Surendranath Law College

Surendranath Law College (Bengali :সুরেন্দ্রনাথ আইন কলেজ) formerly known as Ripon College) is an undergraduate law college affiliated with the University of Calcutta in Kolkata, India. It was established in 1885 by a trust formed by the nationalist leader, scholar and educationist Surendranath Banerjee, a year after he founded Surendranath College. This is now regarded one of the oldest Law college of the country.^[1][2]

History

The first name of the college was Presidency School in 1882, when it was handed over to Sri Banerjee on 1 January 1884. That same year the Post-Graduate Department of Law was extended, and it was affiliated to the Calcutta University as an independent professional college in 1885. Banerjee renamed the school the Presidency Institution and brought it to the status of a college affiliated to the F.A. standard. The name was later changed to Ripon College, named after the British Viceroy George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon. The name was changed again in 1949 to honour its founder Sri Surendranath Banerjee. The women's section of the college was founded in 1931 by Mira Datta Gupta, its first principal. Swami Vivekananda delivered his first address in Calcutta from the rostrum of this college on his return from Chicago after his famous deliverance at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.^[3][4]

Notable alumni

• Dr. Rajendra Prasad - The first president of India.
• Harendra Coomar Mookerjee - The first Governor of West Bengal.
• Sir Bijan Kumar Mukherjea - The first Bengali Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India.
• Birendranath Sasmal - Nationalist barrister and politician.^[3]
• Manmatha Nath Mukherjee - Judge, Calcutta High Court and Bengalj jurist
• Dhirendranath Datta - Indian Freedom fighter and Bangladeshi activist.
• Shahidullah Kaiser - Bengali intellectual and Martyr.
• Rabin Deb - Bengali politician

References