Kali Charan Banurji was born on 9th February, 1847, of Kulin Brahmin parentage, and invested with the sacred thread when he was only eight years old. When only twelve, he was prepared for the entrance examination, but was not allowed to sit for it till the next year, when he passed with distinction and was awarded a scholarship and a silver medal. In 1862, he sat for the First Arts, and won a scholarship again. He was thus enabled not only to prosecute his studies but also to support his people, who were very poor. His father,Harra Chandra Banurji,was very affection ate towards him and anxious to make any sacrifice for the sake of the promising son. When only an undergraduate he was appointed tutor to the son-in law and grandson of Prosanna Coomar Tagore, in preference to many brilliant graduates, by reason of his ability, honesty and outstanding integrity of character. In i868 he was successful in the B.A. degree examination, and stood fourth in order of merit, in the company of such eminent men as Sir Guru Dass Banurji, Sir Rash Behari Ghose and others.
He won a gold medal, and was appointed by Dr. Duff as professor in the Free Church institution and the next year he took his M.A. degree in mental and moral philosophy, when he was promoted to a senior professorship.
His public activities were varied and unceasing. He undoubtedly did the same service towards cleansing public life of baser motives and inspiring high ideals of civic responsibility, in Calcutta, as Sir Narayan Chandavarkar and the late Mr. Justice Ranade have done for Bombay. Throughout his life he never surrendered his political convictions, but he strongly felt that purity in personal and national life was essential to efficiency in political propaganda.
He would frequently lecture on religious subjects in Calcutta and Bombay, and once even went to America to represent what was best in Indian religions and to interpret the East to the West. He would let his ambitions of success in legal practice be subordinated to the passion for presenting the highest elements of the Christian religion to his Hindu and Muhammadan compatriots.
He exercised a tremendous influence over the students, and to come into his presence was to be lifted into a lofty plane of spirituality and to acquire a new consciousness of national dignity. His political and religious presentations were alike free from racial bias or acrinomy and exhibited, at their best, his catholicity of temper and unflinching loyalty to definite convictions. A short time before his death he was selected as delegate to the conven tion of the World's Student Christian Federation in 1906 but his failing health prevented him from attending.
On his death on February 6th, 1907, the whole of Calcutta was plunged in grief. All communities united to honour his memory as that of a devoted public servant and saint. The whole of political India went into mourning over the tragic event.
" I learned to love him," writes Sir Andrew Fraser, " for his deep spirituality, his personal loyalty to God . . . and his unselfish interest in all good work. It was specially delightful to see how thoroughly he remained identified in interest with his fellow-countrymen, for whom, despite the persecution which followed his conversion, he ever retained undiminished, passionate love." The Amrita Bazaar Patrika paid the following compliment : " A profound scholar, a fervent patriot, a born orator, a man of stainless character, deep purity and sweet manners." Mr. Surendra Nath Bannerjea, the eminent poli tician, addressing a crowded meeting said : " I have never come across in the whole of my life a greater, higher or a nobler soul than the soul of the late Kali Charan Banurji. He was the very personification of gentleness. He had no self-assertion, no desire to obtrude himself into places where he was not wanted. Humility—a Christian, child-like humility was incarnated in that guiltless personality." Sir Rash Behari Ghose, in the course of his presi dential address before the twenty-third session of the Indian National Congress, paid the touching tribute : " When we think of the lonely Scotch cemetery in Koraya where the remains were laid, we cannot help feeling, how much learning, how much modest and unassuming simplicity, how much piety, how much unassuming tenderness,and how much patriotism lie buried in the grave of Kali Charan Banurji. True, he no longer lives in his own person, but he lives in us and will live in those who succeed us, enjoying an immortality that is not given to many sons of men." When at a full meeting in Overtown Hall, in Calcutta, Dr. Kenneth S. MacDonald said that Mr. Banurji represented the Christian community, Sir Guru Das Banurji at once rose to his feet, and amidst deafening cheers said that he represented all communities.
Kali Charan Banurji, in his capacity as member of the Bengal Legislative Council, as vice-chairman of the Calcutta Corporation, and as one of the presidents of the National Missionary Society, rendered eminent services in the most unassuming of ways and has exerted an influence on public life, far beyond the confines of Bengal, which lives even to-day as a potent moulding factor of national importance.