# Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer: A History of the Renaissance in Bengal/Chapter 8

CHAPTER VIII
RAMTANU'S LIFE IN 1846-1856
The 1st of January 1846 was a memorable day for the people of Krishnagar, for it witnessed the opening of the Krishnagar College. Siris Chandra was now the Raja, and he encouraged the establishment of the institution. His predecessors had never thought of sending their boys to public schools; but he unhesitatingly sent his son, Satis Chandra to the College, and himself became one of the most energetic members of its Managing Committee.
Captain D. L. Richardson was appointed principal of the college, and Ramtanu Babu second master of the school. He entered with great earnestness upon his work, and rendered himself a general favourite. His old pupils, still living, say that, when engaged in teaching, the faces of his boys, and the lessons before him, absorbed his whole attention; and he seemed to be almost insensible to everything else. His method of teaching was unique. He was against cramming; and his chief aim was to put his pupils in the way of exercising their faculties on any special subject that might be presented to them. He never remained satisfied with teaching truths in the abstract, but illustrated them in their various relations in actual life. He would comment upon a single word in the lesson of the day so as to give a volume of information. Supposing he met with the word Arabia; he would not think it enough simply to say what or where it was; but would describe its physical features, the nature of the people dwelling in it, and their faith, winding up with a lecture on Muhammad ​and his times. Nobody can deny that, though his pupils made a tardy progress in their text-book, their minds were enriched by much useful information, and fully developed, so as to be able to grasp subjects of importance too difficult for young lads trained in a different way.
In Ramtanu the boys found not only a good teacher, but a loving friend also. He mixed with them in the playground and in the hours of rest, and his edifying company did much to call forth those virtues which in many cases adorned their characters during their subsequent lives.
The conflicts between the orthodox and the reformed Hindus in Calcutta, of which we have spoken in the last three chapters, were now renewed in Krishnagar. The first attack on the errors and superstitions of Hinduism was made by Sriprasad, the younger brother of Ramtanu. He had a free English School in his house; and here he preached against idolatry and the evil practices connected therewith. In course of time, there arose a number of young men in Krishnagar, who commenced a war against popular Hinduism. These had not to fight unaided. They received fresh recruits from the Missionary School close by, most of the students of which, under the influence of their teacher, Babu Brajanath Mukerji, a Brahmo, had publicly forsaken the religion of their forefathers and accepted the doctrines of Monotheism. And at length this young band of reformers, making no longer a secret of their religious convictions, openly announced their determination to put an end to idolatrous Hinduism. They attacked it with a force which its champions found difficult to resist, the more so as Raja Siris Chandra warmly took the side of the young reformers. He opened a Brahmo Samaj in the palace, and was delighted to see the spread of Vedic Theism in his Raj. We noticed in the first chapter how the appointment of Hazarilal, a Sudra, as the expounder of the Vedas in the Samaj offended ​him; and how he refused it the use of his own hall. But he still sympathised with the movement, and the Samaj was in a thriving condition even when its meetings, instead of being held in the palace, took place first in a small house at Aminbazar, and subsequently in one built for it in 1847. But the advocates of Puranic idolatry did not remain inactive. They, under the leadership of some wealthy citizens, established a Dharmasabha, or an association for the defence of Hinduism. But they could not do any harm to the new school, as the Raja was in its favour. In fact, he stood as the umpire between it and the old school. Many of the pandits of the latter were convinced by him of the propriety of worshipping the one God of the Vedas, but had not the moral courage to act up to their convictions.
Many may be surprised to hear that Ramtanu had no sympathy with the Brahmo Samaj. He was one of those that had entered the lists against the Calcutta Brahmos in their unreasonable attacks on Christianity, and attempts to give the Vedas the character of a Divine revelation, and he was still opposed to them on principle. The letter he wrote on 24th July 1846, to his friend Raj Narain Bose, in Calcutta, a zealous Brahmo, explains his attitude toward the society, to which the latter belonged. The letter runs thus:
“MY DEAR RAJ NARAIN,—I cannot think much of the Vedantic movements here or elsewhere. Their followers merely temporise. They do not believe that the religion is from God, but will not say so to their countrymen who believe otherwise. Now, in my humble opinion, we should never preach doctrines as true in which we have no faith ourselves. I know that the subversion of idolatry is a consummation devoutly to be wished for; but I do not desire it to come about by employing wrong means. I do ​not allow the principle that means justify the end. Let us follow the right path, assured that it will ultimately promote the welfare of mankind. It can never do otherwise. I wish to request the Secretary of the Tatwabodhini Sabha to discontinue sending me the Society’s paper [Patrika], as one cannot subscribe to it who is not a member of the Society. ... I fear also that there is a spirit of hostility entertained by the Society against Christianity which is not credible. Our desire should be to see truth triumph. Let the votaries of all religions appeal to the reason of their fellow-creatures, and let him who has truth on his side prevail.”
Though Mr Lahiri did not join the Brahmo Samaj, yet his appearance among the educated people of Krishnagar, and the healthy influence he exerted on them, infused into them new and noble sentiments. He had learnt from his teacher, Mr Derozio, how to appreciate truth. He had learnt from him, too, to respect freedom in thought and action; and, like him, he encouraged his pupils, whether in the class-room or out of it, to discuss freely the various topics he suggested. He had a regard for everyone’s opinions; and was never ashamed to acknowledge it if his own judgment on any occasion seemed to him to be wrong. To the end of his life he sincerely believed that he might learn something from even the youngest. He was old enough to be our father, but he paid heed to our opinions out of the belief that God reveals His truth to “babes and sucklings.” And great was his delight if he heard anything from our lips worthy of his approval. The young men of Krishnagar learnt from him to think freely, to discuss freely, and to act freely.
Now, at this time, a new subject came under discussion in Krishnagar—the remarriage of Hindu widows. Many believe that Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagara was the originator ​of this movement; but it was not so. Mr Derozio’s pupils, in The Bengal Spectator, which they edited, had taken up the cause of Hindu widows, and ventilated the question of their taking, of course under particular circumstances, a second husband after the death of the first, and Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagara took his cue from them. The references to the sayings of the sage Purrashur, quoted by the latter as sanctioning widow remarriage, had first appeared in The Bengal Spectator. From its pages this important social question caught the attention of the public. Raja Siris Chandra entered into a discussion on it with the pandits of Nadia; and it was expected that he might do something in the noble cause. But the following unforeseen occurrences damped the Raja’s enthusiasm, and he had to give it up.
Raja Siris Chandra was about to have the remarriage of widows sanctioned by the pandits, when the young reformers in the city held a meeting on the subject, on the premises of the college, and, after talking themselves hoarse on the pernicious customs of Hindu society, bound themselves by a solemn oath to fight on behalf of the widows of their country. They did not know the weapons their enemies were preparing to use against them. The latter spread a rumour that the college students had in the meeting butchered a cow, feasted on its meat, and made themselves drunk with wine. The rumour seriously compromised the young men themselves, the cause of widow marriage, and the college too. Many, regarding the college as a hot-bed of heterodoxy, withdrew their sons from it, and it would have suffered much but for the protecting hand of the Raja. The young men also got off unharmed, for the same hand was stretched out to screen them; but the question of widow marriage, being associated with their late alleged revelries, was looked at with ​suspicion by the pandits; so that the Raja Siris Chandra, afraid of incurring their displeasure, no longer sought their help in the movement.
Another incident had happened just before the above-mentioned meeting in the college, which brought upon Babu Ramtanu and his associates the stigma of beefeaters. Babu Kartik Chandra Roy writes thus about it:
“A friend of ours, Babu Kali Krishna Mitra, came to us from Calcutta. To do honour to him, Ramtanu Babu, his brothers, myself, and about ten others had a picnic at Anandabagh, a garden about three miles from our house. On our return from there we talked about widow marriage, and every one of us signed a bond to the effect that we would be its champion. The next day some malicious characters spread the false report that a calf’s head, severed from the body, was lying hid under a stack of bricks near our house. It was then followed by the cry that So-and-so had lost his calf; and on the following day the alleged calf’s head, and the loss of the calf, were explained by the bold assertion of our enemies that we had feasted on the calf at our picnic.”
We have subsequently heard from some of our Krishnagar friends that the foundation on which the rumour was based was that the young men had killed a goat, and had left it for some time hanging from the branch of a tree. A good neighbour saw this, and hastened home to tell his friends that the Lahiris had killed a calf. His story got additions and exaggerations, till Ramtanu Babu and his companions in the picnic were branded as cow-killing beefeaters.
The events narrated above took place either at the end of 1850 or at the beginning of 1851; and they made Krishnagar too hot for Ramtanu. Unfounded public scandal, together with the grief it caused his father and friends, made him desirous of obtaining a transfer to ​another sphere of work. And this desire ripened into a resolution when, on the death of his first-born child, the neighbours cast in his wife’s teeth that, in taking away his son, the gods had punished the father for the sin of beefeating. He applied for a transfer, and was appointed headmaster of the Burdwan School in April 1851, on a salary of 150 rupees a month.
While Krishnagar was full of the agitations described above, measures were being taken in Calcutta by reformers to promote female education. Mr Drinkwater Bethune, President of the Education Council, and legal member, of the Governor-General’s Council, with the assistance of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagara and Madan Mohan Tarkalankar, and with the approval of the Indian gentlemen of Calcutta educated in English, founded, on the 7th of May 1849, girls’ school, now raised to a college, which still bears his name. Hare had been the friend of boys, Bethune was the friend of girls. When he visited the school — and this he did every day — he brought presents for the pupils. He often invited them to his house and gave them toys, sweetmeats, and valuable articles of dress. He was fond of frolics too, and sometimes, imitating a high-mettled horse, he trotted about with a Bengali girl, transformed into a Miss Sahib, on his back.
But the foundation of Bethune’s School was not the first move towards female education. Similar endeavours had been made long before. As early as 1817 the School Society took up the question, and at the suggestion of Radhakanta Deb succeeded in getting the doors of its patshalas opened to boys and girls alike. This plan, after two years, appeared faulty to some of the members of the society, and the discussions on the point attracted, in 1819, attention of a Baptist missionary, who made an appeal to the public on the lamentable ignorance ​of Hindu ladies, and pointed out the desirability, nay, the urgent necessity, of giving the girls a decent education. The appeal was responded to by the European ladies belonging to Messrs Lawson and Pearce’s Seminary, who, after mature deliberation, formed the “Female Juvenile Society,” with the object of placing within the reach of their Hindu sisters the blessings of education. The members of the Female Juvenile Society, with the assistance of Raja Radhakanta Deb, established many girls’ schools in Calcutta, and at their instance the British and Foreign School Society sent Miss Cooke, a lady of great attainments, to India, with the idea that she might take the lead in this new and difficult undertaking. She arrived here in November 1821, but unfortunately she had at first to meet with a rebuff. The School Society, now torn by factions, refused to support her, and she would probably have had to return home had not the Church Missionary Society in Calcutta received her with open arms, and promised to pay all her charges. Under this society she began in earnest her work among the benighted women of our country. In a short time ten schools were opened in Calcutta alone, and the number of girls attending them was 277. Miss Cooke soon became Mrs Wilson, and though in this changed position she could not devote so much time as before to the work for which she had left home and its dear associations, yet she remained as zealous a worker as ever.
Kalicharan Ghosh
The aim of the Bethune School was not to forward the cause of any particular religion. Its chief object was to train up girls in useful branches of knowledge so that they might discharge their various duties to themselves and to others, and that in future they might understand and meet their responsibilities as daughters, wives, and mothers. But yet it had to meet with a fierce opposition from the hands of prejudice. Though men like Madan Mohan Tarkalankar, Debendranath Tagore, Ram Gopal Ghosh, and others, sent their girls to it, yet the Hindu society at large, consisting mostly of the illiterate and superstitious, denounced it, saying that the education of women would cause a complete revolution, and that it would be impossible in any way to utilise the book-learned girls in the future who, instead of attending to domestic duties themselves, would assume the airs of “mem-sahibs,” and fag their husbands to death.
It is, however, needless to say that the educated in the native community were unanimous in their gratitude to Mr Bethune for the establishment of the school. They loved him, too, and in the trying position in which he was soon to find himself he could count upon their love and friendship. That the heart of the educated native beat in unison with his was a sufficient comfort to him in the hour of his unpopularity with the majority of his country​men in India. In the capacity of the Governor-General’s legal counsellor he was called upon to prepare four drafts for the protection of natives from the lawless and flagrantly outrageous conduct of Englishmen in the Mufasal, nominally under the Supreme Court, but in reality answerable to no tribunal; for, as the law then stood, they were exempt from the jurisdiction of the district and subdivisional criminal courts. Cases against them could be brought before the Supreme Court, but the wronged had seldom the time and the means to seek redress there. He prepared the drafts, and thereby incurred the hatred of many Englishmen in Bengal, save a few officials of the East India Company. The drafts were as follows:—
1. Draft of an Act abolishing exemption from the jurisdiction of the East India Company’s criminal courts. 2. Draft of an Act declaring the privileges of Her Majesty’s European subjects. 3. Draft of an Act for the protection of medical officers. 4. Draft of an Act for trial by jury in the Company’s territory.
As soon as these drafts were laid before the Governor-General’s Council most of the Englishmen in India protested against them. They gave them the name of the “Black Acts,” and spoke of the Governor-General, Mr Bethune, and the other members of the Council in bitter terms. The Anglo-Indian newspapers raised a cry. At length the opposers of the Bills held a large meeting, in which it was resolved to lay the matter before Parliament, and the sum of 36,000 rupees was raised to enable them to keep the opposition alive here as well as in England. There was no one among Indians ready to use his tongue or pen in favour of the proposed legislation save Ram ​Gopal Ghosh. The reader will see by reference to the “Life of Ram Gopal,” in the Appendix, his point of view.
Mr Bethune’s antagonists in the end got the better of him. The authorities at home ordered that the proposed Bills should not be passed; and the Governor-General was compelled to abide by their wishes. Mr Bethune, through excessive labour and anxiety, soon fell ill, and died on the 12th of August 1851. The success induced imitation, but on better lines and in a better cause. The educated gentlemen of Bengal resolved to combine, in order to criticise the measures of the Government, and to offer united representations to the authorities on all matters of importance. The organisation of a select body for the purpose was at once taken in hand. There were already the “Bengal Landowners’ Association,” consisting chiefly of the wealthy Zemindars of Calcutta, and, the “Bengal British India Society”; and it was thought advisable that the two should be amalgamated. The desired amalgamation took place, and there rose into existence “The British Indian Association.” That it was from the first a strong organisation is evident from the names of the members who formed the first committee. The names are as follows:—
Raja Radhakanta Deb, President.
xx”x Kali Krishna Deb, Vice-president.
xx”x Satyanarain Charan Ghosal.
Babu Hara Kumar Tagore.
xx”xx Romanath Tagore.
xx”xx Jai Krishna Mukerji.
xx”xx Ashutosh Deb.
xx”xx Hari Mohan Sen.
xx”xx Ram Gopal Ghosh.
xx”xx Umesh Chandra Datta. ​Babu Krishna Kesor Ghosh.
xx”xx Jagadananda Mukerji.
xx”xx Peari Chand Mitra.
xx”xx Shambhunath Pandit.
xx”xx Debendranath Tagore, Secretary.
xx”xx (afterwards Raja) Digambar Mitra, Assistant Secretary.
The British Indian Association proved a mighty lever in raising the social and political importance of Bengal. Its power was felt as soon as it was organised. Government was impressed with the fact that Indian gentlemen, of the highest rank in society, had united to make their wants known to their rulers, and to defend the rights of the people, and that it could no longer trifle with the feelings of their subjects. These in their turn perceived that they had a strong force to fight for them. So it may with truth be said that every class of men in Calcutta watched the work of the association with keen interest and hopeful hearts. None had ever before this stood by the poor and the oppressed, but now there was a powerful body to advocate their cause. The British Indian Association was formed on 31st October 1851.
Raja Digambar Mitra, C.S.I.
1817-1879.
The news that Ramtanu had rejected the sacred thread soon reached Krishnagar, and many a bigot would have been pleased to kindle the torch to burn him had he been present on the spot. In his absence, however, his old father had to suffer for him. Taunts, abuse, and threats were used to wean his heart from his son, but all was in vain. The pious old man did not lose his equanimity. He did not resent the ill-treatment he received from his neighbours, nor was he at all influenced against his son. The mental anguish he had to suffer he bore in silence. But his son was in his sight a heretic; and this thought caused him so much shame that he could hardly hold up his head in public. Nor did the son remain indifferent to the sufferings of the father. Though absent from his side he tried to comfort him as much as possible in the circumstances. In Ramtanu there was a conflict at the time between the desire to act up to his convictions and the wish to please his father, which almost rent his heart; and he was in after years often seen to weep like a child when speaking of the incidents of this terrible trial.
The reader may be curious to know under what impulse Mr Lahiri finally broke with Hinduism by renouncing the sacerdotal badge, and we can do no better than relate the two incidents which, happening one after the other, and acting conjointly, made him take so bold and decisive a step.
Once when he was performing his mother’s Shradh in Krishnagar, in the style of a genuine Brahman, a boy, pointing at him with a finger of scorn, said, so as to be heard by him, “Ha! You say you do not believe in ​Hinduism; but what is this? You are engaged in your mother’s Shradh, with your Paita fully displayed! A real Brahman! A clever hand you are at hypocrisy, I see!” This taunt cut Ramtanu to the heart. He was forced to admit that the boy was right in his criticism; and from that time he thought seriously of casting off the Brahmanical thread. Then again, in October 1851, when, during the Puja holidays, he was on a pleasant voyage to Ghazipur, to meet his friend Ram Gopal there, this thought of his became matured into a determination; and the corresponding action followed instantaneously. The story runs thus. One day, when he and his friends were enjoying the savoury dishes cooked for them by the Muhammadan boatmen, one of the party humorously said: “See, we are eating the food cooked by a Muhammadan, yet we wear the Paita, the emblem of Brahmanical purity? What hypocrites we are!” The words, though used in a jesting spirit, entered deep into Ramtanu’s heart; and then and there he renounced the Paita for good.
Mr Lahiri remained in Burdwan only for a year. In 1852 he came to Uttarpara as headmaster of the English School there, where he worked till 1856. His son, Navakumar, was about two years old when he left Burdwan. His daughters, Lilavati and Indumati, were born at Uttarpara, Falgoon, in 1854 and in 1855.
He was an outcast here also; but through the assistance of his Calcutta friends he got on pretty comfortably, in spite of the persecution to which he was subject. Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagara sent him servant after servant. While here, he was advised by some of his friends to escape further persecution by taking again the Brahmanical thread; but he was determined not to yield. He said, “What I have done I have done.”
Rajendra Dutta. 1818-1889.
To one more point of public importance we think it well to refer before closing this chapter—that is, the inauguration of the new educational policy of Government in 1855. The Court of Directors in 1854 sent a despatch, said to have been drawn up by John Stuart Mill, with the following instructions:—“The Governor-General should see: (1) that a separate Department in the administration of the country be organised as the Education Department; (2) that a University be established in each of the Presidency cities; (3) that Normal Schools be set up where expedient; (4) that the already existing Government educational establishments be kept going, and fresh ones be added to their number; (5) that middle-class schools be founded all through the country; (6) that a sound education be given to the natives in their vernacular languages, and measures be taken to found schools for the purpose; (7) that Government aid be given to schools and colleges founded by private enterprise.
The instructions of the Court of Directors were carried out the same year. The new Education Department ​was established, with a Director of Public Instruction at its head, and a body of functionaries, called Inspectors of Schools, to help him. In different places Normal Schools to train teachers were established; and the country became studded with Government and Government-aided high, middle, and vernacular schools.
Amidst these changes and improvements, Babu Ramtanu passed his time at Uttarpara, zealously and conscientiously discharging his duties. He modelled many a mind afterwards noted for its intellectual and moral excellence. Those who had learnt at his feet here in youth, deeply impressed with the nobility of his character, and attracted by his winning manners, showed their esteem and love for him when he was no more in the world by putting up in the Uttarpara School a tablet with the following inscription: —
This tablet to the memory of Babu Ramtanu Lahiri is put up by his surviving Uttarpara School pupils as a token of the love, gratitude and veneration that he inspired in them while Headmaster of the Uttarpara School from 1852 to 1856 by his loving care and by his sound method of instruction, which aimed less at the mere imparting of knowledge than at that supreme end of all education, the healthy stimulation of the intellect, the emotions and the will of the pupil, and above all by the example of the noble life he led.
Born, December, 1813; died, August 1898.