Oriental Seminary

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Oriental Seminary, Kolkata

The Oriental Seminary is a private school in Kolkata.

Contents

History

The Oriental Seminary was established in 1829 by the educator Gour Mohan Addy. It was the first privately-run, first-rate[ further explanation needed ] school for children of Hindu parents in [Kolkata (then known as Calcutta). [1] [2] It was open only to boys of Hindu parents. [3] It was possibly India's first fully private school, as even Hindu School, Hindu College, and Hare school had to abide by certain government guidelines. [1]

In earlier days, students wanting to study English had to go to the missionary schools, where they were subject to substantial religious influence. The establishment of a school for learning English free from religious influences was a major contribution of Addy. [4] Traditional Indian education centres which taught Sanskrit and/or Persian had started fading out.[ citation needed ]

The founder and teachers

Gour Mohan Addy (20 January 1805 3 March 1846) founded the school without government funding. He appointed teachers to each class level by their ethnicity: Eurasian teachers for junior classes, Bengali teachers for intermediate classes, and Englishmen or Bengalis for upper levels. He died in a boating accident on the Hooghly river, when returning from a trip to Serampore to hire a teacher. [4]

Currently[ when? ] the principal of the primary section is Rina Basak Halder.[ citation needed ]

Notable alumni

Oriental Seminary was the earliest school Rabindranath Tagore attended. [5] The first experience of school aroused in the youngster the yearning to be a teacher. Wielding a stick, he used to teach from the railings in the big veranda of the palatial Jorasanko Thakur Bari. [6] [7] [8]

Among the list of other notable alumni are Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, [9] Krishnadas Pal, Girish Chandra Ghosh, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Sir Gooroodas Banerjee, Sambhunath Pandit, Vishwanath Datta, Amrita Lal Basu, Akshay Kumar Datta, Sudhindranath Dutta, [10] Jatindranath Sengupta, Swami Abhedananda, Bankim Ghosh, Malay Roy Choudhury and Mithun Chakraborty. [4] [11] [12]

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References

  1. 1 2 Roy, Subhajoy (13 January 2006). "Pages from past lessons". Calcutta, India: The Telegraph, 13 January 2006. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
  2. "Buddha woe over English". Calcutta, India: The Telegraph, 20 February 2005. 20 February 2005. Archived from the original on 6 March 2005. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
  3. Kopf, David, The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind, p. 49, Princeton University Press.
  4. 1 2 3 Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), 1976/1998, Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, (in Bengali), p. 147, ISBN   81-85626-65-0
  5. Life of Rabindranath Tagore at a glance
  6. Banerjee, Hiranmay, Thakurbarir Katha, (in Bengali), p. 124, Sishu Sahitya Sansad]
  7. Ghose, Chandreyee (7 May 2015). "Treasure trove at Tagore's school". Telegraph. India. Archived from the original on 14 July 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  8. "The Telegraph - Calcutta : Metro". www.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 9 September 2006.
  9. Sardella, Ferdinando (2013a). Modern Hindu Personalism: The History, Life, and Thought of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati (reprint ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 64. ISBN   978-0199865901.
  10. Sudhindranath: the Person I Knew
  11. Seedhi Baat -- Mithun Chakraborty
  12. "School wipes dust off treasure trove". www.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014.