54: BENGALI LITERATURE more than 40 separate works, all in manuseripts, as the whole literature of 30,000,000 of people up to that time.’’! The state of learning in Bengal may not be unfitly compared to that in England after the ravages of the Danes, of which King Alfred said ‘there was a time when people came to this island for instruction, now we must get it from abroad, if we want it”. For, under this state of things, it is obvious that no impetus coming from within, if improvement is to be effected, it Improvement comes
- must come from outside. When we
from without. picture to ourselves adventurers, ne’er- do-wells, plain townsfolk and country-folk, peaceful home- stayers in the remote villages and commercial banians in the crowded cities, and later on, well-to-do English gentle- men pushing their way up the river, laying out broad plantations and sultanising over the whole neighbourhood, we can hardly expect any manifestation of the literary genius in such an environment. With the mental and physical absorption incident upon social and political disorders in the country, with no metropolis to furnish the needed contact of mind with mind, with repressive material needs causing large drain upon one’s physical energy, and above all, with the decay of artistic impulses and literary tradi- tions, 1t is no wonder that the nation produced little literature and developed little culture of importance. The impulse at length came from outside. We cannot but acknowledge with feelings of mingled shame and grateful- ness that the first and earliest efforts European’ workers, রর Ne civilians and mise at ameleorating our condition were Fonarieg, inthe field.“ nsdeibyia: wiandiul of philanthropie Europeans, both civilians and missionaries, who in their
- Smith, op, cit., p. 202.
