SCHOOL LIFE AT DHURRUMTOLLAH ACADEMY

MR. DAVID DRUMMOND AND HIS TEACHING: HIS INFLUENCE ON LITTLE DEROZIO

 Now it’s time to know about a great talent of educational field, who became the respected & honored teacher of Henry Derozio! He was Mr. David Drummond, the Schoolmaster of Dhurrumtollah Academy, to whom we all are grateful for making such a great student! He was the pre-indication of Derozio’s revolutionary teaching, or I should say that Derozio became a winning replica of Drummond, with the addition of some other virtues, on later days! We must know Drummond if we want to know his dearest disciple 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 25^th 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, 31^st 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!         

Dear reader! We are watching only child Derozio from the beginning of our discussions, but in this way we will not be able to know him properly. His biography is never complete without narration of the educational & social condition of that era which became too worst to bear with! The noble person who fought to change those miserable conditions can never be separated from them! So, let’s leave baby Derozio for a little while, in order to know that educational field of Bengal which was going parallel with this great teacher’s life. Let’s keep our eyes on the history of that excellent institution which is going to be the kingdom of our presently little hero just after a few years!