Harihar Das was an Indian scholar and biographer whose meticulous research and dedication rescued the poet Toru Dutt from comparative oblivion. Born in the village of Sidhipasa, Bengal, Das first encountered Toru Dutt’s poetry as a schoolboy when reading “Buttoo” in an examination textbook. This early encounter sparked a fascination that would shape his life’s work.
The Biography Project
Despite the passage of forty-three years since Toru Dutt’s death in 1877, no comprehensive biography of the remarkable poet existed when Das began his research in December 1911. Indian writers had traditionally neglected biography as a literary form, and Toru’s name was sinking into obscurity despite her extraordinary achievements in English, French, and Sanskrit literature.
John Nicol Farquhar (1861-1929) was a Scottish educational missionary and Orientalist whose scholarly works on Indian religions remain foundational texts in the study of Hinduism and modern Indian religious movements.
Early Life and Education
Born in Aberdeen in 1861, Farquhar initially trained as a draper’s apprentice before returning to formal education at age 21. He attended Aberdeen Grammar School (1882), Aberdeen University (1883), and completed his studies at Christ Church, Oxford, earning his B.A. in 1889. He later received a D.Litt. from Oxford in recognition of his scholarly contributions.
Romesh Chunder Dutt CIE (1848-1909) was an Indian civil servant, economic historian, and nationalist leader whose two-volume Economic History of India established the intellectual foundations of Indian economic nationalism.
Career
Born into a distinguished Bengali family, Dutt qualified for the Indian Civil Service in 1869. He became the first Indian appointed as district magistrate (1883) and the first to reach the rank of Divisional Commissioner (1894). His administrative experience managing famines gave him firsthand knowledge of colonial taxation’s impact on rural poverty.
Sarojini Naidu, known as the “Nightingale of India,” was a poet, political activist, and one of the foremost leaders of India’s independence movement. She was the first Indian woman to become President of the Indian National Congress.
Sir Herbert Hope Risley KCIE CSI FRAI (4 January 1851 - 30 September 1911) was a British ethnographer and colonial administrator who became the pre-eminent anthropologist in British India. As a member of the Indian Civil Service from 1873 to 1910, he conducted pioneering studies on the tribes and castes of India, developing systematic anthropometric methods to classify the Indian population.
Early Life and Education
Risley was born at Akeley, Buckinghamshire, where his father served as rector. He belonged to one of the “Founder’s Kin” families of Winchester College, where he had a distinguished career, winning the Goddard Scholarship, the Moore Stevens Divinity Prize, and the King’s Gold Medal for the Latin Essay. He entered New College, Oxford in 1869, taking a Second Class in Law and Modern History before being selected for the Indian Civil Service.