Harish Chandra Mukherjee

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Harish Chandra Mukherjee
Born	April 1824 Kolkata
Died	16 June 1861 Kolkata
Occupation	Journalist

Harish Chandra Mukherjee (1824 – 1861) (popular as Harish Mukherjee or Harish Mukherji, also written as Harish Chandra Mukhopadhyay) was a pioneer nationalistic journalist, who fought tooth and nail for the indigo cultivators and forced the government to bring about changes.^[1]

1 Early life
2 Revolt of indigo cultivators
3 References
4 External link

[edit] Early life

Son of Ramdhan Mukherjee, the family hailed from Sridharpur in Bardhaman district but he was brought up in his maternal uncle’s place at Bhowanipur in Kolkata. As per the custom of the day, his father had three wives. Harish Mukherjee was son of the third wife Rukmini Devi. He was a free student at Union School but had to give up studies because of poverty. He started working in a small firm but later found employment, through competitive examinations, as a clerk in the office of the Military Auditor General. He gradually rose to a high position in that office and worked there all his life.^[2]

In 1852, he became a member of British Indian Association and soon became one of the members of its think-tank. He was one of the founders of the Bhowanipur Brahmo Samaj.^[2] He wrote in the Hindu Patriot, “The time is nearly come when all Indian questions must be solved by Indians. The mutinies have made patent to the English public what must be the effects of politics in which the native is allowed no voice.”^[1]

After his death in 1861, Hindu Patriot was edited for 23 years by Krishnadas Pal.^[3]

[edit] Revolt of indigo cultivators

Indigo cultivation had been extended in a big way from the 18th century. The cultivators were forced to undertake indigo cultivation for which they hardly got anything in return. The oppression gradually increased and when the cultivators could no longer bear it they revolted and refused to undertake indigo cultivation. It was then that the intelligentsia in Kolkata took up the matter. Harish Mukherjee played a vital pioneering role in that movement with his brilliant writing in the Hindu Patriot. His writing roused public opinion and finally Dinabandhu Mitra came out with his play Nil Darpan in 1860. The indigo planters wanted to throttle the Hindu Patriot first. The case fell through because Bhowanipur was outside the jurisdiction of the English Supreme Court then functioning in Kolkata. So great was the wrath of the indigo planters that even after his death, they wanted to punish his widow with court cases. Subsequently, James Long was jailed but the net benefit was the setting up of an Indigo Enquiry Commission by the government that went into the entire problem. It did not solve the problem but put in some checks on the untold misery.^[2]

The fall out of overwork during the period killed Harish Mukherjee in 1861. He died at a young age of only 37 years.^[1] A sad song circulated in those days:

Asamay Harish morlo,

Long-er holo karagar

Chasir ebar pran banchano bhar.

Harish died untimely, Long has gone to jail, now it would be difficult for cultivators to save their lives.^[1]

One of the main thoroughfares and a large public park in Bhowanipur, Kolkata, are named after Harish Mukherjee.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), 1976/1998, Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, (Bengali) , p621, ISBN 8185626650
^ ^a ^b ^c Sastri, Sivanath, Ramtanu Lahiri O Tatkalin Banga Samaj, (Bengali) 1903/2001, pp129-130, New Age Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
^ Sengupta, Subodh and Bose, Anjali, p104.