Ashutosh Mukherjee


Ashutosh Mukherjee was an Indian mathematician, lawyer, jurist, judge, educator, and institution builder. A unique figure in Indian history, he made major contributions in the fields of mathematics, law, and higher education.
A holder of Masters degrees in both Mathematics and Natural Sciences, he was one of the first Indians to publish research papers in British journals. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh at the age of 22, and was a Fellow or Member of various learned bodies in Europe and the United States.
Mukherjee passed his law examination and built a successful law practice. He received an LL.D. and gave lectures on law at the university. He became a judge of the Calcutta High Court, and acted as a Chief Justice for couple of years. He established the University College of Law at the university.
"It was his ambition that Calcutta should become a centre of learning and research," noted his obituary in Nature. As the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta, Mukherjee transformed an examination conducting, degree granting body into one of Asia's top research universities. He started new departments for post graduate study in various disciplines, raised funds to create new chaired professorships and build facilities, hired outstanding professors in diverse fields of study, and supported graduated students in their efforts to pursue advanced research.
Mukherjee was the president of the inaugural session of the Indian Science Congress. He played a major role in the foundation of the Bengal Technical Institute, which later became Jadavpur University. He founded the Calcutta Mathematical Society. The Ashutosh College was also founded under his stewardship in 1916.
He is often called "Banglar Bagh" for his high self-esteem, courage and academic integrity. According to historian D. R. Bhandarkar, the epithet 'Vikramaditya' is also ascribed to Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee.

Early life and family

Ashutosh Mukherjee was born on 29 June 1864 at Bowbazar, Calcutta in a Hindu Brahmin family. His mother was Jagattarini Devi and father Dr. Ganga Prasad Mukhopadhyaya. His ancestral town was Jirat in Hooghly District, West Bengal. Among his ancestors were several distinguished Sanskrit scholars, including Pandit Ramchandra Tarkalankar, a professor of nyaya who had been appointed by Warren Hastings to that chair at the Sanskrit College in Kolkata.
Mukherjee's grandfather Biswanath Mukhopadhyaya. His came to Jirat from another village named Digsui, situated also in the Hooghly District and settled down there. Father Ganga Prasad Mukherjee was born in Jirat on 16 December 1836. He came to Kolkata to study in Medical College with the help of the wealthy people of Jirat. Later he settled down in Bhawanipore area of Kolkata. He became a well-known doctor and founded the South Sub Urban School in Calcutta.
Ganga Prasad took particular care of his son's education. Brought up in an atmosphere of science and literature at home, young Ashutosh went to the Sisu Vidayalaya at Chakraberia, Bhowanipore and showed an early aptitude for mathematics. When he was young, he met Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar who was a major influence on him. He was a student of Madhusudan Das.
In November 1879, at the age of fifteen, Mukherjee passed the entrance exam of the Calcutta University in which he stood second and received a first grade scholarship. In the year 1880, he took admission at the Presidency College in Kolkata where he met P.C. Ray, Mahendranath Roy and Narendranath Dutta, who would later become famous as Swami Vivekananda. In 1883, Mukherjee topped the BA examination at Calcutta University to complete a postgraduate degree in mathematics. He was awarded the prestigious Premchand Roychand Fellowship in Mathematics and Physics, Pure and Applied.
In 1883 Surendranath Banerjee wrote an article in the newspaper Bengalee against the orders of the Calcutta High Court and he was arrested in contempt of court. Protests and hartals erupted across Bengal and other cities, led by a group of students headed by Mukherjee at Calcutta high court.
In 1884, he won the Harishchandra Prize for academic achievements, and completed an M.A. with first-class honours in mathematics in 1885. In 1885, he married Jogamaya Devi Bhattacharyya. In 1886, he was awarded a second Masters in Natural Sciences, making him the first student to be awarded a dual degree from Calcutta University.
Next, Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee pursued a career in law. He received a Bachelor of Law degree in 1888 and enrolled as a vakil of the Calcutta High Court. In 1897, he received a Doctor of Law and became the Tagore Professor of Law at the University of Calcutta. In 1904, he was appointed a puisne judge of the High Court, and subsequently served as its acting Chief Justice for a couple of years.

The young mathematician

In 1880, though only a first-year undergraduate, he published his first mathematical paper, on a new proof of the 25th proposition of Euclid's first book. His third mathematical paper, "A Note on Elliptic Functions" was praised by the distinguished British mathematician Arthur Cayley as a contribution of "outstanding merit." He determined several crucial derivations of Gaspare Mainardi's answer to determining the oblique trajectory of a system of confocal ellipses. He also made lasting contributions in differential geometry, developing analytical methods of simplifying Gaspard Monge's interpretation of his general differential equation for conics.
He became a Fellow or Member of various learned bodies in Europe and the United States. He became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society at the age of 21, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh when he was 22. By 1888, Mukherjee was a lecturer in mathematics for the recently established Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.
Mukherjee continued publishing scholarly papers on mathematics and physics into his 30s. By 1893, aged 29, Mukherjee had been further elected to the fellowships of the Physical Society of France and the Mathematical Society of Palermo, and was a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He subsequently became a member of the London Mathematical Society, the Paris Mathematical Society and the American Mathematical Society. Although after 1893 he largely abandoned his mathematical pursuits for a legal career, Mukherjee has been recognised as the first modern Indian mathematician to enter the field of mathematical research. He also the Calcutta Mathematical Society and served as its president.

Lawyer, jurist, and justice

At the age of 24, Mukherjee became a Fellow of the Calcutta University. Turning down a job offer in the Department of Public Instruction in order to complete his Bachelor of Law degree, he received his degree in 1888 and enrolled as a vakil of the Calcutta High Court. He received a Doctor of Law degree in 1897.
Jurist, and author V. Sudhish Pai notes: "Mukherjee built a highly successful career with a combination of intellect and industry. He was appointed the Tagore Law Professor at Calcutta University in 1898 and authored the book, The Law of Perpetuities in British India, in 1902—still considered the polestar on the eastern horizon of jurisprudence. He was appointed a judge of the Calcutta High Court in June 1904. His appointment and tenure on the Bench significantly expanded judicial discourse. He brought to bear on his work inexhaustible energy, great erudition and the integrity of scholarship. His learning was vast and his exposition of law complete. Former Chief Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah placed him amongst the six most eminent judges India has produced."
When Mukherjee became a judge at the age of forty, "his senior colleague Justice Rampini told Asutosh that his enthusiasm would perhaps abate with advancing years. Asutosh had said in reply that he would not be justified in continuing as a Judge should his enthusiasm for doing justice diminish or his capacity for work decline."
Mukherjee served as Calcutta High Court's acting Chief Justice on couple of occasions. He stepped down in 1924 after twenty years of service and restarted his law practice.

Vice-chancellor and institution builder

The first modern universities in Asia were established in 1857 in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. However, they were modeled after the University of London and set up as affiliating universities that merely conducted examinations and granted degrees to students who were taught in affiliated colleges. Two other universities set up in 19th century British India, the universities of Punjab and Allahabad, operated in a similar way.
Viceroy of India Lord Curzon's education mission in 1902 identified the universities including the Calcutta University, as centres of sedition where young people formed networks of resistance to colonial domination. The cause of this was thought to be the unwise granting of autonomy to these universities in the nineteenth century. Thus in the period of 1905 to 1935, the colonial administration tried to reinstate government control of education. Despite these strained circumstances, Mukherjee went on to create a culture of academic excellence and built a superb research university.
He was involved in the University of Calcutta's affairs throughout his life. From the age of 25, he was a member of its Syndicate, serving on the University Senate and Syndicate for the next 16 years. He served as President of the Board of Studies in Mathematics for 11 years, and represented his university in the Bengal Legislative Council from 1899 to 1903. But the real opportunity came in 1906.
Mukherjee served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta from 1906 to 1914 and again from 1921 to 1923. He declared in the 1907 convocation address: "From now on the University is not just an institution issuing certificates, nor is it even a conglomeration of colleges.... This will be a centre of learning and the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge. This is precisely the true ideal of the university."
He started departments for postgraduate study in various disciplines. He set up several new academic graduate programs at the Calcutta University: comparative literature, anthropology, applied psychology, industrial chemistry, ancient Indian history and culture as well as Islamic culture. He also made arrangements for postgraduate teaching and research in Bengali, Hindi, Pali and Sanskrit. He raised funds to create new chairs and build facilities. Vice chancellors of other Indian universities followed many of his moves.
Scholars from all over India, irrespective of race, caste, and gender, came to teach and study there. He even persuaded European scholars to teach at his university. Eminent academics hired during his time included:
He supported graduated students in their efforts to pursue advanced research. Graduates of the university at this time included Satyendra Nath Bose of the Bose–Einstein Statistics fame, Meghnad Saha who developed the Saha ionization equation, and renowned radio physicist Sisir Kuma Mitra who pioneered space research in India. All three became Fellows of the Royal Society. honorary given the Sir title.
Mukherjee's institution building activities included establishing the University College of Science and the University College of Law. He also founded Asutosh College in South Kolkata in 1916. He laid the foundry stone of Jagadbandhu Institution in 1914 and Santragachi Kedarnath Institution in 1925.
The French scholar Sylvain Lévi commented :