Vision of Raja Rammohun Roy: Secularism, Humanism, Universalism

As class struggle grew more acute in the late 18 and early 19 century, and ideological trend of enlighteners, socio-religious reformers and thinkers took shape of which the most outstanding figure was Rammohun Roy (1772-1833). Rammohun along with his colleagues was the precursor of the Indian movement of bourgeois enlighteners of the nineteenth century. He is known for his struggle against India’s feudal backwardness, scholasticism and the gap between theoretical ideas and life. He spent his youth in study and spiritual quest. He received mastery over different languages to study the world literature in original. Apart from the study of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hindu philosophy, he studied the works of European philosophers and sociologists, in particular of Bacon and Bentham. He personally met many West European thinkers. He was attracted towards French enlighteners and was interested in the history of the French revolution and other revolutionary movements took place in Spain, Italy and Germany. He had faith in its ultimate triumph. In characterizing Rammohun’s encyclopedic erudition Romain Rolland wrote that he embraced a range of knowledge from Himalayan mythology to the scientific disciplines of modern Europe. He was a great writer in Sanskrit, Bengali, Arabic, Persian and English. He is known as the father of the Bengali prose and first in the field of Persian journalism in Calcutta by writing a Persian book entitled, ‘Tuhfat Ulmuwahhidin’. He sowed the seeds of his thoughts in Bengal, from where it spread all over India. Humanist thinkers like Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore, M.N. Roy were influenced by him. He introduced the education built on European model and based on the modern natural sciences. He was one of the founders of Indian National Press and published several papers to spread the views of the enlighteners. He fought for the freedom of press and freedom of expression. He was critical to tradition and Hindu religious practices, caste system and gender discrimination which had divided the society into isolated groups differing in the origin and status of their members. He founded Brahmo Samaj, which was open to everyone irrespective of his or her colour, convictions, caste, nationality and religion. He was a great figure in Indian culture, the pride of Indian people and the entire progressive mind throughout the world. Rammohun and his followers did their best to make India part of the global civilization by bringing her out of the age old stagnation and lifting her to the level of the progressive countries of the world.