First Edition 1879 Second Edition 1977 Published by : D. P. Mitra On behalf of the Publication Committee Sadharan Brahmo Samaj 211 Bidhan Sarani, Calcutta 700006 (India) Printed by : Sudhabindu Sarkar Brahmo Mission Press 211/1, Bidhan Sarani, Calcutta 700006 (India) The Library of Congress Special Fordgn Currency Program ON THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF RAMMOHUN ROY by WILLIAM ADAM Edited by RAKHAL-DAS HALDAR Revised by DILIP KUMAR BISWAS SADHARAN BRAHMO SA^AJ CALCUTTA «/0 A3* HI? CORNELL UNIVEHSrTV LIBRARY 3 1924 074 958 970 PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION William Adam's Lecture on the Life and Labours of Rammohun Roy was originally delivered at Bsoton U. S. A. in 1845 but was not immediately published. Later in life the auother had settled in England and here, in 1862, the manu- script passed into the hands of Mr. Rakhal Das Haider then a student in London. The latter ultimately edited and published it from Calcutta in 1879. It was subsequently reprinted as appendix viii of the first volume of Dr. P. K. Sen's Biography of a New Faith (Calcutta 1950). But Sen's work has also now gone out of print for some time. A fresh independent edition is therefore being issued nearly a century later-in the hope that it would be welcomed by the reading/ public. The notes appended by the author and the editor in the original edition, have all been retained ; these have been supplemented where necessary and a life-sketch of the author has been added. 211 Bidhan Sarani Calcutta 70006 February 15, 1977 1 DILIP KUMAR BISWAS The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924074958970 PREFATORY NOTE The following lecture of which the original MS was obtained by me from the author in 1862, is presented to the public for the first time in a printed form. I owe an apology to the venerable author for falling so far short of his expressed hope, that everything should be done in the getting up of the essay, so as to show respect to the memory of Rammohun Roy. The defects of the present edition, for which I alone am responsible, could only have been remedied with more leisure at my command ; but I feel confident that the lecture, even in its present shape, will amply repay perusal. } Ranchi Chutia Nagpur Y RAKHAL DAB HALDAR 1st September 1879 A LECTURE ON THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF RAMMOHUN ROY Asia 1 is usually and justly considered as the cradle of civilisation. Even if we limit our attention to what is called the profane or secular history of that quarter of the world ; . even if we exclude all reference to the records of our religion — to the personages whom they bring to our view, patriarchs, prophets, and apostles — and to the sacred and salutary power which they have exerted upon mankind by their examples in life and in death, by their writings, by their labours, and by their sacrifices ; we shall not only perceive the vast influence which by means of commerce, emigration, colonization, and conquest it has exerted on the destinies of the human race, but we shall discover by a still more minute survey, numerous individual examples of almost every description of moral and intellectual excellence. If military genius is deemed an ex- cellence, Asia in comparatively modern times only, has her Mahmood of Ghazni, her Chenghiz Khan, her Timurlang, and her Nadir Shah, who conquered countries and committed atrocities enough to eclipse the exploits of Alexander and Napoleon. If the love of liberty exalts a people in their own esteem and in that of the world, nowhere are impatience of restraint, and personal independence stronger and more indo- mitable than among the Arabs of the desert, the tribes of Central Asia, and the Rajputs of India. If it is honourable to an age, or a nation, to have produced reformers of philoso- phy and religion, what merely human influence can be compared either in extent or in potency with that which has been exercised by Confucius in China or by Mohammad over the multitudinous nations and tribes that have embraced his religion ? If the possession of high intellectual powers, if devotedness to intellectual pursuits, if the encouragement given to learning, if the honour and admiration bestowed on those who cultivate 2 RAJA. RAMMOHUN ROY it, are characteristics of an advanced stage of civilization, then nowhere in Europe or America are these characteristics found in a higher degree than in the Mohammadan countries of Asia where the endowed establishments of learning are numerous and wealthy, — in Hindustan, where amongst Hindoos as well as Musalmans, there exists a large class of men set apart from the rest of the community and professionally and permanently devoted to the pursuit of learning from the early dawn of youthful intelligence to the decrepitude of old age— and in .China, where literature is expressly patronized by the Govern- ment, and where literary acquirement is by law and regula- tion, the passport to social considerations, and to political office, honour, and emolument. Again, if the prevalence of the domestic and personal virtues throws a grace and a beauty over human life, and constitute the source of much of human happiness, and the substance of much of human excellence, then, is that excellence possessed in no mean degree by the civilized nations of the East, amongst whom temperance, hos- pitality, and the mutual respect, affection, and kindness of re- latives are largely practised and are everywhere venerated and upheld by the force of public sentiment. But, while the claims of Eastern nations to our respect are on many grounds unquestionable, there is a class of virtues, and a class of good and great men belonging in an eminent degree to Christian countries of which scarcely any examples are found in the countries of Asia. Philanthropy,- a self- sacrificing philanthropy— that pure, generous, and lofty en- thusiasm, which inspires the soul, and teaches and enables a man calmly to put aside the seductions of pleasure and the smiles of the world, and to live, to act, to think only or chiefly for the benefit of others with whom he has no personal, dome- stic, social or even national ties — this is a virtue which seems almost exclusively of Christian growth and the very concep- tion of which appears foreign to most Asiatic minds. Self- sacrifice is common both in idea and in act, but self-sacrifice for the good of others-to seek out the poor, the ignorant the oppressed, the despised, the enslaved, and by active exer- tion and self-denying labour, to relieve, to instruct, to elevate, to rescue these objects of compassion a,qd to train the mind RAJA R&MMOHUN ROY 3 by a noble discipline, to respect even the lowest and most degraded forms of humanity — this is a virtue which at least does not abound in Asia, and of which I must acknowledge that I have not met with many examples. She has no Howards to visit the manacled prisoner putrifying in his loathsome dungeon ; no Abbee' de I' Epees to pour light into the darkened and secluded mind of the deaf mute ; no Wilberforces to ex- pose the horrors and crimes of the slave-trade ; no Anthony Benezits to devote their labours and their means for the im- provement of a degraded population. This is a class of virtues, to which Asiatics have not as yet in any eminent degree attained. This is a class of great men of which Asia has not been remarkably productive. If the examples are few, it is the more important that we should prize and honour those who trampling under foot all personal considerations, and tearing asunder all social entanglements, have dared in the midst of prevalent apathy and selfishness, and in opposi- tion to low and mean interests, to vindicate in the face of the world the universal and inalienable rights of truth, justice, and humanity. I accordingly propose to request your attention on the present occasion 2 to a brief sketch of the philanthropic labours of Rammohun Roy, whose name probably is not un- known to most of you, and who, I hope to show you, was one of those men who by devoting themselves to the welfare of others, contribute largely to increase the sum of human hap- piness, to promote the cause of improvement and civilization, and to give a character to their age and country. I must warn you that I do not profess to give you a complete view of his character ; that I purposely exclude Whatever can be deemed in a Christian country of sectarian or limited interest ; that I embrace only those of his labours that contemplated the im- provement of the general condition of society, and that even of these, I shall be able to give only a most imperfect account within the brief time to which I must confine this address. 1. The first object of benevolent exertion to which Rammohun Roy directed his attention and of which he never lost sight during the whole course of his life was to convince his countrymen of the evils of idolatry and to stimulate them to throw off its yoke. This was not the effect of sectarian ,t RAJA EAMMOHUN BOY zeal, for he attached himself to no sect exclusively, and united cordially with all, whether Hindoos or Musalmans, Jews or Christians, who united cordially with him in promoting this common object, bat it was the effect of a deep inwrought conviction early acquired, and matured by observation and reflection, that idolatry was not only inconsistent with the truth of God and the laws of nature, but that it was, as all violations of that truth and those laws must be, a fruitful source of degradation, vice, and misery, personal, social and national. No one was more competent to form a sound judgment on such a subject, and no one could arrive at this conclusion less exposed to the imputation of interested motives. He was born a- Brahman, and brought up as an idolater. His family ancient and honourable in its own right, was connected by marriage with other families equally ancient and honourable, and still more sacred in their character, the very props of Hindooism in Bengal. He had thus the amplest opportunities of witnessing, and the unquestioned right to exercise all the arbitrary powers, all the spiritual tyranny with which Hindooism invests the Brahmans, its twice- born favourites ; .while in the hundreds and thousands of crinjing, crouching serfs by whom he was surrounded from his earliest youth, obedient to his nod, proud of the slightest notice from him and incapable, or if capable, not permitted to exert a single independent thought of their own — in these, he saw the depth and extent of the degradation to which the religious system, of which by birth he formed a part, condem — ned the inferior castes composing the large majority of the community. His father 8 was a man of strenuous orthodoxy ; of ub acute mind, he early perceived the budding infidelity of his younger son ; and of an affectionate heart, he deeply lamented it. He died, as Rmmohun Roy himself informed me, with the most religious devotion and trust, calling on the name jo the God in whom he believed.* His mother was equally earnest in the religious faith in which she had been educated, and when the death of Rammohun Roy's elder brother 6 made him the head of the family, she instituted suits against her son both in the King's and Company's Courts, with a view to disinherit him as an apostate and infidel which tSAJA RAMMOHUN ROY 6 according to strict Hindoo law excludes from the present, and disqualifies for the future, possession of any ancestral property, and even according to many authorities, of any property that is self-acquired. She was defeated in ths attempt, and afterwards being reconciledjto her son although not to his errors, she died in the performance of menial services in the temple of Juggunnath in Orissa to which she voluntarily subjected herself as a penance. Educated under such personal, domestic, and social influences, Rammohun Roy's powerful mind burst asunder the bands of pride and prejudice, interest and ambition, and early perceiving the withering and degrading effects of idolatry, he sought with a bold but skilful hand to overthrow the spiritual tyranny of which his countrymen are the victims. The Koran of Mohammad and the communications he held with Musalmans first threw a flood of light on his mind ; but Mohammadanism exists in India under two forms, one very corrupt, and the other more pure, and attaching himself to the latter, he was amongst them also made an object of persecu- tion. From this, he took refuge in Calcutta, where he asso- ciated largely with Europeans, generally of comprehensive and enlightened minds, whose communications probably tended still further to expand his views, and to open up to him the duty and the prospect of awakening and enlightening his Hindoo countrymen, The means that he employed for this purpose will admit on the present occasion to be but barely mentioned, without extended illustration. He revived a comparatively pure form of Hindooism well known in the West and South of India, but which had long become nearly extinct in Bengal. From -this vantage ground, under the protection of many of the weightiest and most ancient Hindoo authorities, he was able to direct many a vigorous attack 'against the strongholds of modern Hindooism. Of the Veds, the most sacred books of the Hindoos, he republished in the original text, and 'with verna- cular translations and comments, several of those portions most remarkable for the elevation, purity and devotional character of their contents, and constituting the source from which the ancient and pure form of Hindooism draws its 6 fcAJA fiAMMOHUN KO* proofs and authorities. He republished also several of the works of Sankaracharya, an ancient and celebrated Hindoo Reformer, besides several other ancient Hindoo writings, tending to promote the pure worship of God and to shake Brahmanical authority. He formed the small but intelli- gent body of Hindoos who gradually started around him into a religious society 6 which held regular meetings for worship at which he himself often presided, and for which he com- posed a collection of devotional hymns, 7 as well as a series of discourses or sermons that were delivered by the learned assistants in attendance. His publications called forth the opposition of learned Brahmans through the press both in Calcutta and at Madras, and he promptly met in the field of argument the supporters of idolatry in both quarters of the country and effectually silenced them. His most valuable controversial publication, however, is one, not directed against any individual adversary, but against -the entire system of Hindoo idolatry, which he analyses, refutes, and exposes with a cogency of reasoning based on a thorough acquaintance with the highest authorities, and with the actual condition of the Hindoo religion, and enforced by a keenness of satire judi- ciously addressed to the known susceptibility of his country- men to ridicule 8 . Rammohun Roy did not merely seek to over- throw ; he also endeavoured to build up. Nor was he content to build only on the foundation of the Veds ; he made his countrymen acquainted with the heavenly teachings of Jesus Christ, which he selected from the gospels, and published for the benefit of his followers, as a means of leading them to a holier and more spiritual morality than that which their own writings inculcated 9 . His selection of the precepts of Jesus for publication with this view was by no means intended to cast any disparagement on the remaining portions of the gospels, for about the same time he zealously engaged with two Missonaries 10 in a design to translate the whole four gospels into Bengalee, The effects of Rammohun Roy's labours in this depart- ment, on the moral and religious character of the Hindoos of Bengal cannot be fully estimated by any external appearance RAJA BAMMOHUN BOY 7 which they may present, because his friends and followers unlike converts to Christianity, instead of standing apart from Hindoos and Hindooism, have remained amongst them, and within its pale, and are endeavouring gradually to impregnate the whole of Hindoo society with their view. My opinion is that the system of Hindoo idolatry can scarcely yet be said to be shaken by any of the direct religious influences employed for that purpose in Bengal, but 1 am at the same time con- vinced that the only serious shock that it has sustained, is not that which has proceeded from foreginers from without, but that which has proceeded from within, from Rammohun Roy and his adherents, who alone possess the qualifications that can enable religious reformers to address alike the cultivated intellect and the popular sentiment of native society. 2. When Rammohun Roy's mind was fully open to a perception of the evils cf idolatry, one of the most horrible and appalling forms of the superstitions prevailing among his countrymen was the burning of widows on the funeral piles of their deceased husbands. This practice early arrested his attention, excited his compassion, his indignation, and his shame and called forth his most anxious and unwearied exer- tions for its abolition. To show you in connection with this subject the extent of the service which he rendered to the cause of humanity, I must go into some details in explanation of the practice. 11 The condition of the female sex in the India is most degraded. In youth, they are denied the benefit of instruction ; in marriage they are the menial servants of their husbands and in widowhood, they were expected to show their devotion to their deceased lords by submitting to the most painful death. The husband of the woman who should consent thus to sacrifice herself even although he may have been guilty of the murder of a brahman, the very acme of human guilt, or of any inferior crime, has his sins expiated and is saved from hell by her act ; her husband's, her father's and her mother's progenitors are all beatified, and she herself is delivered in a future birth from the degradation of the female form. If she g BAJA RAMMOHUN ROT clings to life, a life of austerity, of self-denial, and of subjection is her portion. The hardships imposed on Hindoo widows of pure caste are so severe and degrading that women of high spirit often preferred the funeral pile, while others submitted with patience and acted as menial servants to the female rela- tives of their late husbands decked in the ornaments of which they had been deprived ; and others, at once to preserve life and to escape this harsh and contumelious treatment, renoun- ced the restraints of caste and modesty, and sunk to the lowest depths of female degradation. The extent to which human life was annually sacrificed may be estimated from the returns made by the police to the Bengal Government for a single year. Those returns show that in the year 1823, the number of widows who burned on the funeral piles of their husbands within the Bengal Presidency, was of the Brahman Caste 234, of the Khatree Caste 35, of the Vaisya Caste 14, of the Sudra Caste 292, total 575. Of this total 340 widows thus perished, within the limits of the Calcutta Court of Circuit, which shows that the returns were given with accuracy only for the immediate neighbourhood of Calcutta, and suggests the in- ference that the number sacrified beyond that limit was much greater than that actually reported ; besides that, the returns profess to extend only to the Bengal Presidency, leaving entirely out of view the two other Indian Presidencies, where, although the practice was certainly not so prevalent as in Bengal, it was by no means wholly unknown. The ages of the different individuals are also included in the returns to which I have referred, and they exhibit another feature of this horrible picture. Of the 575 victims of 1823, 109 were above sixty years of age ; 226 were from forty to sixty ; 208 were from twenty to forty ; and 32 were under twenty years of age. Thus the tenderness and the beauty of youh, the ripened years and affection of the venerable matron, and the feebleness and decrepitude of old age alike fell victims. I have not in my possession at this time the official returns for any other year than that which I have quoted, but I have no reason to suppose that those of any other year, if they were within my reach, would exhibit a less number of victims 12 I believe that I speak strictly within the bounds of truth, when I assert, that at BAM RAMMOHUN ROY 9 least from five to six hundred were annually sacrificed, and occuring as these atrocities did from day to day, and in the open face of day, there must have been on an average about two such murders perpetrated every day under the very eye of the British Government and its public functionaries, ever since the British obtained the soverign power in Bengal in 1765. Without previous experience, no one could have suppos- ed that a Government calling itself civilised would have so long tolerated such an enormity ; but in the early stages of British power in India, conscious weakness dictated prudence and stifled the voice of humanity. Travellers in India recorded the facts of these widow burings, but no one had the courage to protest against the toleration of such crimes, as far as I am aware, until Dr. Johns, an able and intelligent Baptist mission- ary, published a pamphlet on the subject. The answer to his appeal was: Do you mean to overthrow the British Government in India by interfering with the religion of the natives ? The reply was: Do you, a British, a civilised Government, mean any longer to tolerate deliberate and systematised murders perpetra- ted under the cloak of religion ? The appeal was in vain. Other missionaries seem to have been afraid to raise their voice against the practice, since that would have been to raise their voice against the Government at whose pleasure they might legally be instantly deported from the country, as Dr. Johns actually was, although for another reason. With few excep- tions the public functionaries including the highest, the most learned, and the most religious, counselled the toleration of the practice, on the plea that the British were bound not to interfere with the religion of the natives, and in the distant hope that the progress of education and general enlightenment would gradually put an end to it. Such was the state of public opinion on this subject amongst Europeans in India, when Rammohun Roy arose, himself a native and thoroughly acqua- inted with all the details of the practice and the motives of the perpetrators— a learned native and intimately conversant with the sacred authorities on which it was made to rest. In a series of publications, which were extensively circulated both in India and in England, and in India, both in English and Bengalee, i. e. for the information arid conviction both of 2 10 RAJA RAMMOHON ROY English rulers, and native subjects, he exposed the villanies that were practised and telerated under the name of religion. He showed that it was to obtain possession of the property to which the widow was legally entitled that her death was sought, and that the officiating brahmans, the instruments, whose authority was employed to obtain the consent of the widows, were sharers of the spoil. He showed that the consent was often wrung from her while she was in the paroxysm of grief for the loss of a beloved husband, or in the delirium of intoxication produced by herbs purposely administered to her, or under the exhaustion of inanition from want of food pur- posely withheld, and consent once obtained was irrevocable. He showed the illegality of the practice of binding down the victim with ropes to the pile which prevented her escape, instead of being permitted in a state of freedom to enter the flames as a voluntary sacrifice which Hindoo law requires. He showed that the highest authorities of the Hindoo religion instead of rendering it imperative on widows, as idolatrous brahmans alleged, to burn in the funeral piles of their hus- bands, left it optional to them to do so, or to lead a virtuous life and even gave the highest honour to the latter alternative. His arguments on these and other collateral topics were irresis- tible and public opinion in the European community gradually changed until at last, an energetic and benevolent noble man, Lord William Bentinck was sent to exercise the powers of Government in India, about 10 years ago 13 , and he, in consulta- tion with Rammohun Roy and other friends of hnmanity, but not without much opposition and many forebodings from some of his own countrymen belonging to a class who are the friends of every abuse, because they are the enemies of all change, finally prohibited and abolished the murderous rite throughout the whole extent of the British dominions in India 1 *. It is still practised in some native states, contrary to the earnest reclamations of the British Government ; but throughout the British dominions, it has not only been prohibited under the severest penalties, but I am happy to add that it has been effec- tually suppressed, and the suppression submitted to without a murmur except in the form of one or two petitions from inter- ested brahmans who had the audacity to solicit permission to EAJA EAMMOHDN ROY IX continue with impunity to imbrue their hands in the blood of their innocent countrywomen 15 . The abolition of these in- human sacrifices was a great triumph to the cause of humanity, and for his bold, fearless, unflinching exertions in this cause, Rammohun Roy's name deserves to be held in everlasting remembrance. 3. Although in a case like this in which the rights and obligations of humanity were openly trampled on and violated, Rammohun Roy was unwilling to leave the redress of the evil to the slow operations of a progressive civilisation and of more enlightened sentiments arising from improved education, he was by no means insensible to the value and importance of education as a means of elevating the character and purifying the manners of his countrymen. I shall briefly advert to his most prominent exertions in, the cause of education. In July 1823, in conformity with a provision contained in an Act of the Imperial Parliament, a General Committee of Public Ins- truction was constituted in Calcutta by the Government of India, for the promotion of the education of the natives. This Committee was composed exclusively of men holding high official employments, without having any practical experience in the business of education ; or of men distinguished for their intimate acquaintance with the recondite learning of the Hindoos and Musalmans. These gentlemen, not unnaturally gave too partial an attention to the promotion of that sort of learning in which they were themselves adepts, without much reference to its practical utility or to the wants of the millions, who were and are destitute of the very elements of knowledge. Rammohun Roy early saw the devious path in which the Com- mittee was treading, and in the name of his countrymen early in 1823, addressed an able and spirited remonstrance to the Government of Lord Amherst, then Governor General of British India. Extensively conversant himself with native learning, he earnestly protested against the almost exclusive appropriation of the educational fund to the mere encouragement of the study of its grammatical niceties, its metaphysical distinctions, its mystical philosophy, and its ceremoial theology, pouring contempt in no measured terms even on the Vadant system of doctrines, of which he has been mistakenly deemed a special ia RAJA RAMMOHUN ROX advocate 18 , as being abstruse in its speculations and unnatural in its tendencies, and soliciting on behalf of the Hindoo people a more liberal and enlightened system of instruction, embrac- ing mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, anatomy and other useful sciences. This document was handed over to the Education Committee and by the Secretary of that body, a profound but self-sufficient oriental scholar 17 , was answered with a few contemptuous remarks, as if the deliberate senti- ments of such a man as Rammohun Roy, could be put down with a sneer. His opinions were published to the world, and continued with other causes to work on the minds of the community, until the ret u rn to Europe of the oriental scholar above referred to who was the primum mobile, of the Commi- ttee's operations, when the Committee was displaced and their system abandoned. At this moment the very branches of education which Rammohun Roy recommended are actively and ably taught in the Government Colleges in India, atlthough with too exclusive a use of the English language to the neglect of the vernacular dialects, the languages of the ignorant jnany — a neglect which he would never have approved. It was not to the effecting of this important change that he limited his educational exertions. He built schoolhouses, and established schools in which useful knowledge was gratui- tously taught through the medium both of the English and native languages. He gave ardent and most zealous support to the missionaries of the Scottish Presbyterian Church in establishing in Calcutta a seminary in which Christian as well as general knowledge, is daily and gratuitiously taught to five or six hundred native youths by missionary instructors ; and following his example one of his wealthiest friends and adhe- rents gave still more liberal pecuniary encouragement to a similar school established by the same missionaries in the interior of the Jessore District in Bengal 18 No one saw more distinctly than Rammohun Roy the importance of cultivating the vernacular language of his countrymen as the most effectual medium of conveying instruction to them, and of influencing their sentments, principles, and conduct ; and in consequence all his most important controversial writings have appeared not only in Sanskrit for the information of the learned and in RAJA. RAMMOHUN EOY 13 English for the information of foreigners, but in Bengali also ( that the body of the people might be enlightened 19 . In this, he showed the just and accurate view which he took of the means of influencing the minds of a whole people and the superiority to the prejudices of his learned countrymen who disdain to compose their works, except in Sanskrit, and look down upon their mother-tonuge with contempt as unworthy to be employed for the communication of knowledge, Rammohun Roy's writings in Bengali are models of composition, a neces- sary effect of his comprehensive and logical mind, and correct and manly taste. It was not only in this indirect and accidental way that he sought tc improve his native idiom, he als° wrote and published a grammar of the Bengali language, which, although several grammars of that tongue have been written by Europeans, is the only one worthy of the name ; and he has thus by the example he set in his own multifarious native compositions, and by the theoretical rules which he had laid down in his grammar, contributed to rescue from contempt and neglect and bring into deserved repute, a language posses- sing very rich materials, spoken by twenty-five millions 20 of human beings, and destined to be the medium of communica- tion on all the subjects of literature and science, philosophy and religion interesting to a people in a stage of progressive civilisation. 4. I should be doing injustice to the memory of Rammohun Roy, if I were to conclude without adverting to the deep interest which he took in the progress of good govern- ment throughout the world. His inquiries respecting this country 21 were frequent, earnest and minute ; and as far as he knew or understood, he admired its institutions, and loved and respected its people. When information reached Calcutta of *he insurrection of the Isla de Leon in 1821 and of the conse- quent establishmeht of constitutional government in Spain, he gave a public dinner in the town hall of Calcutta, in honor of the auspicious event. Within the period of my own acquaintance with him, I well recollect the enthusiasm with which he heard of the similar temporary establishment of constitutional government in Portugal, and the fervent good wishes with which he watched the struggle of Greece against 14 RAJA RAMMOHUH ROY Turkish power. The French Revolution of 1830 was another, of those events that gave him very high satisfaction. Cpnnec- ted as India is with England, it was natural that he should share in the anxieties of British politics, narrowly watch the fluctuations of British parties and endeavour to trace the causes and consequences of the success or failure of great public questions. The repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, the removal of Catholic disabilities, the accession of the Whigs to power in 1830, and the introduction and success of the Reform Bill which occurred whilst he was in England — all of these were subjects which attracted and fixed his most earnest attention, and called for his ardent wishes, and in the case of the Reform Bill, his most active exertions. But it was the politics of British India that he best understood, and in which his exertions were most useful. He established and conducted two native newspapers, one in Persian, and the other in Bengali 2 *, and made them the medium of conveying much valuable political information to his countrymen. The freedom of the press was not enjoyed in his days in India, but the ultimately successful efforts made to acquire the liberty of unlicensed printing received his most determined support, although he thereby subjected .himself to the frown of rank and office and power. A learned Chief Justice of Bengal, Sir Chales Grey 23 attacked, by one of his decisions on the Bench, the law of inheritance hitherto in force in the province of Bengal and declared every disposition by a father of his ancestral real property, without the sanction of his sons and grandsons, to be null and void. Rammohun Roy forthwith appeared to the rescue, and published an elaborate essay on the Rights of Hindoos over ancestral property, according to the Law of Bengal, in which by a masterly and admirably reasoned legal argument he showed that the decision in ques- tion, if not reversed, would be not merely a retrogression in the social institutions of the Hindoo community of Bengal, mis- chievous in disturbing the validity of existing title to property and of contracts founded on the received interpretation of the law, but a violation of the charter of justice, by which the administration of the existing law of the people in such matters, is secured to the inhabitants of India. The decision RAJA" RAMMOHUH BOY 15 was reversed by the highest court of appeal, and the people of Bengal continue to enjoy their proper law of inheritance inviolate. In another instance, the Executive Government of India passed a regulation in 1828 authorising its revenue officers to dispossess the holders of rentfree lands at their own discretion, without any judicial decree having been sought or obtained against the validity of the title to sjch lands. Rammohun Roy instantly placed himself at the head of the native land-holders of Bengal, Behar and Orissa, and in a petition of remonstance to Lord William Bentinck, Governor General protested against such arbitrary and despotic proceed- ings. The appeal was unsuccessful in India, was carried to England, and was there also made in vain ; and at the present moment, if there is one cause more than another producing hatred and disaffection to the British Government in India, it is this measure, against which Rammohun Roy, both in India and England, raised his powerful and warning voice on behalf of his countrymen whom he loved and on behalf of the British Government to which he was in heart attached and for whose honor and stability he was sincerely concerned. I will mention only one other direction which he gave to his political labours on behalf of his countrymen. While he was in England, the discussions preliminary to the removal of the East India Company's lease of India for another period of twenty years were in progress. In those discussions, Rammohun roy warmly engaged; he was consulted by the British ministers of the day; his evidence was given before Parliamentary Committees; and that evidence was embodied with some valuable additions in an Exposition of the Revenue and Judicial Systems of India, which he published in England and which received much attention. Some of the judicious reforms which he suggested in that publication have been, and others deserve to be<, adopted. In the pursuit of various objects which I have attempted to describe — religious.philanthropic, educational and political — he was, he would be, free, unshackled, and independent. If I may speak of my own experience of human life and obser- vation of human character, I would say that I was never more thoroughly, deeply and constantly impressed than when in 16 RAJA RAMMOHUN ROY the presence of Rammohun Roy, and in friendly and confiden- tial converse with him, that I was in the presence of a 'man of natural and inherent genius, of powerful understanding, and of determined will, a will determined with singular energy and uncontrollable self-direction to lofty and generous purposes. He seemed to feel, to think, to speak, to act, as if he could not but do all this and that he must and could do it only in and from and through himself, and that the application of any external influence, distinct from his own strong will, would be the annihilation of his being and identity. He would be free, or not be at all. He must breathe an atmosphere of freedom, and not finding one ready-made to his hand, he made one for himself. He felt with the old English poet, MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS, and from this free domain, he unweariedly directed his attacks against those systems of spiritual social and political oppression of which by the necessity of circumstances he was part and parcel, either as actor or sufferer, as priest or victim: and most earnestly — to his high honor be it spoken — against that system of spiritual and social tyranny which conferred on himself peculiar and invidious and pernicious distinctions and privileges. Love of freedom was perhaps the strongest passion of his soul— freedom not of the body merely, but of the mind — freedom not of action merely, but of thought. Almost instincti- vely he tore away and trampled under foot the fetters which the religion of his own people, the usages of his own country, his family, descent, and his personal position, had impo- sed. If obstacles arose in his path, he fearlessly overturned them. If an attack was made even by implication merely, on his mental freedom, he resisted it with an irrepressible sense of deep injury and insult. In illustration of this feature of his character, I shall mention a single incident. He was personally acquainted with Dr. Middleton, the first Bishop of Calcutta, who naturally endeavoured to convert him to Ghrie- tianity, but not content with the usual arguments drawn from the truth, and excellence of our religion, he presented the inducement, at least as Rammohun Roy understood him, of the honor and repute, the influence and the usefulness he would RAJA RAMMOHUN BOY .17 acquire by becoming the apostle of India, the fifst great promul- gator of the Christian doctrine to his countrymen. I thinkitquite probable that the bishop may have merely expressed the pious but inconsiderate wish that Rammohun Roy might become the apostle and promulgator of Christian truth in India, without meaning to . offer a worldly motive which just so far as it inf- luenced his mind, would have rendered the desire of conversion worthless. But Rammohun Roy did not so understand it, and in relating the circumstance to me, spoke in language and with the feelings of bitter indignation that he should have been deemed capable of being, influenced by such a con- sideration or by any consideration but the love of truth and goodness. I do not recollect that he informed me what answer he made to the bishop 2 * but he stated that he had never after- wards visited him. He felt as if the pure and unsullied inte- grity of his mind, his personal honour, and independence had been assailed by the presentation to him of a low and unworthy motive and he resented accordingly. This tenacity of personal independence, this sensitive jealousy of the slightest approach to an encroachment on his mental freedom was accompanied with a very nice perception of the equal rights of others, even of those who differed most widely from him in religion and politics, and still more remarkably even of those whom the laws of nature and of soicety subjected to his undisputed control. He employed no direct means, no argument or authority; no expostulation or entreaty to turn his sons from the idolatrous practices and belief in which they had been educated by the female members of his family and by the brahman priests \vhom they consulted and followed. He gave them a good educaton ; by his personal demeanour, secured a place in their esteem and affection ; set them an example in his life and writings ; and then left them to the influence of idolatrous associatons on the one hand and to the unfettered exercise of their reasons on the other. His eldest son 25 the hope of his heart, for some time after attaining mature age, continued an idolator ; but before his father's death, with his younger brother 26 abandoned the superstition of the country, and zealously co-operated wtih his father ; thus a^ply rewarding Rammohun Roy his enlightened confidence 3 1S RAJA RAMMOHUN ROY in the power of truth and for his self-denying recognition of the mental freedom even of his own children. The love of freedom, so strikingly characteristic of the man, so strikingly uncharacteristic of the abject people 37 , the natives of Bengal, of whom he was one, was not a wild, irre- gular, violent, and destructive impulse. It was a rational con- viction springing from his belief in the noble purposes which a well-regulated and self-restrained liberty is capable of con- ferring on the individual and on society. He did not seek to limit the enjoyment of it to any class, or colour, or race, or nation, or religion. His sympathies embraced all mankind, but he never lost sight of the moral and social purposes which are the ends of liberty, and when he looked round on his countrymen, he saw that they were incapable of appreciating and enjoying it to its full extent. They were capable of appre- ciating more than they enjoyed, and that he claimed for them, and in part obtained. They were not capable of appreciating much that he himself was capable of enjoying, and that he claimed neither for himself nor for them. He saw — a man of his acute mind and local knowledge could not but'see — the selfish, cruel, and almost insane errors of the English in. governing India, but he also saw that, their system of Government and policy had redeeming qualities, not to be found in the native governments. Without seeking to destroy, therefore, his object was to reform and improve the system of foreign government to which his native country had become subject ; and without stimulating his countrymen to -discontent or disaffection, his endeavour was by teaching them a pure religion, and promoting among them an enlightened education to qualify them for the enjoyment of more extensive civil and political franchises than they yet possessed. He admitted that his countrymen were unfit for national independence, incapa- able of self-government, and he joined with some noble mind- ed, far-seeing Englishmen who have expressed the opinion that the wisest and most honurable course, the justest and most humane, which England can pursue towards India is, by education and by gradual development of the principle of , civil and political liberty in the public institutions she estab- lishes and sanctions, to prepare the natives ultimately to take BAM RAMMOHUN ROY id the government of their own country into their own hands* To co-operate in bringing about such a result, was one of Ram- mohun Roy's unceasing aims ; but those who sow the seed, are not always those who reap the harvest, or enjoy its fruit. In this case, there was no disappointment, for the change must be the work of generations, if not centuries. But I hope and trust that the time will come when the natives of India will constitute an enlightened and independent nation of free, self- governed men ; and I venture to predict that the name of Rammohun Roy will not then be forgotten. Notes : 1. In the East is the source of the day ! From the East light has. shone upon the world. — Author. 2. The author was addressing an audience in the city of Boston in America. 3. Ramkanta Roy.— Editor. 4. Ram ! Ram ! Ram ! This is usual with all, devout Hindoos, who die without the loss of consciousness. — Editor. 5. Ramtanu Roy. — Editor. (This is obviously a mis- take. The name of Rammohun's elder brother was Jaga- mohun Roy. Ramtanu Roy was the cousin of Rammohun Roy — being the son of Gopimohun Roy, a brother of Ramkanta. Jagamohun predeceased Rammohun Roy. — D. K. B.) 6. The Brahma Sabha now called the £di Brahmo Samaj. —Editor. (The name Brahmo Samaj was also current in Ram- mohun Roy's life-time.— D. K. B.) 7. These are favourites now-a-days even with orthodox Hindoos.— Editor. 8. The author here probably refers to the publication entitled the Pauttalik-Prabodha the authorship of which had been screened by a pseudonym.— Editor. (The work was originally named Brahma-Pauttalika SamvSd and was pub- lished in 1820 under the signature of Brajamohun Deb (Majumdar)-a friend and follower of Rammohun Roy. In 1846 the Tattvabodhinl Sabha published a new edition of the text under the name Pauttalik-Prabodha. It has 20 RAJA RAMMOHUK ROY been surmised that the real author of the tract was Rammohun Roy. An English translation entitled A Tract against the Prevailing System of Hindoo Idolatry had also been published from Calcutta in 1321. The Bengali and English versions have been critically edited and published by Dr. Stephen N. Hay from Calcutta in 1963.- D. K. B.) 9. The original publication in Bengali not having been procurable, a fresh translation into that language was made by the present editor, and published at the cost of the Rev. C. H. A. Dall in 1859— Editor. (Rakhal-Das Haldar's Bengali translation was entitled SukhasBntir Upayasvarup Yisupranita Hitopades. Rammohun's plan of publishing the Sanskrit and Bengali versions of the Precepts of Jesus did not materialise.— D. K. B.) 10. The two Missionaries were William Yates and William Adam. Mr. Yates took offence and withdrew from the connection. — Author. 11. With reference to the burning of Hindoo widows on the funeral pyers of their deceased husbands Mr. Montgo- mery Martin (Eastern India 1838 Vol. 2, p. 130) says 'This horrid murder is now totally abolished ; I established in India a journal in four languages, which led to its safe and immediate cessation in 1829. The passage speaks for itself. — Editor. (The reference is to the weekly paper The Bengal Herald the first regular issue of which appeared on May 9, 1829. It was published in four languages English, Bengali, Hindusthani and Persian. The journal owed its origin to the initiative of Ram- mohun Roy and his friends like Dwarkanath Tagore, Prasanna Kumar Tagore, Nilratna Haldar and Rajkissen Singh. Mr. Montgomery Martin was the editor. — D. K. B.) 12. See statistics quoted in Collet's The Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy ed. D. K, Biswas and P. C. Ganguli, Calcutta 1962, p. 200 D. K. B. 13. Bentinck took charge as Governor-General in 1828,— seventeen years before Adam delivered the present lecture in Boston .— D. K. B. 14. Regulation XVII of 1829, Bengal Code.-£ditor, 15. It would have been of some, service at the present day to have known who these pious Brahmans were.- Editor. • RAJA RAMMOfiUN RO¥ 21 (The text of the petition of the orthodox Hindoo community of Calcutta together with the names of a prominent few of the eight hundred signatories, — has now been made available by J. K. Majumdar Raja Rammohun Roy and Progressive Move- ments in India Calcutta 1941, No. 86, pp. 156-63.— D. K. B.) 16. Mr. Adam inspite of his admiration for Ram- mohun Roy, could never appreciate or view with sympathy Rammohun Roy's attachment to the Vedanta. In fact this was one of the factors that led to their parting of ways after a fairly long period of close association in public life ; cf. Collet The Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy Calcutta 1962, pp. 222, 242-48 ; for Rammohun's high opinion of the Vedanta, Ibid pp 97-100— D. K. B. 17. 'A profound but self-sufficient Oriental scholar etc' — My recollection at this distance of time is somewhat vague ; but I think it was, not H. H. Wilson, but J. C. C. Sutherland the author of some well-known translations of law-books from the Sanskrit. — Author (1878). (Rammohun's letter was not answered by the General Committee of Public Instruction — being considered not deserving a reply. It was filed with some strong adverse remarks embodied in a resolu- tion, signed by J. H. Harrington, President of the Committee. Both Wilson and Sutherland were however members of the Committee and attended its meeting held on January 14, 1824 — in which Rammohun's letter was discussed. Wilson was the secretary of the Committee. — D. K. B.) 18. Kalinath Roychowdhury, (Munshi), Zamindar of Taki, — one of the most intimate associates of Rammohun, patronised*a Scottish Mission School at Taki. — D. K. B. 19. Rammohun was also conscious of the importance of the Hindi language and wrote in Hindi so that his ideas might reach the people of Upper India. — D. K. B. 20. At the present day. the number exceeds thirty- seven millions. — Editor. 21. The United States of America. — Editor. 22. One of these was the Kaumudi I believe ; of the other, I have not been able to ascertain the name. — Editor. (The two weekly papers started by Rammohun Roy were the Samvada-Kaumudi in Bengali and the Mirat-ul 22 RAJA RAMMOHDN BOS Akhbar in Persian. The first was started on December 4, 1821 ; the second on April 12, 1822.— D. K. B.) 23. Subsequently M. P., and Commissioner with Lord Gosford to Canada. — Author. 24. Fortunately for us, the October 8, 1829 number of the India Gazette has preserved the reply made by Ram- mohun to the bishop on the occasion. "My Lord," Ram- mohun had said, "you are under mistake— I have not laid down one superstition to take up another." — D. K. B. 25. Radhaprasad who died without leaving male issue. —Editor. 26. Ramaprasad Roy, who lived to attain eminence at the bar of the highest Judicial Tribunal of Bengal, and was the first native Justice elect of the High Court at Fort William though he was prevented by death from sitting on the bench. —Editor. 27. This passage is sure to be misunderstood by the thoughtless portion of my countrymen. — Editor. WILLIAM ADAM William Adam (1786 ?— 1881), one of the most intimate friends and associates of Raja Rammohun Roy, was a native of Dunfermline, Scotland. He came to India as a Baptist missionary having joined the Baptist Mission at Serampore on the 19th March 1818. Contact with Rammohun. Roy however marked a turning point in his career as a missionary. Ram- mohun was quite intimate with the Baptist missionary circle of Serampore and he must have picked up the acquaintance of Adam in this connection. About 1820-21 we see Rammohun engaged in translating the four Gospels into Bengali in colla- boration with two of his Baptist missionary friends, Adam and Rev. William Yates. In course of the endeavour Adam gradually came to be influenced by the monotheistic views of Rammohun Roy and sometime in 1821 he formally gave up the trinitarian doctrine of Christianity in favour of unitarian- ism. The event caused great sensation in contemporary . missionary circles and naturally led to the severance of his relations with the Baptist Missionary Society of Serampore. Hereafter Adam settled in Calcutta and was instrumental in forming the Calcutta Unitarian Committee in 1821, himself becoming the first unitarian minister of the city. In 1827 the Committee was transformed chiefly due to his efforts into a 'more complete organisation' called the British lndian!Unitarian Association. But the unitarian body did not thrive and became practically defunct after the foundation of the Brahmo Samaj by Rammohun Roy in August 1828. It may be noted that Adam had always received the warm support and patronage of Rammohun during the Calcutta phase of his unitarian missionary endeavours though the two friends had fundamental difference in religious outlook, Adam was unwilling to sacrifice the christian basis of his unitarianism , while Ram- mohun remained a non-sectatian universalist in religion in spite of his admiration for Unitarian Christianity. In Calcutta Adam soon became a prominent figure in public life. He studied Sanskrit and Bengalrand won respect and admiration in 24 RAJA RAMMOHUN ROY liberal circles for his learning and philanthropy. He parti- cularly distinguished himself in the fields of journalism and education. The papers he had successfully edited in India in- cluded the Bengal Chronicle, the Calcutta Chronicle, the India Gazette and the Unitarian Repository and Christian Miscellany. Later in England he became 'the editor of the -British India Advocate the mouth-piece of the British India Society of London. About 1831-32 there was a proposal to appoint him a teacher of the Hindu College, but his intimacy with Ram- mohun Roy stood in the way and the plan had to be dropped due to the firm opposition of Radhakanta Deb, the leader of the orthodox group that had earlier kept Rammohun out of the Board of Directors of the College. In 1835 Adam was appoin- ted Commissioner to survey the state of education in Bengal and in that capacity submitted his three famous Reorts, the first on July 1, 1835, the second on December 23, 1835 and the third on April 28, 1838. The infinite pain, labour, thorough- ness and sincerity with which Adam collected and marshalled his data, made these reports in the words of Macaulay, "the best sketches on the state of education that had been submitted before the public". In 1838 Adam left India for the United States and lived for sometime in Boston. Here in 1845 he delivered his famous lecture on the Life and Labours of Ram- mohun Roy paying glowing tributes to the genius of his life- long friend. He returned to England in 1841 and probably spent the rest of his life there, dying^at the ripe old age of ninety-five on February 19, 1881, His major publications are the following books and pamphlets : (1) Principles and Objects of the Calcutta Unitarian Committee stated in a letter to Rev. W. J. Fox and Rev. J. Tuckerman) (1827) ; (2) The Law and Custom of Slavery in Bsitish India (1840) ; (3) The East India Year Book (1841) ; (4) Enquiry into the Theories of History (1863) ; (5) A Lecture on the Life and Labours of Rammohun Roy (delivered at Boston, 1845 ; first published from Calcutta, 1879). His celebrated Beports on education were originally published separately in 1835, 1836 and 1838. Later a single- volume edition was brought out by Rev. J. Long in 1868. The latest edition is that of Sri A. N. Basu (published by the Univer- sity of Calcutta, 1941). It is pleasant to remember that inspite RAJA R&MMOHUN ROY 25 of doctrinal differences Rammohun Roy had throughout his life remained fondly attached to Adam and had made generous provisions for the latter's family in his will. The best infor- mative article on Adam is that by S. C. Sanial in the Bengal Past and Present Vol. VIII (January-June 1914) pp. 251-72. — D. K. B. Price : Rupees Two Only