Anderson, James Drummond

Anderson, James Drummond (1852-1920) member of the Indian Civil Service, scholar and writer, born in Calcutta on 11 November 1852. His father was Dr James Anderson MD and mother was Ellen Garstin. He studied in Cheltenham College in the city of Rugby, England. He joined as an assistant Magistrate and Collector of Bengal province In 1875. After serving long fourteen years (1880-1894) in Assam, he joined in Bengal Civil Service as a Magistrate and district Collector in 1894. He retired in 1900 and at the same time, joined as a lecturer of Bengali language and literature in Cambridge University.

James Drummond Anderson conducted a research on Indian local folk culture, language and linguistics area. He had a strong hold in Bengali language. Some of his language and culture related publications are: A Collection of Kachari Folk-Tales and Rhymes (1895), A Short Vocabulary of the Aka Language (1896), Some Chittagong Proverbs (1897), The Peoples of India (1913), A Manual of the Bengali Language (1920). He had also a several articles and papers written on linguistic subjects.

James Drummond Anderson died on 24 November 1920, in England. [M Mamunur Rashid]