To call a cemetery a place of interest may be
disputable, for it is seldom visited either by the tourist or the citizen,
except under compulsion! Part of the St.
John’s churchyard served as the first Christian Burial Ground from the
foundation of the settlement of Kolkata in 1690 until 1767, when the South Park
Street Cemetery was opened. Park Street in 1767 was known as Burial Ground
Road, the present name having been given to it later as a result of the park
which surrounded Sir Elijah Impey’s residence, now the Loreto Convent in
Middleton Row.
A look at some of the names engraved on the
tombs will be of immense interest for those interested in the history of India.
Lucia Palk, the heroine of Kipling’s ‘City of Dreadful Night‘. Lady Anne
Monson, a great-granddaughter of Charles II and Elizabeth Sanderson, the most
beautiful woman of Kolkata are also buried here. Other important names we could
notice were Lt. Gen. Sir John Cleavering (Army officer), Col. Robert Kyd
(botanist and founder of Kolkata Botanical Garden) Lt. Col. James Lillyman
(builder of Fort William) and Lt. Col. Colin Mackenzie (Surveyor General of
India and Orientalist) and many more whose memories live on the various statues
and streets named after them in Kolkata.
SIR WILLIAM JONES
One
of the most conspicuous monuments in
the South Park Street Cemetery is that which marks the
grave of Sir William Jones. The lofty obelisk, its clear-cut lines towering far
above the surrounding structures, is typical of the person who sleeps below,
whose name similarly dominates all others in the history of the decade during
which he laboured in Bengal. Sir Jones arrived at Calcutta in
1783. He came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court in succession
to La Maistre (1783). His reputation had indeed travelled before him as is
evident from the fact that while a scholar at University college, Oxford (1764)
he began his studies in oriental and other languages, translated a life of
Nadir Shah from Persian into French (1770) , wrote a Persian grammar (1771),
translation of poems and six books of commentaries on Asiatic poetry and
published a translation of the Arabic Mollakat.
One of Sir William Jones’ earliest acts in India
was the founding of the Asiatic Society, and for ten years he laboured with
unrelenting zeal and astonishing learning, carrying out his duties on the bench
with care and dignity, studying Sanskrit, writing voluminously, translating
learnedly, attending the weekly meetings of the society he had founded, and to
which he contributed many valuable papers, notably his disclosers as
president. It is curious to note that according to writers in CALCTTA
REVIEW for September 1846: “He discussed the Chinese and their origin,
as a people who are mentioned in Manu. As race of outcast
Hindus noticed Japan, The Britain of the East, colonized by Hindus in1300 BC
where Hindu idolatry prevailed from the earliest ages”. (Source: C. L. Buckland
"Dictionary of Indian Biography”, H.E.A. Cotton
“Calcutta past and present”)
MISS
ROSE AYLMER
It may not be superfluous to recall for some in the
present generation, the circumstances which associate this old Calcutta tomb
with the name of a man who is among the most striking alike by his character
and his powers as a great master in verse, a prose writer of a highest rank-
Walter Savage Landor. Not long after leaving Oxford in 1797, when
about 21 years of age Landor was staying at Walsh Cost, where he met, and was
on friendly terms with Lord Aylmer’s family. One of the young ladies of the
family becomes his especial favourite Miss Aylmer was at that time four years
younger than Landor, and they seem to have been thrown much together. The tender
and lasting impression which his young friend made on Landor, is seen in the
sad and gentle allusions to her in some of his poetry written many years after
the time to which it refers. It is curious to note that Landor’s introduction
to fame was indirectly or accidentally associated wth Miss Aylmer. Landor’s
first miraculous beauties named “GABIR”.
Lady
Aylmer, the widow of Henry, the fourth baron, married secondly Mr. Howell
Price. Possibly it was in consequence of this re-marriage that her daughter Rose
went to Calcutta to her aunt Lady Russel, wife of Sir Henry Russel,
who became a reputed judge, and was afterwards made Chief Justice, and
eventually a baronet.
The Calcutta Gazette in the first week of March 1800 records the sad event, “On Sunday last at the house of her uncle Sir Henry Russel in the bloom of youth and possession of every accomplishment that could gladden or embellish life, deplored by her relatives and regretted by a society of which she was the brightest ornament, the humble Miss Aylmer.”
Ah, what avails the sceptred face ?
Ah, what the form divine
What every virtue, every grace
Rose Aylmer, all were thine
Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes
May weep, but never see
A night of memories and of sighs
I consecrate to thee.
CAPTAIN
WILLIAM MACKAY
Strange to say, this grave also like that of Rose
Aylmer next has claim on the interest as that of one associated with a name
illustrious in English literature, a poet greater than Landor- “Lord Byron”.
The tomb is that of a young sailor, Captain William Mackay who died in 1804,
and the inscription over it recalls his “manly fortitude” which “his
interesting narrative of the ship of the JUNO will testify to future times”.
Such indulgent forecasts of sorrowing friends are not often realized, but this
one comes nearer to being so than most, owing to the little narrative having
fallen into the hands of Byron, with whom as a schoolboy, it was favorite
reading, and the deep impression which it made on him was shown when he came to
write the shipwreck in DON JUAN.
HENRY LOUIS VIVIAN DEROZIO
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio was a fiery Indian teacher
and poet. As a lecturer at the Hindu College of Kolkata, he had invigorated a
large group of students to think independently. This Young Bengal group played
a key role in the Bengal renaissance. Derozio was generally
considered an Anglo-Indian, being of mixed Portuguese descent, but he was fired
by a patriotic spirit for his native Bengal, and considered himself Indian.
“My
Country ! In the days of Glory Past
A
beauteous halo circled round thy brow
And
worshiped as deity thou wast,
Where
is that Glory, where is that reverence now ?”
The son of Francis Derozio, he was born at
Entally-Padmapukur at Kolkata on 10th April1809. He attended
David Drummond’s Dhurramtalla Academy school, where he was a
star pupil, evading widely on topics like the French revolution.
He
quit school at the age of 14 and initially joined his father’s concern at
Kolkata and later shifted to Bhagalpur. Inspired by the scenic beauty of
the banks of the river Ganges, he started writing poetry. Some of these
were published in Dr. Grant’s “India Gazette”. His critical review of a book by
Emmanuel Kant attracted the attention of the intelligentsia. In 1828, he went
to Kolkata with the objective of publishing his own poem. On learning that a
faculty position was vacant at the newly established Hindu College, he
applied for it and was selected. This was the time when Hindu society
in Bengal was undergoing considerable turmoil. In 1828, Raja Ram
Mohan Roy established the Brahmo Samaj, which kept Hindu ideals but denied
idolatry. These resulted in a backlash within orthodox Hindu society. It is in
the perspective of these changes that Derozio was appointed at Hindu college,
where he helped release the ideas for social change already in the air.
Apart from articles criticizing Hindu practices, the
students wrote on women emancipation and criticized many aspects of British
rule. He also encouraged students into journalism, to spread these ideas into a
society eager for change. In mid1831 he helped Krishna Mohan Banerjee to start
an English weekly, “ The Enquirer”, while Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee and Rasik
Krishna Mallick began publishing a Bengali paper, “The Jnanvesan” . He took
great pleasure in his interaction with students, writing about them:
“Expanding
like the petals of young flowers
I
watch the gentle opening of your minds..”
He was close in age of most of his students (some were
older than he was). The motto of Derozians was “He who will not reason is a
bigot, he who cannot is a fool, and he who does not reason is a slave.” So,
all ideas were open to challenge. Many of his inner circle of students
eventually rebelled against Hindu orthodoxy, and joined the Brahmo Samaj, while
some like Krishna Mohan Banerjee converted to Christianity, and others like
Ramtanu Lahiri gave up their scared thread. Others went on to write in Bengali,
including Peary Chand Mitra, who authored the first novel in Bengali (Alaler
Gharer Dulal). The radicalism of his teaching and his student group caused an
intense backlash against him.
Due
to his unorthodox (legendarily free) views on society, culture and religion,
the Hindu-dominated management committee of the college, under the chairmanship
of Radhakanta Deb, expelled him as a faculty member by a 6:1 vote, for
having materially injured (the student’s) morals and introduced some strange
system the tendency of which is destruction to their moral character and peace
in society. In consequence of his misunderstanding no less than 25 pupils of
respectable families have been withdrawn from the college.
Though facing penury, he continued his interaction
with his students, indeed he was able to do more, helping them bring out
several newspapers etc. However, at the end of the year, he contracted cholera,
which was fatal at that time, and died on 26th December 1831 at
the age of 22. Being a Christian apostate, he was denied burial
inside south Park Street Cemetery; instead he was buried just outside
it on the road.
Derozio was an atheist but his ideas are generally believed to be partly responsible for the conversion of upper class Hindues like Krishna Mohan Banerjee and Lal Behari Dey to Christianity. Samaren Roy, however, states that only three Hindu pupils among his first group of students became Christians, and asserts that Derozio had no role to play in their change of faith. He points out that dismissal of Derozio was sought by both Hindus such as Ramkamal Sen, as well as Christians such as H. H. Wilson. Many other students like Tarachand Chakraborty became leaders in the Brahmo Samaj.
CHARLES STUART
For centuries the British have been fascinated by the
cultures of India, and they have struggled with greater or lesser success to
understand them. For the eighteenth-century European, the most intriguing
mystery of India was Hinduism, a faith that confusingly seemed to advocate both
world-denying asceticism and riotous physical pleasure. Why were some Hindu
temples, unlike English cathedrals, richly decorated with
erotic sculptures? Where Christian god endured unbearable suffering, Hindu
gods seem to rejoice in sex. But around 1800, one man, Charles Stuart, decided
to explain to the British that Hinduism should be seriously studied and greatly
admired. Stuart started off as a cadet in the Bengal Army in 1777 and rose
through to become a general by 1814 without any battle experience, but at the
same time without any “connections”. He was certainly considered an eccentric,
constructing a temple in Sagar Island , acquiring an India Bibi and being
formally certified as ‘gone native’. In 1778 he wrote his first article about
military clothing and professed the use of Indian clothing and articles in
India, as they are convenient and appropriate and states by attacking European
prejudices. He also writes extensively about the treatment of an Indian soldier
and the aspect of discipline, and here is where it becomes amply clear that
this man had studied the Indian psyche in great detail, on matters of pride,
position, custom and tradition.
But
though he admitted to be anti-Christian, he stated that he had not converted to
Hinduism, for he would have had to leave the army as well. As part of his study
of Indian cultures, Stuart put together a huge collection of sculpture-
designed to include “examples of each deity as a kind of visual encyclopedia of
religions and customs.” some rare and old, and of high artistic merit. His
method of collection was not altogether honourable, for some rumors of
taking them away at night by force have been mentioned. His collection was
displayed to the public at his home in Calcutta, converted into a museum.
It
was one of the first serious attempts to present Indian culture in a systematic
way to an European audience. (Upon his death, several of these were interred
into the tomb. Most of his collection went to England after his death and were
eventually auctioned off by Christies. Some went to British museum and some to
private hands for pittance). Far from finding Hinduism disconcerting, Stuart
saw in it an admirable framework for living, that was at least the moral equal
to Christianity, and in 1808 he published his views in a pamphlet, “
Vindication of the Hindoos”: “Wherever I look around me, in the vast ocean of
Hindu mythology, I discover Piety….Morality….and as far as I can rely on my
judgment, it appears the most complete and ample system of Moral Allegory the
world has ever produced.”
Stuart spoke out strongly against missionary attempts
to convert Hindus to Christianity. He thought it simply impertinent, and his
intention always was that his collection should be seen in England to persuade
the British to honor this great world religion.
JOHN GARSTIN
John Garstin was
born in 1756 at Half Moon Street, Westminster. He joined the Bengal Engineers
as an Ensign in 1778 and rose to become Surveyor-General in Bengal (1808-1813).
His early Civil engineering work included a “survey of the navigability of
Cossimbazar river (? , Bhagirathi) above Murshidabad in 1780 and production of
a large scale map of Calcutta (c. 1783), which he worked on with several
colleagues”. He was then stationed in Patna (1784-1793) and was responsible for
the construction of a brick dome granary at Bankipore. (http://astoundingbengal.blogspot.com/2016/12/an-unique-landmark-of-patna-bihar.html). The walls were 12ft thick, the internal diameter 108ft. and the height
94ft. He moved to Chunar in 1793. Again he moved to Kolkata in 1797 and for
health reasons returned to Britain with his family the following year, then
being based at Fort William.
SAMUEL OLDHAM
There is a tomb sacred to the memory of Samuel Oldham,
the first British undertaker in Bengal. He got his Tombstone (stone being rare
in this alluvial region) from the ruins of the city of Gour, North of Ganga
near English Bazaar. Mr. Oldham amassed a fortune before he himself was laid to
rest here in 1788 surrounded by numerous of his own handicraft (now lost many
of it).
GEORGE BOGLE
The genius of
warren Hastings is shown in nothing more than in his rare insight in the selection
of subordinates. He surrounded himself with young man of great ability and
talent for administration, who worked for him with a zeal which was stimulated
by warm personal attachment. George Bogle was among those who was trained by
and won distinction under the eye of the first and greatest of the
Governors-General of India. George Bogle was born in 1746 in Daldowie,
Scotland. His mother died when he has thirteen, the following year he
matriculated at Edinburgh University where he studied logic. He completed his
education, when he was 18, at a private academy in Enfield, near London.
Following this he spent six months in France. His brother Robert Cook took him
on as a clerk in his London offices of BOGLE & SCOTT where he spent four
years as a cashier.
Returning to India, Bogle fulfilled the Panchen Lamas request to establish a temple on the banks of the Ganges, not far from East India Companies headquarters, where Buddhist monks could return to their spiritual roots in India(http://astoundingbengal.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-forgotten-adventurer-and-relic-of-his_27.html). Bogle’s diary and travel notes were found in his Ayrshire family archives and published as “Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet”. Bogle died, probably of Cholera, on 3rd. April ,1781, and was buried in Park Street Cemetery.
Sources :
1. The Fakeer of Jungheera (1928)-Poems. London : Oxford University Press.
2. Poems : Edited by P.Lal, Susobon Sarkar.
Calcutta writers Workshop.1972.
3. Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1808-1831):
Anglo-Indian patriot and poet :
A memorial volume. Edited by Mary Ann
Dasgupta. 1973.
4. Echoes of Old Calcutta by H.E. Busteed.
5. Calcutta Past and Present by K.
Blechynden.
6. Calcutta Old and New by H.E.A.Cotton.
7. Bengal in 1756 by H.C.Hill.
8. "A Solitary vindicator of
Hindoos" - by Jorg Fisch.
9. " Lives of Indian Images " by
Richard H. Davis.
10." The British Missionary Enterprise
since 1700" - by Jeffery Cox
11." White Mughals" - by William
Dalrymple.
12." The History of medieval
Vaishnavism in Orissa" -by Prabhat
Mukherjee
13.
Biographical sketch of George Bogle and narratives of the mission of
George Bogle to Tibet. Edited by
Clements R Markham,
Cambridge University Press.
14. India and Tibet : the history of
relations by Francis Youghusband.
15. George Bogle in Bengal and Tibet by
Teltscher Kate.
16. A biographical Dictionary of Civil
Engineers in Great Britain and
Ireland. Edited by A.W. Skempton and Mike Chrimes.
Research -Santanu Roy.
Picture Courtesy - Sudip Ghosh.
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