In news- Union Minister for Culture virtually unveiled a statue of the ‘Father of Bengal’s Renaissance’ at Salt Lake on the occasion of his 250th Birth Anniversary.
About Raja Ram Mohan Roy-
- Rammohan Roy was born on May 22, 1772 in then Bengal Presidency’s Radhanagar in Hooghly district.
- He was a great social reformer, a thinker, an educator, a journalist, a visionary.
- Being a polyglot, he knew Bengali, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and English.
- He was conferred the title `Raja’ (Prince) by Mughal Emperor Akbar II.
- He also founded a newspaper `Mirat-ul-Akhbar’.
- In 1814, he started the Atmiya Sabha (Society of Friends), to nurture philosophical discussions on the idea of monotheism in Vedanta and to campaign against idolatry, casteism, child marriage and other social ills.
- The Atmiya Sabha would make way for the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, set up with Debendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore’s father.
- His Brahmo Sabha, that later became the Brahmo Samaj, evolved as a reaction against the upper-caste stranglehold on social customs and rituals.
- In 1817, he collaborated with Scottish philanthropist David Hare to set up the Hindu College (now, Presidency University).
- He followed it up with the Anglo-Hindu School in 1822 and, in 1830, assisted Alexander Duff to set up the General Assembly’s Institution, which later became the Scottish Church College.
- It was his relentless advocacy alongside contemporaries such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar that finally led to the abolition of Sati under the governor generalship of William Bentinck in 1829.
Source: IE
