On this day, 20 boys from well-established Bengali Hindu families of Calcutta met on the rented premises of a Garanhata building, founding Hindoo College, an institution that would play an important role in the history of Bengal and India.
The idea of starting a school that would impart an English education and teach a modern and practical curriculum to Indians was being advocated by Raja Rammohun Roy and other progressive Indians and British educationists like David Hare alike.
In May 1816, a meeting was held to finalise details about the institution. It was decided that the institution should have a Pathshala, or a school, and a Mahapathshala, a place for higher studies. The male children of respectable Hindu families would be admitted to the school and they would study English and Indian languages and the literatures and sciences of Europe and India. The curriculum would include English and Bengali, reading, writing, grammar and arithmetic.
Sir Edward Hyde East, Chief Justice of Calcutta Supreme Court was appointed chairman of the committee to set up the school and Joseph Baretto its treasurer. The committee raised Rs 1,13,179. The Maharajah of Burdwan Tejchand Bahadur and Gopee Mohun Thakur contributing Rs 10,000 each.
Later, the school moved to its current address in College Street. In 1855, the Mahapathsala became Presidency College, and the Pathshala became an independent school. Hindu School’s contribution to the history of Indian ideas and learning is immense. Its alumni include the most eminent Indian names: Rajendralal Mitra, Keshab Chandra Sen, Radhanath Sikdar, Ramtanu Lahiri, Michael Madhusudan Datta and Satyendranath Bose, to name only a few.
