Sir Brajendra Nath Seal was a renowned Bengali Indian humanist philosopher and educationist. He served as the second vice chancellor of Mysore University. He was born on September 3 in 1864 at Haripal under Hoogly District in West Bengal of India. His father Mohendranath Seal was one of the earliest followers of Comtean positivism in Bengal.
Brajendra Nath Seal began his career as a lecturer at the Scottish Church College. During the British rule, his research works were published in some of leading journals such as the Calcutta Review, Modern Review, New India, Dawn, Bulletin of Mathematical Society, Indian Culture, Hindustan Standard, British Medical Journal, Prabasi, Sabuj Patra, and Visva-Bharati.
As a student of philosophy at the General Assembly’s Institution (now Scottish Church College, Calcutta), he became attracted to Brahmo theology. He was the inaugural chair of philosophy at India’s first graduate school in philosophy at the University of Calcutta.
He was regarded as ‘a versatile scholar in many branches of learning, both scientific and humanistic,’ and in his major work The Positive Sciences of Ancient Hindus demonstrated ‘interrelations among the ancient Hindu philosophical concepts and their scientific theories.’ He was appointed as the principal of Krishnath College in Berhampore.
Brajendra Nath Seal was the keynote speaker at the first session of the First Universal Races Congress of 1911 on 26 July 1911, which gathered speakers and attendees from across the world to discuss racial issues and encourage international cooperation.
He served as the vice chancellor of Mysore University from 1921 and retired in 1930 following a paralytic stroke. He died on December 3 in 1938.
