Some of the Distinguished Alumni
of the University of Calcutta

Jibanananda Das

Jibanananda Das (1899-1954 ) was born in Barisal (in modern-day Bangladesh). Jibanananda was educated at Barisal B.M. College and Presidency College, Calcutta. From Presidency College he completed the Master’s Degree in English. He then worked as a lecturer of English in City College in Calcutta. Jibanananda is among the most prominent modernist poets of Bengali literature. His introduction of modernism to Bengali poetry was coeval with its advent in the West. He is best known for his celebration of the natural beauty and the rural life of Bengal, although his work is shot through with an acute awareness of the evanescence of the soul, of death and the inevitability of decay. His poems have a lyrical beauty that has very few parallels in Bengali literature. The second major theme in his poems is humanism and love. There are many poems of love, of women and of nature. Many of these poems are included in the anthology "Banalata Sen" which is now the most popular of his poetry books. He also wrote fifty volumes of diaries, and only small parts of them have been published up to 2006. Jibanananda was an active observer of politics though he never joined any group. He took part in political rallies organised by the major political parties to try to understand which way the country was headed after Independence

Syamaprasad Mookerjee

Syamaprasad Mookerjee (1901-1953) was born in Calcutta. His father was Sir Asutosh Mookerjee. He obtained his degree from the University of Calcutta. He became a fellow of the Senate in 1923. He enrolled as an advocate in Calcutta High Court in 1924 after his father's death. Subsequently he left for England in 1926 to study in Lincoln's Inn and became a barrister in 1927. At the age of 33, he became the youngest Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta, and held the office from 1934 to 1938. He was elected as member of the Legislative Council of Bengal. Jawaharlal Nehru inducted him in the Interim Government as a Minister for Industry and Supply. He was widely respected by many Indians and also by members of the Indian National Congress, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of its chief leaders. But on issue of the 1949 Delhi Pact with Pakistani Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan, Shyamaprasad Mookerjee resigned from the Cabinet on April 6, 1950.  He founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh on October 21, 1951 at Delhi and became its first President. He died in 1953. (Compiled and written by Dr. Soumitra Sarkar,  University Librarian, University of Calcutta) This compilation owes a lot to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Banglapedia for factual details. Despite our efforts we have not been able to trace all the copyright holders. We welcome communications from them, so that appropriate acknowledgements can be made in future.

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