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People
Raja
Ram Mohan Roy
A Man For All Times
 Most
people remember Raja Ram Mohan Roy as the man who fought to abolish Sati
(the practice of a wife immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre)
and also founded the Brahmo Samaj. But his contribution was a great deal
more than that.
Roy was born in Radhanagar village in Bengal's Hooghly district on May 22,
1772, to conservative Bengali Brahmin parents. Not much has been
chronicled about his early life but what is known is that he had an
eclectic education that sowed the seeds for his founding a universal
religion, the Brahmo Samaj.
Roy did his elementary education in the village school in Bengali, his
mother tongue. At the age of 12, Roy went to a seat of Muslim studies in
Patna where he mastered Persian and Arabic. His knowledge of Arabic
enabled him to read the Koran in the original, as well as the works of
Sufi saints. He also devoured Arabic translations of the works of
Aristotle and Plato.
When he was 16, Roy clashed with his orthodox father on the issue of idol
worship and left home. To acquaint himself with the Buddhist religion, he
travelled across northern India and Tibet for the next three years. His
questioning mind objected to the deification of the Buddha and this did
not go down well with some of the lamas. He then visited Varanasi where he
learnt Sanskrit and studied ancient Hindu scriptures.
In 1803, he secured a job with the East India Company and in 1809, he was
posted to Rangpur. From the Marwaris of Rangpur, he learnt about Jainism
and studied the Jain texts. Roy was drawn to certain aspects of
Christianity that led some of the followers of the religion to suggest
that he convert; but he politely declined.
Roy's understanding of the different religions of the world helped him to
compare them with Vedantic philosophy and glean the best from each
religion. Sufi mysticism had a great influence on Roy. He loved to repeat
three of their maxims: "Man is the slave of benefits"; "The enjoyment of
the worlds rests on these two points - kindness to friends and civility to
enemies"; and "The way of serving God is to do good to man".
To pursue his interests, Roy resigned from the East India Company a few
years later and came to Calcutta in 1815. Dissatisfied with the system of
education and the rote method of teaching English, he formed an
association of English and Hindu scholars. He also invested his own money
in the starting of a school where he introduced subjects like science,
mathematics, political science and English. Roy felt that an understanding
of these "modern" subjects would give Indians a better standing in the
world of the day.
Though initially antagonistic towards British rule in India, Roy later
began to feel that the country would benefit in terms of education and by
exposure to the good points of Christianity. For this he was called a
stooge of the British.
Along with a group of like-minded people, Roy founded the Atmiya Sabha in
1815. The group held weekly meetings at his house; texts from the Vedas
were recited and theistic hymns were sung. Roy was drawn to the Unitarian
form of Christianity that resulted in him supporting a Unitarian Mission
to be set up in Calcutta in 1824.
Roy's efforts to abolish the practice of Sati were largely driven by his
concern for the moral dimensions of religion. It was the sight of the
burning of his brother's widow on her husband's funeral pyre and his
inability to save her that spurred Ram Mohan into action.
He delved into the scriptures in great detail and proved that the practice
of Sati could not gain moksha (salvation) for the husband as each
man was responsible for his own destiny. He also realized that very often
it was greedy relatives interested in the property of the dead husband who
were behind promoting the practice.
His relentless efforts in the form of petitions, writings and the
organizing of vigilance committees paid off when the William Bentinck
administration passed a law in 1829 banning the practice of Sati. Roy also
succeeded in starting a revolution for women's education and women's right
to property. By delving into Hindu scriptures, he showed that women
enjoyed equal freedom with men.
Among Roy's other firsts was the publishing of a newspaper in an Indian
language. The Atmiya Sabha brought out a weekly called the 'Bangal
Gazette'. He also published a newspaper in Persian called 'Miratul-Akhbar'
and a Bengali weekly called 'Sambad Kaumudi'. Roy placed a great deal of
importance on the development of his mother tongue. His 'Gaudiya Vyakaran'
in Bengali is rated highly among his writings in prose.
The founding of the Brahmo Samaj was among Roy's most important
contributions. Beginning in 1828 as a small group, the Samaj played a
major role in Renaissance Bengal of the 19th century by attracting
luminaries like Keshub Chandra Sen and Rabindranath Tagore and other
members of the Tagore family. The objectives of the Samaj were to follow a
theistic form of Hinduism combining the best of what Roy inculcated
through his exposure to other religions.
Even today, in Brahmo prayer halls all over the country, people meet once
a week, most often on Sundays, and worship the one God or Brahma. At these
gatherings, discourses are offered, Vedic texts recited and hymns sung.
Present-day followers try to inculcate his words: "Testing, questing,
never resting, With open mind and open heart."
Roy felt strongly for the downtrodden and his belief in the universal
brotherhood of man led him to support many causes and reform movements. A
100 years before the establishment of the League of Nations, Roy expressed
the need for a similar institution. He said that just as two individuals
resorted to a court of law to settle major disputes, there should be an
organization that could help to settle differences between two countries.
Roy made his first and only trip to England in November 1830 where he
lived until his life was tragically cut short on September 27, 1833 after
a brief illness.
In today's world of turmoil where religious dogma results in hatred,
violence and alienation, Roy's universal approach to religion has much to
offer.
– Melanie P Kumar
May 11, 2003
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