Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the pioneer of modern India, was "the first man of new regenerate India," in the words of Rabindranath Tagore. He was born in Radhanagar in the district of Hooghly on 22 May 1772. He was the man who brought India out of the grasp of blind superstitions and ignorance into enlightenment as far as possible in the fabric of his time. Although born in an orthodox Hindu family, he was able to broaden his attitude and vision with the help of Vedic texts, Islamic culture, and Western philosophy.
He was a natural linguist and had mastered Bengali, Sanskrit, English, French, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, enabling him to study the religious and literary texts of these languages.
Around his time, India had been suffering from many social evils and religious complexities. These evil practices were just a mockery of humanism. In such a context, his role as a reformer was two-fold. He was a religious reformer as well as a social reformer. He revolted against idolatry and laid the foundation stone for the Brahmo Samaj. On the other hand, he tried heart and soul to remove the evil customs of his time, e.g., caste prejudice, child marriage, sati (widow-burning), female infanticide, prevention of female education, and female inheritance, etc. He was greatly shocked at the deplorable condition of the people, as these evil customs were eating into the vitals of society.
He was a complete humanist. He ceaselessly challenged the sati system and, in the long run, achieved success in his attempt with the help of Lord William Bentinck. In fact, the name of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and the abolition of the cruel sati system are inseparable from each other. Although the orthodoxy of the Hindu religion raised its multi-headed menace, Raja Ram Mohan Roy vehemently criticized the priestly class and their biased attitude. He was condemned by the orthodox sections of society, but they could not deter him from his reformative works and deeds.
His ardent zeal for freedom was expressed in his words, "Enemies of liberty and friends of despotism can never be and never will be ultimately successful."
Apart from these, he was a renowned educationist who wished to spread modern culture and science-based education within the conservative fabric of Indian society. And through his own works, he laid the foundations of a new style of Bengali prose. In fact, he was the first beacon of light of the renaissance in Bengal as well as in India. Though he breathed his last on 27 September 1833, he is still regarded as the torchbearer of the nation.
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