List of Kolkata Presidencians explained

The following is a list of notable people associated with the old Presidency College, Calcutta.

Academics

• Abhijit Banerjee, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2019
• Abhijit Basu, professor of geology, Indiana University Bloomington
• Joyoti Basu, cell biologist, N-Bios laureate^[1]
• Ratan Lal Basu, Specialist in ancient economics and Indologist
• Birendra Bijoy Biswas, Botanist and molecular biologist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
• Barun De, Former Chairman, West Bengal Heritage Commission and Founder-Director, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.^[2]
• Jitendra Nath Mohanty, philosopher, former president of the Indian Philosophical Congress
• Sankar Das Sarma, eminent theoretical condensed matter physicist and Richard E Prange Chaired Professor at University of Maryland, US^[3]
• Amartya Sen, Master, Trinity College, Cambridge (1998–2004); winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, 1998^[4]
• Ashoke Sen, professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Bangalore, winner of Dirac Medal in 2014
• Surajit Chandra Sinha, former Vice Chancellor, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan; Maharajkumar of Susanga, Bengal^[5]
• Sourindra Mohan Sircar, one of the greatest botanist of India. Was appointed the General President of ISCA
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic, holder of University Professor at Columbia University

Actors and Film Makers

• Chhabi Biswas, Actor
• Dhritiman Chatterjee, Actor
• Ritwik Ghatak, Film Maker
• Pritish Nandy, Film Maker
• Satyajit Ray, Film Maker
• Bikash Roy, Actor
• Aparna Sen, Actor, Film Maker

Administration

• Gurusaday Dutt, ICS, Secretary, Local Self Government and Public Health Secretary, Government of Bengal^[6]

Faculty Members

• Dipak Banerjee, former Head of the Department of Economics of Presidency College, Kolkata^[7]

Judiciary

• Sir Sarat Kumar Ghosh, I.C.S, Chief Justice of Jaipur and Kashmir.^[8]

Politics

• Subhas Chandra Bose, Freedom Fighter, Commander of INA, First Leader of Free Indian Territory, Mayor of Calcutta; 53rd President of the Indian National Congress; founder of the Forward Bloc;^[9]
• Syama Prasad Mukherjee, founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh; Industry and Supply Member, Government of India (1946–50)
• Bidhan Chandra Roy, 2nd Chief Minister of West Bengal (1948–1962); 5th Mayor of Kolkata (1931–1933)
• Ajoy Mukherjee, 4th Chief Minister of West Bengal (1 March 1967 – 21 November 1967)^[10]
• Siddhartha Shankar Ray, 5th Chief Minister of West Bengal (1972–77); Education Minister, Government of India; Governor of Punjab; Ambassador to U.S.A.
• Jyoti Basu, 6th Chief Minister of West Bengal (1977-2000)
• Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal (2000–11)
• Ashim Chatterjee, Communist Revolutionary^[11]
• Bishnu Ram Medhi, Chief Minister of Assam (1950–57)^{[12] [13]}
• MJ Akbar, Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India (2016–2018)^[14]
• Abdus Salam Khan, Minister of Public Works and Communication (1955–1956) in the East Pakistan provincial cabinet^[15]
• Md. Hafizur Rahman, Minister of Food and Agriculture of Pakistan (1958–1960); Minister of Commerce of Pakistan (1960–1962); Provincial Minister of Finance and Planning of East Pakistan (1962–1965)
• Amit Mitra, Finance Minister of West Bengal (2011–21)
• Maharajadhiraja Sir Uday Chand Mahtab, Member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly (1937–52), Member, Indian Constituent Assembly, 1946-47 & Maharajadhiraja Bahadur of Burdwan.^[16]
• Colonel H.H. Maharaja Nripendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur of Coochbehar^[17]
• Raja Narasingha Malla Deb, OBE, MP, of Jhargram Raj

Religious leader

• Swami Vivekananda, the great Nationalist Indian Hindu monk, a chief disciple of the 19th-century Indian teacher Ramakrishna, key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century and founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission.

Sports

• Vece Paes, Indian Hockey Player, studied Pre-Medical at Presidency College, Calcutta during 1964-65

Writers

• Manik Bandyopadhyay, Fiction Author
• Rajshekhar Basu, Fiction Author
• Ratan Lal Basu, Fiction Author
• Shakti Chattopadhyay, Poet
• Henry Louis Vivan Derozio, poet^[18]
• Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Poet, Dramatist
• Sankha Ghosh, Poet
• Binoy Majumdar, Poet
• Pritish Nandy, Poet
• Satyajit Ray, Fiction Author

Notes and References

1. Web site: Indian fellow - Joyoti Basu . 2017-12-06 . Indian National Science Academy . 2017-12-06.
2. http://rajsaday.com/?p=1958 Lives Less Forgotten: Barun De
3. Web site: Prod to be the best . www.telegraphindia.com . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150703022616/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131216/jsp/calcutta/story_17684419.jsp . 2015-07-03.
4. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9126420/Amartya-Sen/ Encyclopædia Britannica Online: Amartya Sen
5. http://www.uq.net.au/~zzhsoszy/ips/s/susanga.html Indian Princely States: Susanga
6. http://rajsaday.com/?p=86 Lives Less Forgotten: Gurusaday Dutt
7. https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/teachers-do-not-die-dipak-banerjee-1930-2007/cid/1027696 Bio
8. http://rajsaday.com/?p=2074 Lives Less Forgotten: Sir Sarat Kumar Ghosh

9. President, Indian National Congress- 1938, 1939 (resigned), founded the Indian National Army (The Azad Hind Fauz); revered across the nation as 'Netaji' (Encyclopædia Britannica Online: * * Subhas Chandra Bose)

10. Arild Engelsen Ruud: “Land and Power: The Marxist Conquest of Rural Bengal”; Modern Asian Studies; Vol. 28, No. 2 (May, 1994), pp. 357-380; Cambridge University Press
11. অসীম চট্টোপাধ্যায় (Asim Chattopadhyay) (2022): নকশালবাড়ি নামা (Nakshalbari Nama), Ananda Publishers, Kolkata
12. http://assamassembly.gov.in/cm-list.html Assam Legislative Assembly
13. http://www.tripurainfo.com/citizen_services/helping_bytes/april_born.html Eminent Personalities
14. Web site: MEA | About MEA : Organization Structure : Ministers.
15. Book: Karim, ASM Enayet . 2012 . Khan, Abdus Salam . http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Khan,_Abdus_Salam . Islam . Sirajul . Sirajul Islam . Jamal . Ahmed A. . Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh . Second . Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
16. http://members.iinet.net.au/~royalty/ips/b/burdwan.html Indian Princely States: Burdwan
17. http://www.uq.net.au/~zzhsoszy/ips/c/coochbehar.html Indian Princely States: Coochbehar
18. Book: The Broadview anthology of British literature . 4 December 2014 . 978-1-55481-202-8 . Black . Joseph . Third . Peterborough, Ontario, Canada . Henry Louis Vivian Derozio . 894141161 . Conolly . Leonard . Flint . Kate . Grundy . Isobel . Lepan . Don . Liuzza . Roy . McGann . Jerome J. . Prescott . Anne Lake . Qualls . Barry V. . Waters . Claire.