Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-10-20
THE RARoo AND HIS ENGLISH.
An Educated Hindu Has Something to
Say to the Satirists.

| An Educated Hindu Has Something to
Say to the Satirists.
Andra Singha in the London Specta-
tor.-Mr Anstey in his latest book,
A Bayard from Bengal has followed
what is now a somewhat old, and,
| should think, worn tradition in poking
fun at my fellow countrymen. 1t was
in the '70s" of the last century that
the late Aberigh- Machay wrote that
Wnen Lord Macaulay said that what
the milk was to the cocoanut. what
beauty was to the buffalo, and what
scandal was to woman, that DR.. John
sons dictionary was to the Bengal
Baboo, he unquestionably spoke in
terms OF fgurative exaggeration.
Mr. Anstey probably remembers and
has made literary capital of another
passage in the same essay, which SAYS
that 'the true Baboo is full of words
and phrases-full of inappropriate
words and phrases, lying about like.
dead men on a battlefield, to be
carted away promiscuously, without.
refernce to kith and kim" Not other
wise, perhaps, would a genially satiri-
cal Roman if he could return to earth,
write to English attempts to write
Latin.
Necessity compels us to use the Ian
guage of our foreign masters. Our
instructors in school and college set
before us such models as DR.. Johnson
and Lord Macaulay, writer's whose
mannerisms are easily exaggerated by
even English imitators; and thus in
English we show a tendency to YER
bosity which is not, think, a char
acteristic Of our vernacular style But
surely some allowance should be made
for foreigners using a strange speech,
and one whose rich vocabulary per-
haps tends to exuberance of speech.
Such allowance is not always wanted.
The first Bengal Baboo who wrote
English, less than 100 years ago, was
the well known Rajah Ram Mohun
Roy. Jeremy Bentham was not per-
haps an unprecedented critic, but he
was at least an eminent man of let
tiers. Writing to Ram Mohun about
the year 1880, he said: your works
are made known to me by book in
which read style which, but for
the name of a Hindu, should GER
tainly have ascribed to the pen OF a
superiority (sic) educated and in
structed Englishman." And in an
other place, after some words Of
praise of James Mills History OF
British India,' he adds: Though, as
to style, l wish l could with truth
and sincerity pronounce it equal to
yours
In truth, Englishmen, however
benevolentlyg disposed toward us Ben
galese, do not seem to realize how
recent is our start, how rapid our
progress in letters. So lately as 1890
no work had ever been written in
Bengal prose. Our literature was en-
tirely composed as songs, stories,
epics, all composed in primitive
rhyme. In 1890 Rapah Ram Mohun
wrote his ''Himdudiger Pauttalik
Dharmapranali," or disquisition on
Hindu idolatry. A hundred years
ago we were in something of Mr..
Jourdian's predicament, and did not
know that we could write prose, even
in our own language. 1t was the
study of English literature which
opened our eyes to the possibilities OF
our own speech. Ram Mohun Roy
was an innovator, and his attempt
was not very successful. But since
then we have had the exquisite prose
style, as charmingly naive and artless
as, that of your own Goldsmith Of
Iswar Chandra, the richly modulated
blank verse of Madhu Suhdan, the
picturesque and rapid prose of Ban
kim Chandra, to say nothing of the
works of many others whose names
would be unfamiliar to Englishmen.
In English literature we can hardly
hope to find place, though many of
your readers must have admired Miss
Toru Quits Ancient Ballads and
Legends of Hindostan." Let me, in
passing, quote one verse as a sample
of her dextrous use of your Ian
guage:-
Still barred thy doors! The far East
glows,
The morning wind blows fresh and
free.
Should not the hour that wakes the
rose
Wake also thee?
That is pretty well for a Bengal
girl of II, who could write even better
than that in French Romesh Chun-
der Dutt writes with equal ease in
Bengal and English, and many of
our journalists and lawyers are, what
few English are, biglot beings, who
can enjoy two literatures, and write,
not without distinction, in two Ian
guages. Only a hundred years ago
our literature was not yet at the stage
yours reached when Chaucer and
Cover wrote. Perhaps we have some
of the drawbacks of precocity and
too rapid intellectual growth. But at
least we are young pupils and, as even
Mr.. Anstey's fun shows, apt pupils.
We shall do better yet. l wish Mr..
| Anstey could read am sure he
1 Do