RAJA RAM MOHAN ROY
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, is widely acknowledged as 'the Father' of Modern India, Modern Indian Liberal Tradition, Hindu Reformation and Renaissance, the Champion of Women's Rights, 'the Pioneer' of Social and Political Reforms, the Prophet' of International Co-existence and the Forerunner' of Indian Liberal Moderates.
Ram Mohan Roy has been deservedly considered as the father of modern Indian Political thought. He was the first to drew the consciousness of the Indian people from ages past, from the ancient ways, into the free light and the air of the modern day; the first to initiate the country into the new religion of the new age.
The Eighteenth century was an era of darkness and desolation for our country. It was perhaps the darkest age in modern Indian history. An old, decadent society and polity was in the process of crumbling down and no ray of light was visible anywhere. The country had lost its link with the foundational truth of its being and was crawling under a crippling load of obscurantism and irrationalism. All the vital forces of society had been cancerised and paralyzed. Religious and educational institutions, rural and urban life, agriculture and industry, law and administration were in a state of utter chaos. Suffocating superstitution and decadent tradition blocked any progress. In this situation of abject slavery to circumstances and dark gloom of degeneration came forth a ight in the emergence of Ram Mohan Roy, the father of modern age in India. In this holy land there arose a conflict of three different cultures, three civilizations, the Hindu, the Muslim and the Christian. Ram Mohan was the first to evolve a synthesis between the three and thus ushered in the modern era which was marked with the gradual evolution of a composite nationality and synthetic culture for India. He indicated in his clear and synthetic vision, the solution to the larger problem of cosmopolitan culture and civilization.
Ram Mohan was perhaps the only person of his time who realized completely the significance and importance of the modern age. He understood, as nobody else had done before his time, that human progress lay not in separation of national independence but in the fraternity of inter- dependence of individuals and nations evolved through rational synthesis of cultural and political interaction. He applied this principle of universal humanism in realms of social, religious, literary and political affairs, his great depth of scholarship and clarity of vision. He never subjected himself to abject slavery of circumstances and endeavoured most strenuously to make his own people realize the innermost truths of their own culture and civilization and at the same time recognize the eommon links with the essential truths of other civilizations and cultures. Keeping this objective in view he made amazing contributions to original thinking in matters of social and political reforms, women's emancipation, freedom of speech and the press, judicial and administrative reforms, scientific education and freedom from every kind of oppression and exploitation.
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