Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/57

 INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT 33 of the 16th century, we havea succession of religious and social reformers, Rama&nanda, Kabir, Nanak, and Chaitanya, all of whom protested against caste Mohammedan and and preached universal brotherhood. It was this impulse which gave an early impetus to the vernacular literatures of India ; for these reformers, unlike the learned Sanscritists, preached to the people in the language of the people, and their teachings were embodied in voluminous works whieh enriched the vernacular literatures. But, although the rigour of the caste system was for a time overcome and a healthy feeling for equality was abroad, the evils of the time- honoured institution, firmly rooted through centuries into the social fabric, could not be eradicated in aday. They continued to do their work and hastened the decddence which, in spite of the attempts of these religious reformers, had become inevitable; and the anti-caste influence of the British contact and of European literature only intensified the change already set on foot by the Baisnaba and other movements. eee inflaence on A though at this critical time, the East India Company in Englano and in India, sunk to the lowest depth of philistinism, apprehended the spread of knowledge and western ideas fatal to the British rule, yet it was fortunate that there were self-sacrificing missionaries and school masters ready for the work, anda few far-sighted statesmen who, notwithstanding the narrow policy of the government at home, thought it “ god- like bounty to bestow expansion of intellect.” The empire in India had been, moreover, founded ata time when the tide was turning, when Europe was in the throes of a great Revolution, which, considered politically, socially, and intellectually, is one of the greatest in modern history. The wave of liberalism which was to pass through Europe