rĕn`drənät bä`nərjē), 1848–1926, Indian nationalist. One of the first Indians to join the Indian civil service, he was dismissed (1874) for a minor error and was considered by many to be the victim of discrimination. He became a teacher in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and editor of the nationalist paper Bengalee, and in 1876 he founded the Indian Association, a predecessor of the Indian National Congress. He served twice (1895, 1902) as president of the latter organization but withdrew in 1918 to espouse a more moderate nationalism that called for Hindu-Muslim cooperation and gradual reform. Knighted in 1921, he served (1921–24) as minister for local self-government in Bengal. He was a founder (1882) of Ripon College in Calcutta, which in 1947 was renamed Surendranath College.
Bibliography
See his autobiography, A Nation in Making (1925); L. Gordon, Bengal: The Nationalist Movement 1876–1940 (1973).
Banerjea, Sir Surendranath
(born Nov. 10, 1848, Calcutta, India—died Aug. 6, 1925, Barrackpore, near Calcutta) Indian statesman, one of the founders of modern India. As a young man, he attempted unsuccessfully to serve in the Indian Civil Service, at the time virtually closed to ethnic Indians. He then became a teacher and founded a college in Calcutta (now Kolkata), which was later named for him. Banerjea attempted to bring Hindus and Muslims together for political action, and for 40 years he put forward a nationalist viewpoint in his newspaper, The Bengalee. Twice elected president of the Indian National Congress, he advocated for an Indian constitution on the Canadian model. He was elected in 1913 to two legislative councils and later was knighted (1921); in 1924 he was defeated by an independence candidate, whereupon he retired to write his autobiography, A Nation in the Making (1925).
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