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Lahiri, Ramtanu (1813-1898) teacher, reformer and educational
organiser. Born in a high kulin Brahmin family of Krishnanagar,
Nadia, and educated at Hindu College, Ramtanu Lahiri was one of those
educators and intellectuals who paved the way for various reform movements
in Bengal in the 19th century. In many ways the 19th century may be called
the age of school teachers. It was the school teachers, from henry
derozio and david
hare through Pundit iswar
chandra vidyasagar, Peari Charan Sarkar and Pundit shibnath
shastri who, in fact, created the awakening that Bengal witnessed
in the 19th century. Ramtanu, as a teacher, was a typical representative
of the era.
Lahiri Ramtanu's father, Ramkrishna Lahiri, was a diwan
of the Nadia Raj. Up to the age of eleven, Ramtanu attended the
village pathsala. Then he came to Kolkata with his elder
brother, Keshab Chandra Lahiri, and, through the patronage of
David Hare, got a chance to study as a free student at Hare School.
In 1828 he entered Hindu College on a scholarship. Here he came
under the influence of Derozio, one of the most remarkable educators
of Bengal. In 1833 Ramtanu became a teacher in Hindu College.
In 1846 he moved to Krishnanagar College, a government institution
founded that year. During his long teaching career, Ramtanu taught
in several institutions, finally retiring as headmaster of the
Barisal Zila School in 1865.
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Ramtanu Lahiri |
Influenced by rammohun
roy, Lahiri cast off his Brahmanical thread and became a Brahmo.
As a result, he was socially persecuted wherever he went. But educated
people venerated him as a teacher and a model character. His disciples
held him in high esteem. One of them, Pundit Shibnath Shastri, commemorated
his guru by naming his famous social commentaries, Ramtanu Lahiri O
Tatkalin Banga Samaj, 1904, after him.
Ramtanu made significant contributions to the expansion
of brahmoism.
He influenced his students intellectually and morally, more by practice
than by precept. As a government school teacher he was transferred to
many schools in Bengal. Everywhere he was received by his students and
colleagues as a model teacher and as a source of new knowledge and ideas
and as a unique organiser. By his learning, dedication and regenerative
outlook and guidance, he created a generation of students who subsequently
made great leaders in the fields of education, politics, journalism and
other professions. [Sirajul Islam]
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