Raja Ram Mohan Roy

About Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Who is it?: socio-religious reformer
Birth Day: May 22, 1772
Birth Place: Radhanagore, Bengal, British India, Indian
Cause of death: Meningitis
Other names: Herald Of New Age
Known for: Bengal Renaissance, Brahmo Sabha (social, political reforms)

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born on May 22, 1772 in Radhanagore, Bengal, British India, Indian, is socio-religious reformer. Fondly called the “Maker of Modern India”, social and educational reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a visionary who lived during one of India’s darkest social phases but strived his best to make his motherland a better place for the future generations to come. Born into a Bengali family in British India, he joined hands with other prominent Bengalis like Dwarkanath Tagore to form the socio-religious organization Brahmo Samaj, the renaissance movement of the Hindu religion which set the pace for Bengali enlightenment. Given the fact that Ram Mohan Roy was born into a family which displayed religious diversity which was unusual in Bengal at the time, it comes as no surprise that the young Ram Mohan Roy was disturbed by the problems stemming in the society due to religious and social malpractices. He was especially concerned about the practice of “sati” which required a widow to immolate herself at the pyre of her husband. Along with other reformers and visionaries he fought against the evil practices prevalent in the Indian society at that time and helped to eradicate several of them. He also left a deep impact in the fields of politics and education.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy is a member of Women's Rights Activists

Does Raja Ram Mohan Roy Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Raja Ram Mohan Roy has been died on 27 September 1833(1833-09-27) (aged 61)\nStapleton, Bristol, England.

🎂 Raja Ram Mohan Roy - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

When Raja Ram Mohan Roy die, Raja Ram Mohan Roy was 61 years old.

Popular As Raja Ram Mohan Roy
Occupation Women's Rights Activists
Age 61 years old
Zodiac Sign Gemini
Born May 22, 1772 (Radhanagore, Bengal, British India, Indian)
Birthday May 22
Town/City Radhanagore, Bengal, British India, Indian
Nationality Indian

🌙 Zodiac

Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s zodiac sign is Gemini. According to astrologers, Gemini is expressive and quick-witted, it represents two different personalities in one and you will never be sure which one you will face. They are sociable, communicative and ready for fun, with a tendency to suddenly get serious, thoughtful and restless. They are fascinated with the world itself, extremely curious, with a constant feeling that there is not enough time to experience everything they want to see.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born in the Year of the Dragon. A powerful sign, those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Dragon are energetic and warm-hearted, charismatic, lucky at love and egotistic. They’re natural born leaders, good at giving orders and doing what’s necessary to remain on top. Compatible with Monkey and Rat.

Some Raja Ram Mohan Roy images

Famous Quotes:

"The present system of Hindus is not well calculated to promote their political interests…. It is necessary that some change should take place in their religion, at least for the sake of their political advantage and social comfort."

Biography/Timeline

1772

Ram Mohan Roy was born in Radhanagar, Hooghly District, Bengal Presidency, on 22 May 1772. His Father Ramkanta was a Vaishnavite, while his mother, Tarinidevi, was from a Shivaite family.

1792

In 1792, the British Baptist shoemaker William Carey published his influential missionary tract, An Enquiry of the obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of heathens.

1793

In 1793, William Carey landed in India to settle. His objective was to translate, publish and distribute the Bible in Indian languages and propagate Christianity to the Indian peoples. He realised the "mobile" (i.e. Service classes) Brahmins and Pundits were most able to help him in this endeavour, and he began gathering them. He learnt the Buddhist and Jain religious works to better argue the case for Christianity in the cultural context.

1795

In 1795, Carey made contact with a Sanskrit scholar, the Tantric Hariharananda Vidyabagish, who later introduced him to Ram Mohan Roy, who wished to learn English.

1796

Between 1796 and 1797, the trio of Carey, Vidyavagish, and Roy created a religious work known as the "Maha Nirvana Tantra" (or "Book of the Great Liberation") and positioned it as a religious text to "the One True God". Carey's involvement is not recorded in his very detailed records and he reports only learning to read Sanskrit in 1796 and only completed a grammar in 1797, the same year he translated part of The Bible from Joshua to Job, a massive task. For the next two decades this document was regularly augmented. Its judicial sections were used in the law courts of the English Settlement in Bengal as Hindu Law for adjudicating upon property disputes of the zamindari. However, a few British magistrates and Collectors began to suspect and its usage (as well as the reliance on pundits as sources of Hindu Law) was quickly deprecated. Vidyavagish had a brief falling out with Carey and separated from the group, but maintained ties to Ram Mohan Roy.

1797

In 1797, Ram Mohan reached Calcutta and became a "banian" (moneylender), mainly to impoverished Englishmen of the Company living beyond their means. Ram Mohan also continued his vocation as pundit in the English courts and started to make a living for himself. He began learning Greek and Latin.

1799

In 1799, Carey was joined by missionary Joshua Marshman and the printer william Ward at the Danish settlement of Serampore.

1800

Ram Mohan Roy was married three times. His first wife died early. He had two sons, Radhaprasad in 1800 and Ramaprasad in 1812 with his second wife, who died in 1824. Roy's third wife outlived him.

1803

From 1803 till 1815, Ram Mohan served the East India Company's "Writing Service", commencing as private clerk "munshi" to Thomas Woodroffe, Registrar of the Appellate Court at Murshidabad (whose distant nephew, John Woodroffe — also a Magistrate — and later lived off the Maha Nirvana Tantra under the pseudonym Arthur Avalon). Roy resigned from Woodroffe's Service and later secured employment with John Digby, a Company collector, and Ram Mohan spent many years at Rangpur and elsewhere with Digby, where he renewed his contacts with Hariharananda. William Carey had by this time settled at Serampore and the old trio renewed their profitable association. William Carey was also aligned now with the English Company, then head-quartered at Fort william, and his religious and political ambitions were increasingly intertwined.

1820

"The period between 1820 and 1830 was also eventful from a literary point of view, as will be manifest from the following list of his publications during that period:

1830

In 1830, Ram Mohan Roy travelled to the United Kingdom as an ambassador of the Mughal Empire to ensure that Lord william Bentinck's Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829 banning the practice of Sati was not overturned. In addition, Roy petitioned the King to increase the Mughal Emperor's allowance and perquisites. He was successful in persuading the British government to increase the stipend of the Mughal Emperor by £30,000. He also visited France. While in England, he embarked on a sort of cultural exchange, meeting with members of Parliament and publishing books on Indian economics and law. Sophia Dobson Collet was his biographer at the time.

1833

The original brief epitaph,"Rammohun Roy, died Stapleton 27th. Sept. 1833", was suggested by Dwarkanath Tagore, but this plaque was removed to the rear of the tomb by Rev. Rohini Chaterji (sic), who was descended from Radha Prasad Roy. His new and more expansive epitaph was placed at the front. The epitaph reads:

1838

The East India Company was draining money from India at a rate of three million pounds a year in 1838. Ram Mohan Roy was one of the first to try to estimate how much money was being driven out of India and to where it was disappearing. He estimated that around one-half of all total revenue collected in India was sent out to England, leaving India, with a considerably larger population, to use the remaining money to maintain social well-being. Ram Mohan Roy saw this and believed that the unrestricted settlement of Europeans in India governing under free trade would help ease the economic drain crisis.

1983

In 1983, a full scale Exhibition on Ram Mohan Roy was held in Bristol's Museum and Art Gallery. His enormous 1831 portrait by Henry Perronet Briggs still hangs there, and was the subject of a talk by Sir Max Muller in 1873. At Bristol's Centre, on College Green, is a full size bronze statue of the Raja by the modern Kolkata Sculptor, Niranjan Pradhan. Another bust by Pradhan, gifted to Bristol by Jyoti Basu, sits inside the main foyer of Bristol's City Hall. A pedestrian path at Stapleton has been named "Rajah Rammohun Walk". There is a 1933 Brahmo plaque on the outside west wall of Stapleton Grove, and his first burial place in the garden is marked by railings and a granite memorial stone. His tomb and chattri at Arnos Vale are listed Grade II* by English Heritage, and attract many admiring visitors today.

2008

In September 2008, representatives from the Indian High Commission came to Bristol to mark the 175th anniversary of Ram Mohan Roy's death. During the ceremony Brahmo and Unitarian prayers were recited and songs of Ram Mohan and other Brahmosangeet were performed.

2013

The Indian High Commission often come to the annual Commemoration of the Raja in September, whilst Bristol's Lord Mayor is always in attendance. The Commemoration is a joint Brahmo-Unitarian Service for about 100 people. Brahmo and Unitarian prayers and hymns are sung before the tomb, flowers are laid, and the life of the Raja celebrated in a Service. In 2013 a recently discovered ivory bust of Ram Mohan was displayed, in 2014 his original death mask at Edinburgh was filmed and its history discussed.

2019

Ram Mohan Roy’s experience working with the British government taught him that Hindu traditions were often not credible or respected by western standards and this no doubt affected his religious reforms. He wanted to legitimise Hindu traditions to his European acquaintances by proving that "superstitious practices which deform the Hindu religion have nothing to do with the pure spirit of its dictates!" The "superstitious practices", to which Ram Mohan Roy objected, included sati, caste rigidity, polygamy and child marriages. These practices were often the reasons British officials claimed moral superiority over the Indian nation. Ram Mohan Roy’s ideas of religion actively sought to create a fair and just society by implementing humanitarian practices similar to Christian ideals and thus legitimise Hinduism in the modern world.

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