Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/99

 the first year; and the next year it sanctioned 30,000 rupees as the annual expenditure. It was made a rule that the teachers should all be Brahmans, except the Professor of the Science of Medicine, and the students received instruction in the way prescribed by the Shastras.

The attitude of the Government at that time towards the religion of the Hindus and the Muhammadans was very friendly. It did not in the least interfere with their religious institutions and customs, but rather countenanced them. It is said that on the occasion of festivals, guns were fired from English forts in their honour, and British soldiers, and even magistrates, were found at the scenes of these festivals, not only to keep the peace, but to make a respectful recognition of their sacred and solemn character. The East India Company was supposed to be the guardian of the big temples in the country, and made a large income by imposing a tax called “The Pilgrim’s Tax.” This amounted to a very large sum. In 1840 it was found that the tax had brought three lakhs of rupees annually into the Government’s treasury. It was abolished in that year, and we hope it will ever remain a thing only of the past. There was another freak of the Government which should be noticed here, and which, even after so many years, has not lost its interest. The Governor-General, in the event of the Company’s success in war, or in any other serious undertaking, made valuable offerings to the gods in their temples through their priests. This was regarded as un-Christian, and Lord Auckland abolished all such taxes and pujas. From the reports which Englishmen at home received of the people of India, most of them believed that these people were deficient in intellect, depraved in morals, and ignorant of their spiritual concerns. The “Gentoo” was, in the estimation of the average Englishman, almost a being of