Career as an Educationist

Ram Mohan Roy was among the most educated men of his day. He was also a reformer at heart. He wanted to bring about major changes in the existing educational system by incorporating the scientific methods of teaching prevailing in the west, while at the same time retaining India’s traditional values. He was impressed by the doctrine of reason and humanism prevailing in the West and tried to bring about a synthesis with the core values of the Upanishads and Vedas, on which his own philosophical ideas were based. Together with David Hume, a missionary, he founded schools to impart Western education to Indian children. He founded the Hindu College, which later came to be known as the Presidency College. He was one of the first Indians to found and edit newspapers, publishing them in English, Bengali and Persian.

Career as a Social Reformer

Rabindranath Tagore once described Ram Mohan Roy as the ‘Father of the Indian Renaissance’ and the ‘Prophet of Indian Nationalism”. He was undoubtedly instrumental in ushering in the modern era in Indian History. About the time of the death of his father in 1803, he entered the service of the Company and two years later, became the Diwan to Digby with whom he stayed till 1814. In the ten years he spent with Digby he made a deep study of western thought and literature. He developed a style of writing that impressed even the English colonists of the day. After the return of Digby to England, Ram Mohan Roy came to Calcutta where he launched his marvellous campaign of public service and reform. His energy was amazing and he had already made up his mind to attack the great problems of religion, society and ethics. He made himself ready for the battle against what he believed were the forces of darkness and irrationality prevailing in Indian society. He had discovered to his utter sorrow that “the Hindu society with caste, polygamy, “Kulinism”, Suttee, infanticide and other evils was rotten to its core. Morality was at a very low ebb. Men spent their time in vice and idleness and in social broils and petty quarrels”. And “ignorance and superstition reigned supreme over the length and breadth of the country. One of Ram Mohan’s greatest achievements was to uplift the status of Indian Women. He tried to give women an equal place in society by educating them and by abolishing child marriage. He also tried hard to establish widow remarriage in the face of stiff opposition from Orthodox Brahmins.

Career as a Religious Reformer

In Calcutta, Ram Mohan came in contact with missionaries whose criticism of orthodox Hinduism instigated him to make a searching study of the Christian religion. This led him to conclude that Hinduism was in no way inferior to Christianity. He wrote, “….it may be proved that the world was indebted to our ancestors for the first dawn of knowledge, which sprung up in the East, and thanks to the Goddess of Wisdom, we have still a philosophical and copious language of our own , which distinguishes us from other nations who cannot express scientific or abstract ideas without borrowing the language of foreigners.” Ram Mohan Roy was the first person to campaign actively against the religious tyranny imposed by the orthodox Brahmin priests and wanted to restore Hinduism to a more reasonable and humanitarian level. He did this by bringing about a synthesis between Christian humanism and Vedic philosophy. He established the “Brahmo Samaj” in Calcutta in1828. His work was subsequently taken up by men like Dwijendranath Tagore (father of Rabindranath) and Keshab Chandra Sen. It ushered in other religious reform movements like the Arya Samaj and Ramakrishna Mission. A magazine called “Samvad Kaumadi” was started to spread the message of love for mankind. In Politics and Public Administration too, Ram Mohan Roy showed remarkable acumen. He was among the first to point out the ignominy of living under foreign rule. Though he was aware of the necessity of acquiring western scientific education, he felt that it should be a tool for empowerment rather than serving the British In 1830, Ram Mohan Roy went to England on a mission on behalf of the Mughal Emperor, where he died three years later.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born on May 22, 1772, in the village of Radhanagar in the district of Hoogly. His father, Ramakant Roy was a ‘Zamindar’ (feudal landlord) whose ancestors had been in the service of Muslim kings. “Roy” was the title given to the family by the Nawabs (Muslim king) of Bengal. Ramakant wanted his son to have the best education possible, and spared no effort to expose him to a wide range of subjects. In all likelihood, he was first educated at home and then in the local school.

Ram Mohan Roy started his education in the local village school. From his childhood he had a keen desire to learn languages and he took lessons in Sanskrit, Bengali, Urdu and Persian. Later on he also learnt English, Arabic, Latin, French and even Hebrew. From an early age, Ram Mohan Roy was acutely aware of the social tyranny that existed in Bengal, particularly in rural Bengal. He was incensed by the rigidity of the Hindu religious practices, which imposed great hardship on the common people. With a view to bringing about religious reforms, Ram Mohan Roy studied religious texts such as the ‘Koran’, and the ‘Upanishads’. His radical views brought him into conflict with his own parents who were orthodox Brahmins, and eventually he left his home in Bengal and settled in Benares, where he spent most of his time reading and writing.

The impact of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, on India’s social history has been so far reaching and profound, that he easily qualifies as one of the greatest Indians ever born. Be it education, culture, religion or social reforms, Ram Mohan Roy pioneered changes that were far reaching and helped bring about a virtual Socio–Cultural Revolution. For this he is often referred to as the “Father of Indian Renaissance”. Ram Mohan Roy’s greatest contribution was in the social arena, where he was instrumental in getting the archaic practice of ‘Sati’ abolished. He also campaigned incessantly against polygamy and child marriage while strongly advocating-- women’s education and widow remarriage. In religion, Ram Mohan Roy pointed out the evils of excessive ritualisim in Hinduism and came out with a New Sect called ‘Brahmo Samaj’. This found widespread acceptance among the intellectual elite who were fed up with the prevailing tyranny of the priestly class. As with most reformers, Raja Ram Mohan Roy did not live to see all his work bear fruit. While he was rewarded in some instances, many others remained unfulfilled. The “Education Decree” for example, came into effect two years after his death and English education was introduced, as he had wanted all along.

Rabindranath Tagore once wrote of ,”Ram Mohan Roy came at the dawn of the modern age in our history, when there was little consciousness of distinction between Indian and alien. …. In fact his was the heart of India, for in him shone forth the truth of India. He considered him alone worthy of the name of Indian, who had respect for men of every faith, who accepted them all. Ram Mohan Roy was a true humanist. He was passionately devoted to freedom, whether in relation to his own people or people from other lands. For him, humanity was one large family and the happiness or sorrow of one nation is the happiness or sorrow of the rest of the world. So great was his joy on receiving the news of the French Revolution of 1830 that, in spite of excruciating pain, he insisted upon visiting the French frigate flying the tricolor and lying in the Table Bay. In England when the Reform Bill controversy was raging, he vowed that in case the Bill was defeated he would renounce his connections with Great Britain. Ram Mohan Roy was a man of profound wisdom and far-sighted vision and even in his time he proposed a Congress of all nations to which differences between nations- whether political or commercial- would be brought for settlement.

The basic principles of the ‘Brahmo Samaj”, which Ram Mohan Roy founded are: 1) Worship of a single God, who is without shape or form and is to be attained only through meditation and devotion. 2) All men are equal before God, and people should therefore love and respect one another. 3) Support the study of English in schools with the belief that it would open up society to modern influences. 4) Condemn social evils like casteism, untouchability, child marriage and the ‘Sati’ system. 5) Advocate freedom of the Press. 6) Strongly support women’s education as a means of empowerment and recommend widow re-marriage. Predictably, the philosophy of Ram Mohan Roy came in for sharp attack for the orthodox Hindu society, but he had his supporters too, and soon religious reforms gathered momentum and succeeded in establishing a parallel cultural movement.