Lalmohan Ghosh
(1849-1909)
President - Madras, 1903

Lalmohan Ghosh was born in Krishnagar, West Bengal, in 1849. After passing the Entrance examination in the first division Lalmohan left for England in 1869 to qualify as a Barrister-at-law. He joined the Calcutta Bar in 1873.

An active patriot, Lalmohan became a prominent member of the British Indian Association and visited England in 1879 to represent the grievances and demands of Indians to the British public. In July 1880, he served as a member of a committee which pleaded with Lord Harrington for the repeal of the Press Act and the Arms Act and for raising the upper limit of the age of eligibility for candidates competing at the Indian Civil Service examination. Back in India, Lalmohan took up cudgels against the obnoxious Ilbert Bill and castigated with scathing satire the impudent and insulting remarks that one Mr. Branson, a Barrister, had made on Indian women.

In India, Laimohan was always in the front rank of those who worked for a nation in the making. He was elected President of the Madras session (1903) of the Indian National Congress. Lalmohan Ghosh died in Calcutta on October 18, 1909.

Lalmohan Ghosh's social and political ideals were derived largely from the liberal humanism of Victorian England. He firmly believed in the necessity of Western education for Indians as a force to unite the people into one nation. In his Presidential address at the Madras session of the Congress, he pleaded for compulsory primary education in the country. He never thought of a severance of relation between England and India, but he also believed, that it was necessary to acquire, by constitutional means, rights for Indians to the rule (of the British type) of law and justice, to free expression of opinion, to opportunities of trade and service, and no to democratic legislative institutions.

La1mohan Ghosh's particular contribution to the national movement of India was fearless and cogent criticism of the established authority.

- Amalendu Bose

We have a sacred duty towards the poorer classes of our people. Those of us who have received the benefits of High Education are bound to do, whatever may be in our power, to extend the blessings of education, so far as may be, to the masses of our people. Let us remember the simple but eloquent words of late Mr. John Bright that the nation in every country dwells in the cottage.

From the Presidential Address - Lalmohan Ghosh
I.N.C. Session, 1903, Madras