Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/74

 50 BENGALI LITERATURE village-homes, the modern literature is mostly the work of the educated man of the city, and a gift from him spreading down to the lowest classes. In studying modern Urbanity of modern Bengali literature. literature, we must steadily keep our eyes fixed upon these centres of influences, of which Calcutta and Srirampur, as we shall see, become all-important in the first stage of our history. In these crowded cities, which had drawn into it the flower of the Bengali families from all parts of the country and which afforded endless opportunities of intercourse between the European and the Bengali commu- Growth of Calcutta and its awakening to. Nities, a new era was beginning in Bei 288658528, the social and literary history of the people. Happily for the country, the hour of awakening to new thoughts had dawned. On the 10th October, 1800, we find the missionaries at Srirampur thus writing home: ‘There appears to be a favourable change in the general temper of the people. Commerce has roused new thoughts and awakened new energies, so that hundreds, if we could skilfully teach them, would crowd to learn the 5১1 English language. Hitherto Education had been totally neglected. The history of English education in Bengal has a very important bearing on the history of the intel- lectual progress and will be sketched in its proper place ; it would be enough to indicate here that during the early days of the Company’s rule, the pro- State of English edu-. med ve রর ৰ রর cation’ ia cthe obese motion of education, neither here nor io of the 19th cen- jin England, was regarded as a duty ury. ১ রর রি of the government; on the contrary, the safety of the Indian Empire was thought to depend 1 Smith, Life of William Carey, (New reprint, 1912), p, 274; Eustace Carey, Memoirs of William Carey, pp. 406-7,