William Carey and Bengal Renaissance

August 17 this year is the 251st birth anniversary of Dr. William Carey. Carey made lasting and seminal contributions to the 19th century Bengal Renaissance. He came to British India as a missionary in 1793 and lived here. He knew the people of India, their religious, social, and economic condition, as no other Englishman before him had done, and he loved, lived and worked with people in Bengal till his death on 9th June, 1834. All through his 41 years in Bengal he worked relentlessly for the spread of modern education; translation of not only the Bible into many languages, but also Indian classics into Bangla; and development of Bangla prose. He wrote usable Bangla grammar, worked to reform many social ills and transformed the lives of millions. No wonder Rabindranath Tagore called Carey "the father of modern Bengal."
The great work that he did with his colleagues -- Europeans or Indians -- in places like Madnabati, Sada Mahol in Dinajpur district and in Khidirpur, Calcutta, and Serampore in West Bengal, earned him recognition as a reformer par excellence. Many people remember him even today for his reforming activities that led to the abolition of, among many others, the horrible practice of burning of widows.
Carey's greatest contributions include the development of Bengali prose. In his voluminous research work, History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century (1800-1825), Dr. Sushil Kumar De remarked: "To Carey belongs the credit of having raised the language from its debased condition of an unsettled dialect to the characters of a regular and permanent form of speech, capable as in the past, of becoming the refined and comprehensive vehicle of a great literature in the future." It was Carey and his colleagues who made effective use of the printing press in India, with seminal impact on the people of that time. Carey's printing of the Gospel according to Matthew was the first prose literature in Bangla language. He authored popular Bangla grammar books and dictionaries, translated Indian classical books from Sanskrit into Bangla so that the man on the street could read them.
As a professor of Bangla and Sanskrit of Fort William College in Calcutta, Carey was able to work for the evolution of Bangla prose in a far more authoritative manner than before. In these ways he paved the way for Bengal Renaissance. Carey and his colleagues established primary schools for women and the dalits, and opened asylums for people affected by leprosy. Carey came to India at a time when the ordinary people's life was so much ridden with the curse of many oppressive and bizarre practices in the name of religion, like Satidaha and burning of people affected by leprosy, infanticide, etc. Only in Bengal, on average 700 to 8oo hundred widows were burnt on their husbands' funeral pyres annually.
Governor General Lord Wellesley took the first step on February 5, 1805 to stop the practice of burning widows. Carey was the first to move the authorities. While the governors-general and their colleagues passed away, Carey and his associates did not cease to agitate in India and also to stir up, in England, people like William Wilberforce to abolish slavery till victory was gained.
It was a Sunday, December 5, 1829. Carey was preparing for the Sunday prayer. Unexpectedly the doorbell rang. The message that the caller brought him was of utmost importance and was from no less a person than Governor General Lord William Bentinck, who asked Carey to translate the Edict abolishing sati throughout the British Dominions. Carey was so overwhelmed with joy that, "like a schoolboy who has just been told he has won a coveted prize, Carey sprang from his chair, threw off the black jacket he wore when studying, and sent a request to one of his colleagues to take his place at the services (worship) that day." Instantly, he started translating the historic document into Bangla. Carey reasoned that any delay in circulating the same in the local language might cause the unwanted death of some women.
One of the greatest works of Carey was the foundation of Serampore College in the Danish colony of Serampore on river Hooghly in the year 1818. This college was founded with the aim of imparting modern higher education in India and served as a great source of enlightenment to the people.

The writer is Principal, College of Christian Theology Bangladesh.