Thursday, Dec 29, 2022 18:15 [IST]
Last Update: Thursday, Dec 29, 2022 12:40 [IST]
The Selections of Calcutta Gazette, 1824-1832 incorporated an obituary
notice:
“Deaths
At Calcutta, on the 26th December, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, Esq.
aged 23 years 8 months, and 8 days”
It seems the writer who wrote the obituary had
access to Derozio’s family records, otherwise he could not have written with
such authority the age at death in terms of years, months and days. Therefore,
there is no doubt about the authenticity of this statement. Despite his
early death the con tributions of Derozio
to the Renaissance of Bengal, nay of India cannot be belittled.
Derozio was born on 18th April
1808 in Calcutta in a family of Portuguese-Italian descent and received his
early education in a private school in erstwhile Dharamtala area run by a
Scotchman Mr Drummond. Mr Drummond was a poet, philosopher and a free-thinker,
and an exile living in India. He was an agnostic, yet he had profound faith in
man. According to him, man is his own destiny maker; therefore, he laid
emphasis on reason rather than on existing faiths and traditions. He never
hesitated to discuss freely with his pupils his own beliefs, though he never
tried to impose on them his beliefs and benchmarks. Such was the situation at
school, which profoundly impacted Derozio in his formative years, which greatly
moulded his later life. “Derozio derived from Drummond his taste in literature
and philosophy, his love of Robert Burns, his faith in the French Revolution
and English radicalism.”
He was a precocious child in his school days. In those
days, prominent Englishmen of Calcutta were invited to witness the performance
of children at the annual examination to prove complete observance of fair play
at such school examinations. I can here recall my days at school in this
connection. During an annual board examination, the invigilator himself had
distributed grammar books to all the candidates to copy, because the questions
on grammar that year were difficult. When he saw me not asking for the grammar
book, he toned down his voice to the level of pleading, but I refused and
continued. Though I could not solve all the grammar questions that year, yet I
had the mental satisfaction that I did not feel tempted to cheat. Most of the
college and school examinations have been reduced to a mockery these days.
Every other day news channels report on open adoption of mal-practices by the
students during examinations. If such mal-practices are not quickly restricted,
then the future of the country, I don’t think will ever be bright, because a
child who learns to cheat in his formative years will possibly never be an
honest citizen in future.
Be that as it may, on one such occasion on 20.12.1822,
being highly impressed by the boy’s recitation from Shakespeare’s Merchant of
Venice, Dr John Grant, the editor of the renowned paper, ‘the India Gazette’
commented that delineation of the character of Shylock by Derozio was
marvellous, who was only 14 then. Similarly two years later, he participated in
a dramatic performance as a harbinger and recited a poem craving indulgence of
the distinguished scholars for the performance: “We ask by this – and surely
‘twill be granted – Praise, if ‘tis due – indulgence when ‘tis wanted.”
After leaving his school, he
joined a mercantile firm as a clerk, but only after two years simply at the age
of 18, he became the fourth master in Hindu College (at present Presidency
University) in May, 1826. This marked a real inauguration of his future life’s
work. As a teacher, he could only serve for five years, but his inimitable
method of teaching and his own personality highly impacted the minds of his
young pupils. His students were introduced to the modern Western thoughts,
which instilled in them a revolutionary zeal to rise against the blind faith
and traditions of the then existing society of Bengal. The students were so
intoxicated in such a way by Derozio’s lectures that even after college; they
followed him to his home. His lectures created a new generation of enlightened
groups of people, who in future became distinguished leaders and a beckon light
for the emancipation of Bengal from retrogressive traditions and beliefs.
Throughout their lives, these students cherished the memories of Derozio, and
remembered him with a deep sense of respect and gratitude. This has drawn a
watershed in the commencement of an absolutely new concept in Bengal’s
conventions and thoughts.
Under Derozio’s able guidance,
his students became accustomed with the thoughts of Bacon, Hume and Tom Paine.
He instilled into them an idea of a free spirit and liberty of thought in all
subjects. One biographer wrote, “Neither before nor since his day has any
teacher, within the four walls of any native educational establishment in
India, ever exercised such an influence over his pupils.”
This group of students trained
under Derozio was identified as “Young Bengal”, which heralded a New Age in the
history of Bengal. In fact, he kindled into the minds of his students a spirit
of true patriotism. In this connection, his sonnet is worthy to be quoted here:
“My country! In thy day of
glorious past; a beauteous halo circled round thy brow,
And worshipped as a deity thou wast. Where is that glory, where is
that reverence now?
Thy eagle pinion is chained down at last; And grovelling
in the lowly dust art thou!
Thy minstrel hath no wreath to weave for thee; save the
said story of thy misery!”
Our so-called modern teachers and students should take
lessons from the above poem and mend their ways before it is too late. They
should understand our past glory and concept of freedom rest on the existence
of our country, therefore, its integrity has to be preserved at every cost; we
survive because our country exists. Let us not try to mortgage our hard earned
freedom again! Same kind of patriotism reverberates in the verse of Kashiprasad,
Derozio’s pupil:
“But woe me, I shall never live
to behold; That day of thy triumph, when firmly and bold,
Thou shalt mount on the wings of an eagle on high;
To the region of knowledge and blest liberty.”
The image of patriotic sentiments based on the past
glories of India in Derozio and his students was exceptional in nature, because
it was non-existence in the whole gamut of literature before him, though they
came into prominence in the second half of the 19th century in the Bengali
literature, therefore, it was definitely the mark of Renaissance in Bengal,
which impacted the whole of India gradually. Such fiery sentiments are absent
in the writings or speeches of his senior contemporaries including Raja
Rammohun Roy. In fact, the students of Derozio displayed more radical political
ideas than Raja Rammohun, rather they opposed him for his moderate approach
towards British rule. They vehemently criticised the oppressive character and
repressive nature of the colonial masters. They said that these rulers
simultaneously “introduced rum, gin, brandy and other comforts of life” amongst
the gullible natives to create a soothing atmosphere to perpetuate their rule.
The feeling of ardent nationalism of the students of the Hindu College acted as
a catalyst to dispel the impression of inordinate love amongst some the learned
people for the British masters during the first quarter of the nineteenth
century. Most of the fiery political writers of the time were the products of
the Hindu College. A man like Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee, once again a student of
the Hindu College, professed the doctrine of equality of all men and pronounced
that God “in His imperial wisdom created all men alike equal to one another, in
their birth-rights.”
In their ardent enthusiasm, some
of Derozio's pupils went to the extreme to openly discard the ancient faiths
and customs held sacred for so long, because they found them contrary to the
path of freedom from colonial rule. They wanted to break loose every chain of
stifling superstitions, which posed a hurdle in their objective. Some of them
even refused to perform the traditional rituals in their homes; instead they
developed love for the Iliad and the Odyssey and chanted lines from them on and
off. Derozio was one of those rare teachers, who only loved truth and suffered
for that like Socrates. He pursued what was right, and he had the rare gift to
inspire young men under him with utmost dedication. His enthusiasm in search of
truth was unprecedented. His success in transforming the youths had highly
alarmed the powers that be, particularly the then Indian community. The Indian
newspapers carried out a vile campaign against Derozio that he was trying to
defile the Indian community, but the truth was that behind all this
vituperative propaganda, the Government had also played a conspicuous, but a
clandestine role, because it felt that he was acting contrary to their
interests. Subsequently the Managing Committee of the Hindu College
forced Derozio to tender his resignation. His letter of resignation speaks
amply about the greatness of this man.
Though Derozio resigned on 25th April, 1831, he
started a daily newspaper called The East Indian to continue his mission. His
newspaper acted as a mouthpiece to preach his mission amongst the students to
teach what amounts to true love for the country. Simply after eight months of
leaving the college, Derozio died a premature death on 26 December, 1831. He
died, but in a short span of five years of his teaching life he proved his
mettle not only as an ideal teacher, but as a poet and philosopher also. His
criticism of Kant’s philosophy received high praise from his contemporaries
including from the Principal of the Bishop’s College. He had an inimitable
quality as an organiser, and at the same time, he was also a distinguished
journalist.
When he left college, he stated
that while teaching philosophy, he followed Bacon's method of presenting all
the arguments for and against any proposition. He said he provided adequate
space to his students to understand any proposition in their own way, imbibing
both pros and cons of the argument beforehand. Similarly while explaining the
existence of God; he explained to his students both David Hume’s dialogues
against the thesis as expressed in the conversation between Cleanthes and
Philo, and Dugald Stewart’s and Reid’s refutation of the same. This way he
released from the young minds of his students the burden of taking decisions
based on ex-parte presentation; he never tried to sway their minds with his own
stands. He provided them with the liberty to come to their own conclusion.
There lay his greatness, but seldom had his contemporaries understood him
fully. He infused into the minds of his pupils his own burning love of India
and tried to fill their minds with highly elevated thoughts.
Most of his students belonged to
the middle class, who could not even afford to pay their college fees. Even
they pursued their studies either obtaining help from the college or from
charity provided by the affluent people of Calcutta. Under Derozio’s guidance,
these students published two prominent journals: the Parthenon or Athenium and
the Bengal Spectator, which voiced the students group ‘New Bengal’. The
journals either criticised the retrogressive features of India’s traditional
customs including unscientific practices or the policies of the government thus
indirectly played an instrumental role in arousing into the young minds the
love for India. Coupled with that Derozio’s poetry also equally glorified
India's scintillating rich past, but at the same time he also lamented in vivid
details its ignominious present. Therefore, Derozio’s writings added more
fuel to the fire of existing fervent nationalism of the youths. A tribute paid
to Derozio in the Bengal Spectator is worthy to be quoted here:
“About this time the lamented
Henry Derozio by his talents and enthusiasm, by his unwearied exertions in and
out of the Hindu College, by his course of lecture at Mr. Hare’s school, by his
regular attendance and exhortations at the weekly meetings of the Academic
Institution (a debating club, which Derozio presided for several years), and
above all his animating, enlightening and cheerful conversation, had wrought a
change in the mind of the native youth, which is felt to this day, and which
will ever be remembered by those who have benefited by it.”
Derozio in his short span of life
taught what is called real patriotism and what stands for love for one’s own
country. India is still proud of this great soul called Derozio!
(Email: drpkchhetri7@gmail.com)
