The Modern Review/Volume 38/Number 2/Sushil Kumar Rudra
Sushil Kumar Rudra
By the death of Sushil Kumar Rudra, retired principal of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, India has lost an eminent educationist, a genuine patriot and a man of high character who led a truly devout and spiritual life. We had the privilege of his acquaintance,
The late Principal Shusil Kumar Rudra
but we will let those speak who have known him more intimately and longer. According to a biographical sketch of Mr. Rudra by Mr. J. C. Chatterjee, published in The Indian Daily Mail, the deceased gentleman was born at Calcutta in 1861 and was the only son of the late Rev. Peary Mohan Rudra of the Church Missionary Society. Considering the purity of his character and his quiet life he might have been expected to live longer. But the conditions of life in India are not health-promoting and many of our best men do not, unfortunately, take as much care of their health as they ought to, India is, therefore, deprived of their devoted services just when they become best fitted to render them.
Mr. Rudra took his degree of Master of Arts in natural Science from Duff College, Calcutta, and at first obtained a post in the Board of Revenue Office.
To this College Mr. Rudra gave the devoted labour of his whole career and has left on it so distinct a mark of his own, that at a recent Reunion Day Dinner an old resident of Delhi remarked that he had always believed that St. Stephen’s College was Mr. Rudra, and Mr. Rudra was St. Stephen’s College. After several years of successful work Mr. Rudra was appointed Vice-Principal of the College in 1899. After another seven years, when the post of Principal fell vacant in 1906 it was offered to Mr. Rudra, with the approval of Government, who consented to the withdrawal of the agreement by which the Mission had undertaken always to have an English Principal.
“These were days when Indianisation had hardly begun and the appointment of an Indian at the head Of a large European Staff caused a good deal of sensation and was looked upon more or less in the nature of a doubtful experiment. Mr. Rudra accepted the office with considerable reluctance and after much persuasion by his friend Mr. C. F. Andrews, who was then on the Staff of the College. During the seventeen years of his office of tenure as Principal Mr. Rudra’s relations with his European colleagues continued to be of the happiest nature. To his tact and sympathy in his relations with his staff, both English and Indian, must be largely attributed the signal success that came to the College under his administration. With the students the secret of his power lay rather in the combination of gentleness and patience with firmness. The students knew he loved and trusted them and they gave him trust and love in return. The general public know his ardent patriotism, and it gained for the college a confidence that carried this institution through the troublous days of political ferment unscathed. In 1907, in 1917 and again in 1920-21, when successive waves of national bitterness swept over the country, and most educational institutions with Englishman in them experienced great difficulty and much friction, the bond of confidence between staff and students was never broken; and though the College was unjustly suspected by ill-informed or prejudiced persons of disloyalty, it was in reality performing a work of reconciliation the value of which cannot be overestimated. And the credit of this and for its immunity from disruption in the most recent and overwhelming upheaval of non-cooperation was due to one man above all others, to Principal Rudra.
“He also took a prominent and useful part in the affairs of the Punjab University of which he was for many years a Fellow and a Syndic. He was one of those who first conceived the idea of a university at Delhi and its foundation was in a large measure due to his efforts. Mr. Rudra was for some years President of the Social Service League of Delhi and Secretary of the Indian Student’s Advisory Committee. After 37 years of work he retired from his post in February 1923. Testimonials, presentations, and farewell function from old students, staff, clubs and all the different communities represented in the College showed the affection and esteem in which the veteran educationist was held by all with whom he had come in contact.
“Among others there came a deputation of old Jat students, headed by Rai Sahib Ch. Chhottu Ram, now Minister to the Punjab Government. As a memorial to his work they announced the endowment of a Rudra Memorial Scholarship and made a presentation.
“Mr. Rudra’s power lay in his absolute freedom from all communal or sectarian bias and to this was due the confidence he won from all men of all sections and creeds both in and outside the College.”
Young India contains an article on Mr. Rudra by Mr. M. K. Gandhi, who was his personal friend. He calls him “a silent servant,” “a selfless and self-effacing worker.”
“There was a kind of spiritual bond between him and his pupils. Though he was a Christian, he had room in his bosom for Hinduism and Islam which he regarded with great veneration. His was not an exclusive Christianity, that condemned to perdition every one who did not believe in Jesus Christ as the only saviour of the world. Jealous of the reputation of his own he was tolerent towards the other faiths. He was a keen and careful student of politics. Of his sympathies with the so-called extremists, if he made no parade, he never made any secret either. Ever since my return home in 1915, I had been his guest whenever I had occasion to go to Delhi. It was plain sailing enough so long as I had not declared Satyagraha in respect of the Rowlatt Act. He had many English friends in the higher circles. He belonged to a purely English Mission. He was the first Indian Principal chosen in his college. I therefore, felt that his intimate association with me and his giving me shelter under his roof might compromise him and expose his college to unnecessary risk. I therefore, offered to seek shelter elsewhere. His reply was characteristic: ‘My religion is deeper than people may imagine. Some of my opinions are vital parts of my being. They are formed after deep and prolonged prayers. They are known to my English friends. I cannot possibly be misunderstood by keeping you under my roof as an honoured friend and guest. And if ever I have to make a choice between losing what influence I may have among Englishmen and losing you, know what I would choose. You cannot leave me’ ‘But what about all kinds of friends who come to see me? Surely, you must not let your house become a caravanserai when I am in Delhi,’ I said. ‘To tell you the truth.’ he replied, ‘I like it all. I like the friends who come to see you. It gives me pleasure to think that in keeping you with me, I am doing some little service to my country.’ The reader may not be aware that my open letter to the Viceroy giving concrete shape to the Khilafat claim was conceived and drafted under Principal Rudra’s roof. He and Charlie Andrews were my revisionists. Non-cooperation was conceived and hatched under his hospitable roof. He was a silent but deeply interested spectator at the private conference that took place between the Maulanas, other Musalman friends and myself. Religious motive was the foundation for all his acts. There was, therefore, no fear of temporal power, though the same motive also enabled him to value the existence and the use and the friendship of temporal power. Not many people know that we owe C. F. Andrews to Principal Rudra.”
In Young India Mr. Andrews has himself written, “he (Mr. Rudra) taught me to understand the ideals for which India has always stood and to reverence the mother-land in purity and truth. He also taught me, by his silent life of prayer, to love God with all (illegible text) heart and mind and soul.” One of ths sentences which he uttered, before he became unconscious was, Oh my country (illegible text) my dear country!’ And last of all, he said twice over quite distinctly, ‘How wonderful is God!’
The first leading editorial note in the first issue of Lala Lajpat Rai’s new weekly “The People” is on Mr. Rudra, who is called “one of the noblest characters in Indian national life.”
At the memorial meeting held at Lahore by Mr. Rudra’s old students, Pandit Raghubar Dyal Shastri, an old professor of St. Stephen’s College and Principal of the Lahore Sanatan College, said that “it was chiefly through the efforts of the late Mr. Rudra that Martial Law was not declared at Delhi during April 1919”.