Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Bengali: ধন গোপাল মুখোপাধ্যায় Dhan Gopal Mukhopaddhae) (July 6, 1890 –July 14, 1936) was the first successful Indian man of letters in the United States. Events 1044 - The Battle of Ménfő takes place 1189 - Richard the Lionheart is crowned King of England Year 1890 ( MDCCCXC) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1223 - Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father Philip II of France. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country An intellectual (from the adjective meaning "involving thought and reason" is a person who tries to use his or her Intelligence and analytical thinking, The United States of America —commonly referred to as the He studied at Duff School (now known as Scottish Church Collegiate School, a constituent unit of Scottish Church College, Calcutta), the University of Calcutta, in India, Tokyo University in Japan and at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University in the U. The Scottish Church College, which is located at 1 & 3 Urquhart Square Calcutta 700006 is the oldest continuing Missionary administered liberal arts and sciences college Formally established on the 24 January 1857, the University of Calcutta (also known as Calcutta University) (কলকাতা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় The, abbreviated as, is a major Research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a private Research university located in S.
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Biography
Early life in India
Dhan Gopal Mukerji was born on 6 July in a village near Calcutta on the edge of a jungle called Kajangal. His father, whom he describes as ‘an Olympian who was lost in the world’ was a lawyer who gave up his practice due to ill health and studied music instead, while also officiating as priest at the village temple. Dhan Gopal describes his childhood and adolescence in the first part (‘Caste’) of his autobiography Caste and Outcast (1923). Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 'Caste' details Dhan Gopal's induction into the Brahminical tradition of his ancestors, and his experiences wandering for a year as an ascetic, as was the custom for boys in strict priestly households. However, disillusioned with the traditional role and impatient of the backward-looking element in strict Hindu society, he left the ascetic life to study at the University of Calcutta. Here, in the circle of his brother Jadugopal Mukherjee's friends, he came in contact with the ideas of the Bengal resistance. Jadu Gopal Mukherjee (18 September 1886 - 30 August 1976 was an eminent Bengali Indian revolutionary who as the successor of Jatindranath Mukherjee or Jadu Gopal was subsequently jailed without trial from 1923 to 1927. Year 1927 ( MCMXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Dhan Gopal later wrote a memoir about Jadu Gopal, titled My Brother's Face.
In Japan
In 1910, hoping to save the younger brother from police action, Dhan Gopal's family sent him to Japan to study industrial machinery. Although he was initially fascinated with the positivistic spirit of industrialization, later he became deeply disillusioned by the assembly line method of production and proclivity towards sheer efficiency which he viewed as dehumanizing, degrading and debasing. He was particularly shocked by how assembly line workers who had suffered serious accidents were quickly replaced by other workers, without consideration by the factory owners or employers for either their medical recovery, health benefits or adequate compensation. After a short stay in Japan, he boarded a ship for San Francisco. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city
Experiences in America
Barely out of his teens, Dhan Gopal had absorbed enough revolutionary ideology from his peers to have been well on the way to following in his brother's footsteps, and may not have left India entirely willingly. Dhan Gopal took his ideology with him to America where he fell in with a number of dirt-poor 'anarchists' like himself. Anarchism is a Political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all compulsory Government, i His experiences among them, in San Francisco and New York, are detailed in ‘Outcast’, the second section of his autobiography.
In San Francisco he looked about for a way to support himself and pay for his college education, and soon lit upon writing. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Around 1916 he wrote Rajani or Songs of the Night a book of poems, and Laila Majnu a musical play in three acts, both published by Paul Elder and Co. of San Francisco. At this time, he was a student at the University of California at Berkeley for three years. Financial constraints and his political radicalism made him move on to Stanford University, from where he earned a graduate degree in metaphysics in 1914. Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a private Research university located in Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year He socialized with leftists, anarchists and freethinkers and became aware of the plight of the underclass, the white middle class, Negroes and other East Asian immigrant groups. Anarchism is a Political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all compulsory Government, i Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that Beliefs should be formed on the basis of Science and Logic and should not be influenced The contemporary concept of the underclass is a sanitized term for what was known in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the undeserving poor and may have been coined by American sociologist The middle class, in colloquial usage consists of those who have some economic independence but not a great deal of social Influence or power. Negro is a term referring to people of Black African ancestry He married Ethel Ray Dugan, an American artist and painter, in 1918, and they had a son, also called Dhan Gopal. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common
In the 1920s, Mukerji moved to New York and began his most prolific period of writing, published mainly by E.P. Dutton. The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada E P Dutton is an American book publishing company founded as a book retailer in Boston Massachusetts in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. Of his many children's books, Kari the Elephant was the first to see publication, in 1922. Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The most successful such title was Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon (1927) for which the American Library Association presented him with the Newbery Medal in 1928. Gay Neck the Story of a Pigeon is a 1928 children's novel by Dhan Gopal Mukerji that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American Year 1927 ( MCMXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The American Library Association ( ALA) is a group based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children of the American Library Association (ALA to the author of the Year 1928 ( MCMXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. This book is about a carrier pigeon ('Gay Neck') and his growing up with the flock owned by the narrator, then his (the pigeon's) drafting as a messenger for the Indian army in France during World War I and finally how the pigeon and his handler return to India and deal with the wounds and memories of war in the seclusion of a lamasery. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Mukerji's other children's books include Ghond, the Hunter (1928), The Chief of the Herd (1929), Hindu Fables for Little Children (1929), Rama, the Hero of India (1930, produced for the children of Dalton School where his wife taught), and The Master Monkey (1932). Year 1928 ( MCMXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1930 ( MCMXXX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1932 ( MCMXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. Many of his works were reworkings of stories he had heard as a child. Others were inspired by his own experiences in India as a child among the jungles of Bengal, or as a yogi in various holy places.
Among Mukerji's writings for adults are A Son of Mother India Answers (1928) (partly in response to Katherine Mayo's Mother India), Devotional Passages from the Hindu Bible and Visit India with Me (1929), Disillusioned India (1930) and My Brother's Face (1932). Year 1928 ( MCMXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Katherine Mayo ( 27 January 1867 &ndash 9 October 1940 was an American writer known for her book Mother India (1927 a critique of Hindu culture that in its day was as controversial Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1930 ( MCMXXX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1932 ( MCMXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. The Face of Silence (1926) is about the nineteenth century saint and visionary Ramakrishna Paramhansa and is said to have deeply influenced Romain Rolland (See Swami Tathagatananda, 'Dhan Gopal Mukerji and The Face of Silence ', Prabuddha Bharati, January and February 2006 (two part article). Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ( Bangla: রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস Ramkṛiṣṇo Pôromôhongśo) ( February 18, 1836 - Romain Rolland ( 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French Dramatist, Essayist, Art historian )
The details of his later life are hazy, but there is some evidence to believe that relations with his wife entered a difficult phase at the end of his life. In spite of his many friends he felt deeply isolated and marginalized in America, as he could do very little, beyond raising funds and entertaining visiting celebrities, to further the cause of Indian liberty. The choices he had made in life prevented him from ever returning permanently to India, and it is possible to see his urge to write of the jungles and animals of his native land as a means of compensating for their absence. The unhappiness of his final years drove him further into spirituality, fueled his interest in the spiritual heritage of his motherland and gave urgency to his desire to interpret and explain India to the West. Spirituality, in a narrow sense concerns itself with matters of the Spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and Faith, a transcendent reality Finally, in 1936, he hanged himself on July 14, shortly after his forty-sixth birthday, in New York City. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The City of New York
Legacy
Dhan Gopal Mukerji is probably the first popular Indian writer in English. He pre-dates G.V. Desani and Mulk Raj Anand by some ten or twenty years. Govindas Vishnoodas Desani or G V Desani, (1909–2000 was a Kenyan born British -educated Indian writer and Buddhist Mulk Raj Anand ( December 12, 1905 - September 28, 2004) was an Indian writer in English, notable for his depiction Krupabai Satthianadhan, the woman who wrote the novels Kamala and Saguna in the late nineteenth century, was certainly an accomplished writer, but her works did not reach a mass audience until she was rediscovered in the twentieth century. Krupabai Satthianadhan (1862-1894 was one of the first Indian women to write in English and certainly the first woman novelist in English from India Scattered writings in English by Indians are encountered throughout the nineteenth century, such as the famous Rajmohan's Wife, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's first novel, written in English after the manner of Scott. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee ( 27 June[[ 838]] - 8 April[[ 894]] (বঙ্কিম চন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায় Bôngkim There was also notable work by figures such as Roquia Sakhawat Hussain, writer of Sultana's Dream (1905), the first science fiction piece in English by an Indian, comparable to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland. Roquia Sakhawat Hussain, Bangla: (বেগম রোকেয়া (1880 – December 9, 1932) was a prolific writer and a Social worker " Sultana's Dream " is a classic work of South Asian literature and an early example of Feminist science fiction. Year 1905 ( MCMV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Charlotte Perkins Gilman ( July 3 1860 – August 17 1935) was a prominent American Novelist, Writer of Herland is a Utopian novel from 1915, written by Feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. But usually these are byproducts of Indian language work, and Dhan Gopal Mukerji is the first to write seriously and consistently in English.
This was not by choice, but was a product of his unfortunate situation. Dhan Gopal never lost the sense of mission which he shared with his brother, and throughout his life strove to complete the task he had set himself: to emancipate India from foreign rule and win for her culture and philosophy the respect he felt it deserved. In America he associated with fellow exiles like M.N. Roy, the founder of the Communist Party of India, to whom he is said to have suggested the adoption of the pseudonym 'Manabendra'. Manabendra Nath Roy (Bengali: মানবেন্দ্র নাথ রায় 1887 – January 25 The Communist Party of India (CPI is a Political party in India.
Forbidden the more satisfying outlet of activism, he poured his feelings into his writing. Consequently, his language is magical and persuasive, and his observation of animals and their ways is accurate and unsentimental. In his work the Gond hunter and the Brahmin child are equals in their travels in the jungle, and Dhan Gopal Mukerji never (unlike Kipling) anthropomorphises the animals or draws a facile moral from them. The Gondi (Gōndi are a people in central India. The Gondi or Gond people are spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 was an English Author and poet Although he was acutely conscious of his high caste, he saw it more as a responsibility than a privilege, and neither patronized nor denigrated the so-called 'lower' castes and communities. He was, however, less sound on the subject of women. He writes movingly of child prostitutes in America in the 1910s and 1920s, especially of their plight during the Depression, but he also romanticizes the life of Rangini, a 'tawaif' (courtesan) encountered in Caste and Outcast. Tawaif was a Concubine who catered to the Muslim nobility of South Asia, particularly during the Mughal era. He also praises his mother's and sisters' strict asceticism, all the more so since his mother is at that time a widow, performing all the hard penances prescribed to Hindu widows of her caste.
Bibliography
- Rajani, or Songs of the Night (San Francisco: Paul Elder, 1922)
- Laila Majnu (San Francisco: Paul Elder, 1922)
- Kari the Elephant (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1922)
- Caste and Outcaste (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1923)
- The Face of Silence (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1926)
- Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon (New York: E. Gay Neck the Story of a Pigeon is a 1928 children's novel by Dhan Gopal Mukerji that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American P. Dutton, 1927)
- Ghond, the Hunter (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1928)
- Devotional Passages from the Hindu Bible (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1929)
- Visit India With Me (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1929)
- Disillusioned India (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1930)
- My Brother's Face (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1932)
External links
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