Raja Ram Mohan Roy Biography: Birthday, Early Life, Works, Death, Legacy

Raja Ram Mohan Roy Biography: Raja Ram Mohan Roy FRAS (22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was an Indian reformer who co-founded the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the forerunner of the Brahmo Samaj, a social-religious reform movement in the Indian subcontinent. The Mughal emperor Akbar II bestowed on him the title of Raja. In the spheres of politics, public administration, education, and religion, his influence was evident. His efforts to abolish the practices of sati and child marriage earned him widespread recognition.  Many historians regard Roy as the “Father of the Indian Renaissance.”

Raja Ram Mohan Roy Biography

Childhood and Education

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born on August 14, 1774, in Radhanagar village, Hoogly district, Bengal Presidency, to Ramakanta Roy and Tarini Devi. His father was a wealthy Brahmin who adhered rigorously to religious responsibilities. At the age of 14, Ram Mohan expressed a desire to become a monastic; however, his mother was adamantly opposed to the idea, and he abandoned it.

Following the customs of the time, Ram Mohan married at the age of nine, but his first wife passed away shortly after the wedding. At age ten, he married a second time and had two sons from the union. Following the demise of his second wife in 1826, he remarried and his third wife outlived him.

Although Ramakanto’s father was extremely traditional, he desired his son to pursue higher education. He learned Bengali and Sanskrit at the village school. Ram Mohan was then dispatched to Patna to study Persian and Arabic at a Madrasa. As it was still the imperial language of the Mughal Emperors, Persian and Arabic were in high demand at the time. He studied the Quran as well as other Islamic texts. After finishing his studies in Patna, he travelled to Benares (Kashi) to study Sanskrit. He quickly mastered the language and proceeded to study sacred texts, including the Vedas and Upanishads. At the age of 22, he began learning English. The works of philosophers such as Euclid and Aristotle shaped his spiritual and religious consciousness.

After completing his education, Rammohan began working as a clerk for the East India Company. He worked in the Rangpur Collectorate under the supervision of Mr John Digby. He was eventually promoted to the position of Dewan, which referred to a native officer charged with collecting taxes.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy Works

Ram Mohan Roy was a political activist during the East India Company’s early rule. The “Maha Nirvana Tantra” was created by William Carey, Saihardana Vidyavagish, and Raja Ram Mohan to spread Christianity to the Indian peoples. In 1797, Raja Ram Mohan began studying Greek and Latin and became a “bania” (moneylender). Carey was joined at the Danish settlement of Serampore in 1799 by the missionary Joshua Marshman and the printer William Ward. From 1803 to 1815, Ram Mohan Roy worked as a member of the “Writing Service” for the East India Company.

He penned Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (A Gift to Monotheists) in Persian with an Arabic introduction, which is the first documented theological statement of a later famous and infamous vendantin. In 1814, he founded Atmiya Sabha, a philosophical discussion circle in Kolkata, to promote the monotheistic ideals of vedanta and to fight idolatry, caste rigidity, meaningless rituals, and other social evils. He estimated that roughly half of all revenue collected in India was sent to England, leaving India with sufficient funds to maintain social welfare. Ram Mohan and William Carey launched an assault on Bengali Hinduism, focusing on Kulin excesses including sati, polygamy, child marriage, and dowry. In 1828, he co-founded the Brahmo Sabha with Devendranath Tagore and rose to prominence in India.

As an envoy of the Mughal Emperor Akbar Shah II, he travelled to England in 1830 and published works such as Second Appeal to the Christian Public, Brahmanical Magazine, Samvad Kaumudi, Mirat-ul-Akbar, and Answers to Four Questions. Ram Mohan Roy travelled to the United Kingdom in 1830 to prevent the repeal of Lord William Bentinck’s Bengal Sati Regulation of 1829.

Death

In 1830, Raja Ram Mohan Roy travelled to England to petition the Imperial Government to increase the royalties paid to the Mughal Emperor and to ensure that Lord Bentick’s Sati Act would not be repealed. On September 27, 1833, during his visit to the United Kingdom, Raja Ram Mohan Roy died of encephalitis in Stapleton, Bristol. He was interred at Bristol’s Arnos Vale Cemetery. Recently, the British government renamed Bristol street in honour of Raja Ram Mohan Roy as “Raja Rammohan Way.”

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Legacy

Ram Mohan saw education as a means to implement social reforms, so he moved to Calcutta in 1815 and founded an English College with his own funds the following year. He desired that students acquire English and scientific subjects and criticised the government’s policy of only opening Sanskrit schools. According to him, if Indians do not study modern subjects such as mathematics, geography, and Latin, they will fall behind. The government adopted and implemented Ram Mohan’s proposal, but not before his passing. In addition, Ram Mohan was the first to prioritise the development of the mother dialect. His Bengali prose work ‘Gaudiya Byakaran’ is the finest of his works. Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra also followed in Ram Mohan Roy’s footsteps.