This year in the Month of May, we are celebrating the sester-centennial Birth Anniversary of Raja Rammohun Roy across the country as well as the world. Although there is an element of uncertainty over the exact year of his birth, 1772 or 1774 CE. However, the first of the two has been widely accepted and therefore the year 2022 marks the completion of 250 years since his birth.
The two aspects of his life’s work have come into greater focus; one being his untiring crusade against the custom of Suttee or the burning of widows in the pyre of their dead husbands which was ultimately banned by law on December 4, 1829, and the other is the founding of the Brahma Sabha or the Brahmo Samaj. However, his tireless efforts at trying to save the widows from the inhuman custom of being burnt alive was part of his larger plan for uplifting the condition of women of his country. Similarly, he founded the Atmiya Sabha which later on became the Brahmo Samaj because he dreamed of a free and humane society not divided along the fault lines of caste, creed, religion and gender; a society that would be guided by rationality, equality and independence of thought. Thus, Raja Rammohun Roy based his religious concepts on universalism, a spiritual movement that could unite everyone under a common belief in the One True Being, the core of every religious movement in the world. He sought to draw upon the best principles of the religions of his time because he wanted to awaken his countrymen from the abysmal depths of ignorance to which they slumbered so that India could become one of the proud nations of the world. He did not give shape to his ideas with any form of rituals but laid down the foundations of an idea based on the Fatherhood of God and universal brotherhood of men.
Later on Maharshi Devendranath Tagore gave a form to the Brahmo ideals of the Rajarshi and the movement became more of a social reform of the greater Hindu society. It had a large following across the Indian subcontinent. Later on Brahmananda Keshab Chandra Sen brought in new ideas and many liberal thoughts. Under the Brahmo Samajs of India movement the ideals of the Brahmo Samaj spread further till it hit a road-block in the form of the controversy regarding the Kochbehar marriage of Kashab’s eldest daughter Suniti Devi. The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj movement of 1878 was greatly involved with social and educational reforms that were inspired by the idea of the independence of India. Although, the Brahmo Samaj, in all its forms, left a deep impact in the social, cultural and political spheres in India, it gradually lost its impetus till Rabindranath Tagore, whose birthday is also celebrated in the month of May propagated the universal appeal of Rammohun’s ideals of a Universal religion through his writings.
Today, the Brahmo Samajs have accepted the worship of the One True Formless Being proposed by Rammohun Roy and follow the structures laid down by the Devendra Nath Tagore and his later believers. But have we been able to imbibe the Rajarshi’s ideals of universalism that have found expression in the poet Laureat’s compositions? As we celebrate the birth anniversaries of these two visionaries we must introspect.
This issue introduces a new article on Raja Rammohun Roy by Shri. Jawahar Sircar which he has kindly shared with the Indian Messenger. The next part of the gleanings from the writings of Late Beni Madhab Das continues and the article ‘Education Reforms in India Post Independence’ is concluded in this issue.