Pabitra Kumar Sen (15 May 1906,

Comilla Comilla (), officially spelled Cumilla, is a metropolis on the banks of the Gomti River in eastern Bangladesh. Comilla was one of the cities of ancient Bengal. It was once the capital of Tripura kingdom. Comilla Airport is located in the Duli ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

,- 15 September 1997 Calcutta) was the Khaira Professor of Agriculture,

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

, and founder of the College of Agriculture at Calcutta University in the 1950s. Sen obtained his doctoral degree from the

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

in London, England in the 1920s and served as plant

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out chemical and ...

and

horticulturist Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

under the British India government during the 1930s in Sabore, Bihar, India. He was invited by

Syama Prasad Mookerjee Syama Prasad Mookerjee (6 July 1901 – 23 June 1953) was an Indian barrister, educationist, politician, activist, social worker, and a minister in the state and national governments. Noted for his opposition to Quit India movement within the ...

to start a college. He was highly influenced by

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...

and

Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

and worked on village reconstruction in

Santiniketan Shantiniketan (IPA: Help:IPA/Bengali, �antiniketɔn is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendra ...

during the 1940s. He founded Seva-Bharati, in the village of Kapgari,

Midnapur Medinipur or Midnapore is a city known for its history in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the West Medinipur district. It is situated on the banks of the Kangsabati River (variously known as ''Kasai'' and ''Cossye'') ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

in 1948 as an experiment of applying education to elevate the living conditions of the very poor. Sen started with Kapgari, one of the poorest villages in India, and created schools ranging from nursery school up through research centers. Sen wrote a research article about several interesting developmental projects in the area in a paper entitled ''The village situation in India and reorganisation of its agricultural resources: A case study'', published in Agricultural Administration, Elsevier.

References

External links

Seva-Bharati at propoor.org
Some of the contributions * http://www.caluniv.ac.in/academic/department/Horticulture.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Sen, Pabitra Kumar Indian horticulturists Plant physiologists 1906 births 1997 deaths University of Calcutta alumni Academic staff of the University of Calcutta 20th-century Indian botanists