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Hare, David (1775-1842) a Scotch philanthropist. David
Hare came to Calcutta to make fortune out of watch making. The new colonial
state offered opportunities to artists and artisans to come to Bengal
and sell their services as painters, shoemakers, tailors, hairdressers
and so on. David Hare, born in an ordinary watch making artisan family
of Scotland, came to Calcutta in 1800. By making and repairing watches,
Hare made reasonable fortune and he might go back home and spend the rest
of his life comfortably. But unlike most other adventurers of his time,
Hare resolved to make Bengal his home and dedicate his life to the welfare
of the depressed humanity.
David Hare's
first major initiative as a social benefactor was the establishment
of the hindu
college. It was Hare who developed the idea of founding
a school for English education among the natives. He motivated Hyde
East, Chief Justice of the Calcutta Supreme Court, to support his
initiative. Hyde East's interest in the idea inspired many native
gentlemen with whose cooperation the college was established on
20 January 1817. Next year, Hare founded the calcutta
school-book society for printing and publishing English
and Bengali books.
With a view to devoting full time to social work,
David Hare transferred his business concerns to one Gray in January
1820. Gray was his assistant and possibly a relative with whom he
continued to live in Hare Street (after his name) till death |
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David Hare statue, Kolkata |
. Formerly he bought considerable landed property in
Calcutta. A part of the property he donated to Hindu College and the rest
he sold to sanskrit
college at nominal price as a form of patronage to the college.
David Hare maintained very close contact with Raja rammohun
roy and henry
derozio. As a guru of the young
bengal, Hare became the patron of their organisation, 'Society
for the Promotion of General Knowledge' (1838). He created public opinion
against the cruel Indentured Labour Law under which labourers were to
be transported to plantation colonies like slaves. He advocated for the
reforms of colonial laws that appeared to him oppressive and inhuman.
He fought for lifting the restrictions on native press. He also argued
for the extension of trial by jury, hitherto confined to Calcutta only,
to the district courts as well.
In funding new schools and other learned organisations,
Hare lavishly spent his resources and had to take debt from others. As
a great link between the natives and the Anglo-Indians the government
found it worthwhile to bail him out of indebtedness by making him a Sheriff
of Calcutta in 1840 at a salary of Rs.1000 per month. But Hare died suddenly
of cholera on 1 June 1842.
Irrespective of caste and creed, religion and race, all
mourned his death. The Calcutta public raised a memorial statue of him
by public subscriptions. The Memorial Statue (1847) reads that Hare 'having
acquired an ample competence cheerfully relinquished the prospect of returning
to enjoy it in his native land in order to promote the welfare of that
of his adoption'. Several schools and roads of Calcutta were named after
him in his honour. David Hare never married.
What Derozio did intellectually, David Hare did organisationally
and socially. It is said that under the given social circumstances, the
Calcutta Medical College would not have drawn students at all without
David Hare's incessant canvassing with the Hindu society in favour of
the college. Hare launched the social movement for female education by
establishing several informal female schools in Calcutta. The contemporary
native gentlemen highly respected him because he had no personal interest
to grind in social work. His personal sacrifices were very clear and absolute.
Furthermore, he spoke Bangla, adopted native food habit and often dressed
himself in native style and joined all social festivals of the natives.
[Sirajul Islam]
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