It was on This Day that the Unitarian Hindu Reformer Rammohan Roy was Born

It was on This Day that the Unitarian Hindu Reformer Rammohan Roy was Born May 22, 2016

Rammohan Roy

Ram Mohan Roy (also spelled Rammohan Roy) was born in Radhanagar, Bengal, on this day in 1772.

A towering intellect, seeker of justice, and religious reformer, Roy deserves to be more widely known outside of India. He is generally credited as coining the term “Hinduism” as an overall term for the family of religions on the Indian subcontinent. He was an advocate for women’s rights best known as a fierce opponent of sati the practice of “suicide” by widows, called for a major reform of the caste system, as well as inspiring and leading a call to a Unitarian-inspired reform of Hinduism. His biographical article at the UUA notes “He promoted a rational, ethical, non-authoritarian, this-worldly, and social-reform Hinduism. Thus he has been called the “Father of Modern India.” His writings sparked interest among British and American Unitarians, inspired Unitarian missionary work in India, and influenced the Transcendentalists.”

Roy was a founder of the Brahmo Samaj as well as the Calcutta Unitarian Society.

When he died the great American Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing wrote, “I feel his loss deeply. I cannot name a stranger whom I so wished to see.” The UUA biography informs us “Roy’s poetic English translations of Vedic literature later fired the oracular imaginations of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. His greatest legacy was the dream of a universal religion based on the belief of a Divine Unity. Rabindranath Tagore declared that Roy ‘realized that a bond of spiritual unity links the whole of mankind.'”

An amazing person.


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