India pays homage to Father of Indian Renaissance Raja Ram Mohan Roy’ on his birth anniversary today
New Delhi ( Vivek Ojha ) : Today is the birth anniversary of a man who is considered Father of Modern India through his socio cultural reforms and sparkling ideas. Raja Rammohun Roy was born on 22nd May in 1772 at Radhanagar in Hooghly district in West Bengal. He was unanimously considered as the first ‘Modern Man’. A pioneer of socio-religious and political reform movements in modern India, Rammohun Roy laid emphasis on human reason and rationality in every aspect of life.
He was a believer in monotheism and opposed idol worship. In 1828 he established the BrahmoSamaj at Calcutta in order to purify Hinduism and to preach monotheism.
Raja Rammohun Roy led a life-long crusade against the practice Of sati and finally in 1829 he succeeded in persuading Lord William Bentinck to abolish it. He championed women’s rights, like right Of inheritance and property and attacked polygamy and the degraded state Of widows.
He also fought for the introduction and spread of modern western education through the medium of English. He passed away at Bristol in England in 1833.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s Contribution:
Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s first published work Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhiddin (a gift to deists) published in 1803 exposed irrational religious beliefs and corrupt practices of the Hindus as the belief in revelations, prophets, miracles etc.
In 1814, he founded Atmiya Sabha in Calcutta to campaign against idolatry, caste rigidities, meaningless rituals and other social ills.
He criticized the ritualism of Christianity and rejected Christ as the incarnation of God. In Precepts of Jesus (1820), he tried to separate the moral and philosophical message of the New Testament, which he praised, from its miracle stories.
He founded Calcutta Unitarian Association in 1821. Roy did much to disseminate the benefits of modern education to his countrymen. He supported David Hare’s efforts to find the Hindu College in 1817, while Roy’s English school taught mechanics and Voltaire’s philosophy.
In 1825, he established Vedanta college where courses in both Indian learning and Western social and physical sciences were offered.
