[ 75 ] HARI5H CHANDRA MUKHERJEE. One of the greatest names in Indian journalism is that of Babu Harish Chandra Mukherjee. Born at Bhowanipore in 182-1 in a very poor Brahmin family, he had to struggle all along agaiuft adversity, and thus acquired from a very early period that eympathy for the poor and oppressed which marked him throughout his life. He first joined the Union School as a free student, but was compelled to leave it owing to straitened circumstances. He then took up an employment on Rs 10 per month ; but his talents could not be confined within this narrow limit. By competitive examinition he en tcred the office of the Military Auditor-General in Calcutta on a monthly salary of Bs 25, where by ability and industry he rosf! to higher posts and was drawing Bs 400 per mensem when ha died of consumption at the early age of 27. Ho was essentially a self-made man. He pursued legal, philosophical and literary studies with an energy which shamed academic scholars, Thus equipped, he took to journalism. In 1855 he started the "Hindu, Patriot", which afterwards flourished and became a power in the land under the able editorship of another illnstriouB journalist, Kxistodas Pa*ul. In Harish's days thf» number of its subscribers was very small — never exceeding 150, so -that ho had to contribute about Es'100 a month from his income towards its support. The paper was conducted with
- o much ability, learning and impartiality that it soon became
the organ of the educated community and was several times honourably noticed by the Government of India. Before this he joined the British Indian Association and earnestly co- operated with it in its public capacity. While maintaining a steady attitude of loyalty towards the powers that be. more particularly during the Mutiny, Harish Chandra* never ceased to plead the cause of the weak and tin. oppressed. His services on behalf of the Bengal ryots as against the oppressive indigo-planters made him the enemy of the non- oflicial European community of Bengal He took up the
