solely by the late Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee to impress upon the Senate the fact that a proposal emanating from this Council was an authoritative statement. from great scholars engaged in Post-Graduate teaching work among whom were the heads of thirteen first-class colleges in Calcutta. It has no real power, because its decisions are subject to revision by two other independent bodies, the Syndicate and the Senate of the University. Moreover, the Senate possesses the power of asking the Council to revise its decisions just as a higher tribunal can command a lower court to revise its judgment.
The Executive Committee
Just as the Post-Graduate Council in Arts is a miniature replica of the Senate, so the Executive Committee of the Post-Graduate Department in Arts is a miniature of the Syndicate, but possessing the special qualification of being packed with paid members of the teaching staff. The Executive Committee of Post-Graduate Department in Arts consists of:
“Two representatives of each of the following branches of study:
(i) English.
(ii) Sanskrit and Pali.
(iii) Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and Syriac.
(iv) Mental and Moral Philosophy and Experimental Psychology.
(v) History.
(vi) Political Economy, Political Philosophy, and Commerce.
(vii) Pure Mathematics.
(viii) Anthropology.
“The representative of each subject or group of subjects shall be elected by the staff in the subject or subjects concerned from amongst themselves;
“Provided, that no member of the staff, except the University Professor, shall be eligible for election to the Executive Committee, unless he is a graduate of at least seven years’ standing.
“(b) Two members selected by the Senate from ite nominees on the Council.
“(c) One member selected by the Faculty of Arts from its nominees on the Council.”
It is thus apparent that by placing three outsiders among at least sixteen paid members of the teaching staff, the late Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee designed the Executive Committee of the Post-Graduate Department in Arts to be entirely under his thumb. It is very well-known that paid members of the staff of the University are not allowed to have any independent opinion. The fate of Messrs Tarakeswar Chakravarty and Charu Chandra Biswas are very clear illustrations of this point. Mr. Charu Chandra Biswas was at one time the trusted lieutenant of the late Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee, but simply because Mr. Biswas had had the audacity to differ from his patron he was hurled from his pedestal in a single day. Mr. Biswas was a lecturer in the Law College, a member of the Syndicate and the Senate. He is a rising Vakil of the Calcutta Bar and possesses independent means. His fate terrified the rest of the free-thinking members of the paid staff of the University into subservience. Not only is this Executive Committee packed with an absolute majority of the paid members of the teaching staff but outsiders were carefully excluded from it. The nominees of the Senate and the Faculty of Arts are to be selected from amongst its nominees on the Post-Graduate Council in Arts.
Functions of the Executive Committee
“The Executive Committee of the Council will receive and consider reports from the Boards of Higher Studies as to the progress made in their respective subjects and the results of the examinations, and will exercise such supervision and give such direction as may be necessary to ensure regularity of work and maintenance of discipline among the students.
“Proceedings of the Executive Committee shall be subject to confirmation by the Council.
“The University Board of Accounts shall, on the basis of such estimates and in consultation with the Chairmen of the several Boards of Higher Studies, prepare a consolidated Budget, which shall be placed for scrutiny before the Executive Committee, who shall report thereupon to the Council.”
“The External Examiners shall be appointed by the Executive Committee on the recommendation of the Board of Higher Study concerned”.
It is evident once more that the Executive Committee is the sole repository of executive power in the Post-Graduate Department. Consisting as it does of sixteen or more paid members of the teaching staff, it is solely designed by its creator, the late Sir Ashutosh Mookerji, to consider their personal interest only, both as regards expenditure and actual Post-Graduate teaching. The total exclusion of outsiders from the executive body made the executive committee the judge of its own work. Thus if it said that a particular work was original then it at once received the stamp of very original research work, though outsiders, specially scholars who have come to be recognised as authorities on that subject, declared such works to be mere copies or even fraudulent efforts to produce real research.
The Boards of Higher Studies
The Boards of Higher Studies in the Department of Arts consist of:—
“(a) Teachers of that subject or group of sub-
