RAJA RAM MOHAN ROY (RRR)

Context

About Raja Rammohan Roy

• Raja Rammohan Roy(RRR) was born on May 22nd, 1974 in Radhanagar village, Hoogly district, Bengal Presidency (now West Bengal).
• He has pursued his education in Persian and Urdu in Patna, Sanskrit in Varanasi, and English in Kolkata.
• He was given the title of Raja by Akbar II, the Mughal emperor.
• Rammohan entered the services of the East India Company as a clerk. He worked in the Collectorate of Rangpur, under Mr John Digby.
• He was eventually promoted to be a Dewan, a post that referred to a native officer entrusted with the role of collecting revenues.

RRR Contributions

• RRR efforts were instrumental in eradicating the purdah system and child marriage.
•  In 1814, he started the Atmiya Sabha (Society of Friends), to nurture philosophical discussions on the idea of monotheism in Vedanta and to campaign against idolatry, casteism, child marriage and other social ills.
• The Atmiya Sabha would make way for the Brahmo Sabha (later Brahmo Samaj) in 1828,(to institutionalize his ideas and mission), set up with Debendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore’s father.
• A group of people, who had no faith in idol worship and were against the caste restrictions.
• The principles of the samaj were defined in the Trust Deed.
• Prayers, meditation and readings of Upanishads were to be a form of worship and no graven image, statue or sculpture, carving, or painting was allowed in the samaj building.

His ideas and activities were aimed at the political upliftment of the masses

• He advocated the introduction of an English Education System in the country teaching scientific subjects like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and even Botany.
• He paved the way to revolutionizing the education system in India by establishing Hindu College in 1817 along with David Hare which later went on to become one of the best educational institutions in the country producing some of the best minds in India.
• His efforts to combine true to the roots theological doctrines along with modern rational lessons saw him establish the Anglo-Vedic School in 1822 followed by the Vedanta College in 1825.
•  RRRefforts were rewarded in Bengal Sati Regulation or Regulation XVII, A. D. 1829 of the Bengal Code was passed, which declared the practice of Sati a crime.
• Roy attacked polygamy and demanded the right of inheritance and property of the widow.
• He demanded the abolition of taxes on tax-free land.
• He demanded a reduction of export duties on Indian goods abroad and the abolition of East India Company trading rights.

Also demanded the Indianisation of superior services, and judicial equality between Indians and Europeans.

FIRST PRESS FREEDOM MOVEMENT

• He brought out a newspaper in Persian called 'Miratul- Akhbar' (the Mirror of News) and a Bengali weekly called 'Sambad Kaumudi' (the Moon of Intelligence).
• Sambad Kaumadi first Indian newspaper edited, published and managed by Indians.
•  In those days, items of news and articles had to be approved by the Government before being published.
• Ram Mohan protested against this control by arguing that newspapers should be free and that the truth should not be suppressed.
•  His 'Gaudiya Byakaran' in Bengali is the best of his prose works. 
• A polyglot, Roy knew Bengali and Persian, but also Arabic, Sanskrit, and later, English.
• His exposure to the literature and culture of each of these languages bred in his scepticism toward religious dogmas and social strictures.
• In particular, he chafed at practices such as Sati that compelled widows to be immolated on their husband’s funeral pyre.
• Roy’s sister-in-law had been one such victim after his elder brother’s death, and it was a wound that stayed with him.