Ramtanu Lahiri - College Days

College Days

The most renowned name of Ramtanu Lahiri’s college days was Derozio. He used to publish poems and essays in Dr. Grant’s India Gazette. Then aged only nineteen years, he joined Hindu College as a teacher in 1828. Within a short period, Derozio became immensely popular amongst the students. They mobbed him in college and he invited them to their home. On one occasion, Ramtanu Lahiri went with some others to Derozio’s house. They were offered tea but Ramtanu Lahiri would not have it. It was against the traditions of the day to have food or drinks in the house of a Christian or Muslim.

Not only Derozio’s erudition and scholarship, but his liberal ways also had an immense impact on the students. For the first time, they were learning to question things. When Ramtanu Lahiri was in the third class (second year, as per today’s concept), the followers of Derozio published a monthly magazine named Athenium. One of the students, Madhab Chandra Mallick, wrote in it, “If there is anything we hate from the bottom of our heart, it is Hinduism.” Madhab Chandra Mallick was a friend of Ramtanu Lahiri and was later posted as a deputy collector in Krishnanagar.

The student-society was overwhelmed by Derozio. Sivanath Sastri quotes extensively from his biographer, Thomas Edwards:

“Derozio acquired such an ascendancy over the minds of his pupils that they would not move even in their private concerns without his counsel and advice. On the other hand, he fostered their taste in literature; taught the evil effects of idolatry and superstition and so far formed their moral conceptions and feelings, as to place them completely above the antiquated ideas and aspirations of the age. Such was the force of his instructions, that the conduct of the students outside the College was most exemplary and gained them the applause of the outside world, not only in literary or a scientific point of view, but what was of still greater importance, they were all considered men of truth.”

In third class, Ramtanu Lahiri won a scholarship of Rs. 16 per month. He brought two of his brothers for education in Kolkata. That was not enough money for three persons to survive on. They had two square meals only and skipped refreshments in between. They went to school bare foot and did the cooking and all household work on their own.

Once when Ramtanu Lahiri was ill, David Hare came and treated him in his house in a dingy lane. Hare used to keep track of all his students. Those were also the days when Kolkata society was in turbulence about the formation of the Brahma Sabha by Raja Rammohun Roy in 1828. It was an age of change. The practice of suttee was banned in 1829. That led to enormous debates and petitions for and against it. In 1831, Derozio was forced to resign from Hindu College and he died soon afterwards at the age of only 22 years, but what a brilliant array of students he left behind: Krishna Mohan Banerjee, Ram Gopal Ghosh, Rasik Krishna Mallick, Sib Chandra Deb, Hara Chandra Ghosh, Peary Chand Mitra, Radhanath Sikdar and Ramtanu Lahiri, to name a few, all fired with the zeal to serve and change the county. In 1832, Krishna Mohan Banerjee, one of the Derozians converted to Christianity. From 1833 onwards, Indians were allowed to be deputy collectors and deputy magistrates, and some of the Derozians benefitted because of the relaxation.