DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68024#0014
6
16. With regard to the fourth insinuation, that I did not spend the Arabic Library
allowance, because it was kept lying at my credit in the Bank, it is equally unfounded. I
never had a private account with the Bank of Bengal. Whatever sums of money were there
were in my name as Principal of the Calcutta Madrassah, in the same manner as other public
funds are kept by other public officers having balances at the Bank. It is very clear that I
could have derived no profit or advantage from these funds whilst they were lying idle in the
Bank. The harm would have been in drawing them out, and that I did so the Committee
have not been able to make out. Still the fact must be mentioned, and in a way to lead
Government and the public to believe that I was using public monies for private purposes.
But like all malicious attacks not founded on truth, it fails, and not only fails, but conclusively
proves the falsity of the previous insinuation, as well as my integrity. The Committee have
carefully ignored my contention that the Madrassah was an endowed institution, and that
about Rs. 32,000, at least, if not double that sum, was the property of the Mahomedan com-
munity,—a question which the Government of India, I hope, will now definitely settle.
Their right to this endowment, notwithstanding the orders of the Government of Bengal,
in Sir John Shore’s time, that a sunnud for the Madrassah Mahal should be made out in the
name of the Preceptor or Head of the College, and subsequently that this sum should be
separated from the revenues of the country, and my strong protest, had been steadily denied.
—{See Mr, Under Secretary Monteath’s Education Note, 1865-66.) I occupied the position
of the Preceptor or Head of this College, and it behoved me, not a whit the less because I
was a Government servant, but, on the contrary, rather the more, honestly to discharge the
duties of my office. In this view it was my duty to draw all sums due to the Madrassah;
but it was not my duty either to the Mahomedans or to Government to waste them. And if,
as is insinuated, I introduced test-books into the Madrassah, in order to encourage private
Presses, why, I would ask, was it that I did not spend these Library funds for that purpose ?
The books published at these Presses were the best Oriental works published in India; there
was no one to control me in the matter, for no European could read them, or could tell what
they were; and as Principal it was quite competent for me, and would have been perfectly
legitimate in me, to purchase them for the Arabic Library. But what is the fact ? It is
stated in evidence that whatever arrangements for the purchase of books I made, were made
in Europe, Egypt, &c., and not in Calcutta. Yet it is, in the face of such clear and palpable
evidence to the contrary, that I am publicly branded with dishonesty, and the Government of
Bengal.not only takes no notice of it whatever, but actually orders all the recommendations
of such a Committee, which have Mr. Atkinson’s approval, to be carried out at oice.
17. In short, on all points of attacks I am armed, because I know tha my conduct has
been upright, and it is precisely the same with the general educational questions involved in
this enquiry. As for the subjects studied in the Madrassah, they were those which had been
studied in it for nearly a hundred years, with the exception of such subjects as had been
excluded by the express orders of Government. I have proved beyond all question that
the standard of examinations was considerably raised by me. I have never asserted that the
Arabic Department was what I wished it to be, but I have proved that I did my very utmost
to make it what Government ordered me to make it, regardless of the opinions of Maulawis and
Munshis, but that I was not allowed to carryout the measures necessary for the accomplishment
of my object. I asserted in 1864 that the College was then in a high state of efficiency, but
foreseeing what might happen, I declined the further responsibility for carrying out the
Supreme Government’s orders, and I desired the Lieutenant-Governor to record it. My defence
to the charges of neglect and efficiency now preferred was made in my Report of the 22nd of
October of that year (1864). In that Report I foretold that attempts Would be made to
injure this College and the Mahomedans when I was gone, and I distinctly stated that what
I then wrote, I wrote because I feared that the Mahomedans would not find an advocate who
would so fearlessly and so honestly represent them when they most required it. On hearing of
these proceedings, I immediately enquired at the India Office for this Report, and to my utter
amazement I found that this important record of my services and of the condition of the
Madrassah had been suppressed, and not a trace of it, or the strange proceedings in which it
had its origin, were to be found on the records of the Government of Bengal. Still I knew
that it was in existence, and that I was not without other protection. At the close of that
year, a few months before Mr. Blochmann joined, the College was inspected by an authority
whose opinion will perhaps carry more weight with the Government of India than that of any
number of Committees, such as that upon whose report I have been so recklessly slandered,
and the following is a copy of the evidence he recorded with his own hand on that occasion
in the College Order Book
16. With regard to the fourth insinuation, that I did not spend the Arabic Library
allowance, because it was kept lying at my credit in the Bank, it is equally unfounded. I
never had a private account with the Bank of Bengal. Whatever sums of money were there
were in my name as Principal of the Calcutta Madrassah, in the same manner as other public
funds are kept by other public officers having balances at the Bank. It is very clear that I
could have derived no profit or advantage from these funds whilst they were lying idle in the
Bank. The harm would have been in drawing them out, and that I did so the Committee
have not been able to make out. Still the fact must be mentioned, and in a way to lead
Government and the public to believe that I was using public monies for private purposes.
But like all malicious attacks not founded on truth, it fails, and not only fails, but conclusively
proves the falsity of the previous insinuation, as well as my integrity. The Committee have
carefully ignored my contention that the Madrassah was an endowed institution, and that
about Rs. 32,000, at least, if not double that sum, was the property of the Mahomedan com-
munity,—a question which the Government of India, I hope, will now definitely settle.
Their right to this endowment, notwithstanding the orders of the Government of Bengal,
in Sir John Shore’s time, that a sunnud for the Madrassah Mahal should be made out in the
name of the Preceptor or Head of the College, and subsequently that this sum should be
separated from the revenues of the country, and my strong protest, had been steadily denied.
—{See Mr, Under Secretary Monteath’s Education Note, 1865-66.) I occupied the position
of the Preceptor or Head of this College, and it behoved me, not a whit the less because I
was a Government servant, but, on the contrary, rather the more, honestly to discharge the
duties of my office. In this view it was my duty to draw all sums due to the Madrassah;
but it was not my duty either to the Mahomedans or to Government to waste them. And if,
as is insinuated, I introduced test-books into the Madrassah, in order to encourage private
Presses, why, I would ask, was it that I did not spend these Library funds for that purpose ?
The books published at these Presses were the best Oriental works published in India; there
was no one to control me in the matter, for no European could read them, or could tell what
they were; and as Principal it was quite competent for me, and would have been perfectly
legitimate in me, to purchase them for the Arabic Library. But what is the fact ? It is
stated in evidence that whatever arrangements for the purchase of books I made, were made
in Europe, Egypt, &c., and not in Calcutta. Yet it is, in the face of such clear and palpable
evidence to the contrary, that I am publicly branded with dishonesty, and the Government of
Bengal.not only takes no notice of it whatever, but actually orders all the recommendations
of such a Committee, which have Mr. Atkinson’s approval, to be carried out at oice.
17. In short, on all points of attacks I am armed, because I know tha my conduct has
been upright, and it is precisely the same with the general educational questions involved in
this enquiry. As for the subjects studied in the Madrassah, they were those which had been
studied in it for nearly a hundred years, with the exception of such subjects as had been
excluded by the express orders of Government. I have proved beyond all question that
the standard of examinations was considerably raised by me. I have never asserted that the
Arabic Department was what I wished it to be, but I have proved that I did my very utmost
to make it what Government ordered me to make it, regardless of the opinions of Maulawis and
Munshis, but that I was not allowed to carryout the measures necessary for the accomplishment
of my object. I asserted in 1864 that the College was then in a high state of efficiency, but
foreseeing what might happen, I declined the further responsibility for carrying out the
Supreme Government’s orders, and I desired the Lieutenant-Governor to record it. My defence
to the charges of neglect and efficiency now preferred was made in my Report of the 22nd of
October of that year (1864). In that Report I foretold that attempts Would be made to
injure this College and the Mahomedans when I was gone, and I distinctly stated that what
I then wrote, I wrote because I feared that the Mahomedans would not find an advocate who
would so fearlessly and so honestly represent them when they most required it. On hearing of
these proceedings, I immediately enquired at the India Office for this Report, and to my utter
amazement I found that this important record of my services and of the condition of the
Madrassah had been suppressed, and not a trace of it, or the strange proceedings in which it
had its origin, were to be found on the records of the Government of Bengal. Still I knew
that it was in existence, and that I was not without other protection. At the close of that
year, a few months before Mr. Blochmann joined, the College was inspected by an authority
whose opinion will perhaps carry more weight with the Government of India than that of any
number of Committees, such as that upon whose report I have been so recklessly slandered,
and the following is a copy of the evidence he recorded with his own hand on that occasion
in the College Order Book