Remembering Kshitish Prasad Chattopadhyay… The ‘Renaissance Man’ of our City’s Primary Education

Kshitish Prasad Chattopadhyay

Amongst the visionaries who blueprinted Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s destiny Kshitish Prasad Chattopadhyay’s name stands tall, for his immense contribution in shaping the Corporation’s roadmap in the domain of education. In this piece, we pay our humble tribute to Kshitish Prasad ─ whose vision helped materialise Subhas Chandra Bose’s “mission of spreading primary education to the grassroots in Kolkata”.

Kshitish Prasad Chattopadhyay was born on December 15, 1897 in Kolkata. Chattopadhyay’s father, Yamani Mohan was the descendent of Raja Ram Mohun Roy, the ‘Bengal Renaissance Man’ and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. While his mother, Motimala was the granddaughter of Dwarkanath Tagore.

In 1913 Subhas Chandra Bose passed the Matriculation standing second, while his batch mate Kshitish stood seventh from the Metropolitan Institution. This paved the way for Chattopadhyay’s brilliant academic career ─ two years later, he stood first in the ISC Examinations. In 1917 he passed BSc in Physics with first class and followed it up with his MSc in Anthropology from Cambridge University receiving ‘Anthony Wilkins Fellowship’ in 1922.

On his return to India Chattopadhyay joined Calcutta University as a Professor in 1923. In 1924 Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das assumed office of the Mayor in Calcutta Corporation and appointed Subhas Chandra as its first Chief Executive. It was on Bose’s behest that Kshitish Prasad was chosen as the Corporation’s Education Officer.

What followed was unprecedented in the history of the Corporation, not to mention the City. Under Chattopadhyay’s stewardship the number of Corporation Schools swelled from a meagre three to a total of 232. A momentous feat that changed the face of primary education of Kolkata forever.

Till 1935 he served Calcutta Corporation as the Education Officer and then, on the invitation of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, once again joined the Calcutta University. A man of scholastic proportions, Kshitish Prasad, a student of WHR Rivers in his later life also Headed the Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta.

A recipient of the prestigious Sarvabhauma Award from the Calcutta Pandit Samaj, Kshitish Prasad was a member of Permanent Council of International Congress of Anthropology. He passed away on March 31, 1963.