Ramananda Chatterjee (; 29 May 1865 – 30 September 1943) was the founder, editor, and owner of the

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

based magazine, the '' Modern Review''. He has been described as the Father of Indian Journalism.

Early life

Chatterjee was born in a middle class

Bengali Hindu Bengali Hindus () are adherents of Hinduism who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. They make up the majority in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Assam's Barak Valley ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

family, the third child to Srinath Chattopadhyay and Harasundari Devi in the village of Pathakpara in the district of

Bankura Bankura () is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Bankura district. Etymology It comes from the old Austric word ráŕhá or ráŕho which means “land of red soil”.P.R. Sarkar Rarh - ...

. He received his primary education in a Bengali medium school, even though primary education the English medium had become available by then in Bankura. As a child he liked poetry and soon he was drawn to patriotism through the poems of Rangalal Bandyopadhyay. He passed Student-Scholarship Examination in 1875 from Bankura Banga Vidyalaya. He passed the Entrance from Bankura Zilla School in 1883 arrived at

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

to pursue higher education. In 1885, he passed the F.A. from the St. Xavier's College and took admission in the City College. In 1888, he appeared in the B.A. from City College and stood first class first in the University of Calcutta. He won the Ripon Scholarship of rupees fifty per month. Pleased at the success of Chatterjee, Heramba Chandra Maitra offered him the post of assistant editor at the ''Indian Messenger'', the mouthpiece of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, of which he was the editor at that time. This offer opened up Chatterjee's future career in journalism. In 1890, he completed his Master of Arts degree in English at the University of Calcutta.

Career

In 1893, he joined the City College as a lecturer. Along with

Jagadish Chandra Bose Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (; ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a polymath with interests in biology, physics and writing science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contributions ...

, he founded the children's magazine Mukul with Sivanath Sastri as the editor. In 1895, he decided to move to

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

with a teaching job at the Allahabad Kayastha Pathshala. In 1897, he became the chief editor of Bengali literary magazine Pradip. He, however left Pradip owing to differences in opinion and subsequently launched Prabasi in 1901. In 1907, Chatterjee launched the English magazine ''Modern Review'' and went on to found two others, the third being the Hindi-language '' Vishal Bharat (magazine)''.Kalyan Chatterjee, ''Media and Nation Building in Twentieth-Century India: Life and Times of Ramananda Chatterjee'' (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020).

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterjee, Ramananda 1865 births 1943 deaths Bengali writers Bengali Hindus 20th-century Bengalis 19th-century Bengalis Brahmos City College, Kolkata alumni St. Xavier's College, Kolkata alumni University of Calcutta alumni Academic staff of the University of Calcutta People from Bankura district Indian male essayists Indian male journalists Indian columnists 19th-century Indian writers 20th-century Indian writers 19th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian essayists 19th-century Indian essayists 19th-century Indian journalists 20th-century Indian journalists Journalists from West Bengal Indian editors Indian magazine editors Indian lecturers Indian schoolteachers Indian magazine founders Journalists from British India