandyopadhyay''',<ref>Bengal's Renaissance - Page 41 Sitansu Sekhar Mittra - 2001 "In his convocation address given on 24th January, 1891 to the graduates from the University of Calcutta Gurudas Bandyopadhyay, the first Indian Vice Chancellor of an Indian university, insisted on making Bengali the medium of instruction in ..."</ref><ref>[http://ier.sagepub.com/content/25/2/261.full.pdf Review Indian Economic & Social History] 3 Jul 2010 – "Encyclopaedia Indica... Jagdish Sharan Sharmah..... For example, Gurudas Banerjee, the lucky stiff, gets three entries. First, on page 110 of volume 1, he is 'Banerjee, Gooroodas (1844-1918). ' In the very next entry on the very same page he is 'Banerjee, Sir Gurudas. (1844-1918).' Then on page 121, after meandering around through 'Banda Nawaz Chisti, Shrine of,' 'Banaras Hindu University,' 'Bamaur,' 'Banaji, ......"</ref> 26 January 1844 – 2 December 1918) was a [[judge]] of the [[Calcutta High Court]] in [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|British India]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G2EPDQAAQBAJ&q=justice+manmatha+nath&pg=PT352|title=Trade, Politics and Society: The Indian Milieu in the Early Modern Era|last=Sushil Chaudhury|date=13 September 2016|publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351997270|access-date=13 July 2017}}</ref> In 1890, he also became the first Indian [[Vice-chancellor|Vice-Chancellor of University of Calcutta]].<ref>[http://qna.rediff.com/Main.php?do=getanswer&catid=5&questid=6192662&pageno=1 Rediff Q&A Answer for: The first Indian to become Vice Chancellor of a university?<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070324012457/http://qna.rediff.com/Main.php?do=getanswer |date=24 March 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.caluniv.ac.in/university_campuses/university_frame.htm=2 |title=Archived copy |access-date=7 February 2008 |archive-date=7 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241207093039/https://www.caluniv.ac.in/university_campuses/university_frame.htm=2 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Education== [[File:Guru_Das_Bannerjee.jpg|thumb|left]] He received his early education at the [[Oriental Seminary]], and the Hare School at the [[Presidency College Calcutta]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Khanna|first=H.R.|title=Judiciary in India and Judicial Process: Tagore Law Lectures|publisher=Ajoy Law House|year=1985|location=Calcutta|pages=67–69|chapter=Chapter 5: Great Names in Indian Judiciary}}</ref> the General Assembly's Institution (now [[Scottish Church College]]), the [[University of Calcutta]].<ref>The Indian nation builders: Volume 3 After a bright career at school and in college Mr. Gooroodas Bannerjee took his M. A. Degree in Mathematics in the year 1865, and was soon after appointed Lecturer in Mathematics in the Presidency College, Calcutta. In the following year he ...</ref><ref>Uma Dasgupta ''Science and Modern India: An Institutional History'', C. 1784-1947 2011 Page 745 "Gurudas Banerjee (1844-1918): Was a mathematician who turned to the practice of law; became the first Indian vice-chancellor of the Calcutta University"</ref><ref>Encyclopaedia of Indian Events & Dates - Page A-128 S. B. Bhattacherje - 2009 "1844 Gooroodas Banerjee was born on July 26 in Calcutta."</ref><ref>Scottish Church College Magazine (Year - 1999, 2000 and 2001. Volume - 87,88 and 89).</ref><ref name=SCCalumni>''Some Alumni of Scottish Church College'' in ''175th Year Commemoration Volume''. Scottish Church College, April 2008. page 592</ref> He obtained an M.A. with a focus on Mathematics in 1865, winning a University medal for attaining first place in his examinations, and passed the B.L. examination in 1866.<ref name=":0" /> in 1877, he obtained a Doctorate in Law.<ref name=":0" />
==Career== Banerjee briefly taught as an Assistant Lecturer in Mathematics, before joining the General Assembly's Institution, now known as the [[Scottish Church College]], as a Professor of Mathematics.<ref name=SCCalumni/><ref name=GAI>''Staff List: General Assembly's Institution'' in ''175th Year Commemoration Volume''. Scottish Church College, April 2008. page 568</ref><ref name=":0" />
Banerjee began his legal practice in [[Berhampore]], simultaneously teaching law and mathematics on a part-time basis at [[Berhampore College|Berhmapore College]]. In 1872, he moved his legal practice to [[Kolkata]], representing clients such as the erstwhile Nawab of Murshidabad at the [[Calcutta High Court]].<ref name=":0" /> In 1878, he was appointed to the Tagore Professorship of Law, and delivered the Tagore Law Lectures in the same year, on 'The Hindu Laws of Marriage and Stridhan'.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tagore{{!}}Law{{!}}Lecture|url=https://www.caluniv.ac.in/RARE-DCMNT/digi/pages/tagore_law_lecture.html|access-date=2020-07-28|website=www.caluniv.ac.in}}</ref> The Tagore Law Lectures were later published as a legal text on Hindu marriage laws.<ref name=":0" />
In 1888, Banerjee was appointed as a judge of the Calcutta High Court, retiring in 1904 from the Bench.<ref name=":0" /> In addition to serving as a judge, he was the first Indian to be appointed as the vice-chancellor of the [[University of Calcutta]], serving in that capacity from 1 January 1890 to 31 December 1892. He was knighted by the British government on 22 July 1904.<ref>[http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/27698/pages/4755 The London Gazette, 22 July 1904]</ref> He was also the President of the Board of Mathematics and Sanskrit during this time.<ref name=":0" />
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.{{Citation needed|date=July 2020}}
==Legacy== There is a prestigious post in the Department of English of the University of Calcutta named after Sir Gooroodas Banerjee.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Calcutta University Department of English |url=https://www.uvm.edu/~sgutman/Calcutta_University.html |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=www.uvm.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=You are being redirected... |url=https://www.caluniv.ac.in/academic/English.html |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=www.caluniv.ac.in}}</ref> 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]]. In memoirs of him, [[Sir Gurudas Banerjee Halt railway station]] was established in sub urban railway of Kolkata.
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 [[Brahmin]]s owing to his introduction of widow remarriage. Defying all social obstacles, Sir Gurudas invited Vidyasagar to his mother's funeral to fulfill her last wish.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/books/3004/1/19 Sri Chinmoy Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314210732/http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/books/3004/1/19 |date=14 March 2012 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120722231555/http://qna.rediff.com/questions-and-answers/the-first-indian-to-become-vice-chancellor-of-a-un/6192662/answers rediff Q and A] *[http://ier.sagepub.com/content/25/2/261.extract reference in Henry Scholberg's Encyclopedias of India] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110823002128/http://narikeldangahighschool.org/ndhs/history/schist.html Sir Gurudas Bandyopadhyay's great contribution to the development of Narkeldanga High School]
{{University of Calcutta Vice chancellors}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Gooroodas}} [[Category:Judges of the Calcutta High Court]] [[Category:Oriental Seminary alumni]] [[Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni]] [[Category:Scottish Church College alumni]] [[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]] [[Category:Academic staff of Scottish Church College]] [[Category:Academic staff of the University of Calcutta]] [[Category:Vice-chancellors of the University of Calcutta]] [[Category:Indian Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:1844 births]] [[Category:1918 deaths]] [[Category:British India judges]] [[Category:People from the Bengal Presidency]] [[Category:19th-century Indian judges]] [[Category:20th-century Indian judges]] [[Category:19th-century Indian educational theorists]] [[Category:Scholars from British India]]