>Billjones94 at 17:50, 13 June 2021

2021-06-13T17:50:22Z

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{{short description|Indian writer}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{infobox writer
| name = Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
| image = Kolkata Derozio statue.jpg
| imagesize =
| alt =
| caption = Bust of Derozio at the [[Esplanade, Calcutta|Esplanade]]
| pseudonym =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1809|04|18}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[Company rule in India|British India]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1831|12|26|1809|04|18}}
| death_place = Calcutta, India
| resting_place = [[South Park Street Cemetery]], [[Mother Teresa Sarani]]
| occupation = Poet and teacher
| language = English and Bengali
| citizenship = [[Company rule in India|British India]]
| education =
| alma_mater =
| period =
| genre = Academic, Educator
| subject =
| movement = [[Bengal Renaissance]]
| notableworks = [[To India - My Native Land]]
| awards =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| portaldisp =
| relative(s) =
}}
{{Young Bengal}}
'''Henry Louis Vivian Derozio''' (18 April 1809 – 26 December 1831) was an [[Anglo-Indian]] poet and assistant headmaster of [[Hindu College, Kolkata]]. He was a radical thinker of his time and one of the first Indian educators to disseminate Western learning and science among the young men of Bengal.

Long after his death (by cholera), his legacy lived on among his former students, who came to be known as [[Young Bengal]]s and many of whom became prominent in social reform, law, and journalism.{{fact|date=March 2021}}

==Biography==
===Early life===
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio was born on 18 April 1809 at [[Entally]]-Padmapukur in [[Kolkata]]. His parents were Francis Derozio, a Christian Indo-Portuguese office worker, and Sophia Johnson Derozio, an Englishwoman.<ref name="Broadview" /><ref name="Reddy2014" /> His original family name was 'De Rozario'.<ref name="Supriya2009 bio"/>

Derozio attended David Drummond Dharmatala Academy school from age 6 to 14.<ref name="Broadview" /><ref name="Supriya2009 bio" /><ref name="Chaudhuri2010"/> He later praised his early schooling for its liberal approach to education, particularly its unusual choice to teach Indian, Eurasian and European children from different social classes together as peers.<ref name="Chaudhuri2010"/> Derozio's later [[religious skepticism]] is sometimes attributed to David Drummond, who was known as a [[Freethought|freethinker]].<ref name="Chaudhuri2010"/> Derozio was a successful student: notices in the ''[[India Gazette]]'' and the ''[[Calcutta Journal]]'' at the time mentioned Derozio's academic excellence (including several academic prizes) and successful performances in student plays.<ref name="Chaudhuri2010"/> While a student, he read the poetry of his contemporaries, [[John Keats]], [[Percy Shelley]], and [[Lord Byron]].<ref name="Chander2014"/>

At age 14, Derozio left school to work.<ref name="Broadview" /> He initially joined his father's office in [[Kolkata]], then shifted to his uncle's indigo factory in [[Bhagalpur]].<ref name="Broadview" /> Inspired by the scenic beauty of the banks of the [[River Ganges]], he started writing poetry, which he submitted to the ''India Gazette''.<ref name="Broadview" /> His poetic career began to flourish, with poems published in multiple newspapers and periodicals, in 1825.<ref name="Chaudhuri2010"/>

In 1827, when Derozio was 18, the editor John Grant took notice of his s poetry, offering to publish a book of his work and inviting him to return to Kolkata.<ref name="Broadview" /> He soon became an assistant editor for Grant, as well as publishing in several other periodicals, and founding his own newspaper, the ''Calcutta Gazette''.<ref name="Broadview" />

===Hindu College and Young Bengals===
In May 1826, at age 17, he was appointed teacher in English literature and history at the new Hindu College. Derozio's intense zeal for teaching and his interactions with students created a sensation at [[Presidency College, Kolkata|Hindu College]]. He organized debates where ideas and social norms were freely debated.<ref name="Broadview" /> In 1828, he motivated students to form a literary and debating club called the Academic Association.

This was a 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. This resulted in a backlash within orthodox Hindu society. Derozio helped discuss the ideas for social change already in the air. Despite his youth, he was considered a great scholar and a thinker. Within a short period, he drew around him a group of intelligent boys in college. He constantly encouraged them to think freely, to question, and not to accept anything blindly. His teachings inspired the development of the spirit of liberty, equality, and freedom. They also tried to remove social evils, improve the condition of women and peasants, and promote liberty through freedom of the press, trial by jury, and so on. His activities brought about the intellectual revolution in Bengal. It was called the [[Young Bengal]] Movement and his students, also known as Derozians, were fiery patriots.

Due to backlash from conservative parents who disliked his wide-ranging and open discussion of religious issues, Derozio was dismissed from his post in April 1831, shortly before his death.<ref name="Broadview" />

In 1838, after his death, members of the Young Bengal movement established a second society called the Society for the Acquisition of General Knowledge. Its main objective was to acquire and disseminate knowledge about the condition of the country.

===Death===
Derozio died of cholera at age 22 on 26 December 1831 in Calcutta. His body was buried in [[South Park Street Cemetery]].

==Writing==
Derozio was generally considered an [[Anglo-Indian people|Anglo-Indian]], being of mixed Portuguese, Indian, and English descent, but he considered himself Indian.<ref name="Reddy2014"/> He was known during his lifetime as the first 'national' poet of modern India,<ref name="Chaudhuri2010"/> and the history of Anglo-Indian poetry typically begins with him.<ref name="Reddy2014"/> His poems are regarded as an important landmark in the history of patriotic poetry in India, especially "[[To India - My Native Land]]" and ''[[The Fakeer of Jungheera]]''. His poems were influenced by [[Romantic poetry]], especially those poets like [[Lord Byron]] and [[Robert Southey]].<ref name="Roberts2013"/>

===Publications===
* ''Poems'' (1827)<ref name="Broadview" />
** "[[The Harp of India]]"<ref name="Broadview" /><ref name="Roberts2013"/>
** "[[Song of the Hindoostani Minstrel]]"<ref name="Roberts2013"/>
* ''The Fakeer of Jungheera: A Metrical Tale and Other Poems'' (1828)<ref name="Broadview" />
** ''[[The Fakeer of Jungheera]]''<ref name="Broadview" />
** "[[To India - My Native Land]]"<ref name="Broadview" />
* ''The Poetical Works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio'', ed. B.B. Shah (1907)<ref name="Broadview" />
** "To the Pupils of the Hindu College"<ref name="Broadview" />

==Influence==
[[File:Henry Louis Vivian Derozio 2009 stamp of India.jpg|thumb|alt=A stamp with an illustrated portrait of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio |Commemorative stamp of Derozio issued in 2009|upright=.6]]

Derizio's ideas had a profound [[Social influence|influence]] on the social [[Social movement|movement]] that came to be known as the [[Bengal Renaissance]] in early 19th century Bengal, despite being viewed as something of an iconoclast by [[Alexander Duff (missionary)|Alexander Duff]] and other (largely [[evangelicalism|evangelical]]) Christian Missionaries. In Duff's [[Scottish Church College, Calcutta|Assembly's Institution]], Derozio's ideas on the acceptance of the rational spirit were accepted, as long as they were not in conflict with basic tenets of Christianity, and as long as they critiqued orthodox Hinduism.

Derozio is generally believed to be partly responsible for the conversion of upper-caste Hindus like [[Krishna Mohan Banerjee]]<ref name="Das2014"/> 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.<ref name="Prabhu" /> He points out that Derozio's dismissal was sought not only by Hindus such as [[Ramkamal Sen]], but also by Christians such as [[H. H. Wilson]].<ref name="Prabhu" /> Many other students like [[Suma Chakraborti|Tarachand Chakraborti]] became leaders in the [[Brahmo Samaj]].<ref name="HinduSchool"/>

Derozio's political activities have also been seen as crucially important to the development of a [[public sphere]] in Calcutta during British rule.<ref name="Chaudhuri2010"/>

A commemorative postage stamp of Derozio was issued on December 15, 2009.<ref name="Roberts2013"/>

==See also==
{{portal|Poetry}}
* [[Young Bengal]]
* [[To India - My Native Land]]

== References ==
{{reflist|refs=

<ref name="Broadview">{{Cite book |title=The Broadview anthology of British literature |date=4 December 2014 |isbn=978-1-55481-202-8 |editor-last=Black |editor-first=Joseph |edition=Third |location=Peterborough, Ontario, Canada |chapter=Henry Louis Vivian Derozio |oclc=894141161 |editor-last2=Conolly |editor-first2=Leonard |editor-last3=Flint |editor-first3=Kate |editor-last4=Grundy |editor-first4=Isobel |editor-last5=Lepan |editor-first5=Don |editor-last6=Liuzza |editor-first6=Roy |editor-last7=McGann |editor-first7=Jerome J. |editor-last8=Prescott |editor-first8=Anne Lake |editor-last9=Qualls |editor-first9=Barry V. |editor-last10=Waters |editor-first10=Claire}}</ref>

<ref name="Chander2014">{{Cite web |last=Chander |first=Manu Samriti |date=2014-03-02 |title=Global Romanticism II: Imitation, Innovation, and Interlocution in Nineteenth-Century India |url=http://www.romtext.org.uk/global-romanticism-ii-imitation-innovation-and-interlocution-in-nineteenth-century-india/ |access-date=2020-09-25 |website=Romantic Textualities |language=en-US}}</ref>

<ref name="Chaudhuri2010">{{Cite journal |last=Chaudhuri |first=Rosinka |date=2010 |title=The Politics of Naming: Derozio in Two Formative Moments of Literary and Political Discourse, Calcutta, 1825–31 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0026749X09003928/type/journal_article |journal=Modern Asian Studies |language=en |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=857–885 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X09003928 |s2cid=144989512 |issn=0026-749X}}</ref>

<ref name="Das2014">{{Cite book|title=Reverend Krishnamohan Bandyopadhyaya|last=Das|first=Mayukh|publisher=Paschimbanga Anchalik Itihas O Loksanskriti Charcha Kendra|year=2014|isbn=978-81-926316-0-8|location=Kolkata}}</ref>

<ref name="HinduSchool">{{Cite web |url=http://www.hindu-school.com/derozio.htm |title=Derozio And The Hindu College |website=Hindu School, Kolkata |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190810072639/http://www.hindu-school.com/derozio.htm |archive-date=August 10, 2019}}</ref>

<ref name="Prabhu">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2e44ZHj_fsQC&pg=PA119 |title=The Bengalees: glimpses of history and culture |last=Roy |first=Samaren |publisher=Allied Publishers |year=1999 |isbn=81-7023-981-8 |location=New Delhi |page=119 |oclc=45759369}}</ref>

<ref name="Reddy2014">{{Cite journal |last=Reddy |first=Sheshalatha |title=Henry Derozio and the Romance of Rebellion (1809-1831) |journal=DQR Studies in Literature |date=2014 |volume=53 |pages=27–42 |issn=0921-2507}}</ref>

<ref name="Roberts2013">{{Cite book |title=Legacies of Romanticism: Literature, Culture, Aesthetics |last=Roberts |first=Daniel Sanjiv |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |editor-last=Casaliggi |editor-first=Carmen |pages=215–230 |chapter="Dark Interpretations": Romanticism's Ambiguous Legacy in India |editor-last2=March-Russell |editor-first2=Paul}}</ref>

<ref name="Supriya2009 bio">{{cite book|author=Bhattacharya Supriya|title=Impressions 8, 2/E|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qx-O_08Er8sC&pg=RA1-PT6|access-date=22 June 2012|date=1 September 2009|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=978-81-317-2777-5|pages=1–}}</ref>

}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.hindu-school.com Derozio section]
* [http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Henry_Louis_Vivian_Derozio Old Poetry]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070317171025/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2680.html Poetry of Derozio]
* {{librivox author|id=13411}}

{{Bengal Renaissance}}

{{Authority control}}
{{lists of poets |state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Derozio, Henry Louis Vivian}}
[[Category:1809 births]]
[[Category:1831 deaths]]
[[Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Kolkata]]
[[Category:People from Bhagalpur]]
[[Category:Anglo-Indian people]]
[[Category:Indian people of Portuguese descent]]
[[Category:Indian male poets]]
[[Category:Deaths from cholera]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in India]]
[[Category:English-language poets from India]]
[[Category:Young Bengal]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:Poets from West Bengal]]
[[Category:19th-century male writers]]
[[Category:Indian Christian writers]]

Henry Louis Vivian Derozio - Revision history

>Billjones94 at 17:50, 13 June 2021