If you stand on the cobbled footpath in front of the Writer’s Building today, you will be greeted by a towering reddish building on one side and a row of official vehicles on the other. The road in between, sees a flurry of modern cars going by. Seasons change, the weather changes, people change but something stands resilient. No, it’s not the much talked about Writer’s Building with its large corridors or hiding spirits, but a much shorter structure right in front of the façade which stands as a testament to the fight against animal cruelty, long before it became a modern concern. And this started with the intellect and compassion of a colonial period artist – Colesworthey Grant.
From London to Calcutta and now memorialised thorugh an obelisk, who was Colesworthey Grant?
London-born Colesworthy Grant was the son of a Scottish father and a Welsh mother. His older brother George came over to Bengal and worked as a clock and watch maker; and he followed suit at 19. Grant faced a fatal spinal cord blow which left him unable to walk straight for the rest of his life. But this blow brought out the artist in him. He took to sketching and started contributing to notable publications from the 1830’s. He also taught drawing at Presidency College and is known to have turned illustrator for books.
Grant started out by drawing portraits of notable people from the social fabric of Calcutta of his time. But his works caught the eye of Lord Dalhousie who sent him to missions where his work as a sketcher would be to observe and sketch, thereby documenting the landscape and demography of a new location. To his credit, he has works like the portrait of Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal (1850); Mir Nasir Khan Talpur of Sind (1851), landscapes of Amarapura, Burma (1855) and more.
While his work as a sketch artist was earning him laurels, a compassionate calling was waiting for him elsewhere. On numerous occasions around the city he was witness to how the owners or keepers of the then popular transport, horse-drawn carriages treated the animals. They were subjected to harsh labour without proper food or drinking water facilities, shade to stand while they waited for their masters and even in general just beaten and kicked around. He noticed the same happening to other animals on the street as well. That is what hit a compassionate cord in his heart and he went on to become the founder of the Calcutta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The members of the committee met for the first time on October 4, 1861 but what caught the attention was that the members reflected diverse communities and intellectual representations towards the same cause. Some of the members included Alexander Duff, the founder of now renowned Scottish Church College; Seth Arratoon Apcar, who became the first non-European Sheriff of Calcutta; Peary Chand Mitra , writer and journalist; and many others. The main objective of the Society was to prevent cruelty towards animals, creating awareness among public and elevating the general resources towards animal welfare.
With constant probes, ideation and petitions, the Society was able to coerce the Municipal Commissioners of Calcutta to use improved carts and even four wheelers which distributed the load from the animals. In 1877, Madras and Bengaluru also got branches of this Society. For his distinguished work in the field of animal welfare, Grant was made immemorial in 1881 through an obelisk constructed outside the Writer’s Building known as the Colesworthey Grant Memorial.
The once white memorial today sits quietly on the side of the pavement, gathering dust, dried leaves, and getting chipped of its original coat. The regulars glance at it and let it be. The newcomers stop by and look at it. Some youngsters think it’s a cool place to show their photography skills. But very few probably know the importance of the work of the man in whose honour the memorial was built, probably now more than ever.
As one glances through the headlines today, one sees acts of unthinkable cruelty towards animals. One kick here, one shoo there, one throwing of the stone and one beating with the rod – the world moves towards the same cycle which was vehemently resisted by Colesworthey Grant and his Society members. The memorial and his grave in South Park Street Cemetery watch in stillness until someone steps in their shoes again to become the voice of these voiceless.
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