Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/116

 himself on English dishes and to drink a moderate quantity of liquor. He never took a drop too much. Once a pupil of his tricked him into drinking an extra glass, to see how he could bear it; and it is said that the Raja, coming to know this afterwards, was so annoyed with the man, as to shut him out of his presence for the next six months.

Raja Rammohan Roy did not know that he was leaving an evil example behind him; and that it was not so easy for others to be moderate like himself. Alas! the abuse of wine has been the cause of the untimely death of many promising sons of Bengal, and of the ruin of many families.

Here is an anecdote, showing how innocent moderate drinking was held to be in English-educated Hindu families. Babu Rajaram Bose, afterwards one of the leading members of the Adi Brahmo Samaj, had got into the habit of drinking at the age of fifteen or sixteen years. Once it came to the knowledge of his father Nanda Kisor Bose, a disciple of Rammohan Roy’s, that his son had drunk too much and had showed signs of intoxication. The young man being called into his father’s presence and asked if the report were correct said it was. On this the father, taking from his almira a full bottle and a glass, poured out a little wine, drank it himself and then offered an equal quantity to his son saying, “Whenever you drink, drink with me in this way.” This was one of the many instances showing how drinking was countenanced by men who had come into touch with the English, and it is not a matter of surprise that the pupils of Derozio progressed in it as rapidly as in other matters. Mr Derozio’s influence produced a mighty revolution in Hindu society. With his pupils he founded an association, named the “Academic Association,” of which he himself was the president. It was something like a debating