Mukhopadhyaya, Jaykrishna

Mukhopadhyaya, Jaykrishna (1808-1888) founder of the Uttarpara zamindar family. Jaykrishna mukhopadhyaya was born at Uttarpara in Huglhi district, West Bengal. His father, Jaganmohan Mukhopadhyaya, was a government official.

After studying at hindu college, he moved to Meerut where his father was working. There he worked in a military office and earned a considerable amount of money which he used to buy landed property at Uttarpara. He left his job in 1835 to look after his landed property.

Although not much educated himself, he showed a great deal of interest in spreading education. He funded the establishment of an English school, a college and a public library at Uttarpara. He also donated Rs 5,000 to the university of calcutta in 1869-70 to set up a library. He financed 31 schools at that time. He announced several prizes for the spread of education. He awarded lalbehari day (1824-1894) Rs 500 for writing Govinda Samanta or the History of Bengali Rayat giving an account of the life of farmers.

Jaykrishna adopted a number of measures for the welfare of his farmers. He set up a people's hospital at Uttarpara as well as a charitable dispensary.

A man of liberal ideas, Jaykrishna was one of the pioneers who formed the british indian association in Kolkata. He supported iswar chandra vidyasagar's movement for marriage of Hindu widows. He was a nationalist and, in 1878, protested against the policy of allowing the British to have unrestricted business opportunities in India. He was involved with the Indian Congress and presided over the reception committee at its second session in Kolkata in 1886. He died in July 1888. [Dulal Bhowmik]