43 Facts About Gurusaday Dutt

Gurusaday Dutt was a civil servant, folklorist, and writer.

Gurusaday Dutt was the founder of the Bratachari Movement in the 1930s.

Gurusaday Dutt's father was a son of the zamindar of Birasri village in Karimganj sub-division of Sylhet district, in eastern Bengal.

Gurusaday Dutt lost his father at the age of 9 and his mother when he was 14.

Gurusaday Dutt completed his Entrance examination at Government College, Sylhet where he stood first in 1898.

Gurusaday Dutt passed the Indian Civil service examination in 1905.

Gurusaday Dutt was the first Indian to have stood first in the Open Competitive Service examination.

Gurusaday Dutt passed the Bar examination with a First Class, and was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn.

Gurusaday Dutt removed Chaudhuri from his surname while he was at Cambridge.

Gurusaday Dutt 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.

Gurusaday Dutt was married to Saroj Nalini Dutt, a daughter of Brajendranath De.

Gurusaday Dutt's son was Birendrasaday Dutt, who was a co-founder and an original trustee of the Gurusaday Museum in Joka, Calcutta.

Gurusaday Dutt 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.

Gurusaday Dutt 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.

Gurusaday Dutt was District Magistrate, Mymensingh, Director, Industries and Secretary, Local Self Government and Public Health.

Gurusaday Dutt was the Government Chief Whip in the Bengal Legislative Council.

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.

Gurusaday Dutt 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.

Gurusaday Dutt 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 as early as 1913, at Pabna district in British India, where he was then the District Magistrate.

In 1918, Gurusaday Dutt started the first Rural Reconstruction Movement in India in Birbhum.

Gurusaday Dutt then extended the movement to several districts where he was posted, like Bankura, Howrah and Mymensingh.

Gurusaday Dutt 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.

Gurusaday Dutt headed the Indian delegation as a representative of the British Indian Government at a meeting of the Agricultural Institute at Rome in 1924.

Gurusaday Dutt established the Saroj Nalini Dutt Memorial Association, in February 1925, as a Central Training Institute for training crafts and basic education to provide livelihood to women who had been deprived from receiving formal education in early life and lived at the mercy of relatives.

Gurusaday Dutt thought of non-formal education many years before it was officially started.

Gurusaday Dutt's pioneering work was started when most women in India were still behind the purdah, and would not dare to come out in the world to create a future for themselves.

Gurusaday Dutt revived the Jaari dance, being inspired by the secular nature of the dance and its spirit of unifying both Hindus and Muslims, at a time when communal tensions were running high.

Gurusaday Dutt studied the origins of the dance and discovered its rich cultural past and its connection with the army of Raja Man Singh of Rajasthan.

Gurusaday Dutt did extensive research in the field of Folk art, crafts and folk dances of Bengal.

Gurusaday Dutt collected objects of folk art and crafts from the countryside.

Gurusaday Dutt had great compassion for the artists and craftsmen who created unique art objects without any training or technical knowledge.

Gurusaday Dutt wrote in different journals about the wealth and beauty of folk art and left his collection on his death to The Bengal Bratachari Society.

Gurusaday Dutt was mostly known for his interest and contributions to Bengal's folk art, folk dance and folk music.

Gurusaday Dutt spent a lifetime collecting and studying art objects and handiwork from the remotest corners of undivided rural Bengal collecting items of folk art such as Kalighat paintings, patuas' scrolls, embroidered kanthas, terracotta panels, stone sculptures, wooden carvings, dolls and toys, moulds used for making patterns on sweets or mango-paste etc.

Gurusaday Dutt wrote a good deal about the Bratachari movement.

British Parliamentarians wanted Gurusaday Dutt, referred to as this Indian officer, punished for having the audacity to question a British officer's action.

Gurusaday Dutt's stay in Mymensingh was cut short when he failed to give orders as required by him by the British Indian Government to deal with protesters against The Salt Act imposed by the Government.

Gurusaday Dutt was transferred to Birbhum by telegram, which was an unprecedented way of dealing with an ICS officer in those days.

Gurusaday Dutt wrote many books and articles, which are listed below.

Gurusaday Dutt Scholarships are being awarded by the Sylhet Union, Kolkata for brilliant students pursuing post-graduate studies.

Gurusaday Dutt's daughter-in-law, Aroti Dutt, was an eminent social worker, and was the World President of the Associated Countrywomen of the World for two terms and President of the Saroj Nalini Dutt Memorial Association, Calcutta.

Gurusaday Dutt's grandson is Devsaday Dutt, FCA and his great-grandsons are Rajsaday Dutt FCA, MBA and Shivsaday Dutt MBA.