Professor Nil Ratan Dhar

Professor Nil Ratan Dhar

Born: 2 January 1892
Died: 5 December 1987

Shri. Nil Ratan Dhar was born on 2nd January 1892 in Jessore (now Bangladesh). He was the son of a Lawyer Shri. Prasanna Kumar Dhar, his grandfather Shri. Prem Chand Dhar was a landlord of the place. His mother was the daughter of the Zamindar of Fatehpur, Shri. Kunja Bihari Ghosh. N.R. Dhar were 9 siblings, six brothers, and three sisters.

At the age of 5 N.R. Dhar started going to Government ZilSchool at Jessore. He was a very bright student who always stood first in class. In 1907, at the age of 15, he passed an entrance examination organized by the University of Calcutta and won a Scholarship of Rs.15/- per month for two years. He was keenly interested in gathering knowledge and studied English, Sanskrit, Geography, History, Mathematics, etc. In India, there was no Science teaching at that time. During his senior classes, he was also good at writing short articles in English, Sanskrit and History.

After obtaining the scholarship he left Jessore and joined Rippon College which was established by the uncrowned king of Calcutta, Shri. Surendra Nath Banerjee. There he joined a newly introduced ISC course which includes Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and English as he became highly interested in Physics and Chemistry. At that time there were only 7 students who joined the course and N.R. Dhar was the leader of that team. A small laboratory was established by him where he made reagent solutions with silver nitrate and gold chloride, he would have patches of black silver and brown gold on his fingers.

He was very lucky to have great mentors like Ramendra Sunder Trivedi, Gangadhar Mukherji, Haran Chandra Banerjee, for his intermediate. From 1907 to 1909 he attended the lectures regularly and passed the ISC examination in 1909, with first division and won a Government Scholarship of Rs. 20/- per month for a period of two years. He joined Presidency College, Calcutta for his higher education. Sri. Nil Ratan presented his thesis for his MSc on complex and double salts and completed his Masters in 1913, scoring the highest marks among all the
students and got several prizes and 20 medals.

Professor N.R. Dhar started research work independently and under his guidance his junior, DN Bhattacharya determined the mobility of ions at zero degrees. Another research scholar AK Dutta determined the second equilibrium constant of dibasic acids.

In 1913, all the research work was published in the Journal of the London chemical society. Professor Nil Ratan Dhar carried on his research work independently from July 1913 to September 1915 when he left for Europe. During the First World War (1914-1918) he remained in London and there he studied and researched several other topics, and received his DSc. Degree from London University in June 1917. After obtaining his degree he registered his name for Indian Educational Services.

Being appointed in IES in London Professor received the same privilege as the British Officers for twenty-seven and a half years. At Muir Central College, in the Chemistry Department, there was no European teacher, therefore Professor Dhar joined there at the place of Dr. EC Hill who was DSc from Dublin University. There he delivers lectures occasionally on physics and chemistry for students of BSc Ist year and 2nd year. There was no MSc during1919, being a Head of the Chemistry department at both Muir Central College and Allahbad University he was having full control over the admission seats for MSc students so he made it a point to admit brilliant students.

Professor Dhar was granted a 6-month study leave after serving at Muir Central College for seven years. Professor Dhar’s emphasis was always on making the students understand science and not loading the information in their heads. He was a great teacher, influencer, and student loving person.

In 1930 professor married Sheila Roy who was a Chemist and daughter of Sri Paras Nath Roy MBBS. After her death, the professor married Miss Meera Chatterjee.

During his last days even before a week of his death, he didn’t give a single hint to anyone that he is not doing well. He encountered kidney troubles and was facing various problems. One night while entering his bathroom he fell on the floor and became unconscious. He fought bravely with his problems but unfortunately, on the night of December 5, 1987, he breathed for the last time.

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