Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/24

12 outset the East India Company had been guided by a sincere desire to avoid all appearance of endeavouring to force western ideas upon the eastern mind. Not only in the matter of religious beliefs but on all things social and educational it strove to avoid even the suspicion of interference. The pioneers of the English in India showed themselves far more ready to adapt themselves to the East than to force the east to imitate or adapt itself to them. The Company had hitherto directed all its efforts to improving on its own lines what it already found in existence. An extraordinarily large proportion of Englishmen in the earliest days threw themselves eagerly into the study of Sanskrit and they were quick to discern how lamentably it had fallen into decay among the Bengal pundits and how shallow was their knowledge of the Vedas and Vedantas, the Gita and the Puranas, which had well-nigh ceased to be read. As for Bengali it had scarcely yet attained the dignity of a language. When the Fort William College was started in order to give young Civilians a knowledge of the vernacular, there were no text books in Bengali, no Bengali grammar and few books of any kind in Bengali prose. Even in such Bengali books as there were, Persian words very largely predominated. It is astonishing to find in what little respect the vernacular was held. When Mr. Adam, a friend of Ram Mohan, suggested that certain lectures should be given in Bengali, the