Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/202

176 prosperity that was coming to Bengal it must cast aside the old exclusiveness and aloofness from affairs. While remaining strictly orthodox he mixed freely with the Europeans of the station, making many friends both among officials and non-officials. Few Muhammadands of the day knew English and though he himself never acquired a perfect grasp of the language he was careful to see that the son whom he destined to succeed him acquired a complete knowledge of it. From his earliest years Khawja Alimulla had seen in his favourite son Abdul Ghani all the traits of character that he held necessary in his successor. The vast properties that he had accumulated needed a good business head to manage them, a man of the world with experience of men and affairs. Very carefully Khawja Alimulla watched over the training of his son, and to his father Abdul Ghani often in after years acknowledged that he owed a very large share of his success in life.

Born in 1830 Abdul Ghani Mia succeeded his father on the latter's death in 1848. It was a splendid inheritance that fell to him, and there belongs to him the credit of handing it on in his turn to his son, not diminished but enormously increased in value. Above all he administered his estates not solely with an eye to his own benefit but always with the very real and keen desire to contribute to the happiness and prosperity of all