Ananta Kumar Roy

“ When Vidyasagar saw that attempts at persuading his countrymen into his own way of thinking served no useful purpose, he altered his tactics and tried to convince the rulers of the land. For this end he translated his two pamphlets into English and distributed them among his European acquaintances who were all high officials of the Government. These gentlemen, thinking that the Hindu society had become the hotbed of corruption and that emancipation of girl-widows would add to the glory and prestige of the Government, at once instructed him to petition the Government of India. ”

“ Henry Vivian Derozio, fourth teacher of the College, who had in a short time acquired such an ascendancy over their minds that even in their private concerns they took counsel with him. The first glamour of new ideas, ideas other than those sanctioned by ancient tradition, was so irresistible that these misguided youths fancied that the Europeans were the only cultured nations on the surface of the earth and that their motherland would be regarded "civilised" if they imitated the rulers of the country. ”

“ In an age when Bengali language was still in its infancy, when standard books for children were in great request, he thought that the writing of primers would bring about profound and lasting results. There were others to produce works of the highest ability and interest. The memory of authors like Bankim Chandra Chatterji and Dinabandhu Mitra would remain fresh through the ages. To do the greatest good to the greatest number was Vidyasagar's main object. He created a style of his own, lucid, chaste, sweet, laconic, and is regarded by qualified critics as the father of Bengali prose. ”

“ The inspiring influence of a master spirit does not cease with the shuffling off of this mortal coil. Though Vidyasagar passed away after he had lived out his threescore years and ten, his grand personality remains behind to inspirit people for ages to come. ”

“ It was his successful efforts to give the Hindu widows of higher classes an option to contract a second legal marriage. This is not the place for a detailed account of the movement; it must suffice to note it with brevity, without interruption and as a whole, and to state in general outline the part that Vidyasagar played in it. In old days the widows either burned themselves in the funeral piles of their deceased husbands as the glorious crown of a life of self-sacrifice and devotion, or led strictly ascetic lives. ”

“ He did not realise that the invincible self-will would in large measure bestead Isvar Chandra in years to come and the apparent blemish might be convertible into a shining merit. The fact is great men even in their childhood seldom like to be commanded. They are born to inspire, to lead, to rule. ”

“ A man who girds up his loins for noble action would scarcely find much respite even towards the fag-end of his checkered life. Even in advancing years and declining health, he has to stick manfully to his work and do the battle of life with unbroken spirit, sustained by the consciousness of compassing his country's good. Vidyasagar was no exception to this general rule. ”

“ Death cannot lay his cruel hands on the soul; the dissolution of the body cannot cast it into the limbo of oblivion. Death does not level or equalise all. Men possessing no personality go the way of all Shams. ”

“ The hand of God protects those that prop the unsuccessful in life's struggle. His personal integrity was unimpeachable; he had no price, and was above all corruption. Essentially a seeker of truth all his life, his sole aim was to bring the light of hope, the torch of knowledge, to the doors of the poor. To relieve the physical wants of his countrymen and to remove their mental darkness, he sacrificed his all. ”

“ There are men so fastidious and conscientious that they never bestow alms lest they should be guilty of indiscriminate charity. They persuade themselves into the belief that mere heartless criticisms would suffice to drain and ventilate the morals of the fallen and the outcast and make for their temporal and eternal welfare. Poor Isvar Chandra had no such worldly scruples and twilight virtues. ”

“ Hearing the footfalls, Vidyasagar hurriedly left the sick room and rebuked them roundly. "You know only to consult your own convenience," he went on with a sternly condemning accent, "but I cannot indulge this demand for an interview when I am so busy; better come at a propitious moment." ”

“ It sprang fully armed and equipped as it were from his keen and versatile brain and was destined to certain and durable success. He loved the students committed to his care and took an unselfish interest in their progress. Though a rigid disciplinarian, he was indulgent and placable whenever possible. His impartiality was beyond suspicion. He would not examine the papers of the youths of Fort William College with undue leniency, even to win the favour of his official chief. He was the patron of struggling merit and unpretending worth. ”

“ Even contagious diseases, of which everybody fought shy, could not daunt his courage nor chill his sympathy. To open ragged schools for the street Arabs, to provide better houses for people who dwell in squalid dens of vice and infamy and commit every kind of atrocity without shame or remorse, to reclaim juvenile mendicants from the "Serbonian bog" of corruption "where armies whole have sunk," to find fit work for disabled persons, he spent much of his precious life-blood. ”

“ Duty to all mankind for duty's sake was his guiding principle. All persons, without any distinction of colour, clime or creed, benefited by his gifts. He could have heaped up and left behind a princely fortune, but he preferred to live in voluntary poverty. ”

“ Vidyasagar took offence since it compromised the dignity of Indian professors in general. No man was ever less exacting of forms and ceremonies when he alone was concerned.
To improve his alma mater, he set to work with characteristic ardour. His first duty was to enforce strict punctuality, especially on the part of the professors. It was a delicate task, seeing that most of these venerable gentlemen had formerly been his own teachers. Yet he managed it very easily, by greeting them once or twice at the college gate when they came behind their time. ”

“ Some live for themselves and think of nothing but profit and loss. They pass out of memory the moment they return to dust. There are others who eternise their name by taking up the cause of the friendless and redressing the wrongs of mankind. ”

“ The teachers drew the highest salary they could expect anywhere, the students received the best kind of instruction available in Bengal, the guardians had the satisfaction of seeing their boys progressing steadily, the public with admiring eyes watched his career with an interest which never slackened for a moment, the Government paid homage to merit by granting certificate and title of honour, and the founder enjoyed supreme peace and bliss emanating from conscientious discharge of duty. ”

“ He was in favour of educating the Hindu girls, but mainly in accordance with the indigenous system. As he was dead against their career of a professional teacher, he opposed Miss Carpenter's scheme of female normal school. The deepest thing in him was his reverence for womanhood and he devoted much earnest thought to problems touching their welfare. Even those who do not look with complacency on widow marriages, have nothing but the highest praise for his memorable efforts to suppress polygamy and his noble though belated exertions to banish child marriage. ”

“ I have read it with interest and profit and found it to my knowledge a correct transcript of the life and work of the great philanthropist and scholar. There is an air of freshness about the style which makes the matter a pleasant reading. ”

“ Wherever I live I shall turn up in time and die here before you." Her words were prophetic. Serious illness of Thakurdas hastened her to the sacred city before five months were over. He soon struggled back to life, but of a sudden she was attacked with cholera and died at his feet in a few hours. Vidyasagar, who was at Calcutta and could not attend the death-bed, experienced the most poignant grief and led a secluded life for months together. The mourning was observed for full one year.
About this time Maharaja Satish Chandra Roy Bahadur of Nadia passed away. ”

“ In their hurried efforts to pass for cultured men, the young enthusiasts, instead of finding out the intrinsic and essential worth of a great nation, readily put on its hollow and shallow externalities. ”

“ The Milton of Bengal breathed his last in the General Hospital at Alipur.
This was not the only time when Vidyasagar ran into debt to relieve others. Once he borrowed Rs 7500 from Maharani Swarnamayi of Cossimbazar. Another time he secured a loan of Rs 25,000 from a member of the Paikpara Raj family. On several other occasions he raised thousands of rupees by loan to save many insolvents from being driven out of their hearth and home. Most of them were never famous for their sense of gratitude. They never paid him back or cared to see him again in their lifetime. ”

“ Encumbered with heavy responsibilities, with incessant calls of charity upon him, he must task to the utmost his best energies to preserve the even balance of his mind and continue in the strict path of duty. ”

“ In the course of his speech the Mover described in pathetic terms the hard life of a widow, who was not allowed to indulge in luxuries of any kind. In most cases, young Hindu widows fell into vice, the Hon. Member was pleased to assert, and the practice of Brahmacharyya was, according to him, unnatural and absurd. He was, however, prepared to admit that the custom of the country had been universally against the marriage of Hindu widows amongst the higher classes and that the opinion of the Sadar Courts at all the four Presidencies of India was entirely unfavourable to the proposed change. ”

“ About this time a fearful famine broke out in Orissa and the southern part of Bengal. It was but partly due to scarcity of rainfall. Myriads died for want of a morsel of rice. Those who left their homes to avoid starvation succumbed to hunger on the way. The Government strove hard to alleviate the sufferings but their measures fell far short of the requirements. Vidyasagar promptly left for the scene of devastation, opened several relief camps and fed about one thousand people a day for months together. His strict injunctions to the workers were to see that the sufferers wanted for nothing. ”

“ No tuition-fee was charged from the poor students. Some taking advantage of the fact defrauded him. Backed by the recommendation of a man of condition who testified to his indigence, a lad entered the school as a free student. Some time after his expensive, handsome clothes attracting Vidyasagar's notice, he learnt that he was a near relative of that rich man. Blazing up, he expelled the culprit, to make an example of him.
He often paid surprise visits and walked into the classes, deadening his footsteps, to listen to the teachers and to see if the boys were attentive. ”

“ The best Indian professors were engaged on fair salaries. At the First Arts Examination of 1874 the college stood second in order of merit, which was doubtless an agreeable surprise for many. In 1879 it was raised to a first-grade college and three years later affiliation was granted for teaching the Law Course.
The successful working of the college under the direction of Vidyasagar was in no small measure due to the fact that he recognised merit at once. He chose the best teachers and professors and inspired them with his own zeal and tenacity of purpose. ”

“ Great men should be treated with care and caution. They are always conscious that they are of higher and nobler type of humanity. This invariably develops in them a refined sensitiveness of feeling. They work night and day to benefit the world and naturally expect that people of weaker individuality should be amenable to their superior force of will and decision of character. ”

“ Forgoing every personal comfort he spent almost the whole of his college stipend in charity. His tender heart was pervious to the sufferings of others and when he was out of cash he would contract a debt to meet their wants and mitigate their woes. "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" may be a good rule for conventional people. The great have their own ways in most things and often conceive a marked dislike to cold and clear-cut maxims. Whenever Isvar Chandra heard of any cases of illness, he was promptly by the bed of pain. ”

“ While he was performing his appointed duties at the college and himself receiving private lessons in Hindi and English, he had to teach Mr. Marshal the Sanskrit language. In his own residence he also gave lessons to some. His was a novel mode of instruction which enabled the pupils to learn Sanskrit within a short space of time. To convenience them he composed a small Sanskrit Grammar in Bengal characters. As he became widely known as an expert teacher, the number of learners that flocked to his feet increased in no long time. ”

“ People there were who fascinated by a civilisation entirely new to them were for breaking away from the past and making a clean sweep of all ancient and time-honoured customs of the country. To these iconoclasts nothing was sacred but crass materialism. ”