THE DEROZIO AWARDS - The Life of Henry Derozio

HENRY DEROZIO

Early Childhood : April 18th 1809
Henry was born to an Indo-Portuguese father, Francis Derozio, and his wife Sophie Johnson, an English woman. He was baptised in St. John's Church on August 12, 1809 by Rev James Ward, the same minister who christened the future novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, three years later.

Early School
At the age of six, Henry was sent to Dhurmtollah Academy, a secular school run by a Scottish scholar poet, David Drummond, under whose care he discovered his own genius.

Though Derozio's formal education in the established normative appreciation was meagre, his poetic aspirations were awakened quite early in life. Literature was his sole delight and moral philosophy his most preoccupying passion, next to poetry.

The Poet
Henry Derozio attempted to write verse in school. In his *prologue to a play enacted by fellow students, what one sees is not so much the poetry but the earnest attempt of a school boy of fourteen to be poetically articulate. Perhaps in his last line Henry Derozio instinctively wrote a prologue to the whole of Indo-English poetry of the nineteenth century, for most of the authors who wrote poetry in the 19th century were echoing either consciously or unconsciously, the same sentiment, seeking recognition for their "first essay of school-boy effort" or 'indulgence' when they failed.

Later he was placed under his uncle, Mr. Johnson, and Indigo planter at Bhagalpore. The scenario was most congenial to his disposition. Here amidst the country scene with the ripple of the river in his ears and the music in his heart, the boy-poet began to weave his wreath of songs. At this time signing as 'Juvenis' for his 'nom de plume' he courted public favour. Appearing in the 'Indian Gazette' then conducted by John Grant, he attracted the notice and the applause of a section of the London Press (stated in an article in the India Gazette). These had some fine oriental images in them and to use his own words, "lines written on the sand". It was here that his metrical classic 'The Fakeer of Jungheera' was conceived. Derozio in his notes to Canto First *writes

'Although I lived nearly three years in the vicinity of Jungheera, I had but one opportunity of seeing that beautiful and truly romantic spot. I had a view of the rocks from the opposite bank of the river which was broad and full. It struck me, then, as a place where achievements in love and arms might take place; and the double character I had heard of the Fakeer, induced me to found a tale upon both these circumstances'.

So was born Nuleeni the heroine and chief protagonist of the classic, who was rescued by the band of the Fakeer Chief from the funeral pyre of her husband, and lived a few blissful days with the Fakeer, until her own father sought vengeance on the 'wretch abhorred' and killed the Fakeer in a bloody battle. Nuleeni who did not die at the death and funeral pyre of her husband fell to her end at the sight of her slain lover.

Derozio's delineation of feminine feelings in their minutest details makes him a visionary, ahead of his time.

'Devoted woman here must die' -

was amply brought out in the 'Fakeer of Jungheera'

Derozio very subtly broached the burning issue of Suttee and cynically revealed the futility and hypocrisy of the rite,

"She, like a heaven-wrought statue stands -

'Tis thus a woman fair should be Worshipped as a divinity;

Just when her beauty beams so bright,

As too intense for human sight;

Just in that hour when all her worth

Is fitted more for heaven than earth!"

His voice against Sati rose earlier than Raja Ram Mohan Roy's and probably prompted Lord William Bentinck to promulgate his Anti-Suttee Laws.

The unexpected encouragement of Dr. John Grant to whom he dedicated his work, hurried him through his first volume, 'POEMS' printed by the Baptist Mission in 1827. It met with flattering success. In the Preface, Derozio stated, "Though fearful of the inutility of general apologies yet the author feels that the circumstances under which his work appears before the public requires some explanation.

Born and educated in India at the age of eighteen, he ventures to present himself as a candidate for poetic fame and begs leave to promise that only a few hours gained from laborious daily occupation have been devoted to his poetic efforts. The publication of a work of this nature in India is not a frequent occurrence and the author trusts the single reference to the facts which plea for the imperfections of his little work." (Calcutta, 1827)

The next year Derozio reprinted his first volume with the addition of 'The Fakeer of Jungheera' - A Metrical Tale, a work of great merit which displayed his romantic and inventive powers. His style has often been termed the echo of Byron and Moore. To blame him for imitation is unfair and unjust. His poems' romantic flavour are essentially very native in their spirit. Indian and typically Hindu themes set in an Indian locale distinguish his ingenuity and authentic romanticism. Shelley too was blamed for imitation and Mrs. Shelley in the Preface to the Edition printed in 1839 explained -- "There is always a resemblance between all the writers of any particular age and it does not depend on their own will. They cannot escape from subjection to a common influence which arises out of an infinite combination of circumstances belonging to the times in which they live."

Under the influence of The English Romantics, Derozio's concept of love is a syncretism of emotional idealism and medieval romance. He proved adept in the use of the sonnet and ballad forms.

He was the forerunner of the Noble Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, the author of "Where the Mind is without fear" when he wrote:

"Where sighs are never heard and where tears are never shed

Where hearts that might elsewhere have broken and bled

Where grief is unfelt, where its name is unknown

Where the music of gladness is heard in each tone,

Where melody vibrates from harps of pure gold

Far brighter than mortal's weak eyes can behold;

Where harpers are rob'd in a mantle of light

More dazzling than diamonds, than silver more white

Where rays from a rainbow of emerald beam

Where truth is no name, and where bliss is no dream?-

'Tis the kingdom of glory - the region of rest -

(Lines taken from the poem 'Heaven')

The Teacher
"In the March of 1828, at the age of nineteen, Derozio was appointed Master of English Literature and History in the second and third classes of the 'Hindu College' now Presidency College, Calcutta. The appointment, seemingly so insignificant, marks the early development of one of the most important movements in the intellectual history of native-born subjects of this land. Few teachers had taught with greater zeal, enthusiasm, proactive and reactive interactions, than did Derozio in his short assignment at the Hindu College.

The influence of a teacher never permeated so deep. It was not alone in the classrooms and during the hours of teaching that the genial manner, the buoyant spirit, the ready humour, the wide reading, the readiness to impart knowledge, and the patience and courtesy of Derozio won the hearts and the high reverence of his pupils, but, it was also in the intervals between teaching that drew them out to give free and full expression on topics before the hour at which the usual work of his classes began, and sometimes, after the hour, foreclosing the day's duties. Derozio, to broaden the knowledge of his pupils in the thought and literature of England, gave readings in English Literature to as many students of the Hindu College as cared to take advantage of his self-imposed work.

He established the Academic Association, which met in a garden-house belonging to the Singh family in Manicktollah, where night after night under the presidency of Derozio and with Omachun Bose as Secretary, the young men of the Hindu College read their papers, discussed, debated and wrangled; and acquired for themselves the facility of expressing their thoughts in words, and the power of ready reply and argument. To these meetings there frequently came the unassuming large-hearted philanthropist, David Hare and occasionally Sir Edward Ryan, and Colonel Benson, Private Secretary to Lord William Bentinck, Colonel Beatson, afterwards Adjutant-General and Dr. Mills, the Principal of Bishop's College. Derozio's 'The critique of Kant' was an authentic, classical paper -- the contents of which cannot be traced. Indeed, his innate gift of song, which entitles his to rank as the first Romantic Indo-English poet of no inconsiderable eminence, was but the outcome of his vigorous intellect, which sought in verse an outlet for the restless mental activity that marks superior minds.

The Revolutionary
Whatever books and plays were read and studied by Derozio and his pupils, whatever topics were broached in discussion and in conversation, either in the classroom, the Academic Association, or in the friendly circle under his own roof-tree, the license of thought and the field of thinking were no greater and no more reprehensible than those which traverse the mind of every man who thinks for himself. Hindu society was in the throes of change and the Hindu mind took alarm. Ostensibly charged with baseless allegations he was forced to resign by the managing committee of the Hindu College. Henry's defence proved of no avail and he was 'induced' to write his resignation*.

In spite of his resignation his students' conduct out of the college was most exemplary and they were considered 'men of truth'. Indeed the 'college-boy' became synonymous with truth. Deeply, as Derozio felt, the manner of his exit from Hindu College, there was some compensation in the greater freedom his independence gave him.

Derozio's last act was to take part in the annual examination of the Parental Academy, afterwards the Doveton College. On Dec. 17th, Derozio penned, 'At the Dhurumtolla Academy it is quite delightful to witness the exertions of Hindu and Christian youths, striving together for academic honours; this will do much towards softening asperities which always arise in hostile sects; and then the Hindu and the Christians have learned from mutual intercourse how much there is to be admired in the human character, without reference to differences of opinion in religious matters, shall we be brought nearer, than we now are, to that happy condition when

'Man to man the world o'ver

Shall brothers be and a 'that'.

"To those parents who object to the bringing up of their children among native youths, we desire to represent the suicidal nature of their conduct. Can they check the progress of knowledge at certain schools? Can they close the gates of the Hindu College, and other institutions? If not, is it not obvious that they cannot withhold knowledge from Hindu youths and if they manifest illiberal feeling towards those youths, are they not afraid of a reaction? In a few years the Hindus will take their stand by the best and the proudest Christians and it cannot be desirable to excite the feelings of the former against the latter. The East Indians complain of suffering from proscriptions, is it for them to proscribe? Is it to produce different effects on East Indians? We hope not. They will find after all, that it is in their best interest to unite and co-operate with the other native inhabitants of India. Any other course will subject them to greater opposition than they have at present. Can they afford to make more enemies?"

These are fine last words. They were written with no inkling, as he penned them, that they were the last he was ever to give to the world. They breathe so true a spirit of large-mindedness and tolerance, and at the same time, so accurately forecast coming events, that it is with an effort one recalls to memory, the writer's youth.

The First Nationalist Poet
When the 'Harp of India' lay 'neglected, mute, and desolate', Derozio 'wakened,' it struck the strain of nationalism; and worshipped India - his native land as a 'deity'. Dedicating his labour to his 'Native land' he wrote 'Thy minstrel hath no wreath to weave for thee save the story of thy misery', jolting the young Calcuttans from their stupor.

Prior to the first war of independence in 1857 Derozio initiated the "struggle for freedom" and envisaged a united, single India at a time when the country was a loose confederacy of states and the East India company in its effort to establish hegemony, oppressingly stretched its trading rights to occupational rights. Long before the concept of 'Bharat-Mata' was accepted in modern India, Derozio in the year 1827 wrote "To India my Native Land' and referred to it as a female deity - should we say he was a precursor of this concept of 'Bharat-Mata'. The famous 'Bande Maataram' (now accorded the status in the Constitution was written and composed a decade later). Vande-Maataram is referred here, because this is treated as the first full-blast nationalist poem evoking the total concept of India as a mother, comprising the whole of the geographic subcontinent. Derozio's 'To India my Native Land' being written in English (when English was confined to upper class) did not reach a larger audience. Indeed, save a few Derozians, Henry Louis' patriotic fervour remained neglected by the British and unavailable to Indians for well over a century and three-quarters. National historians also, have never mentioned Derozio, much less gave him his due. But Derozio awakened the educated youth to the idea of nationalism.

Derozio's courage in opposing the British rule on the one hand and inciting the Indian mind on the other, through his fearless journalism, made him a 'trend setter'. More so when we realise that the 'media' and 'mass-communication' were unknown then. Then, when Derozio published in Dec. 1826 his poem 'Thermophlyae', (akin to the Kurukshetra of Greece)

"Is there none to say, ''T was well'?

Shall not fame their story tell,

Why they fought, and why they fell?

' T was to be free!

O! who would live a crouching slave,

Who would not choose death than shame

While thinking on thine awful name,

Thermophlyae?

. . .

. . .

But Sparta's sons, a hero each

Did on that day, a lesson teach

How liberty in death is won

Wha deeds with freedom's swords are done...."

there was bound to be a reaction, a condemnation. Undaunted Derozio continued his outpouring of patriotic verses.

Like a true son of the soil, Derozio kindled a concern for the freedom of India. Quoting endless verses, each more poignant that the other, was not difficult for the consummate writer he was.

The rise of Nationalism all over the world in the 19th century was but in its embryonic stages. In India it was beginning to impact with the dawning of the Renaissance in Bengal whose chief 'mentor' was Derozio.

He died of cholera on Monday December 26th, 1831, leaving behind the legacy of a visionary.

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