Essays

Raja Ram Roy was born in Radhanagar village in Bengal's Hooghly district on May 22, 1772, to conservative Bengali Brahmin parents. Ram Mohans' parents, Ramakanta Roy and Tarini Mukherjee, were devout Hindus. His father was a worshipper of Lord Vishnu. Ram Mohan showed a religious disposition from an early age. At the age of 14 he wanted to be a "sanyasi" hermit, but his mother persuaded him otherwise. Another example of his devoutness was his habit of not even having water each morning until In- had recited a chapter from the Bhagvata Purana. Ram Mohan was reputed to have a "tenacious memory", and showed signs of intelligence at an early age.

He learnt Bengali at school first. He also went to Tibet to learn about Buddhism. He learnt Persian, which was the court language. This gave him the ability to read the mystic poerty and philosophy of the Persian Sufis. He also learned Arabic. I Hiring this period he came across the translations of Aristotle and Euclid, and of the Kuran. On his mother's prompting, he went to Banaras to learn Sanskrit. He started to learn English when he was 24 years old. In 1803, he secured a job with the east India Company and in 1809 he was posted to 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 Christianity to suggest that he should 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 the serving God is to do good to man". Roy resigned from the East India Company a few years later and came to Calcutta in 1815. He was a humanist and religious reformer; he left the Company to devote his time to the service of the people. Profoundly influenced by European liberalism, Ram Mohan came to the conclusion that radical reform was necessary in Hinduism and in the social practices of the Hindus.

He founded the Brahmo Samaj at Calcutta in 1828 which was initially known as the "Brahmo Sabha." Raja Ram and his organization 'Brahmo Samaj' tried to change the social order in India. He established newspapers and schools all around India. He convinced the British in 1829 to outlaw Sati. But during that period there wasn't yet an Indian ethos among the Indians. Indians were never one nation but always a collection of different entities. They were under different rulers including non-Indians. From their point of view the British were just another ruler over them. But the main contribution of the Brahmo Samaj to the Indian society was that it evokes issues that were common to people all around the Indian sub- contient.

The notions of this organization were the inspiration for other organizations and various secular political parties, like the Indian National Congress, which were later on created in India. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was one of the famous and main social reformer of that time he was very much frustrated from the Sati Pratl-ia (this was an old Hindu tradition in which when the husband of any woman was died then his wife must be burnt with the dead body of her husband, in early days it was done by the will of wife but later on the family members of husband pressurized wife to burn with the dead body of her husband). Raja Mohan Ray was decided to finish this bad tradition from the society, he wanted to aware the people against this. But the old fundamentalists hindus criticized him a lot and some of them were trying to kill him but all these incidents could not demoralize him.

In 1828 Lord William Bentink became the Governor General of India, Ram Mohan Roy meet William Bentink and told him the harmness and bad effects of this "Sati Pratha" and requested him to ban Sati Pratha by law and then on 1829 by the brilliant efforts of Ram Mohan Roy Governor General William Bantink completely banned Sati Pratha by law. William Bentink declared that "If any one pressurized any women to burn with the dead body of her husband than the Government consider it as a murder and then the punishment of a murderer is declared for this man". So with the law Sati Pratha slowly- slowly eliminate from the society. This is a greatest achievement from Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Among Roy's other efforts 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 for reforming the society. Beginning in 1828 as a small group, the Samaj played a major role in Renaissance of 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 theism of Hinduism combining the best of what Roy inculcated through his exposure to other religions. liven today, in Brahmo prayer halls all over the country, people meet once a week, most often on Sunday 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 word Testing, questing, never resting. With open mind and open heart." Roy felt strongly for the downthrodden 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 to law to settle major disputes, there should be an organization that could help to settle difference between two countries. However, ten days after arriving in Bristol (U.K.) he fell ill with meningitis and died on September 27,1833. He was initially buried in the grounds of Beech House, butten years later his friend Dwarakanath Tagore had him reinterred at Arno's Vale. A chattri was designed by William Prinsep and built with sponsorship from Dwarakanath Tagore. In 1997 a statue of Raja Ram Mohan Roy was also built at Bristol.