Essay On Ram Mohan Roy

Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of India, had set the tone of British administration in India. He was a colonialist, conqueror and an administrator; but unlike past conquerors, Hastings belonged to an intellectually vivacious generation. He and some of his colleagues like William Jones and Nathaniel Halhed were part of the British Enlightenment led by men like Samuel Johnson (whom Hastings knew intimately), Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, David Hume and others. The ideas of this period of 18th century Britain, the advent of scientific thought, the challenge to religious dogma and the celebration of reason above faith would change not just Europe but ultimately the entire world. It was these men of the British Enlightenment who first

Towards this end he translated the Vedanta and several Upanishads into Bengali and some into English. These works triggered off a theological debate among Bengali Hindus and also forced them to think outside the boundaries of orthodoxy. Ram Mohan Roy also emerged as the most strident critic of sati and waged a long battle to have the practice outlawed. In 1828, he formed the monotheistic Brahmo Samaj, which attracted many high minded adherents and helped shape a more progressive and outward looking generation of Bengalis. This generation would join the fight against Hindu practices such as sati, child marriage, Charak puja and so on.

Ram Mohan Roy’s greatest contribution was perhaps his role in the rise of Western education in India. Complementing his efforts was a remarkable Scotsman named David Hare (1775-1842), whose memory has not dimmed in Bengal even today. He had arrived in Calcutta in 1800 and passed away forty two years later. His grave adorned by a pillared tombstone lies in a small cordoned off area in Calcutta’s College Square not far from the school and college he helped establish. A plaque of the tombstone tells his story