Rammohan Roy: Civil Rights

Raja Rammohan Roy (1772–1833) is remembered by his countrymen with gratitude and admiration.
His most potent passion was the “love of freedom,” encompassing freedom of both action and thought.
Rammohan’s primary quest was epistemological—an attempt to locate the right and socially useful sources of knowledge.
He accepted British rule as a fait accompli (an accomplished fact) and saw it as “providential in design”. He believed this rule needed constant improvement through the active mediation of interested citizens.
He was perhaps the first in modern India to observe that colonialism ipso facto prevented Britain from replicating its own liberal social and political institutions in India.

Family Background: He was born into a high-ranking (kulin) Brahmin family in Radhanagar, West Bengal. His family had served the imperial Mughals for three generations, leading to his close familiarity with Indo-Persian culture.
Economic Status: His family acquired rentier interests following the Permanent Settlement in Bengal (1793). Rammohan personally acquired six estates between 1809 and 1814, yielding a substantial annual income. He combined this with lucrative money-lending activity.
European Contact: He served as a munshi (private secretary) to European officials, including Thomas Woodforde and John Digby. During this time, he studied the English language and contemporary European developments. He felt that in Europe, knowledge was widely diffused, politics was progressing daily, and moral duties were observed with propriety.
Emissary Role: He acted as the emissary of Emperor Akbar II when he sailed to London in November 1830 to plead for an enhanced pension.

Period of Polemics (1814–1830): This intensely polemical phase saw him authoring more than 60 tracts and pamphlets. He debated fiercely against Hindu pundits over the true basis of Hinduism and against Trinitarian Christianity.
Key Reforms: He shocked orthodox Hindu opinion by supporting the anti-Sati legislation.
Religious Scholarship: He mastered multiple languages (Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Sanskrit) for his religious and philosophical studies. His profound knowledge of Islamic law and jurisprudence earned him the title “zabardast maulavi” among his Calcutta friends.
He translated five major Upanishads (Isha, Kena, Katha, Mundaka, and Mandukya) from Sanskrit and wrote a modern commentary on the Brahma Sutras.
Religious Organizations: He founded the Atmiya Sabha (1815) and the Brahmo Sabha (1828) in Calcutta to reform Hinduism.
Universalism and Utility: He believed religions were “self-contained bodies of Truth”. His Universalism was underpinned by the maxim that the “true way of serving God was to do good to man”. He asserted that reforming Hinduism was essential for Hindus to achieve “political advancement and social comfort”, demonstrating that utility was a measure of religion.

Critique of Pre-British Rule: Rammohan condemned Oriental governments as undemocratic and irresponsible. He noted that “Asia affords few instances of Princes who have submitted their actions to the judgments of their people”.
Praise for British Rule: He praised the British as “deliverers” from Mughal “tyrants”. He noted that the English court of judicature granted natives the “same civil rights as every Briton enjoys in his native country”.
Political Warning: He cautioned that if the grievances of Indian subjects (particularly those from the upper provinces) were left unheeded, they might weaken or undermine British power. He implied that strong anti-British sentiment in Bengal was unlikely because the people enjoyed “freedom and security”.
Resistance and Rights: He strongly opposed discriminatory measures, particularly the Jury Bill of 1828, which prohibited Hindus and Muslims from sitting in judgment in cases involving Christian offenders.
He warned that if the Indian character was uplifted by European knowledge, they would possess the spirit and inclination to “resist effectively, any unjust and oppressive measure”.

Basis of Reform: Rammohan’s reformism was founded on reason and reasonableness.
Law and Rights: He stressed the codification of law and made a clear distinction between law and morality. The rights he emphasized were primarily civic and religious, not political (such as democratic power sharing).
Government Structure: He rejected both purely democratic (unwieldy) and autocratic (crushes dignity) forms of government. The ideal government was one that “pledged not to infringe the laws of the nation”.
Legislative Authority: He favored lodging legislative authority for India with the British King and Parliament, rather than the Government of India, to ensure that lawmaking remained dispassionate and objective.
Judicial Reforms: He distrusted the existing panchayat system (village justice) due to corruption and pressure from vested interests, favoring centralization and standardization in administration.
Administrative Safeguards: To aid the British Parliament in legislating for India, he emphasized three requirements: (1) a free press in India; (2) periodic establishment of Enquiry Commissions; and (3) the positive co-option of more Indians of proven ability in administration.

Economic Policy: He supported ‘free trade,’ believing the influx of European skills and capital would contribute to India’s economic modernization.
As a beneficiary of the Permanent Settlement, he believed in the “self-correcting authority of the natural landlord over his subjects”.
Education: He advocated for greater use of English as the medium of instruction to disseminate useful contemporary knowledge, such as mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, and anatomy, rather than promoting merely literary education.