{"id":12564,"date":"2016-05-22T07:46:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T14:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?p=12564"},"modified":"2016-05-22T07:49:02","modified_gmt":"2016-05-22T14:49:02","slug":"it-was-on-this-day-that-the-unitarian-hindu-reformer-rammohan-roy-was-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2016\/05\/it-was-on-this-day-that-the-unitarian-hindu-reformer-rammohan-roy-was-born.html","title":{"rendered":"It was on This Day that the Unitarian Hindu Reformer Rammohan Roy was Born"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Rammohan<\/a>
\nRam Mohan Roy<\/a> (also spelled Rammohan Roy) was born in Radhanagar, Bengal, on this day in 1772.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cHinduism\u201d as an overall term for the family of religions on the Indian subcontinent. He was an advocate for women\u2019s rights best known as a fierce opponent of sati the practice of \u201csuicide\u201d 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 \u201cHe promoted a rational, ethical, non-authoritarian, this-worldly, and social-reform Hinduism. Thus he has been called the \u201cFather of Modern India.\u201d His writings sparked interest among British and American Unitarians, inspired Unitarian missionary work in India, and influenced the Transcendentalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy was a founder of the Brahmo Samaj<\/a> as well as the Calcutta Unitarian Society. <\/p>\n

When he died the great American Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing wrote, \u201cI feel his loss deeply. I cannot name a stranger whom I so wished to see.\u201d The UUA biography informs us \u201cRoy\u2019s 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 \u2018realized that a bond of spiritual unity links the whole of mankind.'\u201d<\/p>\n

An amazing person. <\/p>\n