Raja Ram Mohan Roy: 250th birth anniversary

Raja Ram Mohan Roy: 250th birth anniversary

Subject: Modern History

Section: Personality

Content:

• One of the most influential social and religious reformers of the 19th century, Ram Mohan Roy, born on May 22, 1772 in what was then Bengal Presidency’s Radhanagar in Hooghly district.
• Roy worked in the sphere of women’s emancipation, modernizing education and seeking changes to religious orthodoxy.
• He was one of the first Indians whose thought and practice were not circumscribed by the constraints of kin, caste and religion.
• A polyglot, Roy knew Bengali and Persian, but also Arabic, Sanskrit, and later, English.
• His exposure to the literature and culture of each of these languages bred in him a skepticism towards religious dogmas and social strictures.
• In particular, he chafed at practices such as Sati, that compelled widows to be immolated on their husband’s funeral pyre.
• His education had whetted his appetite for philosophy and theology, and he spent considerable time studying the Vedas and the Upanishads, but also religious texts of Islam and Christianity.
• He was particularly intrigued by the Unitarian faction of Christianity and was drawn by the precepts of monotheism that, he believed, lay at the core of all religious texts.
• Tagore called him a ‘Bharatpathik’ by which he meant to say that Rammohan combined in his person the underlying spirit of Indic civilisation, its spirit of pluralism, tolerance and a cosmic respect for all forms of life
• In 1814, he started the Atmiya Sabha (Society of Friends), to nurture philosophical discussions on the idea of monotheism in Vedanta and to campaign against idolatry, casteism, child marriage and other social ills.
• The Atmiya Sabha would make way for the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, set up with Debendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore’s father.
• He campaigned for the modernisation of education, in particular the introduction of a Western curriculum, and started several educational institutions in the city.
• In 1817, he collaborated with Scottish philanthropist David Hare to set up the Hindu College (now, Presidency University).
• He followed it up with the Anglo-Hindu School in 1822 and, in 1830, assisted Alexander Duff to set up the General Assembly’s Institution, which later became the Scottish Church College.
• It was his relentless advocacy alongside contemporaries such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar that finally led to the abolition of Sati under the governor generalship of William Bentinck in 1829.
• Roy argued for the property rights of women, and petitioned the British for freedom of the press (in 1829 and 1830)
• Roy was given the title of Raja by the Mughal emperor Akbar II.