Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee
Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee () (also known as Raja Dakshinaranjan Mukhopadhyay) (1814 – 15 July 1898) was one of the leaders of the Young Bengal group in 19th-century India, an orator, editor of several periodicals, and a social reformer who had donated land for the Bethune School and assisted David Hare in his social works.
Early life
Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee's father Jaganmohan Mukherjee, who belonged to Bhatpara, had married into the Pathuriaghata branch of the Tagore family and agreed to be a ‘ghar-jamai’ (a groom who remains back with his in-laws as part of their family). Dakshinaranjan studied at Hare School and Hindu College. While a student of Hindu College, he was influenced by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, the main person behind the Young Bengal movement. When his friend Krishna Mohan Banerjee was turned out of his house for converting to Christianity, Mukherjee provided him protection and support.
Activities at Kolkata
While a student Mukherjee published the magazine Jnananneswan in 1831. The next year it became a bilingual magazine. He spoke against suppression of newspapers by the government. He was one of main initiators for the establishment of the British Indian Association and contributed regularly to the Bengal Spectator. He practiced as a lawyer and was the first Indian to be appointed as a collector of Calcutta Municipality. Later he also worked in the court of the Nawab at Murshidabad.
He had once given a loan of Rs. 60,000 to David Hare. As Hare was unable to pay back the loan, he gave Mukherjee some land in lieu of it. Mukherjee, in turn, donated that land in 1849 to John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune for the establishment of Kolkata’s first secular school for girls.
Marriage
After the death of Maharaja Tejendra of Bardhaman in 1832 Mukherjee had visited the family in connection with some legal disputes. He met Tejendra’s young widow Basanta Kumari, and later married her by registration of the marriage. The episode created a sensation in Kolkata. Virtually abandoned by society, Mukherjee migrated to Lucknow in 1851 and settled there.
Later life at Lucknow
Mukherjee prospered at Lucknow. For helping the British during the Sepoy Mutiny, he was rewarded with the Shankarpur taluk in 1859. He was made honorary assistant commissioner of Lucknow and Awadh. He started publishing Lucknow Times, Samachar Hindustani and Bharat Patrika from Lucknow. He established the Canning College at Lucknow. He was honoured with the title of ‘Raja’ by the Viceroy, Lord Mayo in 1871.
He established the Awadh British Indian Association in 1871 and campaigned for the formation of a provincial government with equal number of nominated and elected legislators and lost some favour with the British government. Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee died in Lucknow on 15 July 1898.