1. Browse

This section opens up the entire archive to the users like the shelves of a library. Users will be able to view the full range of the collection, with every specific section. The sections, in turn, will have their own descriptions. Browsing will afford a bird’s eye view, which can then help the user to move towards her specific needs.

 

2. How to Use

 

• ‘Browse’ for surveying the entire collection

 

• ‘Collections’ for focusing on particular figures associated with the institution in different capacities, or on a set of documents dealing with important themes/issues in the history of the institution

 

• ‘Catalogues’ to search for specific texts using any information on those texts

 

• ‘Primary Sources’ for all kinds of published and unpublished documents–governmental, personal and non-governmental public–contemporary to the life of the institution, having references to some aspect of the institution. These sources are then further subdivided into types, as well as specific items with short descriptive introductions for all.

 

• ‘Secondary Sources’ for all kinds of published and unpublished works on the institution, including books, essays, and dissertations.

 

 

3. Collections

 

This section houses primary and secondary material related to different eminent figures who were related in different capacities to the institution. It also houses sets of primary official documents dealing with important themes/issues in the history of the institution. This is a dynamic section, as new sets of official documents on more such themes will be added to this section, as ongoing research brings them out. 

 

 

4. B. M Sen Collection

 

In this section we have files of the Education Department of Government of Bengal regarding B. M. Sen or Bhupati Mohan Sen and articles on Sen written by his students. The official documents have been retrieved from the records of the erstwhile Principal’s room of the Presidency College (now Presidency University) and the West Bengal State Archives. B. M. Sen (1888 – 1978) was a student of Presidency College, the University of Calcutta and the University of Cambridge, a teacher of the Mathematics Department of Presidency College and its principal. He published a seminal paper in ‘Nature’ in 1933. He made remarkable contributions in the fields of quantum mechanics and fluid mechanics. He was awarded Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 1974.

 

5. P. C.Mahalanobis Collection

Here we have notes written by P. C. Mahalanobis, files of the Education Department of Government of Bengal regarding Mahalanobis and articles on Mahalanobis written by his students. The official documents have been retrieved from the records of the erstwhile Principal’s room of the Presidency College (now Presidency University) and the West Bengal State Archives. PrasantachandraMahalanobis (1893 – 1972) was a student of Presidency College and the University of Cambridge, a teacher of the Physics Department of Presidency College and its principal. The Postgraduate Statistics Department of the University of Calcutta and Undergraduate Statistics Department of Presidency College, both being first of their kinds in Asia, were established by him in 1941 and 1944 respectively. He formulated India’s second five-year-plan that laid out the blueprint for rapid state-led industrialisation. He was the statistical advisor to the Government of India. He was the founder of the Indian Statistical Institute which began as the Statistical Laboratory in Presidency College in 1931. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 1968.

 

6. J. C. Bose Collection

 

This section consists of the files of the Education Department of Government of Bengal regarding J. C. Bose or Jagadischandra Bose and articles on Bose written by his students. The official documents have been retrieved from the records of the erstwhile Principal’s room of the Presidency College (now Presidency University) and the West Bengal State Archives. J. C. Bose (1858 – 1937) was a student of St. Xavier’s College and the University of Cambridge and a teacher of the Physics Department of Presidency College. As a physicist, he was first to produce millimeter-length microwaves and study their properties. As a biologist, he experimented both with non-living as well as living matter, using apparatus which he himself invented and proposed an important generalisation on the similarity of responses in the living and the non-living things. In 1917, he founded Bose Institute which was the first institution in India for doing interdisciplinary research.

 

7. P. C. Roy Collection

In this section we have articles on P. C. Roy or Prafullachandra Roy written by his students. P. C. Roy (1861 – 1944) was a student of St. Xavier’s College and the University of Edinburgh and a teacher of the Chemistry Department of Presidency College. He discovered the stable compound mercurous nitrite in 1896. After retiring from Presidency College, he joined the University of Calcutta as the first Palit Professor of Chemistry. He founded the Bengal Chemical & Pharmaceutical Works in 1901. It was India’s first pharmaceutical company. He was a nationalist “revolutionary in the garb of a scientist” who used to believe that “science can afford to wait but Swaraj cannot”. Apart from scientific papers, he wrote profusely in Bengali on various subjects. He is the author of A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of Sixteenth Century (Volume 1 in 1902 and Volume 2 in 1909) and Life and Experience of a Bengali Chemist (Volume 1 in 1932 and Volume 2 in 1935).

 

8. Rammohan Roy Collection

 

Along with David Hare, Edward Hyde East and Buddinath Mukherjee, Rammohan Roy (1772 – 1833) is regarded as one of the founders of Hindoo College (now Presidency University). He was a social and religious reformer. In 1828 he founded the Brahmo Sabha which was the precursor of the BrahmoSamaj. Governor General William Bentinck enacted the Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829, declaring the practice of burning or burying alive of Hindu widows to be punishable by the criminal courts owing to his efforts. He supported the induction of western learning into Indian education. Here we have books and articles that explore his role in the making of the Hindoo College.

 

9. JehangirCoyajee Collection

JehangirCooverjeeCoyajee (1875 – 1943) was a student of the University of Cambridge. He used to teach in the Economics Department of Presidency College (now Presidency University). He was the second Indian principal of Presidency College. Books written by him include India and the League of Nations (1923), The Indian Fiscal Problem, being a course of seven lectures delivered at Patna university in August, 1923 (1924), India’s Currency Exchange and Banking Problems, 1925 – 1928 (1928), The Indian Currency System (1835 – 1926) (1930), Current Economic Problems of India (1933), Cults and Legends of Ancient Iran and China (1936) and The Future of Zoroastrianism (1936).

 

10. David Hare Collection

Along with Rammohan Roy, Edward Hyde East and Buddinath Mukherjee, David Hare (1775 – 1842) is regarded as one of the founders of Hindoo College (now Presidency University). He was a Scottish watchmaker and philanthropist. He was instrumental in establishing the School Book Society in 1817. It took the initiative to print and publish textbooks in both English and Bengali. He founded the Hare School and the Calcutta School Society in 1818. Here we have books and articles that explore his role in the making of the Hindoo College.

 

11. Henry Derozio Collection

 

This section consists of books and articles on Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809 – 1831) written by his students and later scholars. Derozio attended David Drummond Dharmatala Academy from the age 6 to 14. He joined Hindoo College (now Presidency University) in 1826 at the age of 17 as the teacher of English literature and history. He motivated students to form a literary and debating club called the Academic Association in 1928. Due to backlash from conservative parents who disliked his wide-ranging and open discussion of religious issues, Derozio was dismissed from his post in 1831. After his death his students, who came to be known as ‘Young Bengal’, established a second society called the Society for the Acquisition of General Knowledge. Its main objective was to acquire and disseminate knowledge about the condition of the country. His students like Krishna Mohan Banerjee (1813 – 1885), TarachandChakraborti (1805 – 1855), Sibchandra Deb (1811 – 1890), Harachandra Ghosh (1808 – 1868), Ramgopal Ghosh (1815 – 1868), RamtanuLahiri (1813 – 1898), RasikkrishnaMallick (1810 – 1858), PearychandMitra (1814 – 1883), Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee (1818 – 1887), RadhanathSikdar (1813 – 1870) became prominent public figures. Derozio was also a published poet.

 

12. S. N. Bose Collection

 

This section consists of the works of S. N. Bose or Satyendranath Bose and articles on Bose written by his students. S. N. Bose (1894 – 1974) was a student of Presidency College and the University of Calcutta. He taught at the University of Calcutta and the University of Dhaka. In 1956 he was made the Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati. He was nominated as a member of the Upper House of the Indian Parliament in 1952 and awarded Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 1954. He was appointed as the National Professor in 1959. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose-Einstein condensate. He also made significant contributions in the development of a unified field theory. In his last years he dedicated himself to BangiyaBijnanParishad's efforts of making science accessible to the common people through Bengali language.

 

13. M. N. Saha Collection

 

This section consists of the works of M. N. Saha or MeghnadSaha and articles on Saha written by his students. M. N. Saha (1893 – 1956) was a student of Presidency College and the University of Calcutta. He taught at the University of Calcutta and the University of Allahabad. His study of the thermal ionisation of elements led him to formulate what is known as the Saha equation. This equation is one of the basic tools for interpretation of the spectra of stars in astrophysics. He also invented an instrument to measure the weight and pressure of solar rays. Saha was a member of the Planning Committee formed by Subhaschandra Bose in 1938 and the chairman of the Calendar Reforms Committee set up by the Government of India in 1952. He was the chief architect of river planning in India and prepared the original plan for the Damodar Valley Project.  He was elected to the Lower House of the Indian Parliament in 1951 from the Calcutta North West constituency.

 

14. Catalogues

 

Users can explore generally or search specifically for all kinds of documents related to specific figures from the institution by using the ‘author’ and ‘title’ options, and documents regarding specific issues in the history of the institution using the ‘subject’ options.

 

15. Primary Sources

 

This section contains different kinds of documents produced at a time contemporary to the life of the institution, referring to some aspect of the institution. The subsections will introduce readers to the types of these documents. The documents consist of published and unpublished government, personal, and non-government public documents.

 

16. Official Sources

 

These sources consist of published and unpublished government documents related to the institution from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These documents are mostly housed in the institution as establishment records, and some were compiled from the records of different departments housed at the West Bengal State Archives, other repositories in Kolkata, and the British Library, London. 

 

17. Published Documents

 

These documents are published official reports on the institution, beginning from its earliest phase, as the Hindu College. Here we have a fascinating range of reports on the Hindu College from the General Committee of Public Instruction which was the official body overseeing the state of education in Bengal Presidency during the East India Company’s rule, as well as a number of annual reports of the College. From the latter half of the nineteenth century we have similar reports published by the department of Education, government of Bengal. There are also reports on the scholarship examinations taken by the students of the Hindu College, as well as an important compendium of documents related to the Government takeover of the institution in 1854, when it was renamed as Presidency College, reports on the Eden Hindu Hostel, and other select reports on education in the Bengal Presidency where the College has been referred to.

 

18. Unpublished Documents

 

In this section we have documents about governance, academic activities and financial management of the institution. These records have been gathered from the institution’s own repository and from the West Bengal State Archives. They are testimonies to the micro-practices of the institution. Here we have letters between departments, governing body deliberations, letters between the principal and the government, records of seminar societies, admission forms of students, financial registers, letters of patrons, confidential notes on members of the staff, deliberations on the appointment of professors, notes on admission policy, library registers, accounts and reports from the Eden Hindu Hostel, proposals for research, schemes for infrastructural development, and documents pertaining to many other institutional matters.

 

19. Private Sources

 

This section consists of all non-official/governmental documents about the institution. Being the earliest institution of western education in Asia, the Hindu/Presidency College was a hub of educational eminence in British India. The College produced a steady stream of brilliant teachers and students, and many of the latter went on to become immensely influential public figures in the history of modern India. This tradition continued after 1947, and contributed significantly to the development of the public life of the new nation-state. Since the College was the site of eminence and attention right from its inception, its affairs were regularly discussed in major contemporary periodicals, newspapers and journals. Also, many of the teachers and students of the College wrote extensively on their days spent in the college. The research and teaching traditions of the College were also points of discussion in contemporary media, quite often.

 

20. Autobiographies

 

Here we have autobiographies of a great number of figures from the institution. The authors of these books are mostly eminent public figures of modern India. In these works, while narrating their lives, they write about the time they spent in the college, as students, or in some cases, as both students and teachers. These books are from different periods in the history of the institution, ranging from the early-nineteenth century to the mid/late-twentieth century. Their reminiscences offer rich accounts of academic practices and major events in the institution. There are both English and Bengali books in this collection.

 

21. Biographies

 

In this section we have biographies of eminent individuals associated in different capacities with the institution–as students, teachers and patrons. Most of these biographies are from the nineteenth century, when accounts of the lives of ‘great men’ had emerged as a novel genre of writing. The great range of social reformers of nineteenth century Bengal, who played an important role in the foundation and growth of the institution, had biographies written by contemporaries. Even though many of these works are written in a celebratory style, they record important events, and offer interesting contemporary perspectives on the social role of the College.

 

22. Newspapers & Periodicals

 

This section houses articles and reports on various incidents in the institution published in a variety of newspapers and periodicals from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These reports document the academic development and cultural value of the institution in contemporary Indian society. These entries featuring the institution have been compiled from the leading English and Bengali periodicals and newspapers of different times. They have also been assembled from multi-volume edited collections of such periodicals. Users can find brief descriptions of these periodicals in the subsections.

 

23. The Presidency College Magazine

 

The Presidency College Magazine was first published in 1914 under the editorship of PramathanathBanerjea. Its periodicity was never regular. Earlier it was published by the college authority. Now it is published by the students’ council. Some of its famous editors are ShyamaprasadMookherjee, SubodhchandraSengupta, HumayunKabir, Hirendranth Mukherjee, Taraknath Sen, Bhabatosh Dutta, NikhilnathChakravarty, AsokMitra, Sipra Sarkar, ArunkumarDasgupta, SukhamoyChakravarty, Amiyakumar Sen, KetakiKushari, GayatriChakravarty, AnupkumarSinha, Rudrangshu Mukherjee, SwapanChakravarty, Sugata Bose and SomakRaychaudhury. It carried poems, short stories and articles written by the teachers and the current and former students, reprints from old issues, obituaries and news regarding different seminars, libraries, labouraties, hostels, football team, cricket team, fests, relief funds/committees, literary societies, cooperative society, war service and excursions of the college. Initially every issue carried an article on a famous alumnus under the ‘Old Presidency College Men’ series. Front cover of some of the issues were drawn by Satyajit Ray.

 

24. Korok

Korokis a popular Bengali little magazine founded by Tapas Bhaumick in 1977. It is based in Kolkata. It is published thrice a year. Initially it carried poems, short stories and articles. Now it only prints articles. This section consists of articles from its special festival issue of 2020 on the legendary teachers of Bengal.

25. Autumn Annual

Autumn Annual is the annual bulletin of Presidency College Alumni Association (now Presidency Alumni Association). It was first published in 1960 under the editorship of the pleader and litterateurAtulchandra Gupta. It is generally published every year on 20^th January which is celebrated as Founders’ Day by Presidency College/University. It carries short stories, poems, articles and memoirs written by the members of the association.

26. Asiatic Communication (Not Needed)

 

27. Asiatic Journal

The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies was a regular publication which aimed to be “a faithful register of Indian Occurrences”. It was sponsored by the East India Company. It was published from 1816 to 1845, in three series, each with a different name. It carried news, original communication, memoirs of eminent persons, poems, articles on history and natural history, information regarding appointments, promotions, resignations, market, births, marriages, deaths and daily prices of stocks, debates at the East India House and proceedings at the East India Colleges of Hertford and Fort William.

28. Science and Culture

 

Science and Culture is a monthly journal devoted to natural and cultural sciences. It was founded in 1935 by M. N. Saha, who continued to edit it till his death in 1956. It is published by the Indian Science News Association. It was a major forum of discussion on how science can be utilised in the making of the post-colonial Indian nation-state and the reorganisation of the disciplinary protocols of different science subjects. This section consists of articles from Science and Culture on the lives and works of the teachers and students of Presidency College.

 

29. Pradip

 

Pradipwas a short-lived illustrated Bengali monthly periodical founded by RamanandaChattopadhyay in 1897. It was published from Calcutta (now Kolkata). It mostly printed poems, short stories, articles and book reviews.

 

30. Prabasi

 

Prabasiwas a Bengali monthly periodical founded by RamanandaChattopadhyay in 1901. It was published by the Indian Press. It was initially based in Allahabad. It included serialised novels, poems, short stories, plays and travelogues. Articles on history, geography, art, archaeology, sociology, anthropology, politics, economics, education, law, literature and science also appeared on its pages. It was the first ever periodical in Bengali to feature a reproduction of colour photographs and paintings.

 

31. Prasangiki

 

Prasangikiwas the official annual report of Presidency College (now Presidency University). The first issue was published in 1952. The last issue was published in 2014. Thereafter the word ‘Prasangiki’ was dropped from the title. It used to outline the academic achievements of the various departments – of both the teachers and the students. It is a handy reference for information regarding workshops, seminars and conferences organised, distinctions/research degrees obtained, papers/books published, lectures by visiting faculties, performance of students in the university examinations, lists of the college’s/university’s administrative staff and reports on the major academic and cultural events at Presidency during the preceding calendar year. It used to be published every year on 20^th January which is celebrated as Founders’ Day by Presidency College/University.

 

32. SangbadpatreSekaler Katha

SangbadpatreSekaler Katha is a collection of excerpts from Bengali newspapers and periodicals. It was edited by BrajendranathBandyopadhyay. It was published by BangiyaSahityaParishat. Volume 1, published in 1932, covered the period from 1818 to 1830. Volume 2, published in 1933, covered the period from 1830 to 1840. Volume 3, published in 1933, covered the important occurrences missed out in the first two volumes. Each volume had five sections – education, literature, society, religion and miscellaneous.

33. The Statistical Researcher (delete this entry)

 

34. Research

 

Here users can find the research publications of the different faculty members of the institution. These publications, from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, provide rich insights into the vibrant culture of research in the College. Many of these research works were also pioneering works in different fields of study. While some are more popularly known, like those of Jagadish Chandra Bose in physics and the life sciences and Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in statistics, there are many more, which were internationally impactful publications, emerging out of scarce material resources and difficult conditions of work in the institution.

 

35. Secondary Sources

 

In this section users will find scholarly historical works which refer to the institution, as part of their analyses of different problems of modern Indian history. Since the Hindu/Presidency College was at the centre of important developments in modern Indian social life, a big number of historical works engage with–centrally and peripherally–figures and events from the institution. Histories of science, nationalism, social reform, religion, education, postcolonial state-making, and many more deal with the College, as the College contributed seminally to these aspects of modern Indian history. This section will give users a basic understanding of the location of the institution within the existing historiography of modern India.

 

36. Articles and Essays

 

Here we have scholarly essays on the institution focusing on important developments in the history of modern Indian life which stemmed from select events, and the work of particular figures from the institution.

 

37. Books

 

While there is no book-length study of the Hindu/Presidency College, the College features in a number of books on the history of modern India. From the earlier histories of educational development and social reform in modern Bengal to the more recent histories of science, nationalism and disciplinarity, there are several significant historical works where the College features prominently. In this section, we house such works.

 

38. Dissertation
39. About PUDA

 

The Presidency University Digital Archive is the repository for an astounding variety of records related to the history of the institutional life of the Hindu/Presidency College—the first institution of European education in Asia. Established in 1817 in the colonial city of Calcutta, Hindu College was renamed as Presidency College in 1854 and functioned under that name until 2010 when it was made into a university and renamed the Presidency University. The College was the first western-style educational institution in Asia established entirely by native philanthropy. It pioneered modern European learning in the natural and human sciences in colonial India.  It is a well-known fact of modern Indian history that over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the institution produced a steady stream of eminent figures of Indian public life, as students, teachers, researchers, social reformers, nationalist leaders, and administrators. Research in the natural, social, and humanistically inclined sciences in the college were aligned with global trends and in some instances even pioneered such trends. The Hindu/Presidency College provided the foundations for many other significant educational institutions/developmental sites of modern India—most notably the University of Calcutta (1857), the Bengal Engineering College (1858), and the Indian Statistical Institute (1931) all of which grew out of it—and would eventually serve as a model for many undergraduate institutions across the country. This archive has been developed in collaboration with the University of Chicago. Some of its materials have also been digitized under an Endangered Archives Program project supported by the British Library, London.