| Sarat Kumar Dutta Gupta | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1882 Calcutta |
| Died | 1962 Calcutta |
| Occupation | Civilian |
| Spouse | Sarojubala Dutta Gupta (nee Sen) |
Sarat Kumar Datta Gupta, Esq. (Bengali: সরত কুমার দত্ত গুপ্ত) was a civilian of British India.
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His father, Sarada Kumar Dutta Gupta, who lived in the middle of the 19th century, owned substantial tracts of land in Tarpasha-Jainshar village in Bikrampur subdivision in Dacca district in present day Bangladesh, but worked in Calcutta. He had three elder brothers, Ahwini Kumar, Surendra Kumar and Karuna Kumar Dutta Gupta. Surendra Kumar remained in his ancestral village to manage his father's zamindari, while all the other brothers migrated to Calcutta towards the end of the nineteenth century. Karuna Kumar became one of the earlier graduates of Bengal Engineering College under the University of Calcutta. His family retained their village lands and home well until 1947.
After studying at Scottish Church College, Calcutta, he joined the Indian Audits & Accounts Service. He was Member-Secretary of the Central Commission for Inquiry into Prices and Wages of the Government of India in 1913. He retired as Accountant General of India, posted in Simla, in 1938.
He was a nationalist and a covert supporter the INC. He was not in the good books of the British due to his nationalist sentiments. His secondment as Agent (Railway Finance) of the Jaipur Railways in the former Indian state of Jaipur where he served from 1938-42, was seen as a penal posting by many in his service, but he accepted his appointment and served for full four years in Jaipur.[1]
His descedants also rose to eminence in their respective professions. His eldest brother, Ahwini Kumar Dutta Gupta's grandson, Dilip Gupta, was a well known cameraman, who worked with the film director, Bimal Roy, and shot films such as Madhumati and Chaya. His second eldest brother, Surendranath Dutta Gupta's son-in-law, Birendrantha Sen, was a senior railway officer. Another son-in-law was Niranjan Sen, who became a Magistrate in Coochbehar under the Maharajas of Coochbehar before becoming a Deputy Magistrate in West Bengal after independence. Another son-in-law was Jogesh Chandra Dasgupta, an eminent lawyer of Howrah, who became the Secretary of the Howrah Municipality. He was an institution builder and founded Howrah Girl's High School as well as the Tulsiram Lakshmidevi Jaiswal Hospital in Liluah. Dasgupta's son was Shanti Kumar Dasgupta, who was a two terms' MLA and Higher Education Minister in the state cabinet between 1972-7. He later became the High Court appointed Administrator of Surendranath College in Calcutta. Surendranath's son was Lt. Col. Sukumar Dutta Gupta of the Indian Medical Service. His third eldest brother, Karuna Datta Gupta's, son-in-law was Biren Sen, a senior Indian Audit and Accounts Service officer of the United Provices. Sen's only son was Amitabha Sen, the head of the mechanical department of the South Eastern Railways and a Major in the Indian army. One of Sen's daughter is Gayatri Ray, who ran the Indira Gandhi Trust in Delhi for some years. Her husband was Ashok Ray of Indian Foreign Service. Another son-in-law is Debabrata Dutta, IAS, who worked for the World Bank. Dutta Gupta's eldest daughter was married to Kumud Sen, IAAS, who became an Accountant General of India. His second daughter was Mira Datta Gupta, who was the MLA from the Bhowanipore constituency from 1951-57 and the vice principal of Surendranath College. His only son, Barindra Kumar Datta Gupta, who studied at Durham University, was the head of an oil refinary owned by the Maharajas of Nawanagar and later became the General Manager of Torrence and Sons in India. His youngest son-in-law, Prabhat Sen, a Barrister, was a collateral descendant of Maharshi Keshav Chandra Sen, the eminent Brahmo reformer.