His sideways profile has always adorned the pages of history and social studies books of my boyhood. I remember Raja Ram Mohun Roy from those days as a sketched figure with a traditional turban looking far away, as if to some distant utopia. Like so many other school boys I associated with him key words like Brahmo Samaj, Abolition of Sati and Social Reform that would help me weave a story together in the annual exams. At that age I was never to know what great admiration I would come to have one day for this giant of a man who had graced India more than two centuries ago. Strangely my fascination started after seeing a old Bangla movie on him on TV about fifteen years back in Bombay. Since than I have continued to read about him and my admiration has only grown over the years.
Ram Mohun Roy, as Muller says, was truly a great man. Not just because of his monumental achievements in the field of social reforms in an India that was just waking up, but, to me, also because of the strength of his moral conviction.
If he had the courage to raise his voice against the plague of superstition in Hindu Society, he also had the discernment to resist conversion to Christianity for the wrong reasons. He instead sought a path of true spirituality that was untainted by the dogma of established religions. He always saw the Supreme as "... the Absolute Originator who is the first principle of all religions”.
For him English education was not a pretext or a catalyst to reject all things Indian and embrace all things western but correctly a means to broaden his horizons. Knowledgeable in Bangla, English, Arabic and Persian he was truly like one of the wise seers of ancient India who had given unto the world the treasures of Veda, Upanishad and Puranas. Indeed, he enriched our understanding vastly by writing deep commentaries on Vedanta, Upanishads and on the teaching of Jesus. He distinguished himself as a reformer who founded colleges, raised his voice against social ills and charted a path towards religious unity. He was one of the architects of the Indian Renaissance that with time would snowball into the freedom movement.
Only one so wise as him could have achieved so much in one lifetime that won him admiration of commoners as well as greats such as Rabindranath Tagore.
When he traveled to England and France he received great adulation and was received with honour. His death was a little tragic, ailing and alone in a distant land where a dispossessed Bahadur Saha was not able to send the monies promised to the Raja for his services. However his admirers there ensured his comfort when finally curtains fell on a great life at Bristol.
His life has left an indelible mark in Indian history and continues to inspire those who have attempted to learn from his life. For fifteen years I waited for the opportunity to go and pay my respects at his tomb in Bristol’s Arnos Cemetery. So when I saw my little Rudra stand folded hand in front of Ram Mohun Roy’s tomb a week or so back, imitating me, scant understanding what he was doing, I thought that it was every bit a fitting climax to a long cherished dream and that the wait had been truly worth that moment.
My son mayn’t remember this pilgrimage when he grows up, but I am convinced that Raja Bahadoor shall continue to inspire him and young people like him for a long long time to come.
