Draft:Kanak Dutta

Kanak Dutta (Bengali: কনক দত্ত)) was born Kanak Chatterjee in May, 1927, she was a history teacher, community leader, and activist. She was an early immigrant from India just before the passing of the 1965 Luce-Celler Bill. She urged her high school students to think about the world beyond their own communities. She pioneered South Asian engagement in American politics. Former New Jersey Governor Jim Florio called her “the first lady of Indian-American politics”.

She was always a mentor to American politicians of Indian origin.

Personal Life and Education

Kanak grew up with four brothers and one sister in East Bengal in British India. Her mother Sushila Devi became a single parent after the death of her father when Kanak was 10. Her grandfather Shirish Mukherjee was a prominent lawyer for whom a local road was named.

Kanak attended Dr. Khastagir’s School for Girls in Chittagong. As a young girl, she made posters calling for the British to Quit India. Then, as a student at Calcutta University, she earned her BA in 1945 (and later her Masters in 1948). She also became actively involved in the Student Movement for Indian Independence. It was in those highly charged years, that she met Presidency College student leader Manoranjan Dutta.

A member of the All India Student Congress and the All India Youth Congress, Kanak left the latter, disillusioned that not enough was being done for people on the ground.

In 1947, Kanak and Manoranjan celebrated the Independence of India. Days later, the Partition of the subcontinent forced both their families to leave their homes in East Bengal which would become a part of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

In Calcutta, Kanak married Manoranjan in 1951. Kanak Dutta left her stable position in a traditional school to head Satadal Balika Bidyanathan, the first high school for girls. She also joined the Praja Socialist Party, even running for the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1951.

Academic Career

In 1959, she arrived in Philadelphia with their daughter, to join Her husband had arrived a year before to continue graduate studies at the Wharton School, Univ of Penn. She did further studies in education at the University and from 1961-1963, taught world affairs and modern European history at Friends’ Central School. She advised the local Board of Education as a consultant on India and Indian Culture. She organized the small Indian community to start the Tagore Society in honor of the Indian creative Rabindranath Tagore, to keep their culture alive.

In 1963, Kanak moved to New Jersey with her family. For the next 26 years, she taught high schoolers at Rutgers Preparatory School. She introduced world affairs to that curriculum and took students on their first Model UN trip. She also taught American Foreign Policy, Russian History, Modern European History and Comparative Government.

Public Interest and Political Activities

In 1967, soon after the passage of new 1965 Immigration Laws, Kanak was a co-founder of the Association of Indians in America, the first of its kind in the US. AIA’s goal was to facilitate the participation of the fast-growing Indian immigrant community in American society. To this end, AIA formed a Medical Council to help immigrant physicians from India, and Engineering Council to help those in that discipline. When Idi Amin expelled Indians from Uganda, AIA worked with then-Congressman Ed Kock to admit 5,000 additional Ugandan Indians into the US.

Kanak was active at the grassroots level at the Hunger Project and the NJ Family Service Program. In 1981, before there was any organization to advocate for South Asian survivors of family violence, she single-handedly worked with an Indian woman who had killed her husband after 16 years of an abusive marriage. She found legal help for her and shared her relief when the jury voted to acquit her. Four years later, this particular case inspired the formation of Manavi.

Kanak played a significant role in the Democratic Party. She was New Jersey State Chairperson of Asian/Pacific Americans for Clinton-Gore, Carter-Mondale, and Bill Bradley’s Senate campaign. She was appointed to the NJ Governor's Ethnic Advisory Council, 1979-80, 1980-81, and the White House Conference on Aging, 1981. As a candidate for State Assembly in 1981, she was the first Indian woman, and the first Asian-American woman, to run for office in New Jersey, probably in the US.

Kanak died on September 3, 2018, at the age of 91. Her husband Manoranjan had passed away in 2015. They have a daughter, filmmaker Kavery Kaul.

Related Career

"Multi-cultural Infusion", Workshop, J.P. Stevens High School, Edison, NJ, 1989.

"East-West Connection", Workshop, Cambridge Elementary School, South Brunswick, NJ, sponsored by Office of Equal Education Opportunity, N.J. State Department of Education, 1989.

"Cross-Cultural Lifestyles", Conference sponsored by Jersey City Board of Education, Jersey City, NJ, 1984.

LAW Conference, London, England, organized by United Nations Agency on Human Rights, 1967.

"The Immigrant Experience", Special Conference, The Asia Society, Chicago, Illinois, 1986.

"American School Education" (Presentation) and "U.S. and Chinese School Systems" (Research Survey), Wuhan, Shanghai, and Beijing, China, 1986.

Awards and Honors Manavi Dedicated Service to Community Award, 2015.

March of Dimes Certificate of Appreciation, 1981.

Mahatma Gandhi Community Service Award, Chicago, Illinois, 1982.

Somerville Youth Development Project Award for Community Service, 1982.

Association of (Asian) Indians in America, New Jersey Chapter Honor Award, 1977.