Dhan Gopal Mukerji (1890 – 1936) was an Indian man of letters in the United States. He contributed in interpreting Hindu folklore, scripture, and philosophy. He was the first South Asian immigrant to have a successful career in the United States, designated as a man of letters. He published several, translations, drama, fiction, philosophy, and children’s stories, plays and collections of poetry. He wrote Chintamini: A Symbolic Drama (1914), the play Layla-Majnu (1916), the poetry collections Rajani: Songs of the Night (1916) and Sandhya: Songs of Twilight (1917), and the play The Judgment of India (1922).
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Dhan Gopal Mukerji was born on Sunday, 6 July 1890 (age 46 years; at the time of death) in a village on the edge of Kajangal forest near Calcutta, British India. Being a teenager, Dhan Gopal Mukerji had to follow priesthood as it was the custom of his strict priestly household. After a year of wandering as an ascetic, he left the ascetic life and started studying in University of Calcutta. In his autobiography Caste and Outcast, he wrote-
You cannot be a priest if you do not know how people live, and the best way to find out about people is to beg from them. So there is a law of the priesthood that before officiating in the temple, you must go begging from door to door. But at 14, to be turned loose in the world—even after forswearing it, makes one feel rather forlorn.”
In 1910, Dhan Gopal Mukerji went to Japan and studied industrial machinery and textiles at Tokyo University. In 1910, he went to University of California, Berkeley for three years but later transferred to Stanford University from where in 1914, he recieved A.B. degree in metaphysics. In the 1920s, Dhan Gopal Mukerji moved to New York City. On 14 July 1936, Dhan Gopal Mukerji had hanged himself in his apartment in New York City after six months of nervous breakdown.
Family
Parents & Siblings
Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s father, Bhuban Goswami Mukerji was a lawyer but later in life he decided not to continue his law practice due to health issues and got indulged in music. He also served as a priest at his village temple. Her mother’s name was Kissori. Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s brother, Jadugopal Mukherjee was a doctor by profession. He devoted his life to the freedom struggle of India. He was imprisoned for four years from 1923 to 1927. Dhan Gopal Mukerji later wrote a memoir about Jadu Gopal, titled as My Brother’s Face.
Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s brother, Jadugopal Mukherjee
Wife & Children
He married an American woman, Ethel Ray Dugan in 1918 who was an artist and educator. They were blessed with a son.
Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s wife- Ethel Ray Dugan
Religion
He was a Hindu by religion.
Caste
He belonged to a Brahmin family, the priest cast in India.
Signature/Autograph
Career
In 1922, Dhan Gopal Mukerji published his first children’s book, ‘Kari, the Elephant’. In 1927 he published ‘Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon’.His other children’s books include ‘Ghond, the Hunter’ (1928), ‘The Chief of the Herd’ (1929), ‘Hindu Fables for Little Children’ (1929), ‘Rama, the Hero of India’ (1930), and ‘The Master Monkey’ (1932). ‘Fierce-Face: The Story of a Tiger’ was published in 1936 which was his last work for children.Some other prominant works of Dhan Gopal Mukerji are ‘A Son of Mother India Answers’ (1928), ‘Devotional Passages from the Hindu Bible’ (1929), and ‘Disillusioned India’ (1930), and ‘The Face of Silence’ (1926). Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s autobiography, ‘Caste and Outcast’, was published in 1923.
Achievement
The Newbery Medal in 1928 for Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon (1927) by The American Library Association presented.
Death
On 14 July 1936, Dhan Gopal Mukerji had hanged himself in his apartment in New York City. He was only 46 when he committed suicide.
Facts/Trivia
- In his autobiography, Caste and Outcast (1923), Dhan Gopal describes his childhood and writes,
I went to the Christian school, and studied the New Testament carefully. It was hardly a year before I gave up being a priest, because I realized that I was not in my right place. This may seem very strange to a Westerner after all I had experienced, but to a Hindu it was not strange. A Brahmin boy often fulfills the duties of a priest for a time, but if he finds it is not his vocation he is expected to resign and to seek the Lord in other ways. We think the end is holiness, not a profession.”
- While studying in Japan, he witnessed the assembly line method of production where the workers who had serious accidents or illness were replaced by others, without providing them any medical benefits or compensation.
- After the World War I, Dhan Gopal Mukerji came back to India. He was a political member of the Indian independence movement.
- Elizabeth Seeger said in her review for Horn Book that,
Gay-Neck is truly a carrier pigeon, a bearer of messages, and his messages are words of courage and love.”
- A new edition of Caste and Outcast appeared in 2002 as a new academic interest.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn