Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer: A History of the Renaissance in Bengal/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
RAMTANU'S SCHOOLDAYS IN CALCUTTA
Kesava, as desired by his parents, brought Ramtanu to Chetla in 1826. But anxious as he was to give his brother an English education, he did not find it easy, for his salary of thirty rupees a month, together with what he made by helping people in their lawsuits, barely enabled him to make both ends meet. There being no English school at Chetla or Kalighat, it was necessary that Ramtanu should be lodged somewhere in Calcutta; but who was to take care of him, and whence was the money for his board and education to come? These questions puzzled Kesava. For a time he was compelled to put them aside, and to give his brother as good a home education as he could. Possessing a good knowledge of Persian and Arabic, he taught him these languages. English handwriting too was attended to so well, that in after years, when Ramtanu Babu was praised for his penmanship, he attributed it to the care and skill with which his brother had taught him to write.
But this was an arrangement with which Kesava could not long remain satisfied. He could give very little time to his brother; and besides that he had to spend the greater part of the day in his office, leaving the boy in the companionship of the servants, who were by no means fit to associate with him. The moral atmosphere of places like Kalighat was tainted, and Chetla was not free from the infection. It is a known fact that places of Hindu pilgrimage are full of corruption. Vicious characters of 
Statue of David Hare
every description are to be met there, especially women of ill-fame. Chetla was infested by such characters then as now, and the boy Ramtanu had often to come in contact with them. But, fortunately, he was then too young to understand the nature of their vices, or imitate them.
Kesava felt that to keep his brother long amidst these surroundings was dangerous, so he was anxious as soon as possible to remove him from their influence. At length a favourable opportunity presented itself. One day a gentleman of Nadia, Kali Sankar Chakravartti by name, saw Kesava with the object of getting some employment. The latter promised to help him to obtain a post, on condition that he would influence a relation of his, Gaur Mohan Vidyalankar, a pandit in one of David Hare’s schools, to get Ramtanu admitted as a free student into the institution which then passed under the name of “Society’s School,” but is now called the “Hare School.”
We have brought Gaur Mohan before our readers, and we cannot dismiss him without saying something of his uncle, Jai Gopal Tarkalankar, famous for his erudition in Sanskrit. He first came into public notice as Dr Cary’s pandit, and as editor of the Ramayan in verse. Afterwards, in 1824, on the establishment of the Sanskrit College, he was appointed the Professor of Literature there, and the most distinguished Sanskrit scholars of Bengal, Premchand Tarkabagish, Taranath Tarkabachaspati and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagara, were his pupils. There are many anecdotes illustrating his excellent mode of teaching. It is said that when reading, with his scholars, Kalidas’ Sakuntala or Bhababhuti’s Uttararamcharita, he would be so carried beyond himself, as, even at the age of eighty, suddenly to leave his seat and play the most interesting parts with the gesticulations of a perfect actor.
On the appointed day Ramtanu was taken by Gaur Mohan to Mr David Hare, who was then living with Mr Grey in his house on the riverside. Mr Hare was every morning and evening visited by a large number of situation-hunters and schoolboys. The latter were so much loved by him that he would never send them away without treating them to sweets of different kinds. There was a confectioner near his house, who had orders to supply the boys with what they wanted. On the day in question, Gaur Mohan, leaving Ramtanu in the sweet-meat shop, went to Mr Hare and asked him to take the boy as a free student. The gentleman was not then in a mood to confer the favour. He had received too many applications of the kind. In fact, he could hardly come out of his house without being pestered by such requests as “Me poor boy, have pity on me and take me into your school”; and the suspicion had taken possession of him that Bengalis were taking advantage of his philanthropy. It was under these circumstances that he flatly refused to comply with Vidyalankar’s request, saying that the list of free students was full. But the pandit knew Mr Hare’s nature, and he hoped that a little importunity would serve the purpose. So he told Ramtanu for a few days continually to run with the sahib’s palanquin, and to repeat in his ears the prayers of being taken in as a free pupil. The boy did accordingly. After an early breakfast, some times without it, he would walk from Hatibagan, where Vidyalankar lived, to Mr Grey’s gate, there watch the coming out of Mr Hare’s palanquin and then trot by its side. One evening, alighting from his conveyance, the sahib noticed how pale and tired the boy looked, and, rightly conjecturing that he had had no food during the day, asked him if he would eat anything. Ramtanu, fearing to lose his caste, denied having fasted the whole day; but when he was told that the food would be supplied not from Mr Hare’s house but from the confectioner’s shop, he burst into tears, and said that he was suffering from extreme hunger. On this he was served by the shopkeeper with a good meal of sweetmeats. This was not the only instance of his being thus regaled. There followed many an evening, when, at Mr Hare’s orders, the confectioner held before the half-famished boy his basket full of sweets.
Two months passed in this way, Ramtanu being the pursuer, and David Hare the pursued, after which the lifter, being convinced that the boy was really anxious to learn English, and that it was cruel to put him off any longer, promised him a free education. But now a new obstacle presented itself. Mr Hare wanted his boys to be neat and clean, and so particular was he in this respect that it was almost his daily practice to stand at the school gate with a towel in hand, and rub them clean both on their entrance in the morning, and on their exit in the afternoon. He had also made it a rule that the guardian of each free boy should, at the time of his admission, bind himself by a written agreement to be liable to a fine whenever his ward came to school untidy, and the existence of this rule for some time stood in Ramtanu’s way, for Kesava objected to sign the bond, inasmuch as his brother, on his admission into school, would live in Calcutta, and not with him at Chetla, and it would be impossible for him to see to the boy’s cleanliness. He was not the man to enter into an agreement which he knew he could not act up to, and as Mr Hare was not disposed to make allowance for such scruples, Ramtanu’s admission into any of his schools was for the time out of the question. But there was an influence at work, to which Kesava, had soon to yield. Gaur Mohan showed him that he was making too much of the difficulty, and he at last consented to sign the bond. The impediment removed, Ramtanu got his admission into the school, now known as the "Hare School.”
A few words about Mr Hare seem necessary here.
He was born in Scotland in 1775, and he came to India as a watchmaker in 1800. In course of time he became familiar with many Hindu gentlemen of rank and education, and Rammohan Roy was one of them. Mr Hare, though not highly educated himself, felt that for the real intellectual development of the natives of this country, it was absolutely necessary that they should have a liberal English education. He boldly set forth his views, not minding at all to what taunts and jeers he might be exposed. He sought out opportunities for promulgating his ideas. One day he attended of his own accord a meeting held by Rammohan Roy and his people, and had a talk with this great man, about giving the youth of this country a good education in English. The opinions of the others there present were taken; and it was at length decided that an English School for native students should be established in the centre of Calcutta. The then Chief Judge of the Supreme Court was informed of the project, and it was under his auspices that the Hindu College was founded. The Hindu School thus rose into existence. A committee was formed for its management; and Mr Hare belonged to it. He, with Dr H. H. Wilson to guide him, exerted himself greatly to give the institution the desired prestige.
The Hindu College was opened on 20th January 1817. In that year, too, the School Book Society was started by Hare’s exertions and under the patronage of some of the leading European and Indian gentlemen of the time. The Society undertook to prepare and publish good school books; and Rammohan Roy, with the assistance of his friend, Mr Hare, compiled suitable English and Bengali selections for the students of this country. Two of his chief works were a Grammar and a Geography in Bengali. Other men of education contributed their quota to the formation of a school library. On the 1st of September the next year another Society was formed, the object of which was to found schools, English and Vernacular, in different parts of Calcutta. Mr Hare and Radhakanta Deb were its joint-secretaries. The former might be said to be its very life. He laboured hard in its cause; so much so, that he hardly found time to attend to his business of watchmaking. That he might work uninterruptedly in this new field he disposed of his business to one Mr Grey; and with the proceeds of the sale he bought a piece of ground the produce of which supported him, and helped him to devote himself entirely to the training of the young. Schools were soon established at Thunthania, Kalitolla, Arpuli, and other localities in Calcutta; and it was Hare’s favourite practice every morning after breakfast to take his rounds in a palanquin, inspecting his own schools and patshalas, visiting such poor boys in their homes as were ill, and providing them with whatever they might want. Last of all, he went to the Hindu College and there watched the boys collectively and individually doing their work. The work of the day being finished, he returned home in the evening, there to enjoy the consciousness of having done something for the good of the people among whom he lived. We have heard from some of the men of his time that the boys that knew him and their guardians regarded him as their great benefactor; and his name was sacred in almost every home. He was a father to his pupils, and he tried his best to amuse and to instruct them. He was especially kind to his free boys; and Ramtanu, being one of them, had always a son’s place in his affection.
We give here an incident that happened at the time when Ramtanu presented himself for admission into the Hare School. Mr Hare, at the time of enrolling him, asked him his age, and he said it was thirteen years. Mr Hare said it was twelve. The boy contradicted him, and maintained that he was thirteen years old; but Mr Hare did not believe it, and so put down twelve years as the boy’s age in the admission-book. This occurrence shows how well acquainted the English gentleman was with Bengali customs. He knew that here in India, a boy entering the thirteenth year of his life was said to be thirteen years old, and not twelve, as he really was. Even now the illiterate of this country in this way increase their age by one year in each case.
At the time of which we are speaking a sufficient number of teachers was not available, and so instruction was in the lower classes given by monitors. When our hero belonged to the seventh class his monitors were two boys of the first class, Jadava and Aditya by name. The recollection that he in after years had of these two young men was not at all creditable to them. The one he remembered not only as a great thrasher, but also as a glutton, threatening or cajoling the well-to-do among the boys into presenting him with edibles; the other as the man who had cheated Dakhinaranjan Mookerjee of 700 rupees under the pretext of starting a school.
Ramtanu got on well at the school, but this in no way lessened Kesava’s anxiety for him, but rather increased it. Gaur Vidyalankar’s lodging, where he resided, was not a fit place for him. Vidyalankar was himself profligate; and his co-lodgers, almost all of whom held him in great respect, imitated him in his favourite vices. Sometimes they surpassed him in profligacy. They were all foppish in their modes of living, and idle in the extreme. Not one of them would stir even when required to cook a meal. Men working in Calcutta then never brought with them their families; but lived in the houses of their wealthy relations, if they could find any, or in common messes. It was a custom then, that if anyone from the Mufasal secured a good position in the city, the men of his village, or of the Mauza to which he belonged, flocked to his lodging in search of employment, and there attached themselves to him entirely as long as they could not find work, and partially when better luck attended them. Not to entertain such guests brought upon one great censure. But the new-comers were often asked to cook if the master of the house they came to could not afford to keep professional cooks; and greatly amusing the scene was when they tried each to shift from his shoulders the cares of cookery. Seniority in age was most made of on an occasion like this, and the youngest had to bear the burden. The moral depravity of these men was as great as their indolence. The use of wine was not then prevalent; but there were many that indulged in hemp-smoking and bhang.
How great then was the danger of boys living in lodgings full of such men. Their juvenile tastes, conversation, and amusements, were tainted by wicked examples. They grew very precocious, and frequented the streets like so many dandies, in thin black-bordered dhutis and English shoes, with teeth dyed black and hair parted. Their predilection for intoxicating drugs sometimes grew strong, and in other respects their conduct was immoral.
In Gaur Vidyalankar’s lodging Ramtanu was subject to such evil influences. Besides that, he was made to cook for the host of idlers there, a circumstance that interfered greatly with his studies. Kesava, on learning this, removed his brother to the house of Ram Kanta Khan, a cousin of his father. This was at Shampukur, where Khan Babu lived with his family. The mistress of the house, the Babu’s wife, was very kind to Ramtanu, who received every attention from her. Kesava had to pay only for his tiffin and milk; while the kind lady supplied him with everything else. He fared as one of the children of the family. He had another advantage here. Digambar Mitter (the future Raja Digambar), who had been admitted into the Hare School on the same day as our hero, and belonged to the same class as he did, lived close by in his maternal uncle’s house. Here would young Lahiri often go to see his friend, and in a short time he so ingratiated himself with the latter’s mother, that she looked upon him as her own child, and was lavish in her presents to him. The lady’s kind treatment was ever remembered by him, and years afterwards he would talk of it with a grateful heart.
Fellow-students then loved one another with a love which is rare now. Boys who, leaving the joys of home, came to Calcutta to prosecute their studies, received so much kindness from the mothers, aunts, and other female relations of their classmates, as to be able to bear without repining their separation from home and its dear associations. These ladies shed a benign influence around them, and with their advice and instruction they saved many a lad, far from home, from pit-falls of temptation and danger. Frequently it happened that a boy, transplanted from his native soil, found in the houses of his friends an atmosphere congenial to his spiritual growth, though he had no claims of consanguinity.
The mothers and sisters of his friends regarded him as their son or brother. We have some experience in this matter. The comfort these ladies administered to the heart smarting under the pangs of separation from its kith and kin, the moral strength that was given by them in the 
Kartikeya Chandra Rai
hour of temptation, are still vivid in our memory. The houses presided over by them were seats of virtue and happiness; and most of those that afterwards distinguished themselves for their philanthropy received their first lessons in universal sympathy in these happy abodes. Pandit Iswara Chandra Vidyasagara, in speaking of one of these (the mother of the friend of his boyhood, Gopal Chandra Ghosh) says: “There is no doubt that Raimani’s love for her son was very great, and I believe that her love for me was no less. In fact, in the whole range of my experience, I have never found one equally loving, kind, courteous and amiable. Her divine image is still enthroned in my heart, and the bare mention of her name awakens the most pleasant recollections. People say I am prepossessed in women’s favour, and I believe they are correct; for he who has personally come under the benign influence of a woman like Raimani cannot help adoring the sex to which she belonged.”
Now a few words about the sanitary condition of Calcutta at the time. The inhabitants of modern Calcutta, with its hygiene and sanitary arrangements, can hardly conceive what a hot-bed of disease it then was. Bad drinking water, with the miasma generated in the filthy sewers, killed its residents in numbers. Besides such acute diseases as cholera and typhoid fever, diarrhoea did its slow but sure work of undermining the vigour of life and making it a burden. Many a robust youth from the Mufasal, on spending a few months here, lost his health, and had to return home to recruit it. The description of the unhealthy condition of Calcutta given by Kartik Chandra Rai, who came to the city some time after Ramtanu, and lodged with him, is as follows:—
“Almost everyone coming to Calcutta for the first time was sure to have his digestive powers greatly injured. Diarrhoea was the first complaint, then followed fever. Recovery was doubtful, unless the sufferer hurried home, and placed himself under a regular course of treatment. I came here quite healthy, but within a short time my digestive powers were so injured that I was compelled to be very careful about my diet. I lived on very simple food; but yet, far from being better, I rather grew worse, lost all appetite, and my constitution became a wreck of what it had previously been. At length, my guardian took me home, and I commenced feeling better the day following my arrival there.”
Calcutta spread a moral infection also. Men did not hesitate to feather their nests by telling lies, cheating, taking bribes, and committing forgeries and similar crimes, and, instead of being looked down upon, they were praised for their cleverness. The rich vied with one another in extravagance; and they were not ashamed to indulge in open immorality. The more nautches a Babu gave, the more was he extolled as a man of taste and fashion. Next in importance to the rich ranked another class of Bengali Babus, who knew Persian and had only a smattering of English, and, backed by this knowledge held in contempt the religion of their country. Without any higher end in view, they lived for themselves alone, pleasure being the be-all and end-all of their existence. With faces bearing marks of debauchery, heads covered with a profusion of waving curls, tinged teeth like so many pieces of jet, pieces of thin, black-bordered muslin round their waists, cambric banians so made as to show their figures to the best advantage, neatly folded scarves thrown over their shoulders, and shoes ornamented with broad buckles, they strolled along the streets, humming or whistling a favourite tune. Their chief enjoyments during the day were sleeping, flying kites, watching bul-bul fights, and music; and the night brought other and less reputable amusements. Smoking hemp was a vice very prevalent then. There were in the city of Calcutta houses where hemp-smokers met, and passed hours, and even days, together with no other motive than to inhale the exhilarating fumes of ganja.
One house at Bowbazar was the most famous among these. The company that met here were each named after a bird, and so the name given to the association was “Birds’ Association.” A member on his admission received as a rule the name of a tiny bird, which, with his progress in hemp-smoking, would be changed into that of a larger one, and it was compulsory that he should imitate the sounds and movements of the feathered biped the name of which he bore. There is a funny story about one of these ganja smokers, who, having been missed by his father for several days, was at length found in the house at Bowbazar. As soon as he laid hold of his son, and attempted to drag him out, the young man, who was called “Woodpecker,” and who held between the teeth an apparatus resembling the beak of the prototype, commenced pecking his father.
We come next to the religious or spiritual attitude of the inhabitants of Calcutta at that time; and to enlighten the reader on this point we can do nothing better than quote the following passage from Babu Nagendranath Chatterjee’s “Life of Raja Rammohan Roy”:—
“The people of Calcutta did not observe the Vedic rites, or follow the doctrines inculcated by the Upanishads; but they delighted in offering sacrifices to Durga and celebrating the festivals in connection with Krishna’s birth and amours. Bathing in the holy Bhagirathi, feeding and making gifts to Brahmans and Vaishnavas, making distant pilgrimages, and observing the fast-days were believed, by almost every Hindu, to be the means whereby the pardon of sins of the darkest dye could be obtained. They were held also to be the only passports into heaven. A man’s position in God’s sight depended on what he ate. Fare cooked by oneself, and consisting of boiled rice and peas with a little ghee or melted butter, was regarded in itself as sanctifying. Caste distinctions were very rigidly observed. A Brahman who served under Europeans used, every evening on returning from work, to take a bath in the holy river, supposed to have the power of washing away the pollution he had contracted from a Mlechchha; then to go through the routine of his daily devotion, and at length to take his meal to break his whole day’s fast. This austere life made everyone think highly of his virtues.
There was a class of Brahmans who devoted their lives to the study of the Shastras, and followed the priestly vocation. They were newspapers in flesh and blood. After bathing in the Ganges early, and greeting the sun with words of adoration, they went about gossiping from house to house. The chief subject of their conversation was how So-and-so had performed his father’s or his mother’s Shradh or funeral ceremonies, with what spirit he had fed and given presents to Brahmans, and so forth. And in relating these circumstances, they extolled some for their munificence, and ran down others for their niggardliness, their main object in doing this being to give their hearers an inkling of the praises or censures they themselves would have according as they were liberal or close-fisted, and thus to screw out valuable gifts from them by working on their desire for fame or fear of slander. And the wily priests were always successful. These Brahmans were versed in Smriti [theology] or Naya [logic or science of reasoning], but they were quite ignorant of the Vedas, so much so that few of them knew the meanings of the Vedic words they used in their prayers.”
On the one hand there was this spiritual torpor in Calcutta, on the other there was a good deal of excitement attending the religious innovations introduced by Raja Rammohan Roy. Though the life of this great reformer is well known to the public, still we deem it necessary to say briefly something of him hereafter in the appendix, which will contain a short account of most of the important personages of the time.
