For a long time, only the British were appointed to administrative posts in India. In 1832, the post of Musif and Sadar amin were created and opened to Indians. In 1833, the post of deputy Magistrate and deputy Collector were created for Indians. The ICS Act of 1861, established the Indian Civil Service. The Act of 1853 already established the practice of recruiting Indian civilians through competitive examinations. It was a daunting task to go to England at that time and compete with the British for securing a position . However, being inspired by a friend, Monomohan Ghose, Satyendranath, along with Monomohan, set sail for England in 1862 to prepare for and compete in the civil service examination. Satyendranath was selected in June 1863 but Monomohan was not. He was called to the bar. Satyendranath was posted to the Bombay Presidency, which then covered western parts of present day Maharashtra, Gujrat and Sindh. He had his first posting at Ahmedabad. Among the regular visitors to his place were his younger brothers, Jyotirindranath (1849-1825), Rabindranath (1861-1941) and his sister Swarnakumari Devi.
His posting outside Bengal helped him to learn several Indian languages other than Bengali. While in Maharashtra he had close contact with many of the leading reformers, such as, Govinda Ranade, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar and Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar.He retired as a Judge of Satara in Maharashtra in 1897.
Ram Mohan Roy found Hindu Indian women "uneducated and illiterate, deprived of property rights, married before puberty, imprisoned in purdah, and murdered at widowhood by a barbaric custom of immolation known as SATI". By the time Satyendranath was born, SATI had been baned in 1829, and the process of reformation had begun. Satyendranath began thinking that purdah system had come from Muslim practices. After his marriage (1859), he found that Jnanadanandini was the ideal partner for his social experiments. In-spite of the opposition from Devendranath, he sent her along with her two children, Surendranath and Indira Devi, to England to learn from the behavior of women in an advanced society. In Calcutta, breaking from all the previous practices, he took her to a party at the Government House (now Raj Bhavan). Prasanna Coomar Tagore of Pathuriaghata branch of Tagore family, who was also present on the occasion, became astonished to see a Bengali woman in such an open place among the hundreds of English women and left the place immediately 'in shame and anger'. In 1877, he sent Jnanadanandini Devi with two children to England with an English couple. They, initially stayed with the family of Prasanna Coomar Tagore's son, Gnanendramohan Tagore, who had converted to Christianity and was the first Indian to qualify for the English bar. Later Jnanadanandini with her children shifted to Brighton and lived on their own there.This was the attempt of Satyendranath to remove the upper and middle class women from purdah.
Patriotism;
The Tagore family was deeply patriotic. It was a fashion to wear foreign clothes and use foreign language (without having sound knowledge) at that time. The members of Tagore family stuck to wearing Indian dress and did a lot to improve Bengali language. Satyendranath was one of the persons to organize Hindu Mela to arouse patriotism in people. In the second session, he composed the pariotic song "mile sabe Bharat santan, ektan gaho gaan" ( unite India's Children, sing in unision). The song was hailed as the first national anthem of India.
After retirement, he lived in Park Street and Ballygunge in Kolkata. His house was the meeting place of his friends and relatives. Persons who visited regularly, outside his family members, were Taraknath Palit, Monomohan Ghose, Satyendraprasanna Sinha, W.C.Banerjee, Krishna Govinda Gupta, and Bihari Lal Gupta and others.
His house at Park Street was the centre of a literary majlis.
He was president of Bangiya Sahitya Parishad from 1900-1901and presided over the 10th session of the Bengal Provincial Conference held at Natore in 1897.
Satyendranath was the author of :
1. Sushila o Birsingha (play, 1867)
2. Bombay Chitra (1888)
3. Nabarathna mala
4. Stree swadhinata
5. Baudhafharmma
6. Amar Balyakatha
7. Bharatbarshiya Ingrej
8.Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
He translated works of Tilak's Bhagabat Gita Bhasya, Kalidas's Meghduta,and Tukaram's Abhanga. He also composed few patriotic songs and Brahmo Sangeet and sometimes edited Tattwabodhini.
