Great Psychologists of India Series - article 3 Narendranath Sengupta

Pre-cap: ?As a Counseling Psychologist, it always pains me that the psychology literature hasn’t given to Indian psychologists their deserved chairs on the podium of greatness. This article-series is an attempt to introduce you to the lesser-known legends of Indian psychology fraternity; briefly, one at a time.

Imagine a man instructing the local technicians of Calcutta to fabricate the psychological instruments, as there are no suppliers (or makers) of psychological instruments at the time in the entire India. He was forced to do that as, owing to the world war, all import had got suspended, and all he was left with was a couple of kymographs, a chronoscope, a few stopwatches, a time marker, a few aesthesiometers and a few telegraphic keys – all imported earlier from Palmers in the UK, for a psychology laboratory. ?????

Little did he realize that he was behaving almost like an entrepreneur! But what else would you call a man who happened to found not only the first laboratory of experimental psychology of India in 1916, but also founded the Indian Psychological Association (the first organization of psychologists in India) in 1924 and started the first psychology journal of the country (Indian Journal of Psychology) in 1925. Well, it’s not for nothing that Narendranath Sengupta is called the founder of modern psychology in India. ??

But again! You don’t expect anything lesser from someone who (in school) studied English under the great philosopher Sri Aurobindo (founder of the famous Pondicherry ashram), earned his PhD in philosophy from Harvard University from the department chaired by William James (known as father of American psychology), and followed it up with study in psychology at the same place under Hugo Munsterberg (a pioneer of applied psychology) who himself learnt research under the great Wilhelm Wundt (known as the father of experimental psychology). ??????????????????????????

As is often the case with most great people, Sengupta’s career was navigated by a mentor. Sir Ashutosh Mukerjee, the great attorney who was also the vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta at the time when Sengupta had completed his PhD, advised him to stay at Harvard for follow-up study in psychology, with a vision to later come back and initiate the study of modern psychology at Calcutta University. Sengupta not only stayed there, but also learnt from famous Holt and Yerkes and went to E. B. Titchener’s famous Cornell laboratory. ??????????

A man, who was hopelessly fond of tea and enjoyed company of people from all walks of academia, also had a great sense of humor and a resonating laughter. He had proficiency in multiple languages, viz. English, Bengali, Pali, Sanskrit, German, as well as French. He was extremely well-read, with knowledge not only of the western thought, but also of Shaivism to Sufism. He published three books – Introduction to Social Psychology, Heredity in Mental Traits, and Mental Growth and Decline.

However, towards the latter part of his life, his focus shifted to the psychology of religion, and he focused primarily on experimentally investigating ‘Sadhana’ – the spiritual pursuit required for the accomplishment of one’s goals. Around the time of his death, he was working on his magnum opus “Mechanisms of Ecstasy”, in which, he intended to draw from the original literature from the religious texts of ancient India as well as the classics of Christian mysticism.

Well, a befitting final project for someone who brought the best of the two worlds to Indian shores of psychology…

Dr. Sandeep Atre

Counseling Psychologist (www.dratrecounsels.com ) and Specialist in ‘Social & Emotional Intelligence’ Training (www.socialigence.net )

Content Credit: Majority of factual information used in this article is credited to the work of Mr. Hari Shanker Asthana and Mr. Braj Bhushan (Title – Eminent Indian Psychologists – Sage Publication).