Henry Evan Auguste Cotton

“ Vehemently opposing the administrative partition of Bengal effected by Lord Curzon in 1905, he supported the boycott of foreign goods and the movement in favour of “national” education which arose from the upheaval. ”

“ Passing for the Indian civil service at the open competition of 1870, he was posted to Sylhet as assistant magistrate but, at the expiry of two years, was compulsorily retired on a small compassionate pension, on account of a technical irregularity—a decision since admitted generally to have been unduly harsh. He then opened a small school in Calcutta which soon expanded into the well-known Ripon College. His work as a political reformer began in 1876 when he founded the Calcutta Indian Association, and three years later he became editor of the Bengalee newspaper. ”