Ram Mohan Roy (August 14, 1774 – September 27, 1833) was a founder (with

Dwarkanath Tagore and other Bengali Brahmins) of the Brahma Sabha in 1828 which
engendered the Brahmo Samaj, an influential Indian socio-religious reform movement.
His remarkable influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration and
education as well as religion. He is best known for his efforts to abolish the practice of
sati, the Hindu funeral practice in which the widow was compelled to sacrifice herself on
her husband’s funeral pyre. It was he who first introduced the word "Hinduism" into the
English language in 1816. For his diverse contributions to society, Raja Ram Mohan Roy
is regarded as one of the most important figures in the Bengal Renaissance.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Early life and education (1774 - 1796)

• 2 Christian and Company period (1795 - 1828)
• 3 Middle "Brahmo" period (1820 - 1830)
o 3.1 The struggle against Sati
• 4 Life in England (1831- 1833)
• 5 Reformer
o 5.1 Religious Reform of Rammohan
o 5.2 Social Reforms of Rammohan
o 5.3 Educationist
o 5.4 Journalist
• 6 Tomb
• 7 See also
• 8 References

• 9 External links

[edit] Early life and education (1774 - 1796)

Roy was born in Radhanagore, Bengal, in 1774[1]. His family background displayed an
interesting religious diversity. His father Ramkanta was a Vaishnavite, while his mother
Tarinidevi was from a Shivaite family. This in itself was unusual for Vaishanavites did
not marry Shaivites at the time.

"Thus one parent prepared him for the occupation of a scholar, the sastrin, the
other secured for him all the worldly advantage needed to launch a career in the
laukik or worldly sphere of public administration. Torn between these two
parental ideals from early childhood, Rammohun vacillated the rest of his life,
moving from one to the other and back.[2]

Rammohun's early education was controversial. The common version is

 Rammohun started his formal education in the village pathshala where he learned
Bengali and some Sankrit and Persian. Later he is said to have studied Persian and
Arabic in a madrasa in Patna and after that he was sent to Benares (Kashi) for
learning the intricacies of Sanskrit and Hindu scripture, including the Vedas and
Upanishads. The dates of his sojourn in both these places is uncertain. However,
we will go by the commonly held belief that he was sent to Patna when he was
nine years old and two years later to Benares."[3]
The period in which the Raja was born and grew up was, perhaps,
the darkest age in modern Indian history. An old society and
polity had crumbled down, and a new one had not yet been built
in its place. Devastation reigned in the land. All vital limbs of
society were paralysed; religious institutions and schools, village
and home, agriculture, industry and trade, law and administration,
all were in a chaotic condition. An all-round reconstitution and
renovation were necessary for the continued existence of social
life and order. But what was to be the principle for organisation?
For there were three bodies of culture, three bodies of
civilisations, which were in conflict, - the Hindu, the Moslem, and
the Christian or Occidental; and the question was, - how to find a
rapport, of concord, of unity, amongst these heterogeneous,
hostile and warring forces. The origin of Modern India lay there.
The Raja by his finding of this point of concord and convergence
became the Father and Patriarch of Modern India, an India with a
composite nationality and a synthetic civilisation; and by the lines
of convergence he laid down, as well by the type of personality he
developed in and through his own experiences, he pointed the way
to the solution of the larger problem of international culture and
civilisation in human history, and became a precursor, an
archetype, of coming Humanity.[4]
—Brajendra Nath Seal

His faithful contemporary biographer writes,

"Rammohun with his new found madrasa knowledge of Arabic also tasted the
fruit forbidden to Brahmins of Quran and was converted to its strict monotheism.
Rammohun's mother Tarini Devi was scandalised and packed her son off to
Benares (to study Sanskit and Vedas) before he could take the irrevocable step. In
Benares, Rammohun's rebellion continued and he persisted in interpreting the
Upanishads through the Holy Quran's monotheist strictures especially against
idolatry. Benares, the spiritual seat of traditional Hinduism, was awash with
temples to the billion gods of Hindu pantheon, and Rammohun would not
complete his formal Vedantic education there. He instead travelled widely (not
much is known of where he went, but he is said to have extensively studied
Buddhism at this time) to eventually return to his family around 1794 when a
search party sent by his father tracked him down to Benares in the company of
some Buddhists with similar notions. Between 1794 and 1795 Rammohun stayed
 with his family attending the family zamindari holdings. There was considerable
friction in the family between Rammohun and his father, who died in about 1796
leaving some property to be divided amongst his sons.

[edit] Christian and Company period (1795 - 1828)

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During these overlapping periods, Ram Mohan Roy acted as a political agitator and
agent, representing Christian missionaries[5] whilst employed by the East India Company
and simultaneously pursuing his vocation as a Pandit. To understand fully this complex
period in his life leading up to his eventual Brahmoism is not easy without reference to
his peers,

In 1792 the British Baptist shoemaker William Carey published his influential missionary
tract "An Enquiry of the obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of
heathens.[6]

In 1793 William Carey landed in India to settle. His objective was to translate, publish
and distribute the Bible in Indian languages and propagate Chrisianity to the Indian
peoples[7]. He realized that the "mobile" (i.e. service classes) Brahmins and Pundits were
most able to help him in this endeavour, and he began cultivating them. He learnt the
Buddhist and Jain religious works to better argue the case for Christianity in the cultural
context.

In 1795 Carey made contact with a Sanskrit scholar - the Tantric Hariharananda
Vidyabagish [8]- who later introduced him to Ram Mohan Roy who wished to learn
English.

Between 1796 and 1797 the trio of Carey, Vidyavagish and Roy fabricate a spurious
religious work known as the "Maha Nirvana Tantra" (or "Book of the Great Liberation")
[9]
and pass it off as an ancient religious text to "the One True God" actually the Holy
Spirit of Christianity masquerading as Brahma. Carey's involvement is not recorded in his
very detailed records and he reports only learning to read Sanscrit in 1796 and only
completed a grammar in 1797, the same year he translated from Joshua to Job, itself a
massive task[10]. (The explanation later given by Ram Mohan Roy to his family
concerning his whereabouts during this period is that he went to "Tibet" –then as far
away as "Timbuktoo"). For the next 2 decades this amazing document was regularly and
conveniently added to. Its judicial sections are used in the law courts of the English
Settlement in Bengal as Hindu Law for adjudicating upon property disputes of the
zamindari. However a few British Magistrates and Collectors begin to suspect its
"convenient" forgeries and its usage (as well as the reliance on Pundits as sources of
Hindu Law) was quickly deprecated. Vidyavagish has a brief falling out with Carey and
separated from the group to go about his mendicancy but maintains lifelong personal and
familial ties to Ram Mohan Roy.[11] (The Maha Nirvana Tantra's significance for
Brahmoism lay in the wealth that accumulated to Rammohun Roy and Dwarkanath
Tagore by its judicial use, and not due to any religious wisdom within –although it does
contain an entire chapter devoted to "the One True God" and his worship).

In 1797, Rammohun reached Calcutta and became a "banian" (ie. moneylender) mainly
to impoverished Englishmen of the Company living beyond their means. Rammohun also
continued his vocation as Pundit in the English courts and started to make a living for
himself. He begins learning the rudiments of Greek and Latin.

In 1799, Carey was joined by missionary Joshua Marshman and the printer William Ward
at the Danish settlement of Serampore.

From 1803 till 1815, Rammohun served the East India Company's "Writing Service"
commencing as private clerk "munshi" to Thomas Woodforde, Registrar of the Appellate
Court at Murshidabad[12] (whose distant nephew - also a Magistrate - later made a rich
living off the spurious Maha Nirvana Tantra under the pseudonym Arthur Avalon)[13].
Roy resigned from Woodforde's service due to allegations of corruption. Later he secured
employment with John Digby a Company collector and Rammohun spent many years at
Rangpur and elsewhere with Digby, where he renewed his contacts with Hariharananda.
William Carey had by this time settled at Serampore and the old trio renew their
profitable association. William Carey is also aligned now with the English Company,
then headquartered at Fort William, and his religious and political ambitions were
increasingly intertwined[citation needed].

At the turn of the 19th century the Muslims, although considerably vanquished after the
battles of Plassey and Buxar, still posed a formidable political threat to the Company.
Rammohun was now chosen by Carey to be the agitator among them[14]. He thus
embarked on a remarkable new career described by the contemporary biographer as,

"Rammohun's remaining life is a melange of his denunciation of various religious

beliefs, if now Islam, then Hinduism and finally Christianity in his career as
political agent for diverse vested interests.

Under Carey's secret tutelage[citation needed] in the next 2 decades, Rammohun launched his
spirited attack against the bastions of Hinduism of Bengal, namely his own Kulin
Brahmin priestly clan (then in control of the many temples of Bengal) and their priestly
excesses. The social and theological issues Carey chose for Rammohun were calculated
to weaken the hold of the dominant Kulin class (especially their younger disinherited
sons forced into service – who constituted the mobile gentry or "bhadralok" of Bengal)
from the Mughal zamindari system and align them to their new overlords of Company.
The Kulin excesses targeted include - sati (the concremation of widows), polygamy,
idolatory, child marriage, dowry. All causes equally dear to Carey's ideals.
In the final analysis of Rammohun's life in this extraordinary period, we find that
Rammohun's religious reform is but a tool to implement his powerful social reform
agenda which lays the foundation for modern India.

Here is what Roy's contemporary biographer records for this period,

"In 1805 Rammohun published Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (A Gift to Monotheists) -

an essay written in Persian with an introduction in Arabic in which he rationalised
unity of God. Although a critique of the deception and universal falsehood
prevalent in all organised religions, it was a paen to "rational ego" and
Rammohun's own hitherto unrecognised divine gift of intellectual power and
acquired knowledge. Being published in Persian, it particularly antagonised
sections of the Muslim community and for the next decade Rammohun travelled
to serve with John Digby of the East India Company as munshi and then as
Diwan. His English and knowledge of England's Baptist Christianity increased
tremendously. He also cultivated friendship in a Jain community to better
understand their approach to Hinduism - rejecting priesthood (which for long in
Bengal demanded bloody ritual sacrifices) and God itself,
In 1815 after amassing large wealth, enough to leave the Company, Rammohun
resettled in Calcutta and started an Atmiya Sabha - as a philosophical discussion
circle to debate monotheistic Hindu Vedantism and like subjects. Rammohun's
mother, however, had not forgiven him and ironically from 1817 a series of
lawsuits were filed accusing Rammohun of apostasy with the object of severing
him from the family zamindari. Rammohun countered denouncing his family's
practice of sati where widows were burned on their husband's pyres so that they
laid no claim to property via the British courts. 1817 was also the year when
Rammohun was alienated from Hindu zamindars in an incident concerning the
Hindu (later Presidency) College involving David Hare. Hindu public outrage in
1819 also followed Rammohun's triumph in a public debate over idolatry with
Subramanya Shastri, a Tamil Brahmin. The victory, however, also exposed chinks
in Rammohun's command over Brahmanical scripture and Vedanta whose study
he had somewhat neglected. The trusted younger brother of Hariharanda, a
Brahmin of great intellect Ram Chunder Vidyabagish was brought in to repair the
breech and would be increasingly identified as Rammohun's alter-ego in matters
theological for the rest of Rammohun's life especially in matters of Bengali
concern and language. By now it was suspected (but never established) that Carey
and Marshman were behind Rammohun's English works, a charge repeatedly
made by the Hindu zamindars. From time to time Dwarkanath Tagore a young
Hindu Zamindar had been attending Sabha meetings and he privately persuaded
Rammohun (financially reduced by lawsuits and in constant danger from Hindu
assassins) to disband the Atmiya Sabha in 1819 and instead be political agent for
him."
From 1819, Rammohun's battery now increasingly turns against Carey and the
Serampore missionaries. With Dwarkanath's munificence he launches a series of
attacks against Baptist "Trinitarian" Christianity and is now considerably assisted
in his theological debates by the Unitarian faction of Christianity." [15]
[edit] Middle "Brahmo" period (1820 - 1830)
This was Rammohun's most controversial period. Sivanath Sastri commenting on his
published works alone writes:-

"The period between 1820 and 1830 was also eventful from a literary point of view, as
will be manifest from the following list of his publications during that period

• Second Appeal to the Christian Public, Brahmanical Magazine^

Parts I, II and III, with Bengali translation and a new Bengali newspaper
called Sambad Kaumudi in 1821;
• A Persian paper called Mirat-ul-Akbar contained a tract entitled
Brief Remarks on Ancient Female Rights and a book in Bengali called
Answers to Four Questions in 1822;
• Third and final appeal to the Christian public, a memorial to the
King of England on the subject of the liberty of the press, Ramdoss papers
relating to Christian controversy, Brahmanical Magazine, No. IV, letter to
Lord Arnherst on the subject of English education, a tract called "Humble
Suggestions" and a book in Bengali called "Pathyapradan or Medicine for
the Sick," all in 1823 ;
• A letter to Rev. H. Ware on the " Prospects of Christianity in
India" and an "Appeal for famine-smitten natives in Southern India " in
1824 ;
• A tract on the different modes of worship, in 1825 ;
• A Bengali tract on the qualifications of a God loving householder,
a tract in Bengali on a controversy with a Kayastha, and a Grammar of the
Bengali language in English, in 1826;
• A Sanskrit tract on " Divine worship by Gayatri " with an English
translation of the same, the edition of a Sanskrit treatise against caste, and
the previously noticed tract called " Answer of a Hindu to the question
&c.," in 1827 ;
• A form of Divine worship and a collection of hymns composed by
him and his friends, in 1828 ;
• "Religious Instructions founded on Sacred Authorities" in English
and Sanskrit, a Bengali tract called "Anusthan," and a petition against
Suttee, in 1829 ;
• A Bengali tract, a grammar of the Bengali language in Bengali, the
Trust Deed of the Brahmo Samaj, an address to Lord William Bentinck,
congratulating him for the abolition of Suttee, an abstract 'in English of the
arguments regarding the burning of widows, and a tract in English on the
disposal of ancestral property by Hindus, in 1830.

It is indeed a matter for wonder how, in the midst of so much active work and such
furious contests, Ram Mohan Roy could make time to write such masterly treatises on
such a variety of subjects !"[16]
[edit] The struggle against Sati

Ram Mohan Roy is best known abroad for his agitation against sati (the practice of
burning a widow alive on her husband's pyre). Seeing his brother's widow cruelly forced
to commit sati in 1812, and unable to stop it then, Roy set his mind to abolish the
practice.

Suffice it to say that as many as 309 widows were burnt alive with their husbands
within the jurisdiction of Calcutta in the year 1828, the year in which the Brahma
Sabha was established. It was but natural that the misery and degradation of
womanhood should have strongly appealed to the sympathetic heart of Ram
Mohan Roy. His earnest pleadings on their behalf form an important feature of his
writings. He persnolly translated the vedas into bengali language.The women of
India have found no greater defender of their rights than the founder of
Brahmoism. He defended the legal rights of females, advocated their right to
education and enlightenment, and, above all, devoted all the energies of his noble
soul to save them from a cruel death."[17]