BORN TO BE REMEMBER AFTER 200 YEARS.... REV. JAMES LONG...... WATERCOLOUR ..... A4.... James Long (1814–1887) was an Anglo-Irish priest of the Anglican Church. A humanist, educator, evangelist, translator, essayist, philanthropist and a missionary to India, he resided in the city of Calcutta, India, from 1840 to 1872 as a member of the Church Mission Society, leading the mission at Thakurpukur. Long was closely associated with the Calcutta School-Book Society, the Bethune Society, the Bengal Social Science Association and The Asiatic Society. James Long was born in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland in 1814, when Ireland was still a part of the United Kingdom, to John Long and his wife Anne. At the age of twelve he was enrolled at the newly opened Bandon Endowed School, where he learnt Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and English languages; Euclid, Algebra, Logic; Arithmetic, Book-keeping, Reading, Writing, History and Geography. He proved an excellent student, distinguishing himself especially in theology and the classics. Longs application to join the Church Mission Society was accepted in 1838 and he was sent to the Society’s training college in Islington. Following two yearss training at Islington the Reverend Long was sent to Calcutta to join the CMS mission there. He arrived in Calcutta in 1840, briefly returning to England in 1848 to marry Emily Orme, daughter of William Orme. From 1840 to 1848, Long taught at the school for non-Christian students run by the CMS at its premises located on Amherst Street. In 1861, at the height of the Indigo revolt by the ryots in Bengal, Long received a copy of the Bengali play Nil Darpan (also transcribed as Neel Darpan or Nil Durpan) from its author Dinabandhu Mitra, one of Longs former students at the CMS school on Amherst Street. Long brought it to the notice of W.S. Seton-Karr, Secretary to the Governor of Bengal and ex-President of the Indigo Commission. Seton-Karr, sensing its importance, mentioned Nil Durpan in conversation with the Lieutenant Governor, J.P. Grant. Grant expressed a wish to see a translation of it and print a few copies to be circulated privately amongst friends. Long had it anonymously translated into English By A Native (Long refused to divulge the name of the translator to the trial court; Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay later attributed the translation to Michael Madhusudan Dutt, although this attribution remains contentious) and printed in either April or May 1861. Long’s trial lasted from the 19th to the 24th of July, 1861, at the Calcutta Supreme Court. Mr. Peterson and Mr. Cowie prosecuted, Mr. Eglinton and Mr. Newmarch appeared on behalf of the defendant, and Sir M.L. Wells presided as judge. Wells found Long guilty of libel, fined him one thousand rupees and sentenced him to one month’s imprisonment, which he served in the period of July–August 1861. Kaliprasanna Singha paid the fine of Longs behalf. In 1872, Reverend James Long retired from the Church Mission Society and left India for good. He lived for the rest of his life in London, where he continued to write and publish until his death on March 23, 1887. Long set up a posthumous endowment called the Long Lectureship in Oriental Religions in 1885, for the appointment of one or more lecturers annually to deliver lectures at certain centres of education in Britain. Rev. Long lends his name to James Long Sarani, a major thoroughfare running through Thakurpukur. [INFORMATION : WIKIPEDIA]
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 05:04:11 +0000
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