Roy, Ram Mohan

(1774–1833) First major Indian proponent of Hindu social and religious
reform, who founded the organization
Brahmo Samaj for this purpose. He
came from a wealthy Bengali family and
was a successful businessman and civil
servant. He moved to Calcutta in 1815,
at the time when the British were first
beginning to take serious notice of traditional Indian society, especially the
aspects they considered “evil.” Roy’s
reformist interests largely meshed with
that of the British. From an early age Roy
had rejected the practice of using images
in worship, perhaps through exposure
to Sufi ideas, and his first public crusade
was against such worship of gods and
goddesses. Like most Indian reformers,
Roy used Sanskrit texts selectively, and
for him the most important ones were
the speculative Upanishads, which
(under the influence of the English
Unitarians) he translated to reflect a
monotheism (belief in the existence of
only one God). In his later years he promoted many different educational and
social works, but is especially known for
his opposition to sati, the custom of
burning a widow on her husband’s
funeral pyre. Although later seen as too
heavily influenced by the British, his
reinterpretation of the past provided a
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Roy, Ram Mohan
model for others to use. For further consideration see Robert D. Baird (ed.),
Religion in Modern India, 1998.