The first meeting of Bethune Society was held on this day in Calcutta. The society, founded to promote knowledge among Indians and cultural exchanges between Indians and Europeans, was named after John Drinkwater Bethune, who had contributed in a major way towards women’s education in Bengal. He had died on August 12 in the same year. The first initiative to establish the society came from F.J. Mouat, who taught medicine at Calcutta Medical College. The idea was to establish a society that was not so serious in its approach as the Asiatic Society but not frivolous either. It would be a non-political and non-religious body.
The members of the first society council were Mouat, Ramgopal Ghosh, Reverend James Long, Peary Chand Mitra, Major GT Marshall, Reverend Krishnamohan Banerjee and Debendranath Tagore.
