Assignment on Raja Ram Mohan Roy

              Raja Ram Mohan Roy

                                                     (1772-1833)

Raja Ram Mohan Roy is known as the 'Maker of Modern India'. He was the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, one of the first Indian socio-religious reform movements. He played a major role in abolishing the role of Sati. Raja Rammohan Roy was a great scholar and an independent thinker. He advocated the study of English, Science, Western Medicine and Technology. He was given the title 'Raja' by the Mughal Emperor.

Background

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born on May 22, 1772 in village Radhanagar in the District of Murshidabad in Bengal. His father Ramkanto Roy, was a Vaishnavite, while his mother, Tarini, was from a Shakta background.

Early life

     He was born in British-ruled Bengal to a prosperous family of the Brahman caste. Little is known of his early life and education, but he seems to have developed unorthodox religious ideas at an early age. As a youth he traveled widely outside Bengal and mastered several languages—Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and later Hebrew, Greek, and English, in addition to his native Bengali and Hindi.

  

    Though his father Ramakanto was very orthodox but he wanted his son to have higher education and after the basic formal education in Sanskrit and Bengali in the village school, Ram Mohan was sent to Patna to study Persian and Arabic in a madrasa. After that he went to Benares (Kashi) for learning the intricacies of Sanskrit and Hindu scripture, including the Vedas and Upanishads.

    Roy supported himself by moneylending, managing his small estates, and speculating in British East India Company bonds. In 1805 he was employed by John Digby, a lower company official. Through Digby he was introduced to Western culture and literature. For the next 10 years Roy drifted in and out of British East India Company service as Digby's assistant.

     Roy continued his religious studies throughout this period. In 1803 he composed a tract denouncing India's religious divisions and superstition. As a remedy for these ills, he advocated a monotheistic Hinduism in which reason guides the adherent to “. . . the Absolute Originator who is the first principle of all religions.” He sought a philosophical basis for his religious beliefs in the Upanishads and Vedas, translating these ancient Sanskrit treatises into Bengali, Hindi, and English and writing summaries and treatises on them. The central theme of these texts, for Roy, was the worship of the Supreme God, beyond human knowledge, who supports the universe. By translating the sacred Sanskrit Upanishads into modern Bengali, Roy violated a long-standing tradition, but, in appreciation of his translations, the French Société Asiatique in 1824 elected him to an honorary membership.

    In 1815 Roy founded the short-lived Atmiya-Sabha (Friendly Society) to propagate his doctrines of monotheistic Hinduism. He became interested in Christianity and learned Hebrew and Greek in order to read the Old and New Testaments. In 1820 he published the ethical teachings of Christ, excerpted from the four Gospels, under the title Precepts of Jesus, the Guide to Peace and Happiness.

Social and political activism

     In 1823, when the British imposed censorship upon the Calcutta press, Roy, as founder and editor of two of India's earliest weekly newspapers, organized a protest, arguing in favour of freedom of speech and religion as natural rights. This protest marked a turning point in Roy's life, away from preoccupation with religious polemic toward social and political action. In his newspapers, treatises, and books, Roy tirelessly criticized what he saw as the idolatry and superstition of traditional Hinduism. He denounced the caste system and attacked the custom of suttee (ritual burning of widows upon the funeral pyres of their deceased husbands). Roy's actual influence on the British East India Governing Council's prohibition of suttee in 1829 is not clear, but it has been widely accepted that he had the effect of emboldening the government to act decisively on the matter.

    In 1822 Roy founded the Anglo-Hindu School and four years later the Vednta College, in order to teach his Hindu monotheistic doctrines. When the Bengal government proposed a more traditional Sanskrit college, in 1823, Roy protested that classical Indian literature would not prepare the youth of Bengal for the demands of modern life. He proposed, instead, a modern, Western curriculum of study. Roy also led a protest against the outmoded British legal and revenue administration in India.

    

   In August 1828 Roy formed the Brahmo Samaj (q.v.; Society of Brahm), a Hindu reformist sect that utilized Unitarian and other liberal Christian elements in its beliefs. The Brahmo Samaj was to play an important part, later in the century, as a Hindu movement of reform.

    In 1829 Roy journeyed to England as the unofficial representative of the titular king of Delhi. The king of Delhi granted him the title raja, though it was unrecognized by the British. Roy was well received in England, especially by Unitarians there and by King William IV. Roy died of a fever while in the care of Unitarian friends at Bristol, Eng., where he was buried.

     Roy's importance in modern Indian history rests partly upon the broad scope of his social vision and the striking modernity of his thought. He was a tireless social reformer, yet he also revived interest in the ethical principles of the Vednta school as a counterpoise to the Western assault on Indian culture. In his textbooks and treatises he contributed to the popularization of the Bengali language, while at the same time he was the first Indian to apply to the Indian environment the fundamental social and political ideas of the French and American revolutions.

Father of Renaissance

    Ram Mohan viewed education as a medium to implement the social reforms. So, in 1815, Ram Mohan came to Calcutta and the very next year, started an English College by putting his own savings. He was well aware that the students should learn the English language and scientific subjects and that's why he criticized the government's policy of opening only Sanskrit schools. According to him, Indians would lag behind if they do not get to study modern subjects like Mathematics, Geography and Latin. Government accepted this idea of Ram Mohan and also implemented it but not before his death. Ram Mohan was also the first to give importance to the development of the mother tongue. His 'Gaudiya Byakaran' in Bengali is the best of his prose works. Rabindranath Tagore and Bankimchandra also followed the footsteps of Ram Mohan Roy.

Achievements

   Raja Ram Mohan Roy is considered as the pioneer of modern Indian Renaissance for the remarkable reforms he brought in the 18th century India. Among his efforts, the abolition of the sati-pratha-a practice in which the widow was compelled to sacrifice herself on the funeral pyre of her husband-was the prominent. His efforts were also instrumental in eradicating the purdah system and child marriage. In 1828, Ram Mohan Roy formed the Brahmo Samaj, a group of people, who had no faith in idol-worship and were against the caste restrictions. The title 'Raja' was awarded to him by Mughal emperor Akbar, the second in 1831 when Roy visited England as an ambassador of the King to ensure that Bentick's regulation of banning the practice of Sati was not overturned.

Freedom of Press

   Ram Mohan Roy was a staunch supporter of free speech and expression and fought for the rights of vernacular press. He also brought out a newspaper in Persian called 'Miratul- Akhbar' (the Mirror of News) and a Bengali weekly called 'Sambad Kaumudi' (the Moon of Intelligence). In those days, items of news and articles had to be approved by the government before being published. Ram Mohan protested against this control by arguing that newspapers should be free and that the truth should not be suppressed simply because the government did not like it.

His Last Days

      Raja Ram Mohan Roy, during his visit to United Kingdom as an ambassador of Akbar- the second, died of meningitis at Stapleton in Bristol on 27 September, 1833. He went there to request the British government to increase the royalty, received by the Mughal Emperor and to ensure that Lord Bentick's regulation of banning the practice of Sati was not overturned. Recently, the British government has named a street as 'Raja Rammohan Way' in the memory of Raja Ram Mohan Roy.