A department of Jadavpur University that is far older than the institution itself will commemorate its centennial starting Saturday.
The chemical engineering class was developed out of a movement that believed in fostering an emerging nationalist spirit via imparting of literary, scientific and technological education. It was in 1921, even before the UK created such a department.
Despite a two-year Covid-forced delay, the department will honour its centennial, CHEMERVESCENCE, from February 25 to 27.
How it began
The foundation of the department, the first of its type in India, stood out since the objective was not simply giving scientific and technological education, but also training entrepreneurs who might challenge the power of the British.
Hiralal Roy, a student of Bengal National College under the National Council of Education (NCE), who formed the department, got help from Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray to design the curriculum.
Ray, inspired by patriotic enthusiasm, patterned the curriculum on what was taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, said Asit Kumar Mitra, a former chairman of the department (from 1996 to 1998). (from 1996 to 1998).
The chemical engineering course began with roughly 10 students in 1921. It was taught on numerous sites in and around Maniktala before migrating to Jadavpur in 1924. The existing edifice came constructed in the early 1940s.
When the Bengal government approved legislation to create Jadavpur University in 1955, the NCE surrendered all its property and instructors to the new university and the chemical engineering department — along with other departments — fell under JU.
Pre-Independence
After graduating Intermediate in Science from the National College in 1910, Roy travelled to Harvard University, US, to study chemistry as an undergraduate student.
“When he returned from Harvard in 1913, he recognised chemical engineering and chemistry are two separate sciences. As the council came into existence from a patriotic mentality, Roy imbibed this notion and regarded chemical engineering as a means to promote indigenous entrepreneurs,” said Mitra, who graduated from the department in 1961.
Aurobindo Ghosh was the first principal of Bengal National College.
Roy was joined by Baneswar Dass, who studied chemical engineering at the University of Illinois, US, in directing the department. Roy then proceeded to Berlin to get a PhD in chemical engineering. When he returned in 1926 and joined the faculty at JU, student intake surged.
Anti-national? No
Sudakshina Ghosh, Roy’s granddaughter, said a study of the chemical engineering department’s history will expose its role to nation-building.
“These days, we hear a lot about ‘Make in India’. My grandpa Hiralal Roy and his pupils illustrated what ‘Make in India’ meant. He returned from Harvard to serve the school that brought him there and for his willingness to carry out his patriotic purpose. The department, the campus, retains this legacy,” added Ghosh, who graduated in chemistry from JU.
Several former students of the department resented efforts by the Right-wing environment to depict JU as a birthplace of anti-national beliefs.
Fillip to industry
Sachindra Prasad Saha, of the 1935 cohort, started The Bharat Battery Mfg. Co. the same year. The firm was a pioneer in developing commercial battery plates based on Saha’s technology established in laboratories.
About the same time, Jadavpur Soap Works was formed by a student who mastered the process of shaving soap sticks at the department.
“In those days, students were inspired with this attitude of becoming entrepreneurs who could be self-reliant and hire others,” said Dwipen Ghosh, of the 1965 cohort.
Anxiety and hope
Several former students believed this outstanding run received a shock due of the Naxalite uprising in the late 1960s.
In December 1970, then JU vice-chancellor Gopal Chandra Sen was assassinated on the campus during the height of the protest.
“Like many other departments, our department, too, was in the doldrums and disorder prevailed,” said Ranjit Chakravorty, who graduated in 1961.
When disturbance ebbed, academic activities resumed, but things were different. The industrial ecology that enabled the department develop altered considerably during the 1980s.
Bengal ceased to be the centre of industry. Gujarat and Maharashtra evolved as centres of chemical and allied industries.
Debashis Ghosh, national centennial advisory committee coordinator, said: “We think industry-academia exchanges (lined up for the festivities) would offer us a direction on how we may make ourselves more relevant.”
JU pro-VC Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya, an alumni of the department, said: “The department’s long tradition symbolises the enlightened path of technical education in Bengal.”
The department presently has 118 BTech seats.
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