First Indian to envision Home Rule - An independent India and First Revolutionary to Revolt against British

 

Celebrating 250^th Birth Anniversary of Rajarshi Rammohan Roy

 First Indian to envision Home Rule - An independent India and First Revolutionary to Revolt against British

Who was Rajarshi Rammohan Roy? Part 5 of 6

2^nd Edition - January 2, 2023, by Sri Bandyo

 

Highlights:

 

·         First Indian to envision Home Rule - An independent India

·         The 'Father of Indian Journalism'

·         First revolutionary to fight British 

·         Sowed seeds for all types of required movements

·         First to estimate EIC's draining money out of India

·         Raja Rammohan Ray: The Father of Modern India

 

 

 

First Indian to envision Home Rule - An independent India

Ram Mohan’s English biographer rightly observes that he “presents a most instructive and inspiring study for the new India of which he is the type and pioneer. He embodies the new spirit, its freedom, its large human sympathy, its pure and sifted ethics, along with its reve­rent but not uncritical regard for the past and prudent disinclination towards revolt”. “Ram Mohan Roy laid the foundation of all the principal movement for the enervation of the Indians.”

As the biographer of Rajarshi aptly remarks : "There is here in germ the national aspiration which is now breaking forth into cries for representation of India in the Imperial Parliament, 'Home Rule for India' and even 'India for the Indians.' The prospect of an educated India, … seems to have never been long absent from Rammohun's mind, and he did, however vaguely, claim in advance for his countrymen the political rights which progress in civilization inevitably involves. Here again Ram Mohan stands forth as the tribune and prophet of New India."

"Rammohun Roy's presence in this country," says the English biographer of the Raja, "made the English people aware, as they had never seen before, of the dignity, the culture and the piety of the race they had conquered in the East. India became incarnate in him, and dwelt among us, and we beheld her glory. In the court of the King, in the halls of the legislature, in the select coteries of fashion, in the society of philosophers and men of letters, in Anglican church and non-conformist meeting-house, in the privacy of many a home, and

before the wondering crowds of Lancashire operatives, Rammohun Roy stood forth the visible and personal embodiment of our eastern empire. Wherever he went, there went a stately refutation of the Anglo-Indian insolence which saw in an Indian fellow subject only a 'black man' or a 'nigger', As he had interpreted England to India, so now he interpreted India to England.

“But his role in the liminality between two epochs resembles that of ancient Indian polymath Chanakya, who used the ruler Chandragupta Maurya to create an Empire out of his imagination. Rammohun was more strategic than inspired, a great planner and even a plotter, sometimes a performer and one who, standing deeply inside his times, could think of centuries beyond him. His depositions in the British Parliament in England may well be consolidated as his Arthashastra, strangely unchanged in spirit and even much of details as the present-day dispensation of the Indian Constitution.”  [1]

 

 

 

He was the 'Father of Indian Journalism'

He was also a pioneer of Indian journalism, starting, in the early 19th century, one of the first Bengali weekly newspaper, Sambad Kaumudi, which helped shape people’s opinions on such issues as the abolition of suttee. The other journal was Mirat-ulAkhbar in Persian, which Rammohan closed down while protesting against the restrictions on press freedom. He published several journals in Bengali, Persian, Hindi and English to propagate social reforms.  Between 1803 and 1832, there were more than 40 publications on varied subjects.

 

 

First revolutionary to fight British  

There are a lot of instances that prove that Rammohan himself was involved in revolutionary activities under different name.  

“..The propaganda activity carried on by Rammohun and his friends in the Upper Provinces got results. British India had actually experienced the revolt within one year of the denial. One may question whether the insurrectionary propaganda was in any way responsible for the sepoy agitation at Barrackpore in November 1824? According to Bayley, the political propaganda of Rammohun Roy and his political friends had been causing troubles in upper provinces, which happens to be the home of most of the native soldiers in British Army, and the local administrators had been asking the Supreme Government to put an end to those propaganda activities.[Modern Review , Oct–Nov 1928, Internet access on 17.05.21] Ex–Governor General Lord Teignmouth also  stated that “in course of 1824, there was scarcely a district in the Upper Province  in which a spirit of dissatisfaction was not more or less manifested.”[Lord Teignmouth: Notes on Indian Affairs, I–p–159 quoted in Subarna Ghosh and Asoklal Ghosh: British India’s First Freedom Movement–1820–1830, p–48]

 

When the mutiny in 1824 was suppressed, a native of Kolkata Jogunnouth Mugmoodvre came forward to present the rebel sepoys as innocent sufferers and the Government officials as merciless barbarians. Under cover of “letter of a Native of India” addressing to the Right Honourable Charles Watkins William Wynn the President of the Board of Control, India Affairs [Oriental Herald, Vol 7, October–December1825, pp–188–192, accessed on 17.05.21]

Jogunnouth described the Government report on the Barrackpore massacre as “quite vague and unsatisfactory” and “as far from correct.” He claimed that the sepoys had done nothing wrong beyond asking for increase of “bhuta (batta), an allowance given to the army in March, which on former occasions was increased when the Company’s troops were sent on distant expeditions.” He added, “as they continued to insist upon their claim, the other troops were commanded to fire upon them, which they did, accordingly, dispersing and cutting to pieces the whole regiment; and thus fell, without resistance, or were afterwards put to death, between four and five hundred men, by the hands of their fellow-soldiers!” Jogunnouth was a native Hindu and a resident of Kolkata; well versed in English and not pleased with the “press in its shackled state.” He was very much critical about the Kolkata paper “John Bull,” distinguished for its adoration for the local authorities and famous for  notorious misrepresentations. He was very much critical about Amherst Government; and suggested “that the whole affairs of the country(India) be placed under the superintendence of a Council, composed of twelve to twenty persons of talent and experience—as the civil and military gentlemen, who from long residence(in India) are well versed in the affairs of this country”. He also formally proposed that, the Governor or Captain General be divested of all but merely executive power subject to the control of the Council. Going back to Jogunnouth Mugmoodvre, during 1820s, there was only one person satisfying all the specifications that Jogunnouth possessed–Raja Rammohun Roy. It is far easier to believe that Jogunnouth Mugmoodvre and Rammohun Roy were one and the same person rather than to believe that Jogunnouth to be another man with identical quality but remained unknown to all. For obvious reasons political letters sent to England and published after 1823, were written under assumed name, so it can be well believed that the originator of the letter was Rammohun himself.

Now the question thus arises that if Rammohun and his political friends, were indulging in anti–establishment propaganda in Bengal and in the politically sensitive Upper Provinces then they had been committing treason which leads to death penalty or arrest and kept under detention until death. His European friends also knew that they could be seized at any time and deported out of India. Yet Rammohun and his associates continued to instigate a systematic campaign to rouse anti–British feeling in the country. But how could they escape the hangman’s rope? John Palmer was Rammohun’s intimate friend. The political group of England that sponsored Rammohun was backed by Palmer Brothers. Palmers were also very close to George IV, the King of Great Britain at that time. Also Lord Moira and George IV, were more than friends. Apparently, so long as Lord Moira, better known as Lord Hastings, was the Governor General of India Rammohun and his political friends enjoyed some sort of protection. But soon after Moira’s relinquishment of charge, gagging of the Indian Press occurred. James Silk Buckingham and Sandford Arnot got their deportation order almost immediately after Moira’s departure. Buckingham left but Arnot fled to Chandannagore, then under France, but was arrested and deported. This was perhaps the first political arrest by British Government in a French territory .Rammohun also had his share of sufferings. By July 1824, Radhaprasad Roy, the elder son of Rammohun was prosecuted for misappropriation of  Government fund while acting as Nayeb Sheristadar of the Burdwan Collectorate. The case against Radhaprasad though was not of any extra–ordinary kind, he was tried by the highest criminal court. The special prosecutor Edmund Molony took every possible step to obtain a conviction. After two years, Radhaprasad was honourably acquitted while the accuser Shibnarayan Roy was punished. When the charge misfired at court , against a direct complaint of Molony to the Governor General Lord Amherst the Chief Justice Courtenay Smith was suspended and finally dismissed with 35 years of service to his credit. Sometime in early 1827, prosecutor Molony moved to the Governor General to re–open the case of Radhaprasad .” [2]

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Sowed seeds for all types of required movements

He started Brahmo samaj. The samaj and the members inspired to launch many movements in the fields of Freeing India, Social and political freedom, propagating Hindu Dharma, Education, Culture etc.

First to estimate EIC's draining money out of India

The East India Company was draining money from India at a rate of three million pounds a year in 1838. Ram Mohan Roy was one of the first to try to estimate how much money was being driven out of India and to where it was disappearing.

He also opposed the heavy export duties imposed on Indian goods.

 

 

Raja Rammohan Ray: The Father of Modern India

Ram Mohan Ray is called the Father of Modern India in recognition of his epoch-making social, educational, and political reforms. Bruce Robertson argues that Ray's intellectual and spiritual roots have been misunderstood even by those who have been most lavish in their praise. Made a hero for standing up to the British government in politics, his memory has been tainted by an ill-informed consensus, namely that he gave in to Europeans on matters of religion.

Nothing could have been further from the truth, Robertson argues. While Ray's political legacy may be said to have endured, his enormous contribution to modern Indian religious sectarian dialogue, where his greatest originality may be found, is sadly forgotten. Robertson argues that Ray set the agenda for modern India in his vision of a self-determining, modern, pluralistic society founded upon the Upanishadic principles of freedom of sadhana and one rule of law for all. [3]

“Rammohun was the first political moderator of India. He believed in democracy and individual freedom and greeted the liberation struggle of all nations. His advent has been in a period when the social and political conditions in our country were feudal, both in kind and spirit. The question of national independence was inconceivable at that time and ordinary people were completely indifferent to political issues. But there was Raja Rammohun Roy, the cosmopolite, the rationalist thinker, the representative man with a universal outlook who prepared the ground for national independence. The greatness and patriotism of this man who amid all attacks never lost sight of his self-imposed mission of uplifting his countrymen. “ [4]

Subsequently almost all greatest luminaries such as Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobondo, Surendranath Bandopadhyay, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Justice Ranade, Subhash Bose, Bipin Pal, Chittaranjan Das, Dr. Radhakrishnan to name few paid him the highest tributed as either the father of India or Prophet of Modern India.

 

 

 References:

1. From the article, “Rammohun Roy: Setting the DNA of Modern India by Dr. Susmita Sen

2. From an article posted on SAMAJ by Mr. Rajib Gangulee

3. Bruce Carlisle Robertson, Oxford University Press, 1999 –

4. From an article posted on SAMAJ by Mr. Rajib Gangulee