RAMMOHAN ROY "and the Modern World"

Author(s): Ulysses Young

Source: East and West, Vol. 5, No. 4 (JANUARY 1955), pp. 300-303
Published by: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/29753635
Accessed: 25-03-2020 20:13 UTC

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 RAMMOHAN ROY
and the Modern World

There is something almost pathetic in the from the establishment of a free and inde?
indifference which marks the attitude of the pendent press to the prevention of widow
present generation of Indians to their greatest burning, and to exhaust himself principally in
national figure, the man whom Bentham took controversies which have lost all meaning since
pride in claiming as his intensely admired and his time. We are thus left to cull his thoughts
dearly beloved collaborator in the service of from stray passages in his polemical treatises,
mankind. Universally recognised at one time in which the exigencies of controversy counted
as the 'father of modern India' and the 'great for more than a systematic presentation of his
path-maker of the age', Rammohan Roy is ideas. Enough, however, remains in them to
scarcely read to-day and is remembered chiefly indicate his high purpose, clear ideas, lofty
as the founder of a small religious sect, whose philosophy and passion for freedom and
membership is rapidly dwindling and whose order. Not to have read them is to remain
influence is steadily on the wane. I call this ignorant of a great figure in modern and, in
indifference pathetic not merely because it fact, in all history.
betrays a remarkable incapacity to understand Many to-day find fault with the Raja's
the significance to history of one of the greatest writings for the exaggerated emphasis they
of universal minds, a mind which contrived to appear to lay on the value of ancient religious
encompass within itself the whole range of texts. To do so however is to ignore the simple
human knowledge and human activities and fact that Rammohan lived in a time very dif?
was responsible for the growth and progress ferent from ours and had to contend with
of all the great revolutionary movements in the opponents who knew no other authority than
new India of his making that had for its aim that of the shastras. It was no obscurantism
the liberation and elevation of man. It is but rare practical wisdom that induced him to
pathetic because inspite of all the upheavals stoop to fight and conquer his adversaries on
of the last 119 years the ideals for which their own terms and with their own weapons.
Rammohan Roy fought and suffered remain . He was out to lay down laws which would make
undiminished in value, although the possibi? for greater freedom, and arrived at his con?
lity of their realisation has perhaps become clusions independently of the religious texts.
more remote to-day than even in his own But once he had made up his mind as to what
times. ought to be done, he would ransack the old
An easy explanation of the paradox may be texts for authority for his views, without
sought in the relative paucity among his extant caring for a moment where he might find
works of such writings as would readily appeal them. This approach is nowhere better illu?
to the average reader. The world has lost a strated than in his endeavour to liberalise the
great deal because of the fact that Rammohan Hindu marriage system. Convinced of the
had to devote so much of his time to pioneering utter absurdities of the rigid laws which had
every liberalising movement in his country, degraded marriage to a sort of farce, he felt

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the need for establishing a system that would
do away with the barriers of caste or creed or
of widowhood. The texts of the Mah?nir
v?natantra supplied him with the proofs he
needed of the existence of such a liberal union,
and the Raja used them with pulverising effect
against the opponents of marriage-reform.
Had he been a mere speculative philosopher,
an idle visionary, his high and straightforward
sense of reason would have obliged him to
appeal to first principles and abstract argu?
ments rather than to obsolete and obscure
texts. But although an idealist with a great
sweep of vision, Rammohan Roy was an in?
tensely practical man. While his mind rose
to loftier heights than other reformers of his
age, like Bentham for instance, he was a
greater realist and was prepared to take full
account of hard facts.
He therefore rejected Bentham's method of
elaborating systems by a priori deductions from
the mathematical possibilities of particular
laws in terms of pleasure and pain. He found
greater wisdom in solving the problems he had
to tackle by an empirical examination of their
pros and cons.
But that the Raja himself stood in complete
detachment from the religious texts which he
handled to such good purpose in his controv?
ersies, is clearly shown in his evidence before
the Parliamentary Committee in 1832. Here
he was not handicapped by the limitations
which encumbered his writings and was free
to plead for his objectives purely on principles
and from considerations of public good. What
was his real attitude to obscurantism is best
illustrated by the vehement opposition he
offered to the traditional system of learning.
(( The Sanskrit system of education )) he once
openly declared cc would be the best calculated
to keep this country in darkness )).
Yet another reason of the current miscon?
ception about Rammohan's historical signifi?
cance is to be found in the belief mostly
current among the dilettantes of to-day, who
often pose as progressives, that he was too
much obsessed with religion. That Rammohan
was deeply religious at heart, there can hardly
be any doubt. But his religiosity was akin to
the national humanism of a Voltaire and had
very little to do with the mystic passion of a St.
Francis or an Aquinas. Like Voltaire he found
in religion one of the most potent civilising
forces and most of his outward religious
activities were conducted in view of practical
aims. Ethical reforms he considered to be the
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soundest basis for a new social and political
order where Indians could enjoy higher cultu?
ral enlightenment as well as a better standard
of health, welfare and general prosperity. He
sincerely believed that cc the system of religion
adhered to by the Hindus is not well-calculated
to promote their political interests. The
distinction of castes introducing innumerable
divisions and sub-divisions among them, has
entirely deprived them of patriotic feeling,
and the multitude of religious rites and cere?
monies and the laws of purification have totally
disqualified them from undertaking any diffi?
cult enterprises ?.
But although he was determined to do
away with the superstitious practices that had
undermined India's vitality and capacity for
thought and action, in his wisdom he realised
that the religious instinct corresponded to such
a fundamental human need, that it could not
be uprooted either in the individual man or in
the communities of which he was a member.
He realised through the study of history how
potent that force had been in the development
of human civilisation. He understood that the
right course was not to suppress it, but to refi?
ne and simplify it, to use it as a means to serve
social equality and fraternity as well as politi?
cal emancipation. His 'Brahmo Samaj' was a
noble effort to translate into a concrete reality
his philosophy of universal humanism which
was arrived at by a synthesis of the essentials
in all the great systems of thought in the world.
It was far from his intention to make of it a
new church. He wanted it rather to be a
rallying ground for all freedom-loving men
and women irrespective of caste, creed or rare,
for all (( who by whatever name would
acknowledge some principle in the universe,
the need of meditation on that principle as
good and the love and service of man as the
guiding principle of the conduct of life ?.
Rammohan Roy saw in this new philosophy
a cementing force that besides knitting India
into a harmonious unity, would ultimately
help in the establishment of world peace and
universal brotherhood. He was the first man
to perceive, with a prophetic and generous
vision, all the potentialities of true cultural
fellowship, to visualise how much it could
broaden the field of human activities, how
fully it could enrich experience and human
understanding, how powerfully it could pro?
mote the growth of an international society.
It will be futile to seek the explanation of
the popular apathy to Rammohan's thought
301
and teachings in his supposed preoccupation
with religion. That explanation is rather to
be sought in the novelty of the doctrines he
preached, in the revolutionary character of the
reforms he advocated. If Rammohan was far
in advance of his countrymen in his own times,
he is scarcely less so now. It is very much to
be doubted if India has yet been able to take
kindly to his uncompromising opposition to
the caste system and untouchability or to the
way in which he wanted to restore to the
common man his natural rights. His total
rejection of the traditional learning in favour
of the scientific education of the West will
find very few supporters even now and already
one can hear serious talks on the need for
going back to the Vedic age and resuscitating
its vanished glories. Few to-day would share
his strong aversion to the hopeless economic
subjection of Indian womanhood or his desire
to give them equal rights with men. Fewer
still would find easy to digest his advocacy of
free and unrestricted marriage laws. Hardly
intelligible to-day is his doctrine of toleration
except to a handful. Much less intelligible to
the generality of the people would be his
admiration of the democratic principles in
Islam or of the high ethical ideals he found
in Christianity. T presume to think' he once
said 'Christianity if properly inculcated has a
greater tendency to improve the moral, social
and political state of mankind than any other
religious system'. His ultimate aspiration was
to see India fully anglicised, speaking English
and turned Christian. How many of his
countrymen will find this ideal worth striving
for?
To the politically minded India of to-day
much of what Rammohan Roy wrote or
thought on the dogmas of nationalism and
political independence must appear to be
queer, if not repulsive. He did not find any
thing degrading in India's political subjection
to Britain and he saw beneath the connections
established by foreign conquest the possibi?
lities of enrichment of life that neither his
countrymen nor the conquerors themselves so
clearly perceived. 'Conquest' he used to
declare 'is very rarely an evil when the con?
quering people are more civilised than the
conquered, because the former bring to the
latter the benefits of civilisation'. He once told
the great French scientist Victor Jacquemont
that when he was a young man Europe the
mistress of his native land was odious to him
and that in the blind patriotism of his youth
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he detested the English and all that came from
them. But since that day he had learnt more
about the benefits which had followed upon
the establishment of the British power, and
had come to regard it as beneficial for India.
c( National Independence ?, he observed, is
not an absolute good. The object, the goal, so
to say , of society is to secure the happiness of
the greatest possible number, and when left
to itself a nation cannot attain this object,
when it does not contain within itself the
principles of future progress, it is better for
it that it should be guided by the example and
even by the authority of a conquering people
who are more civilised )).
It was not the isolation of independence,
but the brotherhood of inter-dependence of
individuals as well as of nations that he found
to be the most effective civilizing force. 'When
we have to depend' he used to say, 'by the
very conditions of our existence upon all
things and all beings in nature, is not the fiery
love of national independence a chimera? In
society, individuals are constantly driven by
their weakness to seek help from their
neighbours, above all if the neighbours happen
to be stronger than they: why, then, should
a nation have the absurd pride of not depend?
ing upon another?)) Sincere as this conviction
was, it did not mean that he wanted any nation
to subject itself to a reactionary power. Noth?
ing reflects more vividly his uncompromising
opposition to the forces of reaction than the
passion with which he championed the cause
of the Reform Bill agitators. He went to
England to throw his weight in favour of the
movement, which he clearly perceived to be a
struggle c( not merely between the reformers
and anti-reformers, but between liberty and
oppression throughout the world; between
justice and injustice: and between right and
wrong )). He publicly avowed that in the event
of the Reform Bill being defeated he cc would
renounce his connection with England )).
His cosmopolitanism made him a sincere
friend of freedom-fighters all over the world.
When the news reached India that the people
of Naples after extorting a constitution from
their despotic ruler were crushed back into
servitude, Rammohan Roy was so depressed by
it that he observed the day as one of mourn?
ing. He openly declared: ccl consider the cause
of the Neapolitans as my own, and their
enemies as ours )). So great indeed was his
enthusiasm when he heard of the outbreak of
the French Revolution of 1830 that he could
think or talk of nothing else for several days.
The lively interest he took in the progress of
South American emancipation equally marks
the greatness and universality of his mind.
Being asked why he had celebrated by illumi?
nations, by a public dinner and a speech the
success of the Spanish patriots he replied,
k What! Ought I to be insensible to the suffer?
ings of my fellow creatures wherever they are
or however unconnected by interests, religion
or language? y>.
Sentiments such as these will be ridiculed
by many to-day as mere day-dreaming, but
with Rammohan Roy they were the first article
of his faith, the mainspring of all his activities.
In a remarkable letter which he wrote to
Talleyrand in 1832 he eloquently showed that
he did not consider cosmopolitanism as an
Utopian dress, but as a practical programme
capable of translation into reality. ?; The
accurate deductions of scientific research ? he
wrote to the French statesman, (( lead to the
conclusion that all mankind are but one great
family, of which the numerous nations and
tribes existing are only various branches)). He
pointed out to him the supreme need cc to
encourage and facilitate human intercourse in
every manner by removing... all impediments
to it in order to promote the reciprocal
advantage and enjoyment of the whole human
race )). As a practical means by which this
goal could be reached, he suggested the estab?
lishment of a congress composed of an equal
number of members from the Parliament of
each country to which all matters of political
or economic difference were to be submitted,
the decision of the majority being acquiesced
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in by all nations. The Chairman of the body
was to be chosen by each nation by turn and
the place of the meeting was to vary with each
year. He thus offered a practical solution by
which the larger needs of an international
society could be harmoniously reconciled with
the sentiment of geographical nationalism.
We live in an age when the principle of
international interdependence, to which Ram?
mohan attached so much importance, is being
openly flouted and denounced. We have only
to think of Russia defiantly pursuing her great
experiment in the face of the world's hostility,
of the countries of Europe still bleeding from
the woumd inflicted by a hideous war, which
none of them really wanted, yet lacking the
courage to unite and hold together, of the races
of Asia confused and dazed by the new acces?
sion of political independence and completely
in the grip of a gloomy unenlightened and
vulgar revivalism, of a United Nations Orga?
nisation which has degenerated into a machi?
ne for accentuating rather than resolving the
differences among the nations of the world.
Yes, the world has moved away from Rom
mohan Roy. The forces against which he
raised his voice have totally eclipsed the
humanistic world of his dream of the inter?
play of free thought and action. His own
people have forsaken his gospel more radically
than any other. At such a time as this it
will perhaps be profitable to turn once more
to his thoughts and writings, for it will become
clear in following the spiritual forces which
radiated from that great mind, that salvation
from the impasse we have reached lies in the
direction to which his teachings point.
Ulysses Young
303