Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (known as R. C. Majumdar; 4 December 1888 – 11 February 1980) was a historian and professor of

Indian history According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...

. Majumdar is a noted historian of modern India. He was a former Sheriff of Kolkata.

Early life and education

Coming from a

Baidya Baidya or Vaidya is a Hindu community located in Bengal. Baidyas, a caste ('' jāti'') of Ayurvedic physicians, have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the colonial era, the Bhadraloks were drawn primarily, b ...

family, Majumdar was born in Khandarpara,

Gopalganj Gopalganj may refer to: Bangladesh *Gopalganj District, Bangladesh, a district of Dhaka Division ** Gopalganj, Bangladesh, a town and headquarter of Gopalganj district ** Gopalganj Sadar Upazila, an upazila of Gopalganj District ** Gopalganj-1, a ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia an ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(now in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

) on 4 December 1888, to Haladhara Majumdar and Bidhumukhi. In 1905, he passed his Entrance Examination from

Ravenshaw College Ravenshaw University, formerly known as Ravenshaw college, is a co-educational state university situated in Cuttack, Odisha on the eastern coast of India. Founded as Ravenshaw College in 1868, the institution became a university in 2006. The u ...

Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka ) in Odia is the former capital and the second largest city in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised form of ''Kataka'' which literally ...

. In 1907, he passed F.A. with first class scholarship from

Surendranath College Surendranath College is an undergraduate college affiliated to the University of Calcutta, in Kolkata, India. It was founded in 1884 by the nationalist leader and scholar Surendranath Banerjee. The Women's section of the college was founded ...

and joined

Presidency College, Calcutta Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affili ...

. Graduating in B.A.(Honours) and M.A. from

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

in 1909 and 1911, respectively, he won the Premchand Roychand scholarship from the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every yea ...

for his research work in 1913.

Career

Majumdar started his teaching career as a lecturer at

Dacca Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city i ...

Government Training College. Since 1914, he spent seven years as a professor of history at the

. He got his doctorate for his thesis "Corporate Life in Ancient India". In 1921 he became professor of history in newly established University of Dacca. He also served, until he became its Vice Chancellor, as the head of the Department of History as well as the dean of the Faculty of Arts. Between 1924 and 1936 he was Provost of Jagannath Hall. Then he became the Vice Chancellor of that University, for five years from 1937 to 1942. From 1950, he was Principal of the College of Indology,

Benares Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. ...

. He was elected the general president of the Indian History Congress and also became the vice president of the International Commission set up by the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

for the history of mankind.

Works

Majumdar started his research on ancient India. After extensive travels to Southeast Asia and research, he wrote detailed histories of Champa (1927), Suvarnadvipa (1938) and Kambuja Desa (1944). On the initiative of

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is an Indian educational trust. It was founded on 7 November 1938 by Dr K.M Munshi, with the support of Mahatma Gandhi. The trust programmes through its 119 centres in India, 7 centres abroad and 367 constituent instit ...

, he took up the mantle of editing a multi-volume tome on Indian history. Starting in 1951, he toiled for twenty-six long years to describe the history of the Indian people from the Vedic Period until the

Independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...

in eleven volumes. In 1955, Majumdar established the College of Indology of

Nagpur University Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), formerly Nagpur University, is a public state university located in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It is one of India's oldest universities, as well as the second oldest in Maharashtra. It is named ...

and joined as Principal. In 1958–59, he taught Indian history in the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

. He was also the president of the Asiatic Society (1966–68) and the

Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Bangiya Sahitya Parishat is a literary society in Maniktala of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Established during the time of the British Raj, its goal is to promote Bengali literature, both by translating works in other languages to Bengali a ...

(1968–69), and also the Sheriff of Calcutta (1967–68). When the final volume of "

The History and Culture of the Indian People ''The History and Culture of the Indian People'' is a series of eleven volumes on the history of India, from prehistoric times to the establishment of the modern state in 1947. Historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar was the general editor of the serie ...

" was published in 1977, he had turned eighty-eight. He also edited the three-volume history of Bengal published by Dacca University. His last book was "Jivaner Smritidvipe". The proposal to write on "Freedom movement" with Government sponsorship was put forth by in 1948 by R. C. Majumdar. In 1952 the ministry of education appointed Board of Editors for the compilation of the History. Professor Majumdar was appointed by the Board as the Director and entrusted with the work of sifting and collecting materials and preparing the draft of the history. However, the Board as consisting of politicians and scholars, was least likely to function harmoniously. Perhaps this was the reason why it was dissolved at the end of 1955. The scheme remained in balance for a year until the government decided to transfer the work on to a single scholar. To the disappointment of Professor Majumdar the choice of the ministry of education fell on one Tara Chand, a historian but also an ex-secretary of the Ministry of Education. Professor Majumdar then decided to write independently ''The History of the Freedom movement in India'' in three volumes.

Views on the Indian independence movement

When the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

set up an editorial Committee to author a history of the freedom struggle of India, he was its principal member. But, following a conflict with the then Education Minister

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following In ...

on the

Sepoy Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the for ...

, he left the government job and published his own book, ''The Sepoy Mutiny & Revolt of 1857''. According to him the origins of India's freedom struggle lie in the English-educated Indian middle-class and the freedom struggle started with the Banga Bhanga movement in 1905. His views on the freedom struggle are found in his book ''History of the Freedom Movement in India''. He was an admirer of

Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the intr ...

and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

Bibliography

*''The Early History of Bengal'', Dacca, 1924. *''Champa'', ''Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East'', Vol.I, Lahore, 1927. . *''Suvarnadvipa'', ''Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East'', Vol.II, Calcutta, 1938. *''The History of Bengal'', 1943. . *''Kambuja Desa Or An Ancient Hindu Colony In Cambodia'', Madras, 1944. *''

An Advanced History of India ''An Advanced History of India'' is a book on Indian history written by R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Raychaudhuri and Kalikinkar Datta, first published in 1946. This renowned book consists of two parts. And similarly, according to the periods, the same ...

''. London, 1960. . *''

'', Bombay, 1951–1977 (in eleven volumes). *''Ancient India'', 1977. . *''History of the Freedom movement in India'' (in three volumes), Calcutta, . *''Vakataka – Gupta Age Circa 200–550 A.D.'', . *''Main currents of Indian history'', . *''Classical accounts of India'' *''Hindu Colonies in the Far East'', Calcutta, 1944, . *''India and South-East Asia'', I.S.P.Q.S. History and Archaeology Series Vol. 6, 1979, . *''The History of Ancient Lakshadweep'', Calcutta, 1979. *''Corporate Life in Ancient India'', Calcutta.

References

External links

Interview with Majumdar

Remembering Acharya Ramesh Chandra Majumdar: A Century of Spotless Scholarship and Inspiration
{{DEFAULTSORT:Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra 1888 births 1980 deaths People from Faridpur District Ravenshaw University alumni Surendranath College alumni Presidency University, Kolkata alumni University of Calcutta alumni University of Calcutta faculty Bengali historians 20th-century Indian historians Historians of South Asia Vice-Chancellors of the University of Dhaka Sheriffs of Kolkata People from Gopalganj District, Bangladesh Scholars from Kolkata