Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Indian reformer and writer (1772–1833)

Raja

Ram Mohan Roy

FRAS

Roy in London (1833), half potrait by Rembrandt Peale

Born| c. 22 May 1772

Radhanagar, Bengal Presidency

Died| 27 September 1833(1833-09-27) (aged 61)

Stapleton, Bristol, England, United Kingdom

Other names| Father of Indian Renaissance
Occupation(s)| Social and religious reformer, author
Known for| Bengal Renaissance, Brahmo Sabha
(social, political reforms)
Signature

Ram Mohan Roy FRAS (22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833), popularly regarded as the "Father of Indian Renaissance,"[1] was an Indian reformer and writer who was one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the precursor of the Brahmo Samaj, a socio-religious reform movement in the Indian subcontinent. He was given the title of Raja by Mughal emperor Akbar II (r. 1806–1837).

His influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration, education and religion. He was known for his efforts to abolish the practices of sati and child marriage.[2]

Roy wrote Gaudiya Vyakaran which was the first complete Bangla grammar written book.[3]

## Early life and education (1772–1796)

[edit]

Ram Mohan Roy was born in Radhanagar, Hooghly District, Bengal Presidency. His great-grandfather Krishnakanta Bandyopadhyay was a Rarhi Kulin (noble) Brahmin. Among Kulin Brahmins - descendants of the five families of Brahmins imported from Kannauj by Ballal Sen in the 12th century as per popular myth - those from the Rarhi district of West Bengal were notorious in the 19th century for living off dowries by marrying several women. Kulinism was a synonym for polygamy and the dowry system, both of which Rammohan campaigned against.[4] His father, Ramkanta, was a Vaishnavite, while his mother, Tarini Devi, was from a Shaivite family. He was a great scholar of Sanskrit, Persian and English languages and also knew Arabic, Latin and Greek. One parent prepared him for the occupation of a scholar, the Shastri, while the other secured for him all the worldly advantages needed to launch a career in the laukik or worldly sphere of public administration.[citation needed] Torn between these two parental ideals from early childhood, Ram Mohan vacillated between the two for the rest of his life.[5]

During his childhood Ram Mohan Roy witnessed the death of his sister-in-law through sati. The seventeen-year-old girl was dragged towards the pyre where Ram Mohan Roy witnessed her terrified state. He tried to protest but to no avail. She was burned alive. The people chanted "Maha Sati! Maha Sati! Maha Sati!" (great wife) over her painful screams.[6]

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.[7]

The nature and content of Ram Mohan Roy's early education is disputed. One view is that Ram Mohan started his formal education in the village pathshala where he learned Bengali and some Sanskrit and Persian. Later he is said to have studied Persian and Arabic in a madrasa in Patna and after that he was sent to Benares to learn the intricacies of Sanskrit and Hindu scripture, including the Vedas and Upanishads. The dates of his time in both these places are uncertain. However, it is believed that he was sent to Patna when he was nine years old and two years later he went to Benares.[5]

Ram Mohan Roy's impact on modern Indian history was his revival of the pure and ethical principles of the Vedanta school of philosophy as found in the Upanishads. He preached the unity of God, made early translations of Vedic scriptures into English, co-founded the Calcutta Unitarian Society and founded the Brahmo Sabha, precursor to Brahmo Samaj. The Brahmo Samaj played a major role in reforming and modernizing the Indian society. He successfully campaigned against sati, the practice of burning widows. He sought to integrate Western culture with the best features of his own country's traditions. He established a number of schools to popularize a modern system of education in India. He promoted a rational, ethical, non-authoritarian, this-worldly views and social reforms in Hinduism. His writings also sparked interest among British and American Unitarians.[8]

## Christianity and the early rule of the East India Company (1795–1828)

[edit]

During the early years of East India Company rule, Ram Mohan Roy acted as a political agitator while employed by the company.[9]

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.[10]

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 people.[11] He realised the "mobile" (i.e. service classes) Brahmins and Pandits 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 a cultural context.[12]

In 1795, Carey made contact with a Sanskrit scholar, the Tantric Saihardana Vidyavagish,[13] who later introduced him to Ram Mohan Roy, who wished to learn English.[14][15]

While there are rumors that 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"). Scholars like John Duncan Derrett are skeptical of this claim calling it "highly improbable"[16] and Hugh Urban argues that "It is probable that we will never know the true author and date of the Maha Nirvana Tantra".[17] 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.[18] For the next two decades Maha Nirvana Tantra was regularly augmented.[19] 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 zamindars. However, a few British magistrates and collectors began to suspect and its usage (as well as the reliance on pandits 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.[20]

In 1797, Raja Ram Mohan reached Calcutta and became a bania (moneylender), mainly to lend to the Englishmen of the Company living beyond their means. Ram Mohan also continued his vocation as pandit in the English courts and started to make a living for himself. He began learning Greek and Latin.[21]

In 1799, Carey was joined by missionary Joshua Marshman and the printer William Ward at the Danish settlement of Serampore.[22]

From 1803 until 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).[23] 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.[24]

While in Murshidabad, in 1804 Raja Ram Mohan Roy wrote Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (A Gift to Monotheists) in Persian with an introduction in Arabic. Bengali had not yet become the language of intellectual discourse. The importance of Tuhfat-ul-muwahhidin lies only in its being the first known theological statement of one who achieved later fame and notoriety as a Vedantin. On its own, it is unremarkable, perhaps of interest only to a social historian because of its amateurish eclecticism. Tuhfat was, after all, available as early as 1884 in the English translation of Maulavi Obaidullah EI Obaid, published by the Adi Brahmo Samaj. Raja Ram Mohan Roy did not know the Upanishad at this stage in his intellectual development.[25][26]

In 1814, he started Atmiya Sabha (i.e. Society of Friends) a philosophical discussion circle in Kolkata (then Calcutta) to propagate the monotheistic ideals of the vedanta and to campaign against idolatry, caste rigidities, meaningless rituals and other social ills.[27]

The East India Company was draining money from India at a rate of three million pounds a year by 1838.[citation needed] Ram Mohan Roy was one of the first to try to estimate how much money was being taken 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.[28] 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.[29]

During the next two decades, Ram Mohan along with William Carey, launched his attack against the bastions of Hinduism of Bengal, namely his own Kulin Brahmin priestly clan (then in control of the many temples of Bengal) and their priestly excesses.[19] The Kulin excesses targeted include sati (the co-cremation of widows), polygamy, child marriage and dowry.[14]

From 1819, Ram Mohan's battery increasingly turned against William Carey, a Baptist Missionary settled in Serampore, and the Serampore missionaries. With Dwarkanath's munificence, he launched a series of attacks against Trinitarian Christianity and was now considerably assisted in his theological debates by the Unitarian faction of Christianity.[30]

He wrote Gaudiya Vyakaran which was the first complete Bangla grammar written book. It was published in 1826.[3]

In 1828, he launched Brahmo Sabha with Debendranath Tagore. By 1828, he had become a well known figure in India. In 1830, he had gone to England as an envoy of the Mughal Emperor, Akbar Shah II, who invested him with the title of Raja to the court of King William IV.[15]

## Middle "Brahmo" period (1820–1830)

[edit]

This was Ram Mohan's most controversial period. Commenting on his published works Sivanath Sastri writes:[31]

"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:

* Second Appeal to the Christian Public, Brahmanical Magazine – Parts I, II and III, with Bengali translation and a new Bengali newspaper called Samvad Kaumudi in 1821;
* A Persian paper called Mirat-ul-Akbar contained a tract entitled Brief Remarks on Ancient Female Rights and a book in Bengali called Answers to Four Questions in 1822;
* Third and final appeal to the Christian public, a memorial to the King of England on the subject of the liberty of the press, Ramdoss papers relating to Christian controversy, Brahmanical Magazine, No. IV, letter to Lord Arnherst on the subject of English education, a tract called "Humble Suggestions" and a book in Bengali called "Pathyapradan or Medicine for the Sick," all in 1823;
* A letter to Rev. H. Ware on the "Prospects of Christianity in India" and an "Appeal for Famine-smitten Natives in Southern India" in 1824;
* A tract on the different modes of worship, in 1825;
* A Bengali tract on the qualifications of a God-loving householder, a tract in Bengali on a controversy with a Kayastha and a grammar of the Bengali language in English in 1826;
* A Sanskrit tract on "Divine Worship by Gayatri" with an English translation of the same, the edition of a Sanskrit treatise against caste and the previously noticed tract called "Answer of a Hindu to the Question &c." in 1827;
* A form of divine worship and a collection of hymns composed by him and his friends, in 1828;
* "Religious Instructions Founded on Sacred Authorities" in English and Sanskrit, a Bengali tract called "Anusthan", and a petition against sati, in 1829;

He publicly declared that he would emigrate from the British Empire if Parliament failed to pass the Reform Bill.

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. While in England, he embarked on cultural exchanges, meeting with members of parliament and publishing books on Indian economics and law. Sophia Dobson Collet was his biographer at that time.

## Religious reforms

[edit]

Ram Mohan Roy on a 1964 stamp of India.

The religious reforms of Roy contained in some beliefs of the Brahmo Samaj expounded by Rajnarayan Basu[32] are:

* Brahmo Samaj believe that the most fundamental doctrines of Brahmoism are at the basis of every religion followed by a man.
* Brahmo Samaj believe in the existence of One Supreme God—"God, endowed with a distinct personality & moral attributes equal to His nature, and intelligence befitting the Author and Preserver of the Universe," and worship Him alone.
* Brahmo Samaj believe that worship of Him needs no fixed place or time. "We can adore Him at any time and at any place, provided that time and that place are calculated to compose and direct the mind towards Him."

Having studied the Qur’an, the Vedas and the Upanishads, Roy's beliefs were derived from a combination of monastic elements of Hinduism, Islam, eighteenth-century Deism, Unitarianism, and the ideas of the Freemasons.[33]

### Social reforms

[edit]

Roy founded the Atmiya Sabha and the Unitarian Community to fight the social evils, and to propagate social and educational reforms in India. He was the man who fought against superstitions, a pioneer in Indian education, and a trend setter in Bengali prose and Indian press.

* Crusaded against Hindu customs such as sati, polygamy, child marriage and the caste system.
* In 1828, he set up the Brahmo Sabha, a movement of reformist Bengali Brahmins to fight against social evils.

Roy's political background and Devandra's Christian influence influenced his social and religious views regarding reforms of Hinduism. He writes,

> 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.[34]

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 it dictates!"[35] The "superstitious practices", to which Ram Mohan Roy objected, included sati, caste rigidity, polygamy and child marriages.[36] 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 the Christian ideals professed by the British and thus seeking to legitimise Hinduism in the eyes of the Christian world.

### Educational reforms

[edit]

* Roy believed education to be an implement for social reform.
* In 1822, Roy founded the Anglo-Hindu School, followed four years later (1826) by the Vedanta College; where he insisted that his teachings of monotheistic doctrines be incorporated with "modern, western curriculum."[37]
* In 1830, he helped Rev. Alexander Duff in establishing the General Assembly's Institution (now known as Scottish Church College), by providing him with the venue vacated by Brahma Sabha and getting the first batch of students.
* He supported induction of Western learning into Indian education.
* He also set up the Vedanta College, offering courses as a synthesis of Western and Indian learning.
* His most popular journal was the Sambad Kaumudi. It covered topics like freedom of the press, induction of Indians into high ranks of service, and separation of the executive and judiciary.
* When the English East India Company muzzled the press, Ram Mohan composed two memorials against this in 1829 and 1830 respectively.

## Death

[edit]

In early September 1833 Roy came to Bristol to visit his Unitarian friend, Dr Lant Carpenter, where he made a deep impression on Lant's daughter and future social reformer, Mary Carpenter.[38] While in Bristol Roy preached at the Lewins Mead Meeting House. In mid September he became ill and was diagnosed with meningitis. He died at Stapleton, then a village to the north-east of Bristol (now a suburb), on 27 September 1833 of meningitis or a chronic respiratory ailment.[39]

## Mausoleum at Arnos Vale

[edit]

Epitaph for Ram Mohan Roy on his Mausoleum. Mausoleum of Ram Mohan Roy in Arno's Vale Cemetery, Bristol, England. Statue of Ram Mohan Roy in Bristol

Ram Mohan Roy was originally buried on 18 October 1833, in the grounds of Stapleton Grove, where he had lived as an ambassador of the Mughal Empire and died of meningitis on 27 September 1833.[40] Nine years later he was reburied on 29 May 1843 in a grave at the new Arnos Vale Cemetery, in Brislington, East Bristol. A large plot on The Ceremonial Way there had been bought by William Carr and William Prinsep, and the body in its lac and a lead coffin was placed later in a deep brick-built vault, over seven feet underground. Two years after this, Dwarkanath Tagore helped pay for the chhatri raised above this vault, although there is no record of him ever visiting Bristol. The chhatri was designed by the artist William Prinsep, who had known Ram Mohan in Calcutta.[41][citation needed]

Bristol Arnos Vale cemetery have been holding remembrance services for Raja Ram Mohan Roy every year on a Sunday close to his death anniversary date of 27 September.[42] The Indian High Commission at London often come to Raja's annual commemoration and Bristol's Lord Mayor is also regularly in attendance. The commemoration is a joint Brahmo-Unitarian service, in which, prayers and hymns are sung, flowers laid at the tomb, and the life of the Raja is celebrated via talks and visual presentations.[43] In 2013, a recently discovered ivory bust of Ram Mohan was displayed.[42][44] In 2014, his original death mask at Edinburgh was filmed and its history was discussed.[45] In 2017, Raja's commemoration was held on 24 September.[46]

## Legacy

[edit]

Blue Plaque issued by the Greater London Council on the wall of house at the 49 Bedford Square, where Roy lived during his days in the UK.

Roy's commitment to English education and thought sparked debate between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.[47] Gandhi objected to Roy's devotion to English education and thought and disallowing independent thinking by being overly supportive of the Western philosophical discourses.[48] Tagore wrote a letter rejecting Gandhi's view, saying "[Roy] had the full inheritance of Indian wisdom. He was never a school boy of the West, and therefore had the dignity to be a friend of the West."[47]

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 Max Muller in 1873. At Bristol's centre, on College Green, there is a full-size bronze statue of Raja by a 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.[citation needed]

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 chhatri at Arnos Vale are listed as a Grade II historic site by English Heritage and attract many visitors today.[citation needed]

## In popular culture

[edit]

A 1965 Indian Bengali-language film Raja Rammohan about Roy's reforms, directed by Bijoy Bose and starring Basanta Chowdhury in the title role.[49]

In 1988 Doordarshan Serial Bharat Ek Khoj produced and directed by Shyam Benegal also picturised a full one episode on Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The title role was played by noted TV actor Anang Desai with Urmila Bhatt, Tom Alter and Ravi Jhankal as supporting cast.

In 1984 Films Division of India created a documentary Raja Rammohan Roy directed by P. C. Sharma.[50]

In 2004, Roy was ranked number 10 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of All Time.[51][52][53]

## See also

[edit]

* Adi Dharm
* Brahmo
* Brahmoism
* British India Society
* Hindu School, Kolkata
* Presidency College, Kolkata
* Scottish Church College, Calcutta

## References

[edit]

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6. ^ "Raja Ram Mohan Roy". Madras Courier. 28 July 2017.
7. ^ "Raja Ram Mohan Roy". Cultural India. Archived from the original on 25 August 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
8. ^ Hodder, Alan D. (1988). "Emerson, Rammohan Roy, and the Unitarians". Studies in the American Renaissance: 133–148. JSTOR 30227561.
9. ^ Singh, Kulbir (17 July 2017). "Ram Mohan Roy: The Father of the Indian Renaissance". Young Bites. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
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11. ^ "Home – William Carey University". www.wmcarey.edu. Archived from the original on 29 September 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
12. ^ Reed, Ian Brooks (2015). "Rammohan Roy and the Unitarians". Master Thesis, Florida State University. Archived from the original on 25 August 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
13. ^ Kaumudi Patrika 12 December 1912
14. ^ a b Samuel, Dibin. "Wiliam Carey played significant role in abolishing Sati system". www.christiantoday.co.in. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
15. ^ a b "Raja Ram Mohan Roy". www.gktoday.in – GKToday. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
16. ^ Derrett, John Duncan Martin (1977). Essays in Classical and Modern Hindu Law: consequences of the intellectual exchange with the foreign powers vol. 2. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-04808-9.
17. ^ Urban, Hugh (1995). "The Strategic Uses of an Esoteric Text: the Mahanirvana Tantra". South Asia. 18 (1): 77. doi:10.1080/00856409508723228.
18. ^ Smith, George (1885). "Ch. 4". The Life of William Carey (1761–1834). p. 71\. Archived from the original on 27 June 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
19. ^ a b Syed, M. H. "Raja Rammohan Roy" (PDF). Himalaya Publishing House. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
20. ^ Preface to "Fallacy of the New Dispensation" by Sivanath Sastri, 1895
21. ^ Patel, Tanvi (22 May 2018). "Google Honours 'Maker Of Modern India': Remembering Raja Ram Mohan Roy". The Better India. Archived from the original on 25 August 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
22. ^ "Joshua Marshman, D.D." William Carey University. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
23. ^ Avalon, Arthur (2004). Mahanirvana Tantra Of The Great Liberation. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4191-3207-0. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
24. ^ Smith, George. "Life of William Carey". Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
25. ^ Robertson Bruce C. (1995). Raja Rammohan Ray: the father of modern India. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. p. 25\. ISBN 978-0-19-563417-4. Archived from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
26. ^ Crawford, S. Cromwell (1984). Ram Mohan Roy, his era and ethics. Arnold-Heinemann. p. 11\. Archived from the original on 16 February 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
27. ^ Ahir, Rajiv (2018). A Brief History of Modern India. Spectrum Books (P) Limited. p. 210\. ISBN 978-81-7930-688-8. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
28. ^ Roy, Rama Dev (1987). "Some Aspects of the Economic Drain from India during the British Rule". Social Scientist. 15 (3): 39–47. doi:10.2307/3517499. JSTOR 3517499.
29. ^ Bhattacharya, Subbhas (1975). "Indigo Planters, Ram Mohan Roy and the 1833 Charter Act". Social Scientist. 4 (3): 56–65. doi:10.2307/3516354. JSTOR 3516354.
30. ^ Das, Pijush Kanti. "Ch. I" (PDF). Rammohun Roy and Brahmoism. University of Calcutta. pp. 200–208.
31. ^ Sastri, Sivanath (1911) History of the Brahmo Samaj. pp. 44–46
32. ^ "Brahmo Samaj". World Brahmin Council. Archived from the original on 29 December 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
33. ^ Doniger, Wendy. (2014). On Hinduism. Oxford. ISBN 978-0199360079. OCLC 858660095.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
34. ^ Bhatt, Gauri Shankar (1968). "Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, and the Church-Sect Typology". Review of Religious Research. 10 (1): 23–32. doi:10.2307/3510669. JSTOR 3510669.
35. ^ Ram Mohan Roy, Translation of Several Principal Book, Passages, and Text of the Vedas and of Some Controversial works on Brahmunical Theology. London: Parbury, Allen & Company, 1823, p. 4.
36. ^ Bandyopadyay, Brahendra N. (1933) Rommohan Roy. London: University Press, p. 351.
37. ^ "Ram Mohan Roy." Archived 17 August 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Encycpaedia Britannica.
38. ^ Rohit Barot, Bristol and the Indian Independence Movement (Bristol Historical Association pamphlets, no. 70, 1988), p.6.
39. ^ Robertson, B.C. (2003). "The English writings of Raja Rammohan Ray". In Mehrotra, A.K. (ed.). A history of Indian literature in English. London: Hurst & Co. pp. 27–40. ISBN 1-85065-680-0.
40. ^ "Beech House, Stapleton Grove, Bell Hill, Bristol". Historic England.
41. ^ Caudhurī, Indranātha (2019). Indian renaissance & Rabindranath Tagore (1st ed.). New Delhi, India: Vani Book Company. p. 61\. ISBN 978-93-89012-58-3.
42. ^ a b "The Brahmo Samaj". www.thebrahmosamaj.net. Archived from the original on 30 October 2017. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
43. ^ "Celebration at Arnos Vale". Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
44. ^ "The Brahmo Samaj". www.thebrahmosamaj.net. Archived from the original on 31 August 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
45. ^ Suman Ghosh (27 September 2013). "Bristol Remembers Rammohun Roy". Archived from the original on 30 October 2021. Retrieved 2 October 2017 - via YouTube.
46. ^ "Tributes paid to the great Indian social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy in Bristol". Retrieved 27 September 2017.
47. ^ a b Choudhuri, Indra Nath (2015). "Tagore and Gandhi: Their Intellectual Conflict and Companionship". Indian Literature. 59 (2): 146–157. JSTOR 44478532.
48. ^ Sociopolitical Thought of Rabindranath Tagore. Sage. 2020. p. 354\. ISBN 978-9353885007.
49. ^ "Raja Rammohan". Amazon Prime Video. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
50. ^ "Raja Ram Mohan Roy | Films Division". Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
51. ^ "Listeners name 'greatest Bengali'". 14 April 2004. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
52. ^ Habib, Haroon (17 April 2004). "International : Mujib, Tagore, Bose among 'greatest Bengalis of all time'". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018.
53. ^ "BBC Listeners' Poll Bangabandhu judged greatest Bengali of all time'". The Daily Star. 16 April 2014. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.

## External links

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Topics|

* Bhakti
* Brahmacharya
* Caste
* Ghar Wapsi
* Moksha
* Neo-Vedanta
* Persecution of Hindus
* Shuddhi
* Women in Hinduism

Gurus and
revivalist writers|

* Meher Baba
* Amritanandamayi
* Ananda Yogi
* Anandamayi Ma
* Anukulchandra Chakravarty
* Arumuka Navalar
* Athavale
* Aurobindo
* Boro Maa
* Chatterjee
* Chinmayananda Saraswati
* Chinmoy
* Dayananda Saraswati
* Daya Mata
* Ganapathi Sachchidananda
* Haidakhan Babaji
* Hariharananda Giri
* Jaggi Vasudev
* Jyotirao Phule
* Kalki Bhagawan
* Kelkar, N. C.
* Kriyananda
* Lekhraj
* Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Mirra Alfassa
* Narayana Guru
* Neem Karoli
* Nirmala
* Paramananda
* Prem Rawat
* Ram Chandra
* Ram Dass
* Ram Mohan Roy
* Ramakrishna
* Ramana Maharshi
* Ravi Shankar
* Sarkar
* Sathya Sai Baba
* Savarkar
* Sen, K. C.
* Shraddhanand
* Sister Nivedita
* Sivananda
* Swami Rama
* Tagore, D.
* Tilak
* Vaswani
* Vipulananda
* Vishnudevananda
* Vivekananda
* Yogananda
* more

General|

* Indian diaspora
* Indianisation
* Influence of Indian religions
* Indian-origin religions
* Hinduism
* Buddhism
* Jainism
* Sikhism
* Persecution of Hindus

* v
* t
* e

Bengal Renaissance

People|

* Sri Aurobindo
* Atul Prasad Sen
* Rajnarayan Basu
* Debendra Mohan Bose
* Jagadish Chandra Bose
* Subhash Chandra Bose
* Satyendra Nath Bose
* Madhusudan Gupta
* Bethune
* Upendranath Brahmachari
* Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
* Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
* Akshay Kumar Datta
* Henry Derozio
* Alexander Duff
* Michael Madhusudan Dutt
* Romesh Chunder Dutt
* Anil Kumar Gain
* Kadambini Ganguly
* Monomohun Ghose
* Ramgopal Ghosh
* Aghore Nath Gupta
* David Hare
* Kazi Nazrul Islam
* Eugène Lafont
* Mahanambrata Brahmachari
* Ashutosh Mukherjee
* Kalikrishna Mitra
* Harish Chandra Mukherjee
* Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
* Gour Govinda Ray
* Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury
* Raja Ram Mohan Roy
* Meghnad Saha
* Akshay Chandra Sarkar
* Mahendralal Sarkar
* Brajendra Nath Seal
* Girish Chandra Sen
* Keshub Chandra Sen
* Haraprasad Shastri
* Debendranath Tagore
* Rabindranath Tagore
* Satyendranath Tagore
* Jnanadanandini Devi
* Fanindra Nath Gooptu
* Sitanath Tattwabhushan
* Brahmabandhav Upadhyay
* Ram Chandra Vidyabagish
* Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan
* Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
* Swami Vivekananda
* Paramahansa Yogananda
* Begum Rokeya

Culture|

* Bengali literature
* Bengali poetry
* Bengali music
* Bangiya Sahitya Parishad
* Bhadralok
* Brahmoism
* Brahmo Samaj
* Gaudiya Math
* Mahanam Sampraday
* Nazrul geeti
* Rabindra Nritya Natya
* Rabindra Sangeet
* Sambad Prabhakar
* Satyagraha
* Self-Realization Fellowship
* Yogoda Satsanga
* Swadeshi
* Tattwabodhini Patrika
* Young Bengal

Education|

* Chittagong College
* Indian Statistical Institute
* Hindu School
* Jadavpur University
* Presidency University
* University of Calcutta
* Bethune College
* University of Dhaka
* Visva-Bharati University
* Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine

* v
* t
* e

Indian independence movement

History|

* Colonisation
* Porto Grande de Bengala
* Dutch Bengal
* East India Company
* British Raj
* French India
* Portuguese India
* Battle of Plassey
* Battle of Buxar
* Anglo-Mysore Wars
* First
* Second
* Third
* Fourth
* Anglo-Maratha Wars
* First
* Second
* Third
* Gwalior
* Polygar Wars
* Vellore Mutiny
* First Anglo-Sikh War
* Second Anglo-Sikh War
* Sannyasi rebellion
* Rebellion of 1857
* Radcliffe Line
* more

Philosophies
and ideologies|

* Ambedkarism
* Gandhism
* Hindu nationalism
* Indian nationalism
* Khilafat Movement
* Muslim nationalism in South Asia
* Satyagraha
* Socialism
* Swadeshi movement
* Swaraj

Events and
movements|

* Partition of Bengal (1905)
* Partition of Bengal (1947)
* Revolutionaries
* Direct Action Day
* Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy
* The Indian Sociologist
* Singapore Mutiny
* Hindu–German Conspiracy
* Champaran Satyagraha
* Kheda Satyagraha
* Rowlatt Committee
* Rowlatt Bills
* Jallianwala Bagh massacre
* Noakhali riots
* Non-cooperation movement
* Christmas Day Plot
* Coolie-Begar movement
* Chauri Chaura incident, 1922
* Kakori conspiracy
* Qissa Khwani massacre
* Flag Satyagraha
* Bardoli
* 1928 Protests
* Nehru Report
* Fourteen Points of Jinnah
* Purna Swaraj
* Salt March
* Dharasana Satyagraha
* Vedaranyam March
* Chittagong armoury raid
* Gandhi–Irwin Pact
* Round table conferences
* Act of 1935
* Aundh Experiment
* Indian Legion
* Cripps Mission
* Quit India
* Bombay Mutiny
* Royal Air Force strikes
* Coup d'état of Yanaon
* Provisional Government of India
* Independence Day
* Praja Mandala movement
* Lucknow Pact

Organisations|

* All India Kisan Sabha
* All-India Muslim League
* Anushilan Samiti
* Arya Samaj
* Azad Hind
* Berlin Committee
* Ghadar Movement
* Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
* Indian National Congress
* India House
* Indian Home Rule movement
* Indian Independence League
* Indian National Army
* Jugantar
* Khaksar movement
* Khudai Khidmatgar
* Swaraj Party
* more

Social
reformers|

* Ashfaqulla Khan
* A. Vaidyanatha Iyer
* Ayya Vaikundar
* Ayyankali
* B. R. Ambedkar
* Baba Amte
* Bal Gangadhar Tilak
* Dayananda Saraswati
* Dhondo Keshav Karve
* G. Subramania Iyer
* Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty
* Gopal Ganesh Agarkar
* Gopal Hari Deshmukh
* Gopaldas Ambaidas Desai
* Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
* J. B. Kripalani
* Jyotirao Phule
* Kandukuri Veeresalingam
* Mahadev Govind Ranade
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Muthulakshmi Reddy
* Narayana Guru
* Niralamba Swami
* Pandita Ramabai
* Periyar
* Ram Mohan Roy
* Rettamalai Srinivasan
* Sahajanand Saraswati
* Savitribai Phule
* Shahu
* Sister Nivedita
* Sri Aurobindo
* Syed Ahmad Khan
* Vakkom Moulavi
* Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
* Vinoba Bhave
* Vitthal Ramji Shinde
* Vivekananda

Independence
activists|

* Abul Kalam Azad
* Accamma Cherian
* Achyut Patwardhan
* A. K. Fazlul Huq
* Alluri Sitarama Raju
* Annapurna Maharana
* Annie Besant
* Ashfaqulla Khan
* Babu Kunwar Singh
* Bagha Jatin
* Bahadur Shah II
* Bakht Khan
* Bal Gangadhar Tilak
* Basawon Singh
* Begum Hazrat Mahal
* Bhagat Singh
* Bharathidasan
* Bhavabhushan Mitra
* Bhikaiji Cama
* Bhupendra Kumar Datta
* Bidhan Chandra Roy
* Bipin Chandra Pal
* C. Rajagopalachari
* Chandra Shekhar Azad
* Chetram Jatav
* Chittaranjan Das
* Dadabhai Naoroji
* Dayananda Saraswati
* Dhan Singh
* Dukkipati Nageswara Rao
* Gopal Krishna Gokhale
* Govind Ballabh Pant
* Har Dayal
* Hemu Kalani
* Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi
* Jatindra Mohan Sengupta
* Jatindra Nath Das
* Jawaharlal Nehru
* K. Kamaraj
* Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi
* Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
* Khudiram Bose
* Shri Krishna Singh
* Lala Lajpat Rai
* M. Bhaktavatsalam
* M. N. Roy
* Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi
* Mahadaji Shinde
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Mangal Pandey
* Mir Qasim
* Mithuben Petit‎
* Mohammad Ali Jauhar
* Muhammad Ali Jinnah
* Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari
* Nagnath Naikwadi
* Nana Fadnavis
* Nana Saheb
* P. Kakkan
* Prafulla Chaki
* Pritilata Waddedar
* Purushottam Das Tandon
* Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
* R. Venkataraman
* Rahul Sankrityayan
* Rajendra Prasad
* Ram Prasad Bismil
* Rani Lakshmibai
* Rash Behari Bose
* Sahajanand Saraswati
* Sangolli Rayanna
* Sarojini Naidu
* Satyapal Dang
* Shuja-ud-Daula
* Shyamji Krishna Varma
* Sibghatullah Shah Rashidi
* Siraj ud-Daulah
* Subhas Chandra Bose
* Subramania Bharati
* Subramaniya Siva
* Surya Sen
* Syama Prasad Mukherjee
* Tara Rani Srivastava
* Tarak Nath Das
* Tatya Tope
* Tiruppur Kumaran
* Ubaidullah Sindhi
* V. O. Chidamabaram
* V. K. Krishna Menon
* Vallabhbhai Patel
* Vanchinathan
* Veeran Sundaralingam
* Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
* Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
* Yashwantrao Holkar
* Yogendra Shukla
* more

British leaders|

* Wavell
* Canning
* Cornwallis
* Irwin
* Chelmsford
* Curzon
* Ripon
* Minto
* Dalhousie
* Bentinck
* Mountbatten
* Wellesley
* Lytton
* Clive
* Outram
* Cripps
* Linlithgow
* Hastings

Independence|

* Cabinet Mission
* Constitution
* Republic of India
* Indian annexation of Goa
* Indian Independence Act
* Partition of India
* Political integration
* Simla Conference

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Japan
* Australia
* Netherlands
* Latvia
* Sweden
* Poland
* Vatican
* 2
* Israel
* Catalonia

Academics|

* CiNii

People|

* Trove
* Deutsche Biographie
* DDB

Other|

* IdRef
* SNAC
* 2

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