Raja Ram Mohan Roy

In News 

• Ministry of  Culture is commemorating the 250th Birth Anniversary of Raja Ram Mohan Roy from 22nd May 2022 to 22nd May 2023 under the aegis of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
  • One of the most influential social and religious reformers of the 19th century, Ram Mohan Roy, was born on May 22, 1772.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

• About:
  • Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born in a Hindu Brahmin family in Radhanagar village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, Bengal.
  • He worked as a moneylender in Calcutta, and from 1809 to 1814 and  served in the Revenue Department of the East India Company.
  • Gopal Krishna Gokhale called him the ‘Father of Modern India’.
  • Several historians consider him one of the pioneers of the Indian Renaissance. 
  • He was bestowed with the title of Raja by Akbar II, the Mughal emperor.
  • Rammohan was a gifted linguist. He knew more than a dozen languages including Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, English, French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. 
• Philosophical influence:
  • Monotheism: Rammohan was a strong propagator of monotheistic ideals which he believed to be the fundamental principle of Vedanta philosophy.
    • He believed that monotheism lay at the core of all religious texts.
  • Vedanta: He declared that Vedanta is based on reason and that, if reason demanded it, even a departure from the scriptures is justified.
  • Rationalism: He was strongly influenced by rationalist ideas.
  • He stood for a creative and intellectual process of selecting the best from different cultures, over which, again, he faced orthodox reaction.
    • Unitarianism: He was particularly intrigued by the Unitarian faction of Christianity.
• Writings:
  • He published his first book Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (A Gift to Monotheism) in 1803.
  • He wrote Gift to Monotheists (1809). 
  • He translated the Vedas and the five Upanishads into Bengali to prove his conviction that ancient Hindu texts support monotheism.
  • He started the first Bengali language weekly newspaper and the first newspaper in an Indian language, called Sambad Kaumudi, in 1821.
    • The weekly newspaper advocated reading habits, the importance of discussion as well as the need for education for all.
  • He published an English weekly called the Bengal Gazette and a Persian newspaper called Miratul-Akbar. 

• Political Stand: 
  • As a political activist, Roy condemned the oppressive practices of Bengali zamindars and demanded fixation of maximum rents. 
  • He also demanded the abolition of taxes on tax-free lands. 
  • He called for a reduction of export duties on Indian goods abroad and abolition of the East India Company’s trading rights. 
  • He demanded the Indianisation of superior services and separation of the executive from the judiciary.
  • He demanded judicial equality between Indians and Europeans and that trials be held by jury.

Contributions

• Abolition of Sati and religious reforms:
  • Rammohan was a determined crusader against the inhuman practice of sati. 
  • He started his anti-sati struggle in 1818 and he cited sacred texts to prove his contention that no religion sanctioned the burning alive of widows, besides appealing to humanity, reason and compassion. 
  • He also visited the cremation grounds, organised vigilance groups and filed counter petitions to the government during his struggle against sati. 
  • His efforts were rewarded by the Government Regulation in 1829 which declared the practice of sati a crime.
• Women’s rights:  
  • Roy condemned the general subjugation of women and opposed prevailing misconceptions which formed the basis of according an inferior social status to women. 
  • Roy attacked polygamy and the degraded state of widows and demanded the right of inheritance and property for women.
  • He was in favour of inter-caste marriages, women’s education and widow remarriages.

• He opposed superstitious practices and customs such as polygamy, child marriage, and the rigidity of the caste system. 

• Educational Reforms:
  • Rammohan Roy did much to disseminate the benefits of modern education in India. 
  • In 1825, he established a Vedanta college where courses in both Indian learning and Western social and physical sciences were offered. 
  • He also helped enrich the Bengali language by compiling a Bengali grammar book and evolving a modern elegant prose style.

Death

• He died of Meningitis in Stapleton near Bristol on September 27, 1833 while he was on his visit to Britain.
• The British government named a street in Bristol as ‘Raja Rammohan Way’ in the memory of Roy.

Source: IE