MR. DAVID DRUMMOND AND HIS TEACHING: HIS INFLUENCE ON LITTLE
DEROZIO
Mr. Drummond, a Scotchman who was well known as ‘a
successful teacher of youth’, had a unique personality in that era. He was not
only an expert of Literature, Science & Philosophy but also was a man of
high culture who loved & arranged songs & dramas in his house besides
profound & analytic discussions on various topics. All the wise &
literature-lover Englishmen of that time knew him very well & read his
articles & poems with an earnest interest. Mr. Sandford Arnard became so
pleased with Drummond’s love for Philosophy that he gifted the French Grammar
written by himself, to Mr. Drummond.
Drummond used to write articles mainly on Literature & Philosophy,
& some of his English poems were also published. The expert journalist
Drummond was the editor of “The Weekly Examiner”-A journal of politics, news
and literature.
But these are not the sufficient information about this
efficient man. He was, above all, “A successful teacher of youth”, this is the
best definition of him. He could pour all his thoughts & opinions into his
student’s mind. His students became so overwhelmed with his lectures that they
forgot everything around them during the class!
Drummond’s ideals of life were very clear to himself, though
he could not be understood by most of the people of that day, & even it’s
heard that he had to leave his motherland only for those ideals which made him
an infidel to common people! How were his ideals?
He was doubtful about everything, & never accepted
anything without reasoning. He didn’t want to worship God neglecting the
thoughts of mankind! He strongly believed in the theory of personal freedom of
men. Binoy Ghosh has written about this mentality of Drummond, “If men don’t
deform the culture of society & humanity, he has the rights of expressing
himself. If there is anybody named ‘God’ only they may search for that God who has
enough time in their lives, but only human being is the real God in this mortal
life, & also the only master! Thinking for mankind itself is the thinking
for God!”
We wonder, how this great person could think so generously
in that orthodox era, & how he could believe that thinking for human
welfare is the only way to worship God! How true is this! The so-called
worshippers of God who marked Drummond as non-believer, how many of them could
serve mankind taking it equal to worshipping God? How many of them could
realize what does God prefer between worshipping with an orthodox mind and
loving His dear creatures? Mr. Drummond was absolutely correct in this concept,
I believe so. And I also believe (I will discuss this later) that neither
Drummond nor his student Derozio was an atheist. Who loves human being he
automatically loves God. How can he be called an atheist?
Little Derozio entered into this teacher’s care at the age of
six. I try to imagine that glorious day on which Drummond first met little
Henry! Could he imagine this boy would be his appropriate inheritor? Could he predict this boy would give him more
fame as a teacher than he ever earned?
Baby Henry imbibed all of Drummond’s lessons & accepted
all his ideals with full respect. We have already told that Drummond was a
teacher of very rare kind who could easily influence his pupils. Henry was also
influenced, & impact of Drummond was most effective on him! There is no
doubt that he was Drummond who sowed the seeds of free thinking, truthfulness
& reasoning in little Henry’s heart which resulted a golden crop on later
days & became very auspicious for nineteenth century’s Bengal! Mr. Thomas
Edwards, the first proper biographer of Derozio, has narrated this beautifully,
“Drummond seems to have had the power of imparting in an unusual degree, and on
none of his pupils did he more distinctly impress his own individuality than on
the young Derozio.”
Thus, little Henry was becoming a promising inheritor of his
master day by day. He respected Drummond with all of his heart, & Drummond
too, loved this brilliant boy. He had the capacity of recognizing human nature;
surely he could understand that Henry would be successful to spread his lessons
everywhere. For this reason, I think, Drummond kept his eager eyes fixed on
Henry continuously from the very first day of his admission as a boy of six to
his day of leaving School at the age of fourteen! And we will see later, this
expectation of Drummond was neither wrong nor went in vain.
We have seen earlier that Henry had an in-born capacity of
attracting people. In this School-life too, he easily became a favorite friend
of most of his classmates. I would like to narrate a little incident in this
regard. Once he was absent in School for a few days. One day, when Drummond was
teaching in his class, Henry returned to School after that absence. All the
students lost their attention in studies, & rushed to meet him! Drummond
became astonished enough at first, he could not think how his pupils could
leave his class to meet someone! Basically, he was a quite strict teacher
regarding the rules inside the School ground. Pupils never disobeyed him as
well as his rules. So what has happened today?
Drummond came outside of the class & found that little
Henry has returned to School, & all the students are around him, asking him
about his health etc. The strict teacher became totally moved seeing this boy
who was so beloved of all his friends! His heart became melted after watching
this unbound love; he didn’t punish any student for this disobeying!
This single incident tells us how an endearing boy Derozio
was! Nobody could suppress feelings of love towards him! How blessed that
lovable boy was!
THE BLOSSOMMING TALENT OF YOUNG DEROZIO: AWAKENING OF HIS GENTLE HEART WITH GENTLE TOUCH OF DRUMMOND
Within Drummond’s School, the bud of Henry’s world-enchanting
talent started to bloom! Besides being a meritorious student he also played
winning roles in various extracurricular activities with an ease. Drummond
established a little theater in the School, though he had no intention to built
his pupils as professional actors, he just wanted to awake their power of
thoughts as well as their hidden talents. Every year, the glorious
personalities of literature, Philosophy & many wise men of educational
& cultural field were earnestly invited as honorable guests to watch the
annual examination of School. On that day, students got a golden chance to
express themselves in front of those judicious personalities & they used to
present their power of recitation, drama, reading etc on that theater.
Brilliant Derozio participated in this occasion every year with a great
interest, & the honorable guests became overwhelmed with his talent again
& again!
This ‘boy of wonder’ started to show his magic at the age of
eight only! On 25th December, 1817, the Calcutta Gazette wrote on
his credit, “Henry Derozio-First in Recitation, Reading , Geography and general extraordinary
acquirements at 8 years of age. A Gold Medal.”
On the very next year, 31st December of 1818, the
Government Gazette wrote again on his brilliant result & award, “Henry
Derozio-First Reader in the School, and remarkable powers in recitation, etc.
(9 years of age)- Walkar’s Elocution.” Calcutta Journal of 1821 also says, “Henry
Derozio and Hurry Doss Bose: the first for his pre-eminence among the rest of
his school-fellows---”
So we can easily notice how the little boy became the pride
of Dhurrumtollah Academy ! His School started to become
brighter for his brightness. Whenever the newspapers published the annual
results of his School, it contained description of his merits! Whenever they
published the internal news of his School, it contained praise of his talents!
The magic boy started to ride on the peak of fame at a very early age. Being
the headlines of newspapers was his natural routine! No other students of that
era earned so much respect in their student life! Even before starting his
working life, he became highlighted in the eyes of most of the renowned
personalities.
Besides this extraordinary intelligence & merit, Henry
was flourished with a capacity of free thinking & a liberal attitude
towards mankind from this institution. This is, I think, the most important
credit of David Drummond to be able to make his pupil with such a humanitarian
virtue which was, unfortunately, very rare at that time. And this credit goes
to him only as we can see, all the children irrespective of race or class were
learning here together! He never made a single distinguish between Indian,
Eurasian & European students! This uniqueness of Drummond’s School was
hugely praised by scholars of that time again & again. We surprise how Mr.
Drummond could make this thing possible in those days, when caste system was so
brutally followed!
There is no doubt that little Henry had inherited this
nature from his teacher Mr. Drummond. His inherent generous character woke up
in Drummond’s contact. Henry was a child having a very sensitive mind. Soon he
was able to capture these honest lessons. As his knowledge increased, his heart
became flourished with ethics & beauty. Falling on the field of his inborn
loving nature, this seed of noble mentality produced golden crop, which could
make him a pioneer of nineteenth century Renaissance in future! We are indebted
to Henry, but he is also indebted to Mr. Drummond! If there was no a soul like Drummond,
where could we find our Guru? Let’s heartily greet Mr. David Drummond, the
maker of a pioneer, the master of our master!