Surendranath Banerjee by Praveen

Surendranath Banerjee was born in an aristocratic kulin Bengali Brahmin family on November 10, 1848 in Calcutta. His father Durga Charan Banerjee was a distinguished doctor. He was a man of liberal and progressive thinking. Surendranath was greatly influenced by his father. Early in life he was also influenced by Keshabchandra sen, the leader of Brahmo Samaj and a spell-binding orator; and Eashwara Chandra Vidyasagar.
Surendranath received his education at the Parental Academic Institution and at the Hindu College. He graduated from Calcutta University and went to England in 1868 to appear for the Civil Service Examination. He was accompanied by his childhood friends, Romesh Chunder Dutt and Behari Lal Gupta. All three competed in the Indian Civil Service Open exams. Ramesh Chunder became a civil servant and later became a politician, political and economic thinker and writer. Behari Lal Gupta passed the Open Competitive Service Examinations to become the third Indian to join the Indian Civil Services in 1869 coming out to India in 1871. Banerjee cleared the competitive examination in 1869, but was barred owing to a dispute over his exact age. The maximum age to compete for the ICS exam was twenty-one.