Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee

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Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee (Bengali: নিবারণ চন্দ্র মুখার্জি) was a renowned Brahmo reformer. He joined the Brahmo Samaj at an early age and was ostracised by the family for this. He left his ancestral home in Hughli and settled down in Bhagalpur. He contributed substantially to the cause of the Brahmo Samaj in the area. He was joined by Hari Sundar Bose in his endeavours. Other Brahmo missionaries and social workers in Bihar, such as Dinanath Mazumdar and Prakash Chandra Roy, had close contact with him.

In his younger days in the 1860s, he was a leader of the progressive Brahmos at Kolkata, during the first schism of the Brahmo Samaj.

In 1869, he married Dinatarini of the Lakhutia zemindar family of Barisal. Two young members of the family, Rakhal Chandra Roy and Bihari Lal Roy, were taking a leading part in the Brahmo work there. Keshub Chunder Sen and his wife went to Barisal to attend the marriage. Subsequently, he was posted to Bhagalpur in government service. In the History of the Brahmo Samaj Sivanath Sastri has written, “The advent of Babu Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee, whose name has been mentioned in connection with progressive Brahmoism in Calcutta, during the Sangat Sabha days of 1865-66, brought a tower of strength to the Brahmo cause at Bhagalpur. He took it up in right earnest and has borne aloft the banner since then, piloting the movement through various vicissitudes of fortune. Others have come and gone but he remains there true to the convictions formed in early youth. During the period of the Cooch Behar marriage controversy the Bhagalpur Samaj kept close to Keshub Chunder Sen’s section of the Church, without however shutting its doors to workers of the other section.”

Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee’s eldest daughter Mrinalini was married to Gyan Chandra Banerjee, who later settled in Allahabad. His sons were Satish Chandra Mukherjee, Jyotish Chandra Mukherjee and Kshitish Chandra Mukherjee. His grandchildren included Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, the first Indian to head the Indian Air Force, Prasanta Mukherjee, who became Chairman of the Railway Board and is credited as having played a key role in the establishment of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, India’s first locomotive manufacturing plant, Renuka Ray, the Gandhian social worker, freedom fighter and later Congress MP, and Amiya Charan Banerjee, renowned mathematician. His great grandchildren include Milon Banerjee, Attorney General of India and Joydeep Mukerjee, India’s tennis star.