Ram Mohan Roy: Father of Modern India

Ram Mohan Roy (22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was born in Radhanagar, Hooghly District, Bengal Presidency. He was born in British-ruled Bengal to a prosperous family of the Brahman class. His great grandfather, Krishannand Bandopadhyay, a Rahiri Kulin (noble) brahmin. Kulinism was a synonym for polygamy and the dowry system, both of which Rammohan campaigned against. His father, Ramkanta, was a Vaishnavite, while his mother, Tarini Devi, was from a Shaivite family. He was given the title of Raja by Akbar II, the Mughal emperor. His influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration, education, and religion. He was known for his efforts to abolish the practices of Sati and Child marriage.

          Ram Mohan Roy was married three times. His first wife died early. He had two sons, Radha Prasad in 1800, and Ramaprasad in 1812 with his second wife, who died in 1824. Roy's third wife outlived him.

         Roy died of a fever while in the care of Unitarian friends at Bristol, Gloucestershire, England on September 27, 1833, where he was buried. 

Education: He was a great scholar of Sanskrit, Persian and English languages and also knew Arabic, Latin, and Greek. He studied Persian and Arabic along with Sanskrit, which influenced his thinking about God. He read Upanishads, Vedas, and the Quran and translated a lot of the scriptures into English.

Social Activism: Roy was a founder of the Brahma Sabha(Society of Brahma) in 1828, an influential social-religious reform movement. The Brahma Samaj played a major role in reforming and modernizing the Indian society. As a grown-up man he saw the burning of his brother’s wife a Sati, a sight that shocked his conscience. He denounced the caste system and attacked the custom of Sati. He was himself the victim of social evils, and throughout his life he worked for the social and religious uplift of his community. His role in doing away with the evil practice of Sati among the orthodox Brahmins was historical. The "superstitious practices", to which Ram Mohan Roy objected, included Sati, Caste Rigidity, Polygamy and Child marriages.

Fight for equal rights: In 1830, he traveled to the UK to ensure that Lord William Bentinck's law banning the practice of Sati was not overturned. He campaigned for equal rights for women, including the right to remarry and the right to hold property. Roy was a fearless and self-respecting man, but he had greater respect for women, making it a point to stand up whenever a lady entered the room. He also advocated for a woman’s share in ancestral property. He was, perhaps, the first feminist in India. 

Journals he published:  Roy was also one of the leaders of Indian journalism. He published several journals in Bengali, Persian, Hindi, and English to propagate social reforms. Bengali weekly Samvad Kaumudi was the most important journal that he published. The Atmiya Sabha published an English weekly called the Bengal Gazette and a Persian newspaper called Miratul-Akbar.

           After his father's death in 1803 he moved to Murshidabad, where he published his first book Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (A Gift to Monotheism). Roy took a keen interest in European politics and followed the course of the French Revolution.

Political Activism:  During the early rule of the East India Company, Ram Mohan Roy acted as a political agitator whilst employed by the East India Company. In 1823, when the British imposed censorship upon the Calcutta (Kolkata) press, Roy, as founder and editor of two of India’s earliest weekly newspapers, organized a protest, arguing in favor of freedom of speech and religion as natural rights. That protest marked a turning point in Roy’s life, away from a preoccupation with religious polemic and toward social and political action.  

     My own devotion is to see Roy, not as a Hindu, not even as a Bengali, but as a truly cosmopolitan figure, a global citizen, who argued for political liberty, civic freedom, and social justice for all humanity using the Enlightenment tool of universal reason. His manifold activities in religious, social, literary, educational, and political spheres backed by robust intellect and rational thinking. He promoted a rational, ethical, non-authoritarian, this-worldly, and social-reform Hinduism. He is sometimes called the father of modern India. His movement covered religious, social, economic, educational, political, and national issues.