Indian Antiquary Vol 57

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 73

MARCH, 1928)
BOOK-NOTICES
BOOK-NOTICES. DAWN OF A NEW INDIA, by KEDARNATH BANERJEE, in the first years of British rulo and of the courage Calcutta, 1927.
demanded of their new rulers. This most interesting little book contains Besides creating the Pax Britannica, Hastings, three essays concerning the early days of British as soon as he felt that the threat of invasion rule in India and matters which are already largely
was removed, set to work to plan laws and forgotten. The author writes of the Sannyasi institutions for the new system of government. Rebellion in Bengal, of Jagannath Tarka-panchanan
"The aims of our British rulers to make their rule who collaborated with Sir William Jones in his durable and beneficent is clearly seen-for the efforts to give Europeans a knowledge of Hindu first time in the activities of Sir William Jones Law, and of the College of Fort William which
.... These show that the British occupation of did so much to teach the languages of India to
India was not meant to be a passing blast." As young officers in the East India Company's services. early as 1775 N. B. Halhed a civil servant of the The first great problem before the English
Company, had produced under Warren Hastings governors of Bengal was the preservation of peace,
a translation from a Persian translation of the and almost at the very beginning they were confront.
Sanskrit code of Hindu law, but it was for obvious ed with the Sannyasis, who in this instance were
reasons not a satisfactory production, and in
1786 Lord Cornwallis, as Governor General, comvery far from being what their name implied-worldrenouncers. A great Bengali novelist, Bankim
missioned the great scholar Sir William Jones, Chandra Chatterjee, has thrown & romantic
a judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta, to halo round the Sannyasis, and represented them
make another translation from the Sanskrit itself.
Sir William Jones started as Bengali Brahmans and Kayasthas (the clerical
in the right way class), and their movement " as the natural
by appointing an establishment of pandits and
maulavis, and was fortunate enough to secure the reaction against the Bengal Famine of 1709-1770 and the fiscal oppression of the Company's heartless
services of a remarkable Hindu scholar, Pandit underlinge." But Mr. Banerjee's researches into Jagannath Tarka-panchanan, even then an old the Bengal Records show that they were really man.Chiefly with his help, Sir William Jones fighting Hindu monks from outside and the "very by 1792 produced his great translation of the brethren of dacoits and mercenary soldiers Mandvo Dharmasastra or "the Institutes of and guards"-a race well-known in India. They Hindu Law as compiled by Manu." And then began their raids into Bengal in 1763 and were in 1794 he died too soon, though his old pandit not finally disposed of till 1775 by Warren Hastings, lived on till 1806 in dignified retirement and died their suppression being "a task of peculiar difficulty at the extraordinary age of 111 years. from the characters of these robbers and their Then it was that the British Government conmode of operation." They pwed their long im. solidated the Pax Britannica by teaching its judi. munity from punishment to rapidity of action, ciary the code of laws of the greater part of its lightness of equipment and constant movement, subjects, the Hindus. as has many another force in the history of guorilla The next great step taken in the same direction warfare. It was due to the perseverance of Warren was the establishment of the College of Fort William Hastings that they were at last destroyed, after in 1800 by that unjustly neglected Governor-General having been a true scourge in Bengal for some Lord Wellesley-whom it is pleasant to note that twelve years. Several of their leaders acquired Mr. Banerjee (p. 93) calls "& great genius and great notoriety : Majnûn Shah Faqir, Bhawani true imperialist." He makes also at this point Pathak, Moså Shah Faqir, Paragul Shah and (p. 92) some remarks worth noting in the present Chiragh 'Ali Shah, to say nothing of a woman juncture of affairs : "There have been many Devi Chaudhuråni, who conducted her depreda- great emperors in the world, but sooner or later tions from a boat. The Muhammadan names they have all perished. The Roman Empire of some of these leaders of Hindu ascetics will be lasted long because it was the rule, not of a family, noted. Occasionally the British officers in charge but of whole nation. Such also is the modern of operations against them met with disaster; British Empire in India: it has been created and owing chiefly to insufficient forces an old failing maintained by the genius, energy and perseverance of their nation. But the hunt after thom was of the British race. Therefore the fate of this continuous and relentless, and in the end Warren empire naturally depends upon the intellect and Hastings put them down, a task in which he was character of the Englishmen, Scotchmen and 88sisted by many & gallant Englishman whose
Irishmen who come out to rule India as civil servants deeds have long been forgotten. Mr. Banerjee and military officers." speaks of these efforts thus : "The suppress
Wellesley noted that, though the British had ing of the Sannyasis was an achievement of which
acquired power in India, their representatives the great statesman-might well have been proud,
mervanta of a Mercantile Company-were unfit though it has been scarcely noticed by the his- to act ma governing body. The result was that toriana," and he has done well to remind us what "the newly conquered provinces of Bengal and kind of life it was that the Bengalis had to lead Madras had to pass through the terrible misery of a