Chapter 5

1. Calcutta Journal, 5 April 1823. Cited in J. K Majumdar, Raja Rammohan Roy and the Progressive Movements in India. A Selection from Records (Calcutta: Art Press, 1941), pp. 320–21.

2. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Jatibair’ [Racial Animosity] in Bankim Rachanavali, Vol. 2 [Collected Works of Bankim Chandra] (ed.) J. C. Bagal (Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad, 1974). pp. 884–85.

3. Some of his opponents accused him of immorally cohabiting with a Muslim mistress and of partaking all kinds of ‘un-Hindu’ food. Debendranath Tagore, Rabindranath’s father, recalled Rammohan once complaining to him in the following words: ‘Biradar, here I am eating pure bread and honey but people say I eat beef ’. ‘Debendranath Tagore: Reminiscences of Rammohan Roy’ in The Father of Modern India: Commemoration Volume of the Rammohan Roy Centenary Celebrations. 1933. Compiled and Edited by Satish Chandra Chakravarti, Part II. 1935, p. 172.

4. See especially Sumit Sarkar, ‘Rammohan Roy and the Break with the Past’ in V C. Joshi (ed.) Rammohan Roy and the Process of Modernization in India (: New Delhi: Vikas, 1975).

5. Debendranath Tagore, p. 174.

6. Bruce Carlisle Robertson, Raja Rammohan Roy: The Father of Modern India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 12.

7. Rammohan Roy: ‘Brief ’ Preliminary Sketch of the Ancient and Modern Boundaries and History of India’ [1832]. Reproduced in Bruce Carlisle Robertson, The Essential Writings of Raja Rammohan Roy (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 179.

8. Writing to Hyde Villiers, Secretary to the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India (22 December 1831) Rammohan noted how his heart was ‘with the French people in their endeavours to support the cause of liberal principles’. Reproduced in Rammohan Rachanavali. [Collected Works of Rammohan Roy] Ajit Kumar Ghosh et al. (eds) (Calcutta: Haraf Prakashan, 1973), p. 484.

9. Ramohan Roy’s letter to George James Gordon reproduced in ibid, p. 449.

10. Rammohan Roy, ‘Appeal to the King in Council’, reproduced in ibid, p. 508f.

11. See the Prospectus of the Mirat ul Akhbar reproduced in Majumdar, op. cit., pp. 298–99.

12. ‘Appeal to King in Council’, pp. 508–09.

13. Ibid., p. 518.

14. Memorial to Rt. Hortble Sir Francis Magnaghten, Judge. Supreme Court, Calcutta, from Chunder Coomar Tagore, Dwarka Nauth Tagore, Rammohan Roy, Hurchunder Ghose, Gowree Churn Bonnergee and Prosonno Coomar Tagore. Reproduced in Rammohan Rachanbali, pp. 502–07.

15. Cited in Robertson, op. cit., p. 47.

16. The description of the Town Hall Meeting occurs in Majumdar; op.cit., pp. 438–39. Also see Rammohan Roy: ‘Views on Settlement in India by Europeans’ Reproduced in Rammohan Rachanavali, op. cit., pp. 529–35.

17. Memorial to Francis Magnaghten, op. cit., p. 503; Prospectus of the Mirat ul Akhbar, op. cit.

18. Barun De, ‘A Biographical Perspective on the Political and Economic Ideas of Rammohan Roy’ in V C. Joshi (ed.), op. cit., p. 145;

19. BengalHarakaru of 20 June 1832, cited in Majumdar, op. cit., p. 484f.

20. An argument especially made in Sumit Sarkar, op. cit.

21. See Rammohan Roy’s letter to Rt. Honble William Pitt, Lord Amherst, dated 11 December 1823. Reproduced in Rammohan Rachanvali, op. cit., pp. 433–36.

22. Kissory Chand Mitra, ‘Rammohan Roy’ in Calcutta Review. Vol. IV December 1845, pp. 357.

23. Reproduced in Rammohan Rachanavali, op. cit: 462.

24. Kissory Chand Mitra, op. cit: 388–89.

25. Rammohan to Mrs Woodford Brighton, dated 27 April 1832. Reproduced in Rammohan Rachanavali, op. cit., p. 457.

26. Rammmohan’s letter to T. Hyde Villiers, op. cit.; Also see his communication to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France [n.d] Reproduced in Rammohan Rachananvali, op. cit., p. 486f.

27. Monier Monier-Williams, cited in Dilip Kumar Biswas, Rammohan Samiksha (Calcutta: Saraswat Library, 1983), p. 269.

28. Iqbal Singh, Rammohan Roy: A Biographical Enquiry into the Making of Modern India. Vol. 2, 1983 reprint, Bombay, 104.

29. B. N. Seal, Rammohan: The Universal Man (Calcutta: Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, n.d.), p. 37.

30. Trust deed of the Brahmo Samaj. Reproduced in Rammohan Rachanavali, op. cit., p. 539.

31. A typical case is that of John Locke. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding he writes thus: faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind, which, if it can be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon goo reason and so cannot be opposed to it’. Cited in Dilip Kumar Biswas, op. cit., p. 60.

32. Barun De, op. cit., p. 145.

33. B. B. Majumdar, History of Indian Social and Political Ideasfrom Rammohan to Dayanand (Calcutta: Bookland, 1967) p. 26, Majumdar in particular cites Bentham’s Fragments on Government (1776) and Introduction to Morals and Legislation (1789).

34. Naresh Chandra Sengupta, ‘Rammohan and Law’ in The Father of Modern India, p. 320.

35. Ibid.

36. B. B. Majumdar, op. cit., pp. 29–37.

37. Ibid., p. 32.

38. Ibid., p. 34.

39. Barun De, op. cit., p. 145. De himself believes that Roy’s petition had precedents in appeals made by Emperor Shah Alam and the Maratha chief Raghoba.

40. Rammohan’s letter to J. Crawford, dated 18 August 1828, Reprinted in Rammohan Rachanavali, pp. 468–69.

41. Ibid.

42. See reminiscences of his great granddaughter, Hemlata Devi. Cited in The Father of Modern India, p. 283.

43. See reminiscences of James. C. Sutherland who travelled on the same ship to England. Cited in Robertson, op. cit., pp. 6–7.

44. For Derozio’s observations on Rammohan, see The East Indian of October 1831, cited in A. F. Salahuddin Ahmad, ‘Ram Mohun Roy and His Contemporaries’ in V C. Joshi (ed.), op. cit., p. 100.

45. Letter to J. Crawford.

46. The incident occurred at Bhagalpur and involved a European civilian by the name of Sir Frederick Hamilton. The petition to Lord Minto is reproduced in Rammohan Rachanavali, op. cit., pp. 431–33.

47. Cited in B. B. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 46. Similar observations were made by the Anglo-Indian paper, India Gazette of 20 July 1820: ‘The separation of India from Great Britain cannot in the nature of things be prevented. It must come sooner or later and after appropriating to the mother-country, all the advantages which colonial possessions can confer during the period of our rule, the true system of governing them should aim to provide that the separation shall be safe, gradual and friendly … .’ Cited in B. B. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 45 (FN).

48. Ibid., p. 46.

49. Stanford Arnot, Athenium Journal, 1833. Reproduced in The Father of Modern India, op. cit., Part I, p. 109