Rammohan wanted India to lead towards the path of development. For this it was necessary to gather supporters. By this, he wanted to make people aware of his views. He wanted to transform the society through education. Those days, there were Sanskrit schools for the education of the Hindus. There education was imparted by keeping in view the ancient principles. This education was limited to Sanskrit language only.
The development of the nation was not possible in this way. In those school, no subject was taught other than Sanskrit. Some people considered reading and casting as well as teaching as a sin, whereas it was the subject which could take a nation to the path of development and progress. In this situation, Rammohan decided to get the society aware of the subject which would be for the benefit of the society.
Seeing the criticism, Rammohan tried to get the support of some English and Hindu scholars. Through their support he made an organisation in Calcutta. This organisation established a university there.
In this university education was imparted in subjects like science, mathematics and politics. Rammohan wanted social welfare at any cost. To achieve his aim, he established an English college by spending money from his personal assets.
During this period his criticisers or rivals made several attempts on his life. But Rammohan was firm in his mission. He was aware of the present situation of the country. He wanted to enlighten the hearts of youngsters about science.
He did each work considering the respect of his motherland. He wanted to push India towards modernisation.
In his college, students were taught science, English, Sanskrit and Bengali languages. They severely criticised only education in Sanskrit.
When anybody debated with him over education, he would say—‘‘In Europe, people give equal importance to Greek and Latin language, as they give to mathematics and science. If the education of science and mathematics can be important for them then why not for us?’’
Nobody had any answer to Rammohan’s questions. His vast knowledge would impress the scholars a lot.
He had his hold on both the Hindu religion as well as the Muslim and the Christian religions. He was well versed in various languages.
He was able to find the solutions to the problems like religion, etc.
Many missionaries were happy with his interest in Christian religion. They appealed Rammohan to adopt Christianity. They thought that he would adopt it very easily.
They wanted to bestow upon him Christianity for the welfare of their religion, but they did not know that he had firm belief in Hindu religion. He said to them—
‘‘I am a Hindu. How can you think that I would change my religion to Christianity. I fully respect your religion but I can’t adopt Christianity. The good views and teachings which should be present in a religion are also their in my religion too.’’
The Christian priests got angry by this reply of Rammohan. They began to criticise him. Then Rammohan said—
‘‘Instead of criticising me, if you criticise the evils of the society, then it would be in everybody’s favour. If I find anything bad in Christianity, I would also bring this into limelight. I won’t criticise any religion any way. If I criticise I would do so only for the evils prevailing in the society in the name of religion.’’
Christians could not understand what he said. They began criticising him severely. Rammohan was used to such kinds of criticism. So he was unaffected by this. He continued with his mission.
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