Prasanna Kumar Roy

Prasanna Kumar Roy (1849 – 1932; better known as Dr. P. K. Roy) was an educationist and the first Indian principal of Presidency College, Kolkata.

Early life Roy was born in 1849 in Subhadya (now in Keraniganj Upazila of Dhaka District, Bangladesh). He was a student of Pogose School in Dhaka. In his youth, he was attracted to the Brahmo Samaj. This came between him and his father, who turned him out of his house. In 1869, P. K. Roy was initiated into Brahmanism, along with Ananda Mohan Bose and Aghorenath Chattopadhyay, by Keshab Chandra Sen.

He won a Gilchrist Scholarship to study in England. There he graduated from the University of London in 1873. He was awarded a Doctor of Science degree in psychology from the University of Edinburgh and the University of London in 1876. He and Ananda Mohan Bose together established a Brahmo Samaj, the Indian Association, and a library in England.

Roy died in 1932 at Hazaribagh.