Ram Mohan Roy (1774–1833)
He was a successful businessman and public servant who
hailed from an affluent Bengali family.
He arrived in Calcutta in 1815, just as the British were starting to pay attention to traditional Indian culture, particularly the things they deemed "bad."
Roy's reforming goals were generally
aligned with the British.
Roy had opposed the use of pictures in worship from an early
age, probably as a result of his exposure to Sufi teachings, and his first
public battle was against such worship of gods and goddesses.
Roy, like other Indian reformers, utilized Sanskrit books
judiciously, and the most significant for him were the theoretical Upanishads,
which he translated to represent monotheistic (under the influence of English
Unitarians) (belief in the existence of only one God).
In his latter years, he advocated for a variety of
educational and social causes, but he is most remembered for his resistance to
sati, the practice of a widow being burned on her husband's burial pyre.
Brahmo Samaj, the first prominent Indian proponent of Hindu social and religious reform, was created for this goal.
Although he was subsequently criticized for being unduly
influenced by the British, his rewriting of history served as a model for
others.
Robert D. Baird (ed. ), Religion in Modern India, 1998, is a
good place to start.
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
Be sure to check out my writings on religion here.
