A World Devouring Thirst for Knowledge: The ‘Global’ in the Presidency College Student Magazine

Abstract

Referring to the students at Presidency College in Calcutta, historian Tapan Raychaudhuri said that their curiosity was akin to a “world devouring thirst for knowledge” (Bangalnama,113). This paper reads the student magazine of the Presidency College in colonial Calcutta to unpack the engagement of a section of the Bengali youth with their contemporary world. From its inception in 1914, writings in the Presidency College student magazine were overwhelmingly involved with issues of global politics. Consequently, the magazine had a steady presence of the ‘world’ in its pages. By focusing on the magazine issues between 1914 and 1948, the paper interrogates the ideological shifts that were observed in the magazine in relation to the various strands of political thought prevalent in British India and the world. The first section of the paper addresses the presence of the Empire in the college magazine since 1914. It analyses the texture of loyalty towards the British war efforts during the First World War that was observed in a series of fictional and non-fictional writings as well as in verses by the students and teachers at the Presidency College. Thereafter, the paper moves on to the inter-war years as it explores the diversification of engagement with global politics – specifically with the rise of socialism. The paper ends with a reassessment of devotion to the Empire with the beginning of the Second World War. The paper works at the intersection of youth culture, intellectual history, and print culture to understand the complicated global ties between ideas, institutions, and people.