Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee

| image = WCBonnerjee.jpg

| alt =

| caption =

| office1 = 1st & 8th President of Indian National Congress

| term_start1 = 1885

| term_end1 = 1886

| predecessor1 = post established

| successor1 = Dadabhai Naoroji

| term_start2 = 1892

| term_end2 = 1893

| predecessor2 = Anandacharlu

| successor2 = Dadabhai Naoroji

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1844|12|29|df=y}}

| birth_place = Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1906|07|21|1844|12|29|df=y}}

| death_place = Croydon, London, England

| nationality = British Indian

| other_names =

| occupation = Indian independence activist Lawyer

| party = Indian National Congress

| known_for = Co-founder and First president of Indian National Congress

| alma_mater = Middle Temple

| spouse = Hemangini Motilal (m. 1859)

| relations = Susila Bonnerjee (daughter)

}}

Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee (or Umesh Chandra Banerjee; 29 December 1844 – 21 July 1906) was an Indian independence activist and barrister who practiced in England. He was a secretary of the London Indian Society founded by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1865. He was one of the founders and the first president of Indian National Congress in 1885 at Bombay, serving again as president in 1892 at Allahabad.{{citation|last=Nanda|first=B. R.|author-link=Bal Ram Nanda|title=Gokhale: The Indian Moderates and the British Raj|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pI19BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA58|series=Legacy Series|year=2015|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-7049-3|page=58|orig-year=1977}} Bonnerjee financed the British Committee of Congress and its journals in London. Along with Naoroji, Eardley Norton and William Digby he started the Congress Political Agency, a branch of Congress in London. He unsuccessfully contested the 1892 United Kingdom general election as a Liberal party candidate for the Barrow and Furness seat. In 1893, Naoroji, Bonnerjee and Badruddin Tyabji founded the Indian Parliamentary Committee in England.

Family

Bonnerjee was born on 29 December 1844 at Calcutta (now Kolkata), in the present-day state of West Bengal. He belonged to a very respectable Rarhi Kulin Brahmin family who hailed from Baganda, located west of the town of Howrah in present-day state of West Bengal. His grandfather Pitambur Bonnerjee first migrated to Calcutta (now Kolkata) and settled there. From his mother's side, Womesh Chandra was descended from the renowned Sanskrit scholar and philosopher Pundit Juggonath Turkopunchanun of Tribeni, Hooghly District in present-day West Bengal.{{cite book|author=Sanyal, Ram Gopal|title=A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities (vol. 1)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8XPyBqxwX8C&pg=PA19|year=1889|publisher=Uma Churn Chuckerbutty|page=35|isbn=9788170245865}}

Early days

Bonnerjee studied at the Oriental Seminary and the Hindu School. In 1859, he married Hemangini Motilal. His career began in 1862 when he joined the firm of W. P. Gillanders, attorneys of the Calcutta Supreme Court, as a clerk. In this post he acquired a good knowledge of law which greatly helped him in his later career. In 1864 he was sent to England through a scholarship from Mr. R. J. Jijibhai of Bombay where he joined the Middle Temple and was called to the Bar in June 1867.{{cite book|author=Sayed Jafar Mahmud|title=Pillars of Modern India, 1757–1947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8XPyBqxwX8C&pg=PA19|year=1994|publisher=APH Publishing|isbn=978-81-7024-586-5|page=19}} On his return to Calcutta in 1868, he found a patron in Sir Charles Paul, Barrister-at-Law of the Calcutta High Court.{{cite book|title=Dictionary of Indian Biography|page=48| year=1906 | author=Buckland, CE| publisher=Swan Sonnenshein & Co.| place= London|url=https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofindi00buck#page/48/mode/1up}} Another barrister, J. P. Kennedy, also greatly helped him to establish his reputation as a lawyer. Within a few years he became the most sought after barrister in the High Court. He was the first Indian to act as a Standing Counsel, in which capacity he officiated four times {{mdash}} 1882, 1884, 1886-87. In 1883 he defended Surendranath Banerjee in the famous contempt of court case against him in the Calcutta High Court. He was the fellow of Calcutta University and was the president of its law faculty and often represented it in the legislative council. He retired from the Calcutta bar in 1901.

As a president of Indian National Congress

He presided over the first session of the Indian National Congress held at Bombay in 1885 from 28 to 31 December and attended by 72 members.{{cite news|title=Sonia sings Vande Mataram at Congress function|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/report/cong/20061228.htm|publisher=Rediff|access-date=23 August 2014|date=28 December 2006}} In the 1886 session held at Calcutta, under the presidency of Dadabhai Naoroji, he proposed the formation of standing committees of the Congress in each province for the better co-ordination of its work and it was on this occasion that he advocated that the Congress should confine its activities to political matters only, leaving the question of social reforms to other organizations. He was the president of the Indian National Congress again in the 1892 session in Allahabad where he denounced the position that India had to prove for worthiness of political freedom.Lacy, Creighton (1965). The Conscience Of India – Moral Traditions In The Modern World, Holt, New York: Rinehart and Winston, p. 123 He moved to Britain and practiced before the Privy Council. He financed the British Committee of Congress and its journals in London.

In 1865 Dadabhai Naoroji founded the London Indian society and Bonnerjee was made its general secretary. In December 1866, Naoroji dissolved the society and formed East Indian Association.{{cite book|author=Faruque Ahmed|title=Bengal Politics in Britain|date=14 January 2011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TCxKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-0-557-61516-2|pages=24–25}}{{self-published source|date=May 2021}}{{self-published inline|date=February 2020}} When Bonnerjee became the Congress president Naoroji along with him, Eardley Norton and William Digby opened The Congress Political Agency, a branch of Congress in London. He lived in Croydon and named his residence after his birthplace Khidirpur. The Liberal party made him his candidate for the Barrow and Furness seat in 1892. Bonnerjee was defeated by Charles Cayzer, a Tory candidate. In the same elections Naoroji won the Finsbury Central constituency and defeated his nearest rival by a narrow margin of only 5 votes. Naoroji became the first Indian member of the British Parliament. In 1893, Naoriji, Bonnerjee and Badruddin Tyabji founded the Indian Parliamentary Committee in England.

Personal life

A daughter, Janaki Agnes Penelope Majumdar, studied natural science, chemistry, zoology and physiology at Newnham College, Cambridge University{{cite book|author=Susheila Nasta|author-link=Susheila Nasta|title=India in Britain: South Asian Networks and Connections, 1858-1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dgYGlJI9vrUC&pg=PA70|date=2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-39272-4|page=70}}{{Cite book|last=Majumdar|first=Janaki Agnes Penelope|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FhNuAAAAMAAJ&q=Janaki+Majumdar|title=Family History|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-566360-0|language=en}} while another daughter, Susila Anita Bonnerjee was a doctor, teacher, and suffragette.{{Cite web|title=Susila Anita Bonnerjee {{!}} Croydon {{!}} Making Britain|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/taxonomy/term/291/janaki-agnes-penelope-majumdar|access-date=15 October 2020|website=www.open.ac.uk}}

References

External links

{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20040321072333/http://www.congress.org.in/ Indian National Congress Website]}}
[https://archive.org/details/wcbonnerjeesketc00unse W.C. Bonnerjee : a sketch of his life and career]

{{succession box

| title = President of the Indian National Congress

| years = 1885

| before = (none)

| after = Dadabhai Naoroji

}}

{{succession box

| title = President of the Indian National Congress

| years = 1892

| before = Anandacharlu

| after = Dadabhai Naoroji

}}