Patha Bhavan, Kolkata
Encyclopedia
Patha Bhavan is a private co-educational school in Kolkata
, India
. The school was established on June 28th, 1965.
(called Patha Bhavana
). It was inspired by the education system started by the poet Rabindranath Tagore
as well as the more progressive features of the national movement. It was also influenced by the ideology of the Bratachari Movement which was started by the nationalist civilian, Gurusaday Dutt
, Esq., ICS. It was founded in 1965 by the Patha Bhavan Society under the guidance of the film-maker Satyajit Ray
, the historian Susobhan Sarkar
, a judge of the Calcutta High Court, Tarun Bose and an eye-specialist, Amiya Bose. Satyajit Ray, whose contribution to the success of the school was considerable, designed its logo. The legislator and academician Mira Datta Gupta
also played an important role in the school's establishment. The educationist, Uma Sehanobis was one of its earliest Principals.
The management of the school has been in the hands of personalities of Calcutta, such as the economist, Santosh Bhattacharya, former Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University and the historian Barun De
, Chairman of the West Bengal Heritage Commission, both of whom were for some years its General Secretary. The barrister
, Pradosh Mallick and the civilian, Prasad Ranjan Ray, former Principal Secretary
of the Department of Home Affairs, Government of West Bengal, were members of the school's governing body. The former Mayor
of Calcutta, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya has been associated with the school for many years. Other film and theatre personalities, including film and theatre directors, such as Mrinal Sen
, and Sambhu Mitra, a winner of the Ramon Magasasay Award, and Kumarendu Ray, a veteran theatre director and actor, were also involved in its management.
(Secondary) Examination in 1972.
Another aim of the school was to impart an education to its students in an open atmosphere similar to the method of teaching followed by Rabindranath Tagore in his school in Santiniketan, although the medium of instruction at Patha Bhavan is more formal in nature. While paying heed to the importance of traditional methods of learning, the founders of the school do not allow excessive emphasis on traditional learning to dominate teaching. The institution follows the principle of secular education evident in Tagore's ashram in Santiniketan.
, while the Higher Secondary Branch is affiliated to the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education
.
The Sahitya Sabhas are annual meets where the students of the school participate in the writing, reading and recitation of Bengali short stories and poems. Pochishey Boishak and Baishey Sravan are also celebrated and observed every year, and a fair, Sukumar Mela, named after the humourist, Sukumar Ray, has also been held annually. Satyajit Ray allowed the holding of the premier of his film Joy Baba Phelunath (The Elephant God) in the school. Proceeds from the viewing of his other films were also donated to the school for its development. The Rabindrasangeet exponent, Jyotirindra Moitra, has been involved in the development of the school.
Students of the school are placed in houses named after four ancient Indian universities. They are Takshashila (yellow), Nalanda (green), Ujjaini (blue) and Vikramshila (red).
, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
, the four Medical Colleges in Calcutta and elsewhere in West Bengal, Presidency College
, Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University
, New Delhi
, as well as western universities, such as Oxford University and Cambridge University, and US Ivy League colleges, such as Harvard University
and Yale University
.
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The school was established on June 28th, 1965.
History
The school was named after the university school of Visva-Bharati UniversityVisva-Bharati University
Visva Bharati University is a Central University for research and teaching in India, located in the twin towns of Santiniketan and Sriniketan in the Indian state of West Bengal. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it Visva Bharati, which means the communion of the world with India...
(called Patha Bhavana
Patha Bhavana
Patha Bhavana is an institution of primary and secondary education in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. Founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1901, starting with only five students, the school is characterized by its philosophy of learning with the heart in closeness to nature without...
). It was inspired by the education system started by the poet Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
as well as the more progressive features of the national movement. It was also influenced by the ideology of the Bratachari Movement which was started by the nationalist civilian, Gurusaday Dutt
Gurusaday Dutt
Gurusaday Dutt was a civil servant, politician, folklorist, and writer.-Early Life and education:He was the son of the Ramkrishna Dutt Chaudhuri and Anandamayee Debi...
, Esq., ICS. It was founded in 1965 by the Patha Bhavan Society under the guidance of the film-maker Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
, the historian Susobhan Sarkar
Susobhan Sarkar
-Background and education:Sarkar was born into a Brahmo family of Dhaka. After attending Dhaka Collegiate School and then studying history at Presidency College, Calcutta, he continued his studies at Jesus College, Oxford from 1923 to 1925. His daughter was Sipra Sarkar, a brilliant student of...
, a judge of the Calcutta High Court, Tarun Bose and an eye-specialist, Amiya Bose. Satyajit Ray, whose contribution to the success of the school was considerable, designed its logo. The legislator and academician Mira Datta Gupta
Mira Datta Gupta
Mira Dattagupta was a well-known freedom fighter, social worker, educationist, politician and activist on women's issues in Calcutta, India. She was a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Bengal and then West Bengal for twenty years from 1937 to 1957, firstly representing Women's constituency in...
also played an important role in the school's establishment. The educationist, Uma Sehanobis was one of its earliest Principals.
The management of the school has been in the hands of personalities of Calcutta, such as the economist, Santosh Bhattacharya, former Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University and the historian Barun De
Barun De
Barun De is an Indian historian whose main area of research is Modern India. He has specialised in the social and economic history of India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Bengal Renaissance, and British constitutional history.-Background:He was born in a Brahmo family of Calcutta...
, Chairman of the West Bengal Heritage Commission, both of whom were for some years its General Secretary. The barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, Pradosh Mallick and the civilian, Prasad Ranjan Ray, former Principal Secretary
Principal Secretary
The Principal Secretary is a senior government official in various Commonwealth countries.* Principal Secretary * Principal Secretary...
of the Department of Home Affairs, Government of West Bengal, were members of the school's governing body. The former Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Calcutta, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya has been associated with the school for many years. Other film and theatre personalities, including film and theatre directors, such as Mrinal Sen
Mrinal Sen
Mrinal Sen is a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He was born on 14 May 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh in a Hindu family. After finishing his high school there, he left home to come to Calcutta as a student and studied physics at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the...
, and Sambhu Mitra, a winner of the Ramon Magasasay Award, and Kumarendu Ray, a veteran theatre director and actor, were also involved in its management.
Aims
The aim of the founders was to establish a co-educational school in Calcutta which would offer education in both Bengali and English. In the early years it was a policy of the school management not to give excessive importance to examinations, although half-yearly and yearly tests were held from its inception. The first batch of students from the school took the MadhyamikMadhyamik
Madhyamik is a centralised examination conducted by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education at the end of 10th standard of school. It is the most popular 10th standard examination in India. More than 7,50,000 students took the exam in 2006 and the number increases substantially every year....
(Secondary) Examination in 1972.
Another aim of the school was to impart an education to its students in an open atmosphere similar to the method of teaching followed by Rabindranath Tagore in his school in Santiniketan, although the medium of instruction at Patha Bhavan is more formal in nature. While paying heed to the importance of traditional methods of learning, the founders of the school do not allow excessive emphasis on traditional learning to dominate teaching. The institution follows the principle of secular education evident in Tagore's ashram in Santiniketan.
Academic
The school has Montessori, Primary, High and Higher Secondary branches. At the higher secondary stage both science and arts subjects are taught.Language policy
The school offers education in the mixed medium. At the start of primary school, a student is streamlined into the Bengali or the English medium. Each standard has four sections, of which two are held in Bengali and two in English. The other two languages taught are Sanskrit and Hindi, both of which are offered as third language in the ninth and tenth standards.Administration
Administration of the branches of the school is carried out separately. The High School is administered by an Executive Council which has a President and a General Secretary. The daily administration of the school is in the hands of the Principal.Affiliations
The Secondary Branch of the school is affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Secondary EducationWest Bengal Board of Secondary Education
The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education is the West Bengal state government administered autonomous examining authority for the Standard 10 examination of West Bengal, India. The examination for the 10th standard is called the Madhyamik Pariksha or secondary examination...
, while the Higher Secondary Branch is affiliated to the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education
West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education
West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education is the West Bengal state government administered autonomous examining authority for the Standard 12 examination of West Bengal, India...
.
Cultural activities
Since one of the main objectives of the school is to encourage education in Bengali both inside and outside the classrooms, it culturally identifies itself with Tagore's Patha Bhavana in Santiniketan and holds programmes which have been traditionally held in that school, such as the Sahitya Sabhas.The Sahitya Sabhas are annual meets where the students of the school participate in the writing, reading and recitation of Bengali short stories and poems. Pochishey Boishak and Baishey Sravan are also celebrated and observed every year, and a fair, Sukumar Mela, named after the humourist, Sukumar Ray, has also been held annually. Satyajit Ray allowed the holding of the premier of his film Joy Baba Phelunath (The Elephant God) in the school. Proceeds from the viewing of his other films were also donated to the school for its development. The Rabindrasangeet exponent, Jyotirindra Moitra, has been involved in the development of the school.
Students of the school are placed in houses named after four ancient Indian universities. They are Takshashila (yellow), Nalanda (green), Ujjaini (blue) and Vikramshila (red).
Sports
Students play sports such as cricket, football and table tennis. Its sports ground is located on Fern Road which is close to all the four buildings of the school. It organises a sports day at the Rabindra Sarovar stadium in Kolkata.Location
The four branches of the school are located at four sites of Ballygunge, a South Calcutta residential locality: the Montessori and primary wings, which function under a single administration, are located at premises on Swinhoe Street and Palm Avenue, Kolkata, respectively. The High School and the humanities wing of the Higher Secondary branch are located at 103, A and C, Ballygunge Place, Kolkata, (a colonial two storied building, popularly called 'Delta House') while the science wing of the Higher Secondary branch is now located at 8/2, Merlin Park, Kolkata, the former residence of Smt. Lakshmi Ray, a former Principal of the primary branch of the school. This is the house, also an example of earlier twentieth century colonial architecture, that was given by its owner for the setting up of the school, but due to legal hurdles could be occupied after more than thirty years of the school's establishment.Branches
There two independent branches of the same school. The first one is the school in Kolkata and the second one is the new branch which has been opened in Dankuni, close to Kolkata.Notable alumni
Alumni have gained admission to the Indian Statistical InstituteIndian Statistical Institute
Indian Statistical Institute is a public research institute and university in Kolkata's northern outskirt of Baranagar, India founded by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in 1931...
, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Kharagpur
Kharagpur is an industrial city in India. It is located in the Midnapore West district of the state of West Bengal.Kharagpur was chosen as the location of the first campus of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology . The IITs are the premier technical education institutes in India and...
, the four Medical Colleges in Calcutta and elsewhere in West Bengal, Presidency College
Presidency College
Presidency College could refer to the following Indian institutions:* Presidency College, Chennai* Presidency College, Kolkata*Presidency College, Bangalore...
, Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Jawaharlal Nehru University, also known as JNU, is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. It is mainly a research oriented postgraduate University with approximately 5,500 students and a faculty strength of around 550.-History:...
, New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, as well as western universities, such as Oxford University and Cambridge University, and US Ivy League colleges, such as Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.
Academics
- Maitreesh GhatakMaitreesh GhatakMaitreesh Ghatak is a Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. He is an applied microeconomic theorist with research interests in economic development, public economics, and the economics of organizations....
, Professor of Economics, London School of EconomicsLondon School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, University of LondonUniversity of London-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the... - Amit Shovon Ray, Professor of Economics, School of International Studies, JNUJawaharlal Nehru UniversityJawaharlal Nehru University, also known as JNU, is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. It is mainly a research oriented postgraduate University with approximately 5,500 students and a faculty strength of around 550.-History:...
, New Delhi - Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Professor of Political Sciences, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, CalcuttaCentre for Studies in Social Sciences, CalcuttaThe Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta is an autonomous research centre devoted to the research and advancement of the social sciences in South Asia...
- Indrajit Mallick, Fellow of Economics, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, CalcuttaCentre for Studies in Social Sciences, CalcuttaThe Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta is an autonomous research centre devoted to the research and advancement of the social sciences in South Asia...
- Saibal Kar, Fellow of Economics, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, CalcuttaCentre for Studies in Social Sciences, CalcuttaThe Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta is an autonomous research centre devoted to the research and advancement of the social sciences in South Asia...
Journalism
- Madhumanti Maitra, newsreader and television anchor
- Udayan Bandyopadhyay, columnist
Art
- Indrapramit Roy, artist; teaches at the Faculty of Fine Arts at M. S. University, Baroda and also acted in Ghare BaireGhare Baire (film)Ghare Baire is a 1985 film by Bengali director Satyajit Ray, based upon the novel Ghare Baire by Rabindranath Tagore. It features Soumitra Chatterjee, Victor Banerjee, Jennifer Kendal and Swatilekha Chatterjee, married Sengupta...
- Amit sen , Sculptor ~ Artisan, has established 3 large studio setups in West Bengal doing TERRACOTTA Murals, Tiles , as well as concrete and fibre glass sculptures. Son of Late Prabhas Sen of Santiniketan, has followd his father's footsteps.
Cinema
- Harikumar Pillai, Production sound mixer and Sound Designer of Peepli Live,Shipbreakers, Four Sesons Mosiac,Chittagong-Strike One
- Kushal ChakrabortyKushal ChakrabortyKushal Chakraborty is a bengali actor and film director. At the age of six he played the main role in Satyajit Ray’s film Sonar Kella.-As Actor:*Mahasangram 2006*Tin Ekke Tin 2004*Sharbari 2003*Anamni Angana 2002*Deba 2002...
, film and television actor; child-artist in Sonar KellaSonar KellaSonar Kella , also Shonar Kella, released in the United States as The Golden Fortress, is a 1971 mystery novel and a 1974 film by Bengali writer and director Satyajit Ray. The film is an adaptation of the novel with minor plot changes and features the actors Soumitra Chatterjee, Santosh Dutta,... - Parambrata ChatterjeeParambrata ChatterjeeParambrata Chatterjee is a Bengali Indian male actor and director of television and films.-Career:His directorial debut feature film is [Jiyo Kaka] starred by Rituparna Sengupta and Rudranil Ghosh....
, film and television actor - Sandip RaySandip RaySandip Ray is a film director living in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He is the only son of the noted Bengali director Satyajit Ray, and Bijoya Ray.-Career:...
, film director; director of Phatik Chand and Goopy Bagha Phirey Elo. - Gargi Roychowdhury, film and television actor
- Aparajita Ghosh Das, telivision actress.
Music
- Tanmoy Bose, Tabla maestro
- Koushiki Chakraborty, singer
- Sourojit Dasgupta, singer
- Amit KumarAmit KumarAmit Kumar is an Indian film playback singer, actor, director, and music director. He is the son of famous singer and actor Kishore Kumar and Bengali singer and actress Ruma Guha Thakurta. Like his father he too loved singing since childhood and used to sing in Kolkata during Durga Pooja functions...
, playback singer; known for songs such as Bade achche lagtey hai (in Balika Badhu), Teri yaad aa rahi hai (in Love Story), Laila O Laila (in Qurbani), Uthey sabka kadam (in Baton Baton Mein), Ek, do teen and Oye Oye (in Tezaab), etc. - Indranil SenIndranil SenIndranil Sen is an Indian Bengali male singer and producer of Bengali films.-Early life:Indranil was an engineering student but discontinued and returned to Kolkata and became a singer.-Discography:* Durer Balaka Vol 1 - 5* Anupama...
, singer