Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/96



1828 Ramtanu left the Society’s School with a scholarship, and was admitted to the Hindu College. Before we describe his college career we propose here to dwell on the points noted at the head of the present chapter.

After the civil administration of the country had come into the hands of the East India Company, every English judge, supposed to be ignorant of the people, their manners, and the spirit of the law which had so long been administered to them, had a Maulvi in his court to assist him in his work. But it was difficult to get a clever Maulvi. To supply this want, and partly to reconcile the Muhammadans to the British rule, Warren Hastings established, in 1781, the Calcutta Madrasah for the education of their children in Arabic and Persian. He took so great an interest in the matter that, without consulting the authorities in England, he gave a large sum for founding the institution. The money was afterwards refunded by the Court of Directors. Besides this the Madrasah had a grant of a landed property producing annually 30,000 rupees.

In 1792, a start was given to a Sanskrit College in Benares by Jonathan Duncan, the British Resident, who was one of those men who had at heart the welfare of the people of this country. For the support of this institution, the Government gave 14,000 rupees during