第 57 节
作者:
垃圾王 更新:2021-02-24 22:51 字数:9320
hat in the long run the literature of a nation must be of indigenous growth; he at once pressed the natives into this service。 His first pundit; Ram Basu; was a most accomplished Bengali scholar。 This able man; who lacked the courage to profess Christ in the end; wrote the first tract; the Gospel Messenger; and the first pamphlet exposing Hindooism; both of which had an enormous sale and caused much excitement。 On the historical side Carey induced him to publish in 1801 the Life of Raja Pratapaditya; the last king of Sagar Island。 At first the new professor could not find reading books for his Bengali class in the college of Fort William。 He; his pundits; especially Mritunjaya who has been compared in his physique and knowledge to Dr。 Samuel Johnson; and even the young civilian students; were for many years compelled to write Bengali text…books; including translations of Virgil's 苙eid and Shakspere's Tempest。 The School Book Society took up the work; encouraging such a man as Ram Komal Sen; the printer who became chief native official of the Bank of Bengal and father of the late Keshab Chunder Sen; to prepare his Bengali dictionary。 Self…interest soon enlisted the haughtiest Brahmans in the work of producing school and reading books; till now the Bengali language is to India what the Italian is to Europe; and its native literature is comparatively as rich。 Nor was Carey without his European successor in the good work for a time。 When his son Felix died in 1823 he was bewailed as the coadjutor of Ram Komal Sen; as the author of the first volume of a Bengali encyclop鎑ia on anatomy; as the translator of Bunyan's Pilgrim; Goldsmith's History of England; and Mill's History of India。
Literature cannot be said to exist for the people till the newspaper appears。 Bengal was the first non…Christian country into which the press had ever been introduced。 Above all forms of truth and faith Christianity seeks free discussion; in place of that the missionaries lived under a shackled press law tempered by the higher instincts of rulers like Wellesley; Hastings; and Bentinck; till Macaulay and Metcalfe gained for it liberty。 When Dr。 Marshman in 1818 proposed the publication of a Bengali periodical; Dr。 Carey; impressed by a quarter of a century's intolerance; consented only on the condition that it should be a monthly magazine; and should avoid political discussion。 Accordingly the Dig…darshan appeared; anticipating in its contents and style the later Penny and Saturday Magazines; and continued for three years。 Its immediate success led to the issue from the Serampore press on the 31st May 1818; of 〃the first newspaper ever printed in any Oriental language〃the Samachar Darpan; or News Mirror。
It was a critical hour when the first proof of the first number was laid before the assembled brotherhood at the weekly meeting on Friday evening。 Dr。 Carey; fearing for his spiritual work; but eager for this new avenue to the minds of the people who were being taught to read; and had little save their own mythology; consented to its publication when Dr。 Marshman promised to send a copy; with an analysis of its contents in English; to the Government; and to stop the enterprise if it should be officially disapproved。 Lord Hastings was fighting the Pindarees; and nothing was said by his Council。 On his return he declared that 〃the effect of such a paper must be extensively and importantly useful。〃 He allowed it to circulate by post at one…fourth the then heavy rate。 The natives welcomed their first newspaper。 Although it avoided religious controversy; in a few weeks an opposition journal was issued by a native; who sought to defend Hindooism under the title of the Destroyer of Darkness。 To the Darpan the educated natives looked as the means of bringing the oppression of their own countrymen to the knowledge of the public and the authorities。 Government found it most useful for contradicting silly rumours and promoting contentment if not loyalty。 The paper gave a new development to the Bengali language as well as to the moral and political education of the people。
The same period of liberty to the press and to native advancement; with which the names of the Marquis of Hastings and his accomplished wife will ever be associated; saw the birth of an English periodical which; for the next fifty…seven years; was to become not merely famous but powerfully useful as the Friend of India。 The title was the selection of Dr。 Marshman; and the editorial management was his and his able son's down to 1852; when it passed into the hands of Mr。 Meredith Townsend; long the most brilliant of English journalists; and finally into those of the present writer。 For some years a monthly and for a time a quarterly magazine till 1835; when Mr。 John Marshman made it the well…known weekly; this journal became the means through which Carey and the brotherhood fought the good fight of humanity。 In the monthly and quarterly Friend; moreover; reprinted as much of it was in London; the three philanthropists brought their ripe experience and lofty principles to bear on the conscience of England and of educated India alike。 As; on the Oriental side; Carey chose for his weapon the vernacular; on the other he drew from Western sources the principles and the thoughts which he clothed in a Bengali dress。
We have already seen how Carey at the end of the eighteenth century found Hindooism at its worst。 Steadily had the Pooranic corruption and the Brahmanical oppression gone on demoralising the whole of Hindoo society。 In the period of virtual anarchy; which covered the seventy…five years from the death of Aurangzeb to the supremacy of Warren Hastings and the reforms of Lord Cornwallis; the healthy zeal of Islam against the idolatrous abominations of the Hindoos had ceased。 In its place there was not only a wild licence amounting to an undoubted Hindoo revival; marked on the political side by the Maratha ascendency; but there came to be deliberate encouragement of the worst forms of Hindooism by the East India Company and its servants。 That 〃the mischievous reaction〃 on England from Indiaits idolatry; its women; its nabobs; its wealth; its absolutismwas prevented; and European civilisation was 〃after much delay and hesitation〃 brought to bear on India; was due indeed to the legislation of Governor…Generals from Cornwallis to Bentinck; but much more; to the persistent agitation of Christian missionaries; notably Carey and Duff。 For years Carey stood alone in India; as Grant and Wilberforce did in England; in the darkest hour of England's moral degradation and spiritual death; when the men who were shaping the destinies of India were the Hindooising Stewarts and Youngs; Prendergasts; Twinings; and Warings; some of whom hated missions from the dread of sedition; others because their hearts 〃seduced by fair idolatresses had fallen to idols foul。〃
The most atrociously inhuman of all the Brahmanical customs; and yet the most universal; from the land of the five rivers at Lahore to the far spice islands at Bali; was the murder of widows by burning or burying them alive with the husband's corpse。 We have seen how the first of the many such scenes which he was doomed to witness for the next thirty years affected Carey。 After remonstrances; which the people met first by argument and then by surly threats; Carey wrote:〃I told them I would not go; that I was determined to stay and see the murder; and that I should certainly bear witness of it at the tribunal of God。〃 And when he again sought to interfere because the two stout bamboos always fixed for the purpose of preventing the victim's escape were pressed down on the shrieking woman like levers; and they persisted; he wrote: 〃We could not bear to see more; but left them exclaiming loudly against the murder and full of horror at what we had seen。〃 The remembrance of that sight never left Carey。 His naturally cheerful spirit was inflamed to indignation all his life through; till his influence; more than that of any other one man; at last prevailed to put out for ever the murderous pyre。 Had Lord Wellesley remained Governor…General a year longer Carey would have succeeded in 1808; instead of having to wait till 1829; and to know as he waited and prayed that literally every day saw the devilish smoke ascending along the banks of the Ganges; and the rivers and pools considered sacred by the Hindoos。 Need we wonder that when on a Sunday morning the regulation of Lord William Bentinck prohibiting the crime reached him as he was meditating his sermon; he sent for another to do the preaching; and taking his pen in his hand; at once wrote the official translation; and had it issued in the Bengali Gazette that not another day might be added to the long black catalogue of many centuries?
On the return of the Marquis Wellesley to Calcutta from the Tipoo war; and his own appointment to the College of Fort William; Carey felt that his time had come to prevent the murder of the innocents all over India in the three forms of female infanticide; voluntary drowning; and widow…burning or burying alive。 His old friend; Udny; having become a member of Council or colleague of the Governor…General; he prepared three memorials to Govern