“Community of Place: Connecting Through Shared Space and Collective Action.”

Community of Place – is a group of people bound together by their shared geography and the social relationships, collective identity, and common interests that emerge from living in the same locality. Communities of place foster quality of life, resilience, and collective action.

Rash Behari Bose Research Institute – is a dedicated research centre focused on studying the history of Indian National Army (INA) founded by Mohan Singh in 1942, revived & restructured by Rashbehari Bose. The objective of the Research Institute is to promote research, documentation, and dissemination of information on Rash Behari Bose’s contributions to India’s freedom struggle, along-with his life, works, and legacy.

The Founder – Director, Mr. Kalyan Chakrabortty reiterates vividly the:

Activities: those which are relentlessly carried out by the community members –

• Research projects on Rashbehari Bose’s life, activities,
• Exploring & documenting the interactions Rashbehari Bose had with Japanese officials – their significance and historical importance,
• Avid documentation of archival materials, including letters, diaries, and photographs.
• Organising seminars, conferences, and lectures on Bose’s legacy.
• Publication of research papers, books, and journals.

Collections: The institute has a vast collection of:

• Archival materials related to Bose’s life and activities.
• Rare books, journals, and newspapers from the early 20th century.
• Photographs, letters, and personal belongings of Bose.

Mr. Kalyan Chakrabortty’s tireless research works has own him accolades, and as an invited Guest of Honour, he was on an official visit to DAITO BUNKA UNIVERSITY, Tokyo, Japan in the recent past, where he was handed over the priceless – rare item’s those Rashbehari Bose had possessed while being in Japan. This is the first time in the history that the Japanese University has handed over such precious belongings to any representative of our motherland in the last 80 years.

Moreover, this University has handed over the rare letters of Rabindra Nath Tagore, along-with innumerous WORLD WAR II PRESS MATERIALS, which all Indians were striving for the past several decades.

Scholarship and collaboration:

The institute offers research scholarships, along-with collaborates with other academic institutions, researchers, and organisations to promote the augmentation of further studies on Bose’s contributions.

While ruminating on the efficacy of the community, the writer humbly propound the fact that, preceding to Kalyan Chakrabortty’s entourage to the famous Daito Bunka University in 2024, the Consul General of Japan in India, NAKAGAWA visited Rash Behari Research Institute in Chandannagar on the 01^st. of November, 2023 – wherein they had exchanged views with members of Rash Behari Research Institute on various topics including ways of collaboration between the institute and Consulate General of Japan to promote Japan India relationship.

The honourable Governor of West Bengal Mr. C. V. Ananda Bose visited Chandannagar to attend the birth anniversary of the Indian revolutionary Rash Behari Bose on the 26^th. Of May, 2023.

Governor Bose took great interest in the historic heritage displayed and appreciated the research work being carried out on Rash Behari Research Institute, Chandannagar.

While expressing his vote of thanks, the most learned Governor revealed that his father P.K. Vasudevan Nair was a freedom fighter; active patriot of the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) and an ardent follower of Rashbehari Bose & Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. It was his patriotic father P. K. Vasudevan Nair who had added ‘Bose’ to his son’s name as a mark of his utmost adulations for the two most brave revolutionary leaders.

Most remarkably, this institute does not encourage any forms of grant from the government or corporate bodies. The institute solely depends on members’ donation.

Radhanath Sikdar Himalayan Museum – a philanthropic movement by some ardent mountaineers, nature lovers to create ripples for a noble change – the change of perception, as an interlude in an adventurous career, the worthiness of one of the greatest mathematician the world has ever produced – Mr. Radhanath Sikdar.

When it comes to giving and volunteering, one might think of passion as that mix of curiosity, enthusiasm and conviction which takes him beyond an annual contribution into a sustained engagement with an issue, cause or organisation, in specific a community thus build.

While exploring the endeavour of the community, the writer has experienced the act which has been enacted in 1852 as an altruism of colonialism, and the present, the philanthropy, which is very much a social construct, a step to redefine the lost glory.

Sikdar, a student and a master in spherical trigonometry from Kolkata’s Hindu College (now Presidency University) was handpicked for the survey department of the British government in the  1830s. He was the British colonisers’ most desired mathematician at that time, the first documented Indian freedom fighter, a labour rights campaigner, a pioneer of the first Bangla magazine on women’s rights called “Mashik Potrika”, and a scientist who rewrote geodesy, trigonometry, and meteorology.

As part of the team set up for the Great Trigonometric Survey started by George Everest, then surveyor general of India, Sikdar travelled across India to conduct geodetic surveys. Geodetic surveys are done to accurately measure and understand changes in Earth’s geometric shape, orientation and gravity field.

In 1852, Sikdar calculated the exact height of Everest. George Everest retired in 1843 but his successor, Colonel Andrew Scott Waugh, named the peak as “Mount Everest” after the man who initiated the survey – George Everest. The height, 8,848 metres, was officially announced in 1856. Radhanath Sikdar never actually saw the mountain which was recorded in official nomenclature as Peak XV.

In April 1852, based on painstaking calculations and rigorous analyses of the survey data, and after factoring in deviations, errors, and atmospheric refraction, Sikdar concluded that Peak XV was the highest mountain on the Himalayan range. In one swipe, Radhanath Sikdar aged 39 years at that time, trashed the long-held belief that Kanchenjungha was the world’s highest peak. The Kanchenjungha peak, which lies 124km to the east of Peak XV, is 28,169 feet high.

In his findings about Peak XV, Sikdar concluded that its height was precisely 29,000 feet. But in the following weeks, Surveyor-General Waugh, having accepted Sikdar’s calculations as correct, decided to tweak the figure to 29,002 feet. Some researchers speculate that Waugh added two feet to the figure for good measure – to ensure that it doesn’t appear like a rounded-off estimate.

The members have recalled the dichotomy of colonial science. Sikdar had to fit himself into the early colonial scheme of the rulers to self-cultivate his curiosity driven scientific expertise from within that structure. Whenever the latter clashed with the former, Sikdar’s aspirations were thwarted.

And if the people of Nepal can call Mount Everest as “Sagarmatha” and the Chinese have named it “Qomolangma”, why can’t Indians call it as Sikdar Parvat (mountain) or Sikdar Sikhar (peak) in India?

To be continued…….

Writer Suvro Sanyal

Mavericknews30 has launched a series of articles on community building, sharing insights and success stories. Stay tuned for the next article as we explore how to create stronger, more connected communities!

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