Pramatha Nath Basu, the pioneer of the technological revolution in India | Big Umbrella
Pramatha Nath Basu, the pioneer of the technological revolution in India was born at Gobardanga, West Bengal. The Bengali child was born in an interior village named Gauripur of undivided 24 Parganas of that time. Later, he changed the industrial map of the country.
He was born in 1855. This man was very talented at a young age. At the age of fourteen, he passed matriculation and went to Krishnagar Government College to study. Seeing his talent, the professors sent him to St Xavier’s College in Kolkata after two years.
In the ‘Gilchrist Scholarship Eligibility Test’, he was the first and then he left Kolkata and moved to Cambridge. After coming here he became friend with Rabindranath Tagore in the year 1874. He was the first Indian science graduate from the University of Cambridge by that time. After that, he was admitted to the Royal School of Mines in England. There, his study was on Geology and Fossil which was called Paleontology.
He also became the first in the last test here leaving behind the British young men. But, unlike other Indians, he did not stay with marrying a British girl there; he wanted to return to his country. While in England, he heard that the environment and potential for the development of new industries in India had been created.
He applied for a job at the office of the Secretary of State in London and at the Geological Survey of India (GSI). But, the British government did not give him a job in either of them.
He used to give lectures in different places to cover his expenses. He got acquainted with Dadabhai Naoroji and Anandamohan Basu there. Later he formed a socio-political organization called ‘India Society’. This time he started talking about the deprivation of the British towards Indians in his speech. Realizing the dangerous situation, the British government employed him as Assistant Superintendent in GSI and sent him back to India.
Like to read more, click on originally published at https://www.bigumbrella.co.in on September 9, 2020.
