Prelims 2021 · Q46
EasyWho among the following was associated as Secretary with Hindu Female School which later came to be known as Bethune Female School?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was the first Secretary of the school J.E.D. Bethune founded in Calcutta in 1849 for girls, then called the Hindu Female School and later Bethune School. Vidyasagar was a Bengali social reformer who backed women's education.
- ✓ (c) Bethune College's own history says Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar was the first Secretary of Bethune School, which grew out of the girls' school Bethune set up in 1849.
- ✗ (d) Sarojini Naidu (born 1879) was a poet and Congress leader of a later generation, long after the school was founded in 1849.
- ✗ (a) Annie Besant came to India in 1893 and is linked with the Theosophical Society and the Home Rule League, not this Calcutta school.
Remember · Bethune School, Calcutta (1849): founded by J.E.D. Bethune, with Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar as its first Secretary; it became Bethune College in 1879.
Sources
- Bethune College, Kolkata — history (Internet Archive copy of the college website) ↗ · reference work “Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar was the first Secretary of Bethune School. … who established Calcutta Female School, the first school for girls in Calcutta with the help of Raja Dakshinaranjan Mukhopadhyay, Ramgopal Ghosh, and Pandit Madan Mohan Tarkalankar in 1849, with 21 girls on its roll.”
- North Bengal University institutional repository — Education and Social Change (Vidyasagar and women's education) ↗ · reference work “He supported Drinkwater Bethune in establishing the Hindu Female School (1849).”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink ·