From the feelings of these illiterate people towards Mr Lahiri we can easily conjecture how greatly he was respected and loved by the educated portion of the Krishnagar community.
In August 1869 Mr Lahiri was blest with a grandchild: a son was born to Lilavati; and his Annaprashan, or the first putting of boiled rice into his mouth, was celebrated with great éclat.
About this time Ramtanu Babu was appointed guardian to the minors in the Mukerji family at Khetra Gobardanga. He was so well known for his high character and great abilities that the Government recommended him for this responsible post. We have already seen that wherever he went he did something worthy of being respectfully remembered, and this new place of his abode was not an exception. That he exercised a healthy influence on the minds of all classes of men there is apparent from the following lines quoted from the printed reports of the Khetra Brahmo Samaj:—“The well-known Babu Ramtanu Lahiri of Krishnagar was appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor as guardian to the minors in the family of the Zemindars of Gobardanga. During his stay here he was a great friend of a Brahmo youth of the Dutta family at Khetra, who found in him not only a wise adviser, but a ready helper too. It was a striking circumstance that an old and generally respected gentleman like Ramtanu Babu, setting at naught caste prejudices and all worldly distinctions, backed a young Brahmo in all his undertakings for the good of the village. Ramtanu’s influence was felt by almost every villager. Those who never before came within the precincts of the Brahmo Samaj became its regular attendants at his exhortations. The long-standing breach between the orthodox Hindus and the Brahmos in the village was healed by him, a friend to both parties.”
In 1869 Babu Ramtanu’s connection with the Brahmos
