A tribute to Henri Louis Vivian Derozio and Young Bengal
Anindya Ghoshal
A small tribute to Henri Louis Vivian Derozio who was
born on April 18, 1809. All mistakes are mine and apologies
for them in advance. Acknowledgement due to Prof. Manidipa
Banerjee, my elder sister.
regards,
Anindya.
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email address: agho...@eng2.uconn.edu
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Sonnet to the Students of the Hindu College
Expanding like the petals of young flowers
I watch the gentle opening of your minds,
And the sweet loosening of the spell that binds
Your intellectual energies and powers
That stretch (like young buds in soft summer hours)
Their wings to try their strength. O, how the winds
Of cirmcumstance, and freshening April showers
Of early knowledge, and unnumbered kinds
Of new perceptions shed their influence;
And how you worship truth's omnipotence!
What joyance rains upon me, when I see
Fame in the mirror of futurity,
Weaving the chaplets you have yet to gain,
And then I feel I have not lived in vain.
Henri Louis Vivian Derozio.
(published in the Bengal Annual, 1831)
A Brief Chronological events in the life of Derozio:
1781: Calcutta Madrassa founded by Warren Hastings and
John Duncan founded the Benaras Sanskrit College in 1793.
1800: Fort William College was founded.
1809: Derozio was born to Sophia Derozio (ne'e Johnson)
and Francis Derozio on April 18 on Lower Circular
Road, Calcutta.
1815: Derozio was enrolled at Dharmtollah Academy and
came under the influence of David Drummond.
1817: Hindu College was opened on January 20 by Gora
Chand Basak, Gopi Mohan Deb (father of Radhakanta
Deb), Joy Krishna Sinha et al.
1818: David Hare and Raja Radhakanta Deb formed the
Calcutta School Society. Serampore College
founded by Carey et al.
1823: Derozio leaves school to become a clerk at his
father's office.
1823: Financial difficulties arose in Hindu College.
1824: The foundation stone of the building for Hindu
College (originally intended for Sanskrit College)
was laid on a piece of land donated by David Hare
with help of Raja Rammohun Roy and others on February
25. Sanskrit College, Calcutta founded.
1825: On the prodding of David Hare, Rammohun Roy et al
British Govt. came to the assistance of the College
but on the condition that it would be open to inspection
by the Govt..
1826: In March, Derozio was appointed as the teacher
of English Literature and History in the Second
and Third Classes of Hindu College at a monthly
remuneration of Rs. 150. On May 1, Hindu College
(now Presidency College) moved into its present building.
1827: He published his first volume of 'Poems' printed
by Baptist Mission Press (S. Smith and Co., Hurkaru
Library, Calcutta). Poems was dedicated to Dr. John
Grant, Editor of India Gazette.
(Note: His collected poems were published by
F. Bradley-Birt in the the book "Poems' published
by Oxford Univ. Press 1923).
1828: 'The Fakeer of Jungheera, a Metrical Tale and Other
Poems' by Derozio was published by S. Smith and Co.,
Hurkaru Library, Calcutta. This book was dedicated to
Horace Hayman Wilson and is prefaced by Derozio's
much acclaimed sonnet 'My Country in the Day of
Glory Past'. (Author's Note: Possibly this the first poem
for Independence of India..not sure) Derozio wrote
a critique of Kant's philosophy around this time but
this work is lost.
1829: Either on 1828 or 1829 he established a debating club
known as Academic Association in consort with his pupils.
Under Derozio's guidance the advanced students of Hindu
College published the first Indian conducted English
weekly 'Pantheon'. It was stopped by Dr. H. H. Wilson,
Visitor of the College (today remembered chiefly as scholar
of Sanskrit). Derozio a free thinker, impressed
upon his pupils the duty of thinking freely; but the freedom
of thought and action which he inculcated affected their
ancestral faith and culminated not only in open renunciation of
Hindu orthodoxy but also in a spirit of aggressive heterodoxy.
This brought him and his students into open conflict with the
managing committee of the College and the upholders of the
orthodox Hindu Society. Lord Bentick at the instance of
Raja Rammohun Roy and others on December 4, declared
'Sati' as illegal.
1830: Management of the College passed stricter guidelines bounding
on the teachers upon the threat of dismissal to abstain from
any discussion on the subject of Hindu religion and or to
commit any acts which are inconsistent to Hindu notions of
propriety. Derozio and his students continued to rebel against
the narrow orthodoxy of the then Hindu society and the
renaissance period sees its light through the birth of the
Young Bengal movement. The orthodox Hindu Society led by
Ramkamal Sen (grandfather of Keshab Chandra Sen, one of the
most radical reformers of later times), Radhakanto Deb et al
struck back with rumors and reports complete with moral and
personal character assassination of Derozio and his students.
Christian Missionaries of Calcutta led Dr. Duff arranged for
lectures on Christianity which complicated the matter further.
An intervention by David Hare stopped the matters from worsening
further and the lectures series was dropped. Lord Hardinge had
the resolution on Sati ratified in House of Commons with the
help of Raja Rammohun Roy inspite of opposition from the
orthodox Hindus and their petitions to Privy Council were
repealed.
1831: Derozio resigned as President of Academic Association and
David Hare steps in as President with Umashankar Bose remaining
as secretary. On April 23, despite the opposition of David Hare
and Wilson, Ramkamal Sen requisitioned a meeting of the Managing
Committee to dismiss Derozio who was called 'the root of all evils'
and punish the more advanced students who had publicly displayed
their hostility to orthodoxy. Derozio was condemned in the
meeting by the members without even given a chance
to defend himself. Hare and Wilson abstained from the vote.
On April 25, Derozio sent in his letter of resignation to Wilson.
On Monday, December 26, "in the midst of strenuous work and
youthful enthusiasm, he died of cholera, watched by in his
sick bed through six weary and painful nights and days, by his
pupil friends of the Hindu College." (Ref.vi)
Prasanna Kumar Tagore started the periodical paper 'Reformer'
and Krishnamohan Bandyopadhyay started a weekly called the Enquirer
on May 17, which formed the main mouthpieces of Young Bengal.
Krishnamohan published his five act drama 'Persecuted' or
"Dramatic Scenes, Illustrative of the Present State of Hindoo
Society" in November.
1833: Raja Rammohan Roy died on Sept. 27, at Bristol at the presence
of the sister of David Hare and other English friends (Ten
years later his friend and follower Prince Dwarkanath Tagore
moved his mortal remains to a beautiful mauseleum to Arno's
Vale on the outskirts of Bristol, England). Calcutta Literary
Gazette on Oct. 13, published a course of lectures on Modern
British Poets delivered by Derozio before his death.
1834: Lord Macaulay travels to India. St. Xavier's College founded.
1835: Inspite of opposition from the Orientalists (Vernacularists)
the Anglicists led by Lord Macaulay prevailed upon Lord Bentinck
to pass a 'Resolution' to impart the education through English
Language. Macaulay becomes Visitor to Hindu College.
1839: Academic Association closes down.
1844: Indian members agree to withdraw their connection to the College
in consideration of the Government undertaking to enlarge
and improve the institution.
1855: Hindu College was abolished on June 15, the junior department
continued in the shape of Hindu School and the senior department
as 'Presidency College' became the first Government College
for imparting European education to Indian youths. It completed
a full circle since the time when the College in its early
years was distrusted both by the Christian missionaries and
the Orthodox Hindus as a secular institution which were undermining
the foundations of the beliefs of the time. The College
remained in its uncomprising modernity became the controlling
force of the new movement and and important vehicle in the
history of Western education in Bengal. Its success and
failures remains equally instructive as it paved the way to
lay the foundation of the Modern Secular India.
1856: Widow Remarriage Act passed at the effort of Iswar Chandra
Vidyasagar. Universities at Calcutta, Madras & Bombay were
founded. Bengal Engineering College, Sibpur was founded.
1865: Iswar Chandra Gupta and Vidyasagar leads the movement against
kulinism and polygamy.
Brief Note:
(i) During the very brief period of his brilliant career
Derozio not only won the esteem of his colleagues and the
loving reverence of his pupils, but he did more than any man
then living to arouse, quicken and impel the thoughts of
the Young Bengal; and this indeed was the grave offence
which called down on him the reviling and abuse of Christian
and Hindu bigots of his day who took fright at his outspoken
treatment of sacred themes. The legacy of the gifted Eurasian
teacher, poet and philosopher Henri Louis Vivian Derozio lives
on. The other person to influence the English teaching at Hindu
College was the illustrious journalist, poet and essayist
David Lester Richardson. Both these teachers established the
tradition of an enthusiastic study English Literature, one by
his fluent and impassioned poetry with deep influence of Byron and
Moore and the other by his scholarly work in verse and prose.
Under their guidance commenced the English education in Bengal.
(ii) Pyari Chand Mittra, a student and follower of Derozio and a
noted scholar later on noted : "He used to impress upon his pupils
the sacred duty of thinking for themselves --to be in no way
influenced by the idols mentioned by Bacon-- to live and die
for truth--to cultivate and practice all the virtues, shunning
vice in every shape. He often read examples from ancient history
of the love of justice, patriotism, philanthropy and self
abnegation, and the way in which he set forth his points stirred
the minds of the pupils." On his teaching influence he adds:"Some
were impressed with the excellence of justice, some with the
paramount importance of truth, some with patriotism, some
with philanthropy."
(iii) Amongst Derozio's pupils and disciples as part of Young Bengal
who had profound impact on Bengal and Indian Renaissance in Nineteenth
Cent. are: Krishna Mohun Bannerji (an eminent scholar and
educationist), Rasik Krishna Mallick, Kasi Prasad Ghosh,
DakshinaRanjan Mukherji (who along with John Drinkwater Bethune
and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar were responsible for spread of female
education..see development of Bethune school and College, 1849/1856
ref. xiv),Ramgopal Ghosh, Ramtanu Lahiri (Ref. vii), Radhanath Sikdar,
Peary Chand Mittra (eminent scholar and businessman whose mark
on nineteenth cent. Bengal is unmistakable), Gobinda Chandra Basak,
Madhab Chandra Mallik, Prasanna Kumar Tagore (icon of Tagore family
who along with Prince Dwarkanath Tagore are considered to be the
pioneers as Bengali industrialists and renowned as philantrophists.
By the time Dwarkanath died in UK like his friend Rammohun,
his conservative wife and his children including Debendranath
Tagore (father of Rabindranath Tagore) practically severed their
links with their father, it was left to his cousin Prasanna Coomar
to travel to England and perform his last rites. Debendranath's
mother's influence, Brahmo Samaj, and disenchantment with father
led him to shift the Tagore family investment from industry
to land which practically caused a death knell to Bengali
involvment in industry and later on with famines and Partition
showed the lack of vision in investment in Debendranath unlike
his father (ref. xv)) et al.
(iv) Derozio and his Young Bengal movement, however immature it
might have been in some aspects spearheaded the foundation of
Modern India. Reformers like Raja Rammohun Roy (father of Modern
India), Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, David Hare, J. D. Bethune,
Debendranath Tagore et al were the people who made it all
possible and the road to a Secular India was laid...
Refs.:
(Note: Derozio's own writings are listed above).
(i) Peary Chand Mittra: A Biographical Sketch of David Hare, Calcutta
1877.
(ii) Peary Chand Mittra: Biographical Sketch of Ram Comul Sen, Calcutta
1880.
(iii) Peary Chand Mittra: Biographical Sketch of David Hare, Calcutta
1877.
(iv) Sanyal R. G.: Bengal Celebrites. Calcutta, 1893.
(v) Gangopadhyay Sudhir et al, 'Banglar Monisha' Vol. I-II, Calcutta
1988, 1990.(The Greats from Bengal)
(vi) S. K. De : Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.
Firma KLM, Calcutta 1962.
(vii) Shibnath Shastri: Ramtanu Lahiri O Totkalin BongoSamaj, Calcutta.
(Ramtanu Lahiri and Contemporary Bengali Society).
(viii) Relevant documenatations in Calcutta Review (1911) and Bengal
Gazette (1825-33).
(ix) Madge E.: "Forgotten Anglo-Indian Bards, a Lecture", 1896, and
Henry Derozio, the Eurasian Poet and Reformer a Lecture, 1904.
Calcutta.
(x) Brojendranath Banerjee: 'Sambad Potre Sekalar Kotha'
(xi) Edwards Thomas: Henry Derozio, The Eurasian Poet, Teacher, and
Journalist, Calcutta 1884.
(xii)(a) Smith: Life of Alexander Duff.
(b) Lal Behari Dey's: Recollection of Alexander Duff, London 1879.
(xiii) Utpal Dutt (director): Jhor (Storm), An excellent movie
portraying Derozio's life and Contemporary Bengali Society in
Calcutta.
(xiv) Manmothonath Ghosh: Raja Dakshina Ranjan Mukhopadhyaya, Calcutta.
(xv) Blair King: Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, Firma KLM, Calcutta.
D B Tam
posting. We need to remember Derozio and his spirited dedication to
freedom of expression, freedom of intellect, in these days when so many
so-called educated people can't seem to think straight.
Ranes C. Chakravorty
the book Jharer Pakhi. Probably not much material is available
on him. During that period there were so many remarkable
Bengalis. Ilook at our current crop and wonder what happened to
the Bengali genius.
--
Ranes C Chakravorty MD
Vet Aff Medical Center
Salem, VA 24153
(703) 982-2463 Xn. 2674 rc...@virginia.edu