Ram Camul Sen (1783-1844) was a Bengali intellectual and entrepreneur. Part of a group that inaugurated the Bengal renaissance, he proved less a prolific writer and scholar and more a gifted organizer and administrator.

A Kashatriya by caste and, according to his own account, a descendant of the medieval Bengali king Ballal Sena, Ram Camul Sen left a Hooghly village for Calcutta in 1790, at the age of 7. His father was proficient in Persian and secured clerical positions, and Ram Camul himself learned English, Sanskrit, and Persian in the manner of the sons of the Calcutta elite.

Ram Camul found his first job in 1803, as a subordinate clerk's assistant in the Calcutta chief magistrate's office. The chief magistrate was evidently impressed with Ram Camul's industrious work habits. In 1804 two scholars associated with the Asiatic Society of Bengal invited Sen to work for the Hindoostanee Press as a compositor.

Despite...