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Society Immortalizes a Man Doing Service to the Society
A human can be God!
Swami Vivekananda, the venerated Hindu Vedantist of India valued an unbeliever as equal to God on the planet. He paid rich and unreserved homage to him for his outstanding English educational service to the Bengali(vernacular) citizens of Kolkota( then Calcutta).
This man-God, according to him, was David Hare(1775–1842), the Scottish man who came to India in 1800 for his business.
He was a watchmaker and earned wealth in his watchmaking business in India. But as a foreigner, he was exceptional. He did not go back to his native country with his wealth and live there a comfortable life as per the norm for such foreigners in India. He broke the norm and stayed and died in India.
He loved the Indians, felt their need for English education, and, with his funds, established the Hindu School later renamed Presidency College and Hare School in the compound of the University of Kolkota for the spread of English education among the native Bengalis.
He extended his helping hand in establishing the School Book Society on 6 May 1817. ‘It took the initiative to print and publish textbooks in both English and Bengali. This society contributed substantially to the flowering of the Bengal Renaissance.
