Biography of Raja Ram Mohan Roy complete biography for Class 10, Class 12, and Graduation and other classes.
India: Father of Indian Renaissance
Birth: 1772 Death: 1833
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a zealous social reformer holding modern and progressive views. He stood firmly against all sorts of social bigotry, conservatism, and superstitions and advocated English and Western education for his countrymen. For these views, he was even expelled from his family. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a great scholar too. He made a wide study of different religions of the world including Christianity and Islam. He also knew many languages viz. English, Persian, Arabic, Latin, French, and even Hebrew. He was also a great scholar of Bangla and translated Vedas and Upnishads into this language.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born in 1772, in a prosperous and orthodox Brahmin family at Hoogly (West Bengal). In 1805, Raja Ram Mohan Roy got employment in the British East India Company. He retired from this service in 1815 and thereafter settled in Calcutta devoting himself to social service. In 1830, Raja Ram Mohan Roy visited England to plead a case on behalf of the Moghul Emperor. The Moghul Emperor honored Ram Mohan Roy with the title of ‘Raja’.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy believed in the fundamental unity of all religions. In 1814, he founded Atmiya Samaj’ and in 1828, the ‘Brahmo Samaj’. Through these organizations, he wanted to expose the religious hypocrisies and to check the growing influence of Christianity on the Hindu Society.
By far, the greatest achievement of Raja Ram Mohan Roy as a social reformer was the abolition of ‘Safi’. It was due to the untiring efforts, involving considerable personal risks of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, that the then Governor-General of India, Lord William Bentinck abolished the practice of ‘Sad’ in 1829.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy has been rightly called the ‘Father of Indian Renaissance’ or the ‘Father of Indian Nationalism’. He died on 27th September 1833, in England.
