UPSC Prelims 2021 Q46: Bethune Female School Secretary — Explained
Who among the following was associated as Secretary with Hindu Female School which later came to be known as Bethune Female School?
- Annie Besant
- Debendranath Tagore
- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
- Sarojini Naidu
Answer: (c) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Statement-wise explanation
- a: incorrect — Annie Besant was a British-born Theosophist who first came to India in 1893. Her Indian work came decades after 1849: she founded the Central Hindu College at Benares in 1898 and the Home Rule League in 1916. She had no link with an 1849 Calcutta girls' school.
- b: incorrect — Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905) led the Brahmo Samaj and founded the Tattvabodhini Sabha in 1839. His work was religious reform and the Brahmo movement. He was not the secretary of the Hindu Female School.
- c: correct — J.E.D. Bethune opened the Hindu Female School in Calcutta on 7 May 1849, in Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee's house. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar agreed to be its secretary in 1850. The school became known by Bethune's name and later grew into Bethune College. Vidyasagar went on to set up about 35 girls' schools in Bengal.
- d: incorrect — Sarojini Naidu was born in 1879, thirty years after the school opened. She was a poet and nationalist and became Congress president in 1925. She could not have been the school's first secretary.
How to eliminate
Dates remove two options. The school opened in 1849, and Sarojini Naidu was born in 1879, so she is out. Annie Besant reached India only in 1893, so she is out too. That leaves Debendranath Tagore and Vidyasagar, two Bengal reformers of the same period. To choose between them, remember their fields. Debendranath's work was religious: the Brahmo Samaj and the Tattvabodhini Sabha. Vidyasagar's was social and educational: widow remarriage, girls' schools and the Bengali primer Barnaparichay. A question about a girls' school points to the educationist. The fact to remember is this: Bethune founded the Hindu Female School in 1849 and Vidyasagar was its secretary from 1850.
Know more
Women's education in 19th-century India grew through a mix of private reformers, missionaries and, after 1854, government policy.
Bethune's school. John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune was the law member of the Governor-General's Council. He opened the Hindu Female School in Calcutta on 7 May 1849. It was a secular school for girls from respectable Hindu families. Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee gave his house for it, and Ramgopal Ghosh helped persuade families to send their daughters. Vidyasagar became secretary in 1850. Bethune died in 1851. The school took his name and later grew into Bethune College, often called the oldest women's college in Asia.
Vidyasagar's work (1820–1891).
- Principal of Sanskrit College, Calcutta, from 1851. He opened it to non-Brahmin students.
- Led the campaign that produced the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856.
- Set up about 35 girls' schools across Bengal.
- Wrote Barnaparichay, the standard Bengali primer.
- Supported the weekly Som Prakash (1858).
| Year | Milestone | Person / body |
|---|---|---|
| 1848 | Girls' school at Bhide Wada, Pune | Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule |
| 1849 | Hindu Female School, Calcutta | J.E.D. Bethune (Vidyasagar secretary from 1850) |
| 1854 | Wood's Despatch backs female education | East India Company |
| 1856 | Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act | Vidyasagar's campaign |
| 1879 | Bethune becomes a college | — |
Exam tip: UPSC often pairs a reformer with an institution or a journal. Learn each reformer's main field (religion, education, law reform, journalism) so you can eliminate quickly.
In the news
Vidyasagar was born on 26 September 1820, so his 200th birth anniversary fell in 2020. It was marked nationally, including in the Prime Minister's January 2020 speech in Kolkata. The question itself tests a static fact of modern history.
NCERT Concepts to Revise
- Annie Besant: Annie Besant's arrival in India in 1893 shows whether she could have run an 1849 Calcutta school.
- Sarojini Naidu: Sarojini Naidu's birth year, 1879, is enough to judge this option against the school's 1849 founding.
- Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act: The 1856 widow-remarriage campaign helps you place the Bengal reformers of the 1850s and their main fields of work.
- Som Prakash: Som Prakash links one option to Bengal's 1850s reform press and helps you place that reformer's circle.