Gurusaday Dutt (1882–1941) was a civil servant, folklorist, and writer. He was the founder of the Bratachari Movement in the 1930s.
Early life and education
Gurusaday was the son of the Ramkrishna Dutta Chaudhuri and Anandamayee Debi. His father was a son of the zamindar of Birasri village in Karimganj sub-division of Sylhet district, in eastern Bengal. Members of his family were followers of Vaishnavism. He lost his father at the age of 9 and his mother when he was 14. After their death, he did not get along well with his jyathamashai (father's elder brother), who was then the landlord of the village.
He completed his Entrance (School Leaving) examination at Government College, Sylhet where he stood first in 1898. He stood second in the F.A. examination (prior to Graduate studies) from Presidency College, Calcutta in 1901 and was awarded the Scindia Gold Medal. Despite objection from his jyathamashai, who refused to pay for his further education, he went on a scholarship raised by the Sylhet Union to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. He passed the Indian Civil service (ICS) examination in 1905. In the first part of the examination he stood seventh and in the second part he stood first. Overall he stood first in the examination in that year. He was the first Indian to have stood first in the Open Competitive Service examination. He also passed the Bar examination with a First Class, and was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn.
He removed Chaudhuri from his surname while he was at Cambridge.
He repaid the scholarship money to Sylhet Union after working for a few years, so that the Union could help another student from the same district with that money. In 1905, he returned to India and started work as an ICS officer.
He was married to Saroj Nalini Dutt (née Dé), a daughter of Brajendranath Dé. His son was Birendrasaday Dutt, who was a co-founder and an original trustee of the Gurusaday Museum in Joka, Calcutta.
Career
He served with distinction in the Bengal cadre, which in 1905 included the present day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in India. He served in various capacities in the districts of Arrah, Hooghly, Pabna, Bogra, Jessore, Faridpur, Comilla, Dacca, Barisal, Khulna, Birbhum, Bankura, Howrah and Mymensingh, before coming to Calcutta. He was District Magistrate, Mymensingh, Director, Industries and Secretary, Local Self Government and Public Health. He was also the Government Chief Whip in the Bengal Legislative Council. From 1930 to 1933, he was a nominated Member of the Council of State and of the Central Legislative Assembly (the erstwhile Parliament of British India).
Contributions to social work
From his youth, Gurusaday started to take active interest in social service and participated in helping fire-fighters and assisting in relief work during floods and other natural disasters. He was one of the social reformers of the first half of the nineteenth century who thought independently about various avenues of service to the rural poor. He realised that in order to establish any progressive idea on firm foundation it was necessary to educate women and make them self-reliant. Saroj Nalini Dutt, who became an eminent Social Worker in her own right, was inspired by Gurusaday to start Mahila Samitis (Women's Institutes) as early as 1913, at Pabna district in British India, where he was then the District Magistrate.
In 1918, Gurusaday started the first Rural Reconstruction Movement in India in Birbhum. He then extended the movement to several districts where he was subsequently posted, like Bankura, Howrah and Mymensingh. This movement was bold and unique, as India was under British Rule at the time. In fact, he was advised by his senior officer that he should spend time in the Club socialising with other officers rather than pursuing activities to promote rural development and social welfare.
He was the first amongst civilian officers to set an example of the dignity of labour, by manually working with a group of followers to eradicate the water hyacinth, a plant that covers ponds and makes water unusable. He would also re-excavate silted irrigation canals with a band of workers. In those days, it was unthinkable for a Magistrate to work manually with common people.
In 1922, he started a Society for co-operative irrigation in Bankura, which he later extended to Mymensingh and Birbhum.
He headed the Indian delegation as a representative of the British Indian Government at a meeting of the Agricultural Institute at Rome in 1924.