RAJA RAM
MOHAN ROY By Nitish Nivedan Young Life: - Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a great social reformer of India. He was born
on May 22nd1172, Radhanagore, Bengal. He was a man who did a truly great work. Ram
Mohan was reputed for having a tenacious memory and was intelligent even at an early age. His father Ramkant Roy was a Vaishnavite and his mother’s name was Tarini. His surname indicates that members of his family had been in royal service. Rammohan learnt successively Bengali , Persian , Arabic language and Sanskrit by the age of fifteen.As a teenager, Roy then worked as a moneylender in Calcutta, and from 1803 to 1814 was employed by the British East India Company. He himself was devoted to lord Vishnu. He wanted to become a monk in his 14th year but his mother (Tarini) opposed his desire. By the age of nine, Ram Mohan had married thrice, according to polygamous caste’s custom of his times. His first wife died in childhood. He had two sons, Radhaprasad and Ramaprasad from his second wife, who died in 1824. The third wife is said to have outlived him. Raja Ram Mohan is known as the ''''Maker of Modern India''''. His great influence was apparent in the fields of poltics, public adminstration and education and also in religion. He is well known for his efforts to abolish the practice of Sati, a Hindu funeral practice in which the widow sacrifices herself on her husband’s death.Roy published journals in English, Hindi, Persian and Bengali. His most popular journal was the Samvad Kaumudi. It included topics like freedom of press, induction of Indians into high ranks of service, and separation of the executive and judiciary. Raja started to learn English when he was 24 years old. It was in Patna, where he came across the translations of Aristotle and Euclid when to went to study Arabic. He read their books in Arabic. By studying their books, he developed the ability to think for himself. His wide education and his exposure to different cultures led to many comparative
religious questions. He condemned idol worshiping and opposed his parents who were doing so. He admired the spirit of freedom as advocated in the Vedas and the Upanishads. He proclaimed that simple living and high thinking should be a man’s motto in life and he lived accordingly. Late Life:- In 1831 Ram Mohan Roy travelled to the UK as an ambassador of the Mughal Empire to ensure that that Lord Bentick''''s law banning the practice of Sati was not overturned. He also visited France. He died at Stapleton, Bristol on the 27th September 1833 of meningitis and is buried in Arnos Vale Cemetery in southern Bristol due to meningitis. A statue of him was erected in College Green, Bristol in 1997. There is also a blue plaque commemorating him on his house in Bedford Square, London. Contrubition of Raja Ram Mohan Roy: Raja Ram Mohan Roy was the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, one of the first Indian socio-religious reform movements. Roy advocated monotheism, or the worship of one God. He denounced rituals, which he deemed meaningless and giving rise to superstitions. He also published Bengali translations of the Vedas to prove his points.In 1814, with the help of young Indians, he set up the Amitya Sabha to propagate rational religious ideas. He contributed to Indian society as a religious and social reformer, writter and journalist. Roy was too a champion of democracy and opposed Colonialism. Ram Mohan was a rationalist and scientific in his own attidude and, therefore against superstition, orthodoxy and obscurantism. As he wrote, “There is always an innate faculty existing in the nature of mainkind that in case any peson of sound mind, before or after assuming the doctrines of any religion, makes an enquiry into the nature of the principles of religious doctrines…without partiality and with sense of justice, there is a strong hope that he will be able to distinguish the truth from the untruth and the true prospositions from the fallacious ones, and also he, becoming free fr