Mother's Chronicles - Book Four

11

Midnapore - The Seed of Revolution

The fire that burned in Rajnarain's heart from a young age had reduced to ashes all moral fear that he may have had. When widow remarriage became a law in 1856, he at once got his cousin and his younger brother married to widows —the third and fourth such marriages. It was specially this act of his that his uncle Harihar resented most.

On 12 May 1849, Rajnarain was appointed to the post of Second Master in the English department of the Sanskrit College at Calcutta with a monthly salary of Rs.70. There he taught English not only to students but to men like Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. After two years at the Sanskrit College, he resigned from the post of Second Master. "It was on 21 February 1851 that I took up the post of Headmaster of the Midnapore School. My salary was Rs.150 per month, with free lodging in the school compound." For fifteen years Rajnarain stayed at that job. "From 6 March 1866, I went on a long sick leave, and finally retired on a pension from 1^st January 1869."

He had fallen in love with Midnapore. While there, he

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carried out many improvements.¹ But more importantly, Rajnarain took great pains with his boys. He did not believe in corporal punishment but in interesting the students and capturing their attention. He encouraged them to read books and built a school library. He gained for the School such a high reputation among the inhabitants of the district that in spite of a Missionary school which admitted boys gratis, numerous poor people applied every month for admission to the Midnapore Government School under him.

The Local Committee of Public Instruction, made up of high-ranking officers and eminent Bengalis, was greatly appreciative of the school's Headmaster. Because Rajnarain bestowed care not only on the growth of the students' mind and intelligence, but also on their physical welfare. The way he went about it caused so much surprise in official circles that one officer, the Chief of the Irrigation Department (!) published an article in a newspaper.

"It is a common saying that the natives of this country will do nothing to help themselves and that they must be assisted by the Government or by the European community. An example has just occurred at Midnapore to show that this is not always the case and when kindly advised and shown how they can benefit their race, they are not slow. . . . These observations arise naturally when one sees as at Midnapore a

1. Among many works of public welfare, such as a night school for farmers and labourers, or a school for girls, Rajnarain founded — guess what! —a temperance Society! !

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large building erected in the school compound for the manly games of Fives and Rackets [sic!] and learns that it has been raised by subscription . . . and when asked whether they required the aid of Governement to complete the building, it is refreshing to learn that the reply was a respectful negative.

"Great credit is due to the Head Master, Babu Rajnarain Bose, and it is a certain proof of the esteem in which his character is held that he has been able to raise the necessary subscriptions. Ce n'est que le premier pas qui compte. [The first step is what matters.] Another subscription has been set on foot among the friends of the boys to supply backs to the forms and stools for the feet of the pupils, who will no longer be placed like notes of interrogation on the forms with legs dangling, a position that weakens and deforms the frame of a growing stripling who has thus to combat with physical weakness in pursuing his mentally wearying studies." Isn't it great fun to know how the students in India fared about a hundred years ago? The article also throws light on the two main characteristic traits of the English race: the Briton's sense of giving the devil his due; and his habit of looking down his nose at the 'native' —an attitude he extends to every other race. On the other hand, the native's sardonic eye did not miss the Briton's own failures and foibles.

Rajnarain had a fund of funny stories on the conduct of the British officers. As illustration, let us recall one concerning some members of Public Instruction. "Two members —the Magistrate and the Barrack-Master— came to a meeting and wrote in the register : 'It is past 4 o'clock. It is resolved that as the

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Secretary and other members are not present the meeting should be adjourned sine die with a vote of thanks to the chair. [Signed:] Mr. Bright, Magistrate.' After him the Barrack-Master, Capt. Short, wrote, 'The meeting having adjourned, it is proposed en passant that the boys anxious to become students be examined as to their physical prowess, the best being: to go head foremost through an inch saul¹ board. Vivat Regina.'

"While these were being written, the buggy of the Secretary, W. H. Broadhurst, Collector, was heard stopping at the gate. And instantly the two gents hastily fled by another door."

As long as he was in service, Rajnarain refused to change his post. "In 1861, the government appointed me to the post of Assessor of Income Tax. But I did not accept that despicable post. Another time I was offered the post of Headmaster at the Hare School (Calcutta) when it fell vacant, but I did not want to leave Midnapore and the work of its improvement so dear to my heart. So then, when an eminent man suggested my name for filling up the vacant post of Headmaster of the Howrah School, the Director of Schools replied, 'Oh, don't talk about him! He is mad. He wants neither salary nor promotion.' "

Rajnarain it was who first conceived of national fairs for the revival of native arts and crafts to stem the flooding of European goods into Indian markets. The Hindu Mela (National Exhibition) was started under his inspiration "a full quarter of a century before the Indian National Congress

1. Or Sal, a valuable Indian timber tree.

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thought of an Indian Industrial Exhibition." The Hindu Mela was a public gathering held every year from 1867 to 1880, on the last day of the Bengali calendar. Patriotic songs and poems, lectures and the giving of literary prizes enlivened it, while an all-round review of India's depressing condition opened the eyes of many. Its popular features included an exhibition of indigenous arts and crafts from many parts of India, and performances of various physical and acrobatic feats. The Hindu Mela contributed in no small measure to getting life flowing again through sleeping Bengal.

Rajnarain felt the need to rebuild the life of the people on the basis of their own culture. But to realize this the first essential condition he envisioned was political freedom. So he was also the first to sow the seed of revolutionary ideas. Through his inspiration the 'Society for the Promotion of National Feeling among the Educated Natives of Bengal' was started in 1866 in Midnapore. Through his writings and speeches Rajnarain endeavoured "to create a spirit of self-respect and self-assertion in the educated classes."

The seed of revolution sown by Rajnarain in Midna-pore's fertile soil was to yield a rich harvest. Midnapore was to become a cradle of the revolutionaries of Bengal.

Rishi Rajnarain Bose came to be known as 'the Grandfather of Nationalism.'

Sri Aurobindo confirms this: "Aurobindo's maternal grandfather Rajnarain Bose formed once a secret society — of which Tagore, then a very young man, became a member, and also set up an institution for national and revolutionary

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propaganda, but this finally came to nothing." The secret society was called Sanjibani Sabha (Life-giving Society) and code-named HAM-CHU-PA-MU-HAF (I) Formed in 1876, Sanjibani had several members of the Tagore family, including the Poet Rabindranath, then a boy of fifteen. Writes the Poet, "Jyotidada¹ formed a secret society. In a tumbledown house in Than than (north Calcutta) the sittings used to take place.... The book of Rig-veda, a dead man's skull and an unsheathed sword were the articles used for the ritual — Rajnarain Bose was its high priest — there, we were all initiated into Bharat-deliverance." This, according to Tagore, "was basking in the fire of excitement."

Sri Aurobindo was to become the fire.

"Although gentle and humane," wrote Rabindranath about Rajnarain in his Jivansmriti,² "yet was he full of fire. That fire sprang from his intense love of the country. He wanted to burn to ashes all indignities of his country.... The memory of this God-dedicated life, this ever-young, brightly glowing, sweetly smiling person —his pure freshness undimmed by sickness or grief—is certainly worth cherishing by our countrymen."

The Poet recalls his father's friend, white-haired and white-bearded, at ease, like a chum, with the child of eight he then was. "He was as young as the youngest among us. Like a white wrapper his outer agedness kept his inner youthfulness forever fresh. Even his abundant erudition was unable to do him any harm, he remained a very simple man." Rabindranath

1.Jyotirindranath Tagore, Rabindranath's fifth elder brother.

2.My Reminiscences.

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acknowledges that he owed his own love for children to his father and to Rajnarain. In 1924, after the death of Sri Aurobindo's brother Manmohan, Rabindranath delivered the Memorial Address. "First, I looked upon poet Manmohan Ghose's maternal grandfather as one very near to me. It was from him that in my boyhood I first heard an interpretation of English literature, and he it was who first taught me how to rank and place English poets. Although there was a good deal of disparity between us in age, yet for a long time we maintained contact with each other. There were occasions when I was struck by the youthful vivacity and energy of this old man." The old man, said the Poet, had remained "uncorrupted by his immense learning." A picture had remained vivid in the Poet's mind: once on a stormy night, by the bank of the Ganges, Rajnarain joining their lusty singing with his feeble voice —"not that his voice reproduced all the seven musical notes in their purity" —his exuberance making up for all else, and the high wind playing joyfully amidst his wild beard.

Indeed, much will remain unknown of mid-nineteenth century Bengal without a proper study of Rajnarain Bose's work. It was that forward vision of his that was recognized in the title 'Rishi' —a vision of the unfolding eternal truth.

In September 1879 he settled in Deoghar, a place of pilgrimage, also known for its salubrious climate. There he lived till the end. And till the end the Fire in his heart blazed.

On 18 September 1899, Rajnarain Bose left his mortal

shell.

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From the pen of his grandson came this:

TRANSIIT, NON PERIIT.

(My Grandfather, Rajnarain Bose,

died September, 1899)

Not in annihilation lost, nor given

To darkness art thou fled from us and light,

O strong and sentient spirit; no mere heaven

Of ancient joys, no silence eremite

Received thee; but the omnipresent thought

Of which thou wast a part and earthly hour,

Took back its gift. Into that splendour caught

Thou hast not lost thy special brightness.

Power Remains with thee and old genial force

Unseen for blinding light, not darkly lurks:

As when a sacred river in its course

Dives into ocean, there its strength abides

Not less because with vastness wed and works

Unnoticed in the grandeur of the tides.

Aurobindo Ghose.

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