Description

Dr. Roy returned from Germany in 1925. His reminiscences end around 1928: the last part was written with effort within a week of his death. In this chapter we shall first recapitulate somewhat the early background to his own intellectual development and then go on to describe the educational milieu in which he worked after his return from Germany.
Hiralal was fortunate to have grown up during a stirring time in India’s history. He has described something of the character of the times in the last part of the nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth centuries particularly in relation to education and to Bengal. We have read, also, how inevitably (because of his personality) he was drawn to the high idealism and the daily struggle of the reformist movement of his day. The unsatisfactory content of school and university education from an Indian point of view had become a burning issue by the second half of the nineteenth century. Dr. Roy’s achievements including the establishment of chemical engineering as a distinct engineering discipline in India, had their beginning in the minds of the reformist thinkers and courageous activists like Satish Chandra Mukherjee’ and Benoy Kumar Sarkar who crystallized the idea of a truly India-oriented educational system.In Chapter III Roy gives a brief reference to the founding in 1902 of the Dawn Society by Satish Chandra Mukherjee. As a schoolboy in Comilla he had first heard about Satish Chandra and The Dawn. The Dawn was an English monthly intended to be a vehicle of eastern and western culture particularly in religion philosophy of Science and education. The Panihati factory was added in 1922 and the coal-tar distillation plant and heavy chemicals plant were started there. At the time of Dr. H.L.Roy’s return from Germany, there were 1400 workers producing a whole range of chemical products for Bengal Chemical. By 1934, Bengal Chemical were not only producing pharmaceuticals and heavy chemicals; they had also introduced gland products, vitamin preparations, soap and printing ink in their manufacturing programme. The first contact sulphuric acid was started by Bengal Chemical in 1941. Dr. H.L. Roy served this pioneer chemical company for many years as a Director and took particular interest in the operation and growth of the Panihati Works.