A tribute to Satya Chandra Mukerji, a distinguished Vakil and pioneering historian who documented India’s transformative era under the Crown.
Satya Chandra Mukerji was an undisputed leader among the Indian Members of the High Court Bar on the criminal side. He was a lawyer of great ability, experience, and learning and possessed amazing memory. He was well known for reciting numerous anecdotes and showing unfailing courtesies as well as inexhaustible patience on the Bench. While a lot is known about his father Shitol Chandra Mookerjee as there are reports published on him by worthy English newspapers like The Statesman, very little is known about Mr. Satya Chandra Mukerji. All we know from the literatures available on Satya Chandra Mukerji is that he was a gifted lawyer with outstanding success in criminal cases. Everyone, especially in the Allahabad High Court, perhaps have heard of him along with the names of prominent leaders at the Allahabad Bar. But very little is known about his contribution as a historian. This aspect, however, is overshadowed by his father who has been often referred as a ‘Patriot and Educationist’ in his respectable circle. It is to be noted that Mr. Mukerji’s first book, ‘Indian History of Our Own Times (1859-1888)’ was the first attempt made by a graduate of the University of Calcutta to write on a period of Indian history from the original materials and to give the Indian public the history of the last generation. Mr. Satya Chandra Mukerji, having lived an illustrious career as a Vakil at High Court in NW Provinces died in 1920.
Immediately after having left the University of Calcutta, where Mr. Satya Chandra Mukerji was fortunate to receive the best training in History and political economy available in the Presidency of Bengal, he cast about on all sides for one book ‘Indian History of Our Times (1859-1889),’ that helped him to learn about the political measures and the social life of the first generation of direct Indian administration by Her Gracious Imperial Majesty.
Mr. Mukerji, Vakil, High Court, NW Provinces referred to the files of newspapers for conducting such a laborious and profitable study with the objective to remove the difficulties from the path of the future students of Indian contemporaneous history. He took up a decade in each of the parts and dealt with it as thoroughly as he could with reference to all the phases of activities visible through it. This work, which was undertaken meticulously by putting arduous labour, did not omit any material details and confined to general outline of every event in each year. The book is neither a mechanical work of piling up facts on facts, nor a work of acute and philosophical reflections that would help readers to enliven the narration of the driest details, and intersperse with attractive and central truths of life or a subject. The plan he adopted in order to present the book was along the lines of the greatest historians of the modern age. This was undertaken in order to keep intact the thread of narration of the main events and devote separate chapters to the discussion of those items that required a separate treatment.
It is no small labour and a work of no small degree of patience to collect all the materials of history of a period of thirty years starting from 1859, and to submit an invaluable work to the public, an endeavour seldom taken by any writer, Indian or Anglo Indian, during that time. The book which has been prepared by the young authour with considerable labour and tact while arranging the facts with a mastery of the English language had the goal to ensure that the educated countrymen were able to take the fullest advantage in order to acquaint themselves with most significant political facts of the last generation. One of the reasons for writing the book was the ignorance prevailing about the real nature and history of numerous public institutions even amongst educated men. As a result, a systematic work in which events contemporary to many of the readers were placed in the form of historical narrative.
Born in 1866, Babu Satya Chandra Mukerji was a graduate of the University of Calcutta, a gold medallist in history and the Cobden medallist in political economy at the MA Exn of Calcutta in 1887. He also conspicuously distinguished himself at the High Court Vakilship Ext of these provinces securing the first position in the annual examination of 1886. Mr. Satya Chandra Mukerji, M.A., B.L, Vakil High Court, North Western Provinces, who was practicing at Agra in 1891, presented to the public in three parts this useful work called Indian History of Our Own Times (1859-89). The work is one of the first attempts of one of the graduates of the university to narrate a systematic history of the period covered by the administration of the Crown. It is said that it met very good reception in high quarters which were likely to be well informed on the subject. Baboo Satya Chandta Mukerji earned praises for completing from the original materials the history of India from after the mutiny to the close of the administration of the Marquis of Dufferin- a period very less attempted by any other writer, European or Indian, during the time when the work was in progress. His contemporaries were correct that his powers of speech and knowledge of law would help him to attain a conspicuous position in the Indian bar. They wished him every success in life and were gratified whenever they heard about his continued progress and prosperity.
Indian History of Our Times (1859-1889), Volumes 1-3
Upon completion of the work, ‘Indian History of Our Own Times (1859-1888)’ Volumes 1-3, Mr. Satya Chandra Mukeri, M.A., B.L, Vakil High Court, N.W. Provinces, respectively dedicated the work to Sir Auckland Colvin, His Excellency the Commander-in-chief of the Forces in India and His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India. It was the first attempt made by a graduate of the University of Calcutta to write on a period of Indian history from original materials and to give the Indian public the history of the last generation.
Sir A Colvin’s private secretary called Captain Strachey replied to his letter by saying that His Honour read the book with great interest and would be glad to have the first part dedicated to him, as proposed by Baboo Satya Chandra Mukerji.
In the following year, 1892, the Head Quarters of the Army in India replied to Babu Satya Chandra Mukerji’s letter by stating that Commander-In-Chief was glad to accept the dedication of Part II of ‘Indian History of Our Own Times’ and was obliged to have his name associated with his work. His Excellency conveyed to him his best wishes for the success of his book. On 1st Feb 1892, Mr. Mukerji received the next letter from the Viceroy from the Government House in Calcutta in which he acceded to Satya Chandra Mukerji’s request for dedicating the third part of the book to his name.
Babu Satya Chandra Mukerji’s work was praised and well acknowledged by distinguished people from Europe and India. Englishmen and leading officials in the country honoued him. For instance, The Hon’ble John Nugent, Bombay Civil Service and Member of the Supreme Legislative Council, Pherozshah Merwanji Mehta, MA LLB (Bar-at-Law), The Hon’ble Gurudas Banerji, Indian Judge of the Calcutta High Court, and many more. Everyone read the work with great pleasure, showed interest to subscribe the work, acknowledged his hard work and painstaking research, which was written in a graceful style from the literary point of view. They congratulated him by conveying that the work was invaluable in view of building the future students of Indian history. His well-wishers were confident that Mr. Mukerjee would receive support for his laudable effort for providing an interesting work with eloquent pages for the period between 1859 and 1888. He was also associated with worthy organizations like Royal Asiatic Society and Royal Historical Society of Great Britain. They praised the distinguished student of History, Mr. Satya Chandra Mukerji, for his first attempt as a graduate of an Indian University to write such a comprehensive and interesting subject. His careful research and labour, as well as great deal of patient arrangements in order to bring all the available materials, whether in official documents newspapers or contemporary literature and his commitment towards making the work full and complete succeeded him in enlisting influential support and patronage. Many anticipated that his father Baboo Shitol Chandra Mookerjee of Muttra, who had been a distinguished student of contemporary history, would guide him in his endeavours.
‘Indian History of Our Own Times’ written for and placed before the educated public is said to be the faithful narration of the various phases of social and political history of one’s own times, and of the times immediately preceding them. The work presents a clear and penetrative insight into the great social and political landmarks visible, which were considered to be cared by every man of culture. This was a sentiment not only accidentally prevailing among the majority of public who could read and write, in the greater part of the civilized world, but was founded upon the deep-rooted tendencies of human nature. In order to make history entertaining and intensely interesting, Satya Chandra Mukerji was among the prominent authours who encouraged a popular style to be adopted for writing history. He said that the work should have graphic illustrations of the men, the manners, the social and political phenomena, either in remote times or in their own generation with the goal to delight the reading public in every age and country.
The book was meant for people who had a taste for reading newspapers- a practice which had grown in the most civilized countries and had been turned to be almost one of the necessaries of life among the cultured classes. It was in this context that Mr. Mukerji expressed that at the end of each generation in uneventful times, and at the end of every eventful period, it was highly necessary that a connected account in a narrative form of the men and measures of the time that had gone by be available to the enquiring public. It was meant for those who had already reached the middle age of life. The work would have helped them to recapitulate of that period they had lived. This was imperative for a proper understanding of the current literature of their society. Mr. Mukerji also lamented that, in those days when India was under the Crown, history was always treated as a dull subject for an average mind. This was in contrast with England and other countries of civilized Europe where contemporary history was considered to be popular among students, and scores of books were available about the subject in order to help them become young politicians or a journalist.
He added that all the histories of India that were present during his time for the literary public concluded with the Indian mutiny- the terrible catastrophe which shifted the administration of the land from the hands of the East Indian Company to those of the Crown. Prior to that fascinating period numerous capable historians had written delightful works on many of the particular periods of Indian history. These works, which were acknowledged as rare literary gifts, were read not only in India but wherever the English language was known. But it is said that all such works closed with Kaye and Malleson’s highly impressive volumes on the Indian mutiny. The grand evolution of Indian social and political life, during the first thirty years of administration under the Crown, a period which is characterized by steady and rapid progress, and reconstruction on a sure and improved basis on the ruins of a fallen administration was not put before the public in a readable shape by any writer whatever. The readers who had lived through the era from 1859 to 1888 often said that that it was the most interesting period of reconstruction in every department of administration. During this era, splendid careers were introduced to every man of real abilities, whether natural or acquired.
The author put forward that the book was also of interest to official writers or travellers from foreign lands without any thorough mastery of the Indian sociology and polity. The point about growing taste for reading and writing for newspapers among the educated men in every part of India, and the increased political activities manifested everywhere, which necessitated during this period of the history of India (1859-1888) to foster every institution of progress that seemed flourishing around them during that era, has been reiterated. This was also considered as a major reason for the application of arduous labour leading to thorough and careful study of ‘Indian History of Our Own Times (1859-1889).’ This was done as part of the duty or priviledge to aid advancement of Indian administration in any of its aspects. The decision to submit the educated public this work also stemmed from the viewpoint that next generation should, above all things, take into consideration the history of the generation that had just gone by.