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| Colesworthy Grant memorial. Calcutta. Calcuttatutorialathome.in |
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Charles Greenlaw, Coroner of Calcutta.before 1880 by Grant, alamy.com
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Memorial, Colesworthy Grant, Calcutta,notebreak.com
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Colesworthy Grant was instrumental in establishing the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He did a pioneering work in the area of animal rights and their welfare way centuries ago under the English company. He was a drawing teacher at Bengal Engineering College and Presidency College. After his death in 1880, his admirers erected an obelisk in his honor that is still there today. It was in a bad state not very long ago; now, it is repaired and restored. .Located close to the Writer's Building in Kolkata, West Bengal towards St. Andrews church, in the busy part of the administrative buildings, tourists can miss this colonial monument because of its size. Presently, the society, as time went by, grew big in the world and is functioning across the globe. In India, it was Grant who made this society a popular one. The monument is so small, one might miss it if one walks past on the sidewalk.
The plaque on the monument, mentions the date of erection in 1881. Colesworthy Grant, who toiled for a worthy cause was defending and protecting animal rights. His crusade against cruelty to animals began to create a lasting awareness among the people and,it impacted the people in the early decades of the 19th century. Thanks to the efforts of Colonel Richard Martin, an Irish politician, who took the matter before the legislature and and finally the act in 1822 was passed - one of the early acts of animal rights legislation. Richard Martin took one step forward and founded the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1824. Presently, the society is the largest of its kind in the world.
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Grants anatomical illustration, calcuttavignettes.blogspot.com/
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| Hastings diamond. .langantiques.com |
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James Pinpep 1799- 1840, Orientalist, Revolvy.com
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According to biographer Pyarichand Mitra, a colleague of Grant, was of both Scottish and Irish decent and landed in Calcutta in 1832 at the age of nineteen. He joined his elder brother who ran a business in Kolkuta, making clocks and designing mathematical instruments. We have no record regarding his contribution towards clock-making, however, from the media articles on him we learn that he was a good portrait artist and made a mark in his chosen line of work. One surprising fact is, he never learned the art work from somebody and he was a self-taught artist and got the handle on the nuances of it the hard way'.
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| Grant's sketch. William Carey, British Missionary.revolvy.com |
Grant's was a portrait artist and focused on the popular personalities of Kolkata and many periodicals/magazine, etc like the Indian Review, Calcutta Review, Calcutta Christian Observer and the India Sporting Review published his works. His dedicated works won him laurels. He did a total of 169 such sketches over a period of 12 years, starting from 1838. He specialized in lithographic portraits.Among his sketches the following may be worthy of mention: The sketch of of James Prinsep, who did pioneering work on the great Emperor Ashoka and the Ashokan edicts. Many of his sketches of famous personalities of the 19th century survived today. and are still popular. In the colonial period, the ethnological study of the native castes and professional classes was taken up and Grant was in his full flow when he sketched them under the title of ''Oriental Heads''. The present generation of Indians, from his vivid pictures and writings, may get a glimpse of how the natives of previous centuries wore traditional dress according to their castes, professions, etc.  |
| Grant's sketch revolvy.com |
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Grant's sketch Armenian Church, Rangoon. chasingchinthes.com
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Grant who traveled across the subcontinent, never failed to draw picture of what he had seen.. He went to Rangoon (Yangoon) in Myanmar and to an Indigo factory in Nadia, West Bengal. In addition, he also covered the life of Angelo Indians and their life-style in Kolkatta and from the letters he wrote to his mother in England, we understand how much he loved Calcutta (Kolkata), the capital of East India Company that ran the proxy government for the British Crown. |
Grant's sketch invaluable.com
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Giving due importance to mechanical institution and training in drawings, he founded a Mechanical Institution in 1839 to give training to the natives in these areas. Being an artist of good repute, he taught drawing to the prospective students. For unknown reasons that institution run by Grant and his brother fell apart midway. However, the famous Bengal Engineering College (now the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science, and Technology, Shibpur) and the Government Art College had their roots in Grant's early institution.
Founded in Kolkata in 1857 in the year of the great rebellion against the British, the Bengal Engineering was functioning on the premises of the popular Presidency College due to lack of space and this college has a touch of Grant's legacy. Here, he was a teacher of drawing in the Civil Engineering Department, and he held this post till his death in 1880. The memorial plague of Grant in the auditorium of the Bengal Engineering College (IISER), Shibpur bears testimony to his reputation and the esteem he earned while he was teaching there . |
| Animal cruelty. sebtantiburlo.com |
Grant's artistic ability was of immense help to yet another institution in Kolkata and, at the invitation of Dr. F.J. Mouat, Grant was actively involved in the preparation of a unique project - compilation of the bilingual anatomical atlas in English and Hindi. Grant sketched anatomical drawings for teaching human anatomy in the Calcutta Medical College. His sketches were so fine, it helped the medical fraternity understand the various delicate parts of the human body.
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animal cruelty, bullock cart, S.India, team-bhp.com
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Mitra recalls:. In those days traveling and transportation of goods were a major, problem in the past the people and the government had to depend on animals, in particular, bulls, horses and camels in the desert areas to transport construction materials, mercantile goods, etc, besides riding carts pulled by horses and oxen. When transporting heavy loads of goods on them, they were forced to work for several hours, pushing them beyond their physical limit. There was none
''to plead for the alleviation of their suffering''.
Grant's sustained efforts to protect the welfare of the animals finally bore fruits leading to the formation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ on 4th October 1861. The objective of the Calcutta branch was to create consciousness against cruelty to animals through publications and by reaching out to the educational institutions. The Society's continuous campaign was instrumental in introducing two legislation for animal rights, Act V and Act XV, “for prosecuting individuals guilty of inhumanity to animals.” The hospital founded by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, continues to function in Calcutta, taking care of the sick animals.
Colesworthy Grant' name will remain etched in the Indian history of animal welfare for ever. He was the one who made the people across the globe understand that ''working animals'' are part of our society and their rights to live with dignity and welfare are as important to us as those of our fellow humans. https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/west-bengal/in-memoriam/cid/126066http://www.chasingchinthes.com/the-armenian-church-in-rangoon/http://noisebreak.com/memorials-monuments-colonial-calcutta-colesworthy-grant-memorial/ https://www.google.com/search?q=Colesworthy+Grant&safe=active&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjso_yyn
