Ram Mohan Roy

Raja Ram Mohan Roy or Rammohan Roy ( Bengali, রাম মোহন রায়, Rām Mohan Ray, May 22nd 1772 in Radhanagar, Bengal, † September 27, 1833 in Bristol, England ) was a major reformer of Hinduism and the founder of the Brahmo Samaj. He was also a Bengali writer, journalist and fighter of social injustices.

Life

Ram Mohan Roy was born into an orthodox Brahmin family from a village in Murshidabad district of Bengal, which was close to the Mughal rule. He learned in Patna Persian and Arabic, among others, at a madrasa, a school for Islamic Studies, and studied here several Arabic translations of Aristotle and Euclid. He then studied in Varanasi Sanskrit and English. From 1803 to 1814, he was a tax official in the British service in the East India Company and was brought up by his superiors in the English literature. After 1814, he lived on his property and devoted himself to the study of religious and social problems. Due to the continuous reading of English newspapers he remained in contact with the happenings in Europe. As an ambassador of the Great Mogul, he made a trip to England in 1831 and has just been fitted by this with the title of Raja. His mission was successful, but he died in England in 1833 of an illness.

Importance

Ram Mohan Roy wrote some writings in which he fought against the worship of images, caste, child marriage, the general superstition and widow burning. As role models for India floated into his head the liberal democracy of England and a modernized education system. He was also the first who published a magazine in an Indian language. In his efforts towards 1829, widow burning prohibited in British India by law.

When Roy came to Calcutta in 1815, he began to work for a departure from the practice of pure Sanskrit schools and study only the Vedic text traditions. He was of the view, in addition to the English language and the native language also an education in science and mathematics is necessary. The government declared itself ready, to consider his objections to its implementation was however only some time after his death.

In studying the ancient Indian texts Ram Mohan Roy came to the conclusion that some customs and practices had crept in later. He saw in the Vedic religion realizes a pure monotheism, which was however marred later.

Roy founded the first 1814 - Atmiya Sabha, an association which met to read and discuss texts and the number of wealthy and influential men of Calcutta belonged.

1828 Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj, which was to carry out reforms in Hinduism. The aim was to restore the image-free, monotheistic original religion of the Veda and thereby to pave a future universal religion. Although Ram Mohan Roy Book stressed the authority of the Veda, the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras was the Brahmo Samaj of all the movements of Neohinduismus the movement that Christianity approximated the most. Roy put in the Vedic literature on the aspects of value that corresponded to a monotheistic conception and a non-image worship. Its historical significance lies ( despite low membership numbers ) is to have prepared initiated the discussion on the renewal of Hinduism and thus pave the way for further reform movements ( Arya Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission ). In public, the setting was not unusual degree, with the Brahmo Samaj if it were Christianity in a different guise. The antiritualistische setting was certainly a reason why the Brahmo Samaj never been a religion of the masses.

In the Persian language, he wrote in 1803 his first work, the short theological treatise Tuhfat al - muwaḥḥidīn ( gift of god believers). In 1822 he founded the Persian-language magazine Mirat -ul- Akbar. After 1803, Islam, Wilhelm Halbfass plays no significant role in his thinking and in his writings.

However, can already be found in his first work Tuhfat al - muwaḥḥidīn the doctrine of the unity of God and, therefore, does not differ in its fundamental religious positions of his later works. This Persian-language works with Arabic Preface to Islamic readers, or readers addressed, which were formed by Islam - like Ram Mohan Roy himself also. That this formation for the understanding and the effect of the text is important to be seen, for example, that the author uses an Islamic terminology that he argues in the form based on the Islamic tradition or that he quoted the Koran. Content, there is still a distance to the institutionalized Islam: In Tuhfat al - Ram Mohan Roy muwaḥḥidīn discussed that all religions share basic ideas. The differences are still evident between the different religions come from historical developments, such as the establishment of certain religious rites and customs. So he takes a distinction between " natural religion" ( an " intuitive " form of worship that is created in the nature of man ) and a " traditional religion " before ( a worship which is institutionalized by rules, guides, rites and customs ).

Here you can also drag a connection to one of the most important issues of Ram Mohan Roy's work: the burning of widows " suttee " arises therefore a " traditional religion ," which criticized the author already in his Islamic treatise of 1803. With his desire for reform, in this case, after a change in the practice of widow burning, Ram Mohan Roy can be viewed from three different perspectives: first, he was a particularly innovative Indian who tried to go back to the tradition and proved that there is no demand for this custom in the scriptures of the Hindus. 2 He was influenced by European ideas and soaked in the course of Europeanization ancient traditions. 3 He agreed with his rejection of widow burning the general opinion of Indian Islam.

The last point is marginalized in the biography of letters and research often. Ram Mohan Roy was already the Indian Islam solely by its formation near: He attended a school for Islamic studies, could not only Persian, but also Arabic, published a Persian and a Bengali newspaper. His life in Bengal and the direct or indirect influence of Islam in daily life should not be ignored: Many families ( including Ram Mohan Roy's own family ) were close to the Mughal reign, perhaps followed the Islamic Fashion, read many of the Persian or Arabic. These aspects of life Ram Mohan Roy's are named, without being further specified or qualified of. This raises the question of whether the European influence on Ram Mohan Roy overestimated, the Islamic influence is underestimated it. Depending on the perspective from which you look at the " father of modern India," one can connect his ideas with ideas of the European Enlightenment, without taking into consideration that these and other ideas are not limited to the Europe of the 18th century. The importance Ram Mohan Roy is thus dependent on the perspective: As a rule, its importance for the modernized, Europe approaching India highlighted.

Ram Mohan Roy was in three traditions ( the Brahmin, the Christian and Islamic tradition ) formed and spoke to three traditions by trying to deal with these three traditions. The fact that direct controversy with conservative Christians and Hindus, but not with Muslims, took place, was certainly helping his Persian tradition - in which he was also, as we see in his biography - to be pushed into the background.

In the modern Hindu discourse Ram Mohan Roy learns often an exaggeration of the mythical by being called the father of modern India, and as the one who has woken Hinduism from a long torpor. The fact that the context of this " revival " but largely through the influence of colonialism, as well as of Islam is marked, point to numerous examples of recent research. Ram Mohan Roy himself takes this not necessarily as " innovators " true, but rather raises his hand against the orthodox opponents to turn away from the autorativen texts of the Upanishads. It is this sacred texts there are, however, based on the Ram Mohan in alliance with reason and common sense the basis for his thinking. Ram Mohan's work around the Brahmo Samaj has to be seen as decidedly directed to other, foreign recipients. In a way, Ram Mohan performs thus a cross-cultural self-representation of the Hindu India. Mention that this can be seen as an initiative to design the Indian tradition by the West, Ram Mohan shows willingness to accept Western means of Selbstdarstellung.Zu here is above all his belief in the superior universality of Hinduism, which he in the scriptures of the Upanisads and the Vedanta sees given. Ram Mohan, according to the "first dawn of knowledge" in India has risen, which is why the rest of the world was in debt to the Indians. Given these statements of the myth of Ram Mohan as the "father of modern India " is understandable and even if this seems exaggerated, but his reform as a trigger for a self-contemplation of Hinduism in its conflict with the West crucial for our present picture of the Indian culture.