Latest / The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History / Rammohan Roy: The Reformer Who Woke Bengal
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about Bengal's political and military history — the Nawabs, the battles, the trade. But every now and then, a figure comes along who changes everything without firing a shot. Today, I want to talk about Rammohan Roy. Luna: The reformer? I know the name, but not the full story. Lucas: Right. He's often called the father of the Bengal Renaissance. Born in 1772 in the village of Radhanagar, in what's now Hooghly district. His family was orthodox Brahmin — his father was a scholar, his mother deeply religious. But Rammohan was restless from a young age. He grew up speaking Persian and Arabic, not just Sanskrit — because in Mughal Bengal, that's what the elite used. Luna: So he was multilingual from the start. Lucas: Absolutely. By his teens, he had read the Quran, the Vedas, the Upanishads. And that mix made him start questioning. He saw contradictions: the caste system, idol worship, the way women were treated. He famously argued that the true Hinduism was monotheistic — that the Upanishads preached one God, not many. Luna: I imagine that didn't go over well with his family. Lucas: It didn't. His mother disowned him. His father initially supported his education but eventually cut him off. Rammohan traveled — he went to Tibet, studied Buddhism, then to Varanasi, and eventually settled in Calcutta, which was the epicenter of British power. And there, he started writing. Lucas: He wrote in Persian, Bengali, and English. His first major work was a pamphlet called 'tuhfat ul muwahhidin' — 'A Gift to Monotheists' — written in Persian with an Arabic preface. He argued that all religions originally taught the unity of God, and that priests had corrupted it. Luna: That's bold for 1803. Lucas: Very bold. But he had an audience. The British East India Company officials found him useful — he became a sort of cultural translator. He helped them understand Hindu law, but he never gave up his reformist agenda. And then came the issue that defined his career: sati, the burning of widows on their husband's funeral pyre. Luna: I've heard he played a huge role in abolishing it. Lucas: He did. But it wasn't just moral outrage. He used scripture. He argued, using the Vedas, that sati was not compulsory — that it was a later corruption. He collected evidence, published pamphlets, and petitioned the government. And he found an ally in Governor-General William Bentinck, who banned sati in 1829. Luna: That must have made him enemies. Lucas: It did. Orthodox Hindus accused him of being a British stooge. But he also criticized the British when they were wrong — he defended press freedom, he argued for trial by jury. He wasn't a puppet. In 1828, he founded the Brahmo Samaj — a society of worshippers of the one God. No idols, no caste. It was the first organized Hindu reform movement. Luna: And it spread beyond Bengal, right? Lucas: Yes. It influenced people like Debendranath Tagore and later Keshub Chandra Sen. But the really surprising chapter came at the end of his life. In 1830, the Mughal emperor Akbar Shah II — a figurehead by then — appointed Rammohan as his envoy to the British court. He was sent to England to plead for better treatment of the emperor. Luna: Wait — a Hindu reformer representing a Muslim emperor? That's amazing. Lucas: It was unprecedented. And even more so because at that time, Hindus were forbidden by caste from crossing the ocean — it was considered polluting. Rammohan broke that taboo. He sailed to England in 1831, traveled to Liverpool, met with French officials, and eventually reached London. He was a sensation — the papers called him the 'Bengal Reformer.' Lucas: You know, that kind of journey — crossing the ocean into the unknown, facing criticism from his own community — it reminds me a bit of what we do with this show. Exploring history that's often hidden or taboo. If today's episode opened a door for you, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Absolutely. And it's a story worth supporting — because it's not just about one man, it's about an entire cultural shift. Lucas: Anyway, back to Rammohan. He never made it back to India. In 1833, he fell ill in Bristol and died there. He was buried at Arnos Vale Cemetery. But his influence? It rippled through the 19th century. People like Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, even Rabindranath Tagore — they all looked up to him. Luna: And of course, his fight against sati became a symbol of social reform. Lucas: Exactly. But what I find most impressive is how he navigated multiple worlds. He was a scholar of Islamic theology, a Hindu monotheist, a British loyalist who also criticized the Raj, and an international diplomat. He showed that Bengal could produce thinkers who weren't just local — they were global. Luna: So he really was the father of the Renaissance. Lucas: He was. And his story is a reminder that reform doesn't always come from the top down — sometimes it comes from one restless mind, willing to question everything.