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Ramananda Chatterjee
रामानन्द चट्टोपाध्याय
The Grand Old Man of Indian journalism
Years
1865 – 1938
Known as
Founder-editor of The Modern Review
Birthplace
Kolkata, West Bengal
Field
Poets & Writers
“A review must review — the age itself, and not merely the books.”
— Ramananda Chatterjee's editorial principle
The Story
Born in 1865, Chatterjee trained as a teacher and journalist before founding The Modern Review at Calcutta in 1907. The timing was electric — the partition of Bengal had radicalised a generation — and the review quickly became a forum where politics, literature, women's writing and social reform met on equal pages.
He edited every issue with his own hand for thirty-one years, commissioning pieces from Gandhi, Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Annie Besant and Nehru, while also championing writers nobody had heard of. He was a rare editor in that he built writers rather than used them, and his magazine's tone — serious, wide-reading, patriotically Indian without being narrow — became a model.
The Modern Review also carried translations and articles that introduced one region of India to another, at a time when few publications bothered. In this way Chatterjee's journal performed a small daily miracle: it imagined a national audience before the nation existed.
He died in 1938, hailed across the country as the Grand Old Man of Indian journalism. Modern Indian journalism's professional pride — the idea that an Indian editor is the equal of any in the world — was substantially his gift.
Core Ideas
The Review, 1907
He founded a journal that became the nationalist mind's meeting room.
Builder of Writers
He launched famous names and rescued obscure ones.
A National Audience
His pages connected India's regions and languages to each other.
Thirty-One Years
Three decades of single-handed editing set a standard of consistency.
Editorial Independence
He answered to readers and to principle, not to parties.
Why it matters today
Ramananda Chatterjee demonstrated that the press could be the national movement's nervous system. The Modern Review's blend of politics, letters and social concern became the template for Indian public journalism, and his title — Grand Old Man — was conferred by a grateful profession.