Some of the Distinguished Alumni
of the University of Calcutta

The University of Calcutta has had the privilege of being the Alma mater to a very large number of distinguished men and women who have made their marks in different walks of life. These include teachers to freedom fighters, politicians to scientists, linguists and poets to lawyers, educationists to artists, and Nobel Prize Winners. The graduates of the University did their Alma mater proud and repaid the debt they owed to the University. The list of prominent alumni of the University thus includes some of its best-known students. Over the century and a half of its existence, the University of Calcutta has produced hundreds and thousands of graduates, postgraduates and holders of research degrees. The University is rightly proud of this galaxy of talents. However, it is impossible to represent even a fragment of these wonderful people in a short space. Hence the select list which is appended below is only indicative of a trend which was strengthened over the years by others of no mean talent.

Bankimchandra Chatterjee	Bankimchandra Chatterjee (1838-1894) was born in the village of Kanthalpara in the district of 24-Parganas on 27 June, 1838. Bankimchandra was one of the two students of the first B.A. batch  of the University of Calcutta. Following in his father's footsteps, Bankimchandra joined the Subordinate Executive Service and became a deputy magistrate and deputy collector. As an officer of the colonial government, he did his job well, and, in recognition of his service, received the titles of Rai Bahadur in 1891 and Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (CMEOIE) in 1894. Though Bankimchandra gained from his career the necessary  experience, he made a place for himself in history not as an executive officer but as a writer and an intellectual. While a deputy magistrate at Baruipur in the district of 24-Parganas, Bankimchandra wrote his first two celebrated novels: Durgeshnandini (1865) and Kapalkundala (1866). Others followed in quick succession, till, by 1887, all fourteen of Bankim's novels had been published, along with other prose works. Anandamath (1882) is possibly Bankim's last notable literary work. Anandamath (The Mission House of Felicity, 1882) is a political novel. The novel also contains the song "Vande Mataram" (Hail the Mother) which was set to music by Rabindranath Tagore.
Nabinchandra Sen	Nabinchandra Sen (1847-1909), poet,  was born in Noapara village in Chittagong (in modern-day Bangladesh) on 10 February, 1847. He passed the Entrance examination (1863) from Chittagong School, F.A. (1865) from Presidency College in Calcutta and B.A. (1868) from General Assembly, Calcutta. He taught briefly at Hare School in Calcutta before joining government service as deputy magistrate. He retired in 1904. Nabinchandra started writing poems while still a student. His poems used to be published in the Education Gazette edited by Peary Charan Sarkar. His first volume of poems was published in 1871. His poem Palashir Yuddha, published in 1875, made him instantly famous. His other major publications are the epics Raivatak (1887), Kuruksetra (1893) and Prabhas (1896). The hero of these epics is Krishna. Though best known as an epic poet in the tradition of Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Nabinchandra wrote many remarkable lyrics and narrative poems, marked by a sense of nationalism. Nabinchandra's other books include his autobiography, Amar Jiban, and the biographies on Khrister Jibani (The Life of Christ) and Cleopatra. Though Amar Jiban is an autobiography it reads like a novel. It also documents contemporary society, politics and administration. His other well-known books include Bhanumati and Prabaser Patra. He also did a verse translation of the Bhagavad Gita  and Chandi.
Chandramukhi Basu	Chandramukhi Basu (1860 - 1944) was one of the first two female graduates of the British Empire . Along with Kadambini Ganguli, she received her Bachelor's degree in Arts from the Bethune College, an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta, in 1883. The daughter of Bhuban Mohan Bose, she passed the First Arts examination from Dehradun Native Christian School in 1880. Till then Bethune School did not admit non-Hindu girls. The rule was relaxed and she was admitted for the degree course, along with Kadambini Ganguli. After her graduation, she was the only and first woman to pass M.A. from the University of Calcutta in 1884. She started her career as a lecturer in Bethune College (it was still part of Bethune School) in 1886. The college was separated from the school in 1888. She became the Principal, thus becoming the first female head of an undergraduate academic establishment in South Asia. She retired in 1891 because of bad health and spent the rest of her life in Dehradun.

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