Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/21

 era in Bengal educational history. Of Mr Derozio, Mr Thomas Edwards writes:

“Neither before nor since his day has any teacher within the walls of any native educational establishment in India ever exercised such an influence over his pupils. It was not alone in the class-rooms and during the hours of teaching that the genial manner, the buoyant spirit, the ready humour, the wide reading, the readiness to impart knowledge, and the patience and courtesy of Derozio won the hearts and the high reverence of his pupils. In the intervals of teaching he was ever ready in conversation to aid his pupils in their studies, to draw them out to give free and full expression to their opinions on topics naturally arising from the course of their work. ... Mr Derozio acquired such an ascendancy over the minds of his pupils that they would not move even in their private concerns without his counsel. Such was the force of his instructions that the conduct of the students out of the College was most exemplary ... and their reverence for truth was proverbial.”

The extraordinary influence of this remarkable man remained with Ramtanu, and to a great extent determined the character of his active life. He became a reformer after the school of Raja Rammohan Roy, and a leader in New Bengal; but he was never a violent or extreme man — and except on the subject of his own Brahmanical caste, which he threw off as his own personal sacrifice to a great cause, and one or two other points of a like nature, he was never willing to exacerbate the differences between himself and his more orthodox relations and friends.

In 1833 he became a teacher in the Hindu College, and soon became widely known as the friend of the friendless and the deserving. Many pleasant stories are told of his benevolence and philanthropy — one must here suffice. One of his students had the misfortune, in the midst of his preparation for examination, to lose for a time the use of his eyes — Lahiri Mahashai himself read and re-read to him the whole course with all the necessary commentary, and actually enabled him in this way to pass the examination. This quiet useful life went on for thirteen years, and many interesting incidents of it are recorded by the Pandit Sivanath. His opportunity came in 1846. On New