Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/138

116 times. It was while Abdul Latif was at the Madrassa in the early forties that the study of English after much controversy was first introduced there. But so great was the opposition that the English classes were practically boycotted, the students refusing to be drawn from their Persian and Arabic studies and from the study of the Law which was fast ceasing to be the law of the land. In vain it was pointed out to them that under the new regime a knowledge of English was essential, and that the importance of Persian and Arabic and the study of Muhammadan Law was not what it had been. With a persistence that seems remarkable seventy years later they steadily refused to take the opportunities that were offered to them by a Government anxious only for their welfare. It was thus that the Hindu community, untramelled by the same prejudices and quick to move with the times, seized the advantage which it has ever since held. It was only such Muhammadans as Abdul Latif and a little company of his fellow students who had a truer insight into the future. They threw themselves heartily into the study of English and the modern side, eager to equip themselves to meet the requirements of the day. Distressed at the position into which the Muhammadan community was rapidly falling, Abdul Latif set himself from this time onwards to combat the prejudices that prevented them from moving with the times and adapting themselves to altered conditions.