C P Brown: David Brown

22. David Brown

David Brown from Hull, whose parents were farmers, was not interested in agriculture. At 11years of age he was supposed to have attracted all the neighbours by “goodness” “interest in education” “philosophical outlook”. The biography abounds in such insipid eulogies from the start. A Christian priest took him to Scarborough for education to become a missionary. – A period of 12 years is skipped .We find him in a grammar school in HULL, and Magdalene College where he was supposed to have learnt philosophical matters, religious matters and languages like Greek etc. without a mention of any proficiency achieved or even the period of study. This vagueness is deliberate because the biographer slowly wants to build up his hero later that he was a great scholar in Greek, Latin, Parsee, and Arabic, though not even a school certificate exists.

One Major Mitchell of East India Company (E I C) suggested a job of a superintendent of an orphanage in Fort William Calcutta. DB signed his agreement to go to India though the pay was less than expected, agreeing to the conditions that
a. He had to get married and
b. Had to be ordained.
All within a short period as the ship in which he was booked was to sail in a fortnight.

Ordainment

DB approached Dr. Lowth, Bishop of London who refused because several he had ordained lounging about the town. Dr. Watson, Bishop of London agreed to do only if the archbishop of Canterbury agrees. DB finally gets “ordained” on 27 February 1785and becomes a member of “The Society for Promotion of Christian knowledge”. The Gol Mal of ordainment shows some suspicious deals, which were the order of the day (we will hear of this issue of ordainment about 24 years later, when DB was charged of not having been ordained!)

He married on 4th March within 5 days of ordainment! Rao Says ‘It was a love marriage and they knew each other for long’, though DB himself says, “I am now to reside in Chelsea, and have very little money and food for my wife and self. I had financial problems; and borrowed money.”

The biographer says, “From the beginning DB had a love for Indian Languages” which is a preposterous statement because -
(a) DB was reluctant to come to India but was persuaded
(b) Reluctant for priesthood but had to take it up as a job requirement and
(c) He left the college, parents et al. for an Eldorado where all England came to.
(d) No Indian language was being taught in the Magdalene College in 1800?

Why is it the biographer makes such misleading statements if it is not due to a slavish mentality of adulation?

DB joined the Orphanage on 18th June ’86, and was also a chaplain of a Brigade in Fort William. In Aug ’88 he left the orphanage for the mission church. In 1794 – Presidency Chaplain – and later the Provost of Fort William College, Provost – Vice Provost were abolished on 21st May 1806. Rao says that from the establishment of the college DB was working hard for their development. It is another lie, since he joined as a provost years after the college was established, and he was not allowed to work, even when he volunteered to work without pay!

An interesting fact is that Rao underplays the fact that (Brown’s) clerical authority, was under threats and someone tried to prosecute him for the performance of ecclesiastical duties to which he had not been ordained. Mr. Brown was only a deacon of the English Church and his enemies affected to believe that he had not received Episcopal ordination at all. One of their number, therefore wrote to him demanding a sight of his ‘letters of orders’, and another told him that ‘a process of law was about to be commenced against him, which, in the first instance, would subject him to legal penalties, and ultimately to degradation. The matter was closed, as the governor intervened but it appears the hasty ordainment was bought for a consideration. i.e. bribe.

Is DB a linguist?

“It was Mr. Brown’s opinion, that the Asiatic languages demanded and deserved revival”. A person who never left Calcutta, or even the churches talks of revival of ASIATIC languages. Rao reports this without even questioning the competence behind such utterances. {This clearly, sounds like CPB’s lopsided views on Telugu.}

DB dies penniless

DB Died on 14th June 1812, penniless. His widow wrote his Memoir to raise money. 193 copies were sold for 19300Rs. and the biographer shows it as a big deal forgetting that the 100Rs per copy given by the people is about 3 days pay at the most for them. In fact this is an indication of his low status, but one biographer later says that DB’s death was a great loss to the public and mourned by them etc!

What is the public he talks of? The biographers make wild statements without analysing that these ideas condition a reader to look up to the Great Masters by whom it was their good fortune to have been ruled. I therefore debunk such statements as I proceed. I have checked 9 books, dealing with that period, and of Calcutta with no reference whatsoever to DB except an insignificant write up in ‘Good old days of John Company’-
“David Brown (1763-1812) arrived at Calcutta in 1786 as a chaplain. He held several clerical charges, including the ministry of the Old Church, 21 years, and 10 years the senior Presidency chaplaincy; he founded the Auxiliary Bible Society. Acted as Provost of the College of Fort William (1800). Died at Calcutta on June 14, 1812.

Rao says, David Brown though he was paid 10000Rs. per year, left no money because his house was always full of guests. This is an absolute, un-distilled, non-sense. This nonsense was repeated by other biographers also. Why do the biographers take the reader for granted and make fools of them? Is it justified? There should be a law against this sort of mischievous exaggeration. Let us see some facts.
1.No one was allowed to leave Britain without a sort of work permit. So DB had no poor guests / relatives to be looked after. They all come with distributed loot.
2 A rupee then was equal to 500Rs today. So his pay was approx 50lakhs per year, or 4lakhs per month. {In addition he gets 16pounds, 80000Rs. in today’s value, per marriage he conducts}.

Let us assume 10 guests every single day of the year. The expenditure guest be 200 Rupees per day, the total cost of the guests in a month is 60000Rs, (10x200x30) a mere 12% of the pay of400000Rs.

If Rao or anyone doubts these calculations another method of expenditure on the guests can be worked out.
Assume that DB had daily, totalling - 10guests.
Assume each one eats per day - 1kg Rice / Wheat
- 4 eggs.
- ½ kg pulse.

Fore one month the cost of above 30kg Rice 1Re.
120 eggs 2Rs.
15Kg pulse. 1Re.
Double it to cater for all other
Expenditure 8Rs. per month.

For 10 guests, 80Rs per month or 960Rs per year or 10% of his pay

This expenditure on guests can never pauperise any one. I want the reader to see how unsubstantiated loose statements praising the Master is a psychological bondage of even highly educated leaders of Indian Society today like Dr. Rao or Bezwada Gopala Reddy.

Why then did DB die penniless? For this we have to take him not as an exceptionally benevolent person but as an exceptionally secretive person – a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide personality – the Hide part vanished into thin air exactly as in the famous WELL’s novel, when on death Hyde vanishes and Dr. Jekyll’s body is seen. Or as in the picture of Dorian Grey when on death, Dorian gets his sinful face. DB himself described the English Chaplains, 4 out of 9 as debauchees. – As if he cannot be one of them – what if, if he was one?? And now see what BACHANAN a fellow missionary whom Wellesley honoured says about DB, “as a strange person”. In what way was he strange?

In other words, to be plain DB, likes his son CPB probably had enough of female skeletons in his cupboard on whom the money poured, exactly as did CPB’s money went into Ladies Parties.

The tragedy is the biographers want to glorify DB’s pauperage saying that it is due to benevolence. In case of CPB they want to glorify that it is due to his MSS purchase, and poets etc. Why do they do it? The simple reason is they have lost all self-esteem, pride, and confidence in themselves as a nation and do not want to catch a white man robbing us!

We, denigrated all our Poets, Languages and Cultures and therefore have to import Cult Figures, Great Guys who spent their all on GUESTS! And tell our youngsters “LOOK how great he is. He comes here to teach us Christianity, loses a son but continues preaching, spends all his life for us preaching those soldiers of the brigade to fight and subjugate these ignorant natives, is bothered about all Asian languages, produced a great son who in turn sacrificed his all to keep on buying all available Palm leaf books anywhere in Andhra saving them from white ants … etc remains a bachelor with just one concubine. This is the picture they want to give the 21st century Andhra. God only can de-condition us if He wills.