DP Mukerji

Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji (5 October 1894 – 5 December 1961), known as DP Mukerji, was an Indian professor and sociologist. He was known for works and lectures focused on sociology and Marxism.[1]

Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji
Born(1894-10-05)5 October 1894
Chatra, Sreerampur British India
Died(1961-12-05)5 December 1961
Calcutta, West Bengal
NationalityIndian
CitizenshipIndian
OccupationIndian professor
Known forSociologist
SpouseChhaya Mukerji
ChildrenPt.Kumar Prasad Mukerji
Parent(s)Bhupatinath Mukerji (Father)
Elokeshi Devi (Mother)

Early life

DP Mukerji was born to Bhupatinath Mukherjee and Elokeshi Devi at his maternal uncle's house at Chatra near Sreerampur in the district of Hoogli in Bengal Presidency during British rule in India. Their ancestral house was at village Narayanpur near Bhatpara in the North Twenty four Parganas District of West Bengal.His father, Bhupatinath Mukhopadhyay, was a lawyer of Barasat and therefore his schooling till 1909 was at Barasat Govt. High School from where he passed Entrance examination.[2]

Education and career

In 1912 Mukerji passed Intermediate from Ripon College now Surendranath College at Calcutta and obtained a Master's in history in 1918 and Master's in Economics in 1920 from the University of Calcutta.He married Chhaya Devi, a daughter of Prabodhchandra Bandyopadhyay, a resident of Allahabad.[2] He started his teaching career at Bangabasi College, Calcutta but soon he got an offer from the newly founded University of Lucknow where he joined as a lecturer in Economics and Sociology in 1922. He served the University of Lucknow for over three decades (1922–1954), Dr Zakir Husain, Vice Chancellor Aligarh Muslim University invited him to join Department of Economics Aligarh Muslim University as Professor in 1954.

Mukerji was arguably one of the leading intellectuals of his times who impacted life and thoughts of his many students such as P. C. Joshi, T. N. Madan, Ashok Mitra, A. K. Saran, and V. B. Singh. He was invited to write the very first editorial in the very first number of Economic Weekly (Economic and Political Weekly) in 1949, titled "Light without Heat."[3]

He worked for the UP government under Govind Ballabh Pant (1937–40) as Director of Information and created Bureau of Economics and Statistics. He served as a member of the UP Government Labour Enquiry Committee (1944). He went to the USSR in 1952 and to the Netherlands in 1953 as a visiting professor at the Institute of Social Sciences.

Mukerji made a pioneering contribution in the field of sociology and economics.[4] He had a deep interest in literature, music, and art as well. He was a novelist, essayist, and critic in his mother tongue, Bengali.

Along with R.K. Mukerjee, Mukerji established the All India Sociological Conference (AISC) and organized its first gathering in 1955.

Death

In 1956 DP underwent major surgery for throat cancer in Switzerland. He survived cancer, but his voice was badly impacted. He continued serving Aligarh Muslim University until 1959 after which he retired to live in Dehradun. DP died in Kolkata on 5 December 1961.

Publications

A collection of his essays, Redefining Humanism[5] was published by Srobona Munshi which was well received in academic circle and help establish Prof. Mukerji's image as one of the top intellectuals of modern India.[6]

Writings [7][8]:

Mukerji wrote nineteen books: ten in Bengali and nine in English. His early publications include:

  • Basic Concepts in Sociology (1932)
  • Sur o Sungati (1935). Co-written with Rabindranath Tagore.
  • Personality and the Social Sciences (1924)
  • Indian Music: An Introduction (1945)
  • Modern Indian Culture: A Sociological Study (1942, revised enlarged edition in 1948)
  • Problems of Indian Youth (1942)
  • Views and Counterviews (1946).
  • On Indian History (1944)
  • Diversities
  • Realist
  • Anthashila (1935)
  • Abarta (1937)
  • Mohana (1934)
  • Amra O Tahara (1931)
  • Mone Elo
  • Jhilimili
  • Chinatasi (1934)
  • Katha O Sur (1938)

References
  1. CHAKRABARTI, ANJAN (1 March 2014). "The Sociological Imagination of Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji: Beyond Hermeneutics and Positivism". Economic and Political Weekly. 49 (9): 63–74. JSTOR 24479178 – via JSTOR.
  2. Samsad Bangali Charitabhidhan Vol.I in Bengali edited by Subodhchandra Sengupta & Anjali Bose, published by Sahitya Samsad, Kolkata, India, August 2016 edition Page 320 ISBN 978-81-7955-135-6
  3. Pulin B Nayak, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 55, Issue No. 32-33, 8 August 2020
  4. "First DP Mukerji Memorial Lecture in, Madan, T.N. (1977) "Dialectic of Tradition and Modernity in the Sociology of D. P. Mukerji", Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 26, No. 2, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi" (PDF). 20 November 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 November 2020.
  5. Redefining Humanism. Tulika Books. November 2012. ISBN 978-93-82381-07-5.
  6. "Datta V. N. "An intellectual par excellence" Review of Redefining Humanism: Srobona Munshi (Edited) Selected Essays of D. P. Mukerji". Archived from the original on 29 June 2018.
  7. Madan, T. N. (September 1994). "D. P. Mukerji 1894-1961: A Centenary Tribute". Sociological Bulletin. 43 (2): 133–142. JSTOR 23620884.
  8. Chakrabarti, Dalia. (May–August 2010). "D.P. Mukerji and the Middle Class in India". Sociological Bulletin. 59 (2): 235–255. JSTOR 23620866.
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