Many social reform movements were taking place to eliminate all the superstitions prevailing in the Indian society because of this many organisations were set up. One of these was Brahmo Samaj, which was started in 1818 by Rammohan. Brahmo Samaj had a firm belief in the Vedas and the Upanishads. The disciples of this Samaj spread the knowledge of the Vedas and the Upanishads in the Indian society.
Brahmo Samaj criticised the social evils of daughter-in-law remarriage, child marriage and Sati pratha. To eliminate the religious discrimination and superstition, devotional songs troupes were established. They would go around the society and sing devotional songs. They also spread the inspirational thoughts of the Brahmo Samaj. They also did a commendable job by making people aware through media like magazines and books.
Rammohan lent a helping hand in the establishment of Unitarian Committee. One day he was returning home with his friends from the prayer meeting. On the way he met his friends Chandrashekhar Dev and Tarachand Chakravarty. Both of them suggested him not to go to the British prayer hall. We should have our own prayer hall.
Rammohan liked this idea very much. This was the point for the formation of Brahmo Samaj. Rammohan had discussion about this with his friends. It was decided that prayer meetings should be organised in a rented house. For 13 years continuously, prayer meetings were held in that house. In 1818 Brahmo Samaj was given its name in that house. A book titled ‘Brahmopasana’ was published for the members of the Samaj. The credit of all these words goes primarily to Rammohan and then the other members too.
Those days, Adam Saheb was running the Unitarian Organisation. Both Indians and Britishers were involved in it. Adam Saheb was considered as the companion of Rammohan. Due to the establishment of Brahmo Samaj Rammohan is considered the founder of modern India.
Brahmo Samaj had ignited a struggle against various superstitions spread in India. Because of this struggle a law was passed against Sati Pratha in 1829. Brahmo Samaj tried hard to eliminate the feelings of untouchability from the hearts of the Hindu society. At that time lakhs of people were stopped from accepting the Christian religion. Inter-caste marriages were extended full support ignoring all the barriers of castism.
Many leaders of Brahmo Samaj like Rammohan ignited a new hope in the society. They pushed forward the nation towards the path of development. One of the social reformist leaders, Rajnarayan Bose established ‘National Spiritual Development Society’. The aim of this society was to strengthen the young blood through exercises so that the youngster are filled with new strength.
Vedas and Upanishads were considered as the base of the Hindu religion. Vedas are the primary sacred books of Indians as well as the people around the globe. Veda constructed with the help of ‘Vide’ metal is called Gyan.’ Legends have it that the hermit heard the voice of the Vedas from the mouths of the gods. After one thousand years Vedas were compiled in the form of a book. Vedas are known by some people as ‘Samhita’. Vedas are of four types—Rigveda, Samveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda. Rigveda is the oldest of the all. It contains 10,000 shlokas, which are known as ‘sukta’. Its each sukta is associated with the name of either a saint or a god.
The second base of Hindu Dharma are the Upanishads—Upanishad means—‘attaining knowledge by sitting near the guru for the attainment of Brahma Vidya.’ Upanishads contain the knowledge of the Vedas. The Upanishads for which the Shankaracharyas had written the Teekas are as follows : Ish, Ken Kath, Prashna, Manduk, Taitirya, Aitreya, Madukya, Brahadaranyaka, Swetaswara and Chandogya. Including these, the total of Upanishads has been estimated at two hundred.
Many books on Vedas written by Rammohan had been published. Through these books, he had strongly condemned the superstitions prevailing in the society. Those who had felt their existence in the society in the name of religion, now were fearing their existence. They called Rammohan as an atheist and condemned him. But Rammohan was unmoved. He continued suggesting people of worshipping unique God.
Rammohan translated the Vedas and Upanishads in very easy language. The Veda knowledge known to a very few Brahmins, was now in the hands of general public through the medium of books. The general public were lightening the flame of vedic knowledge in their hearts by reading these books. Rammohan’s efforts were a severe blow to the people engaged in superstitious activities. When he translate the Vedas into Bengali language, then the monopoly of the scholars of shastras came to an end. This proved to be correct according to Rammohan’s views. The Brahmin society considered him as a religious culprit as he was campaigning about the Vedas among all the sections of the society.
In 1816 Vendanta was translated in a summarised way in the Hindi and Bengali languages, which was published in the name of ‘Vendantasaar.’ As soon as it was published, many scholars and Brahmins criticised Rammohan to a very large extent.
‘Vendantasaar’ was so easy to understand that even the general reader was able to acquire its knowledge by reading it. This way Rammohan gained recognition amongst the general public. People had lot of respect for him.
The European missionaries had no full knowledge of Vedas. So, they began to criticise Rammohan. He could not bear the fact that somebody criticises him on the issue of truth. After hearing their criticism, he translated the Vedanta into English language and got it published in other countries. He got huge success in this.
The reality of Vedanta left the criticisers spell bound. After a few days, the European missionaries also started thinking in his favour. The Europeans, who believed in superstitions, also became alert.
The society was progressing towards enlightenment. The hypocrites were unable to stop the society from progressing. For those who were having blind faith in worshipping, Rammohan had mentioned in Vedantasaar—‘‘I have translated Vedantasaar into English. I want to tell European friends that the superstitions due to which the Hindu religion had become deformed, Vedantasaar’s pure feelings has no relation with those superstitions. I have found while discussing with the Europeans that they try to deteriorate the qualities of idol worship, but the truth today is that the Hindus do not think like that. If we look at depth, then all religious activities begin with the worship of that unique God. But today these things are found very less because to discuss about this issue is atheism for people.’’
‘‘I have taken birth in the Brahmin family. That is why I have been criticised the most among the Brahmins. My relatives and family members have also criticised me a lot. The staunch believers used to present my views in distorted form. They wanted that I should be heavily criticised so they did like that. Because of criticism, two attempts were made on my life. The news of attack is recorded in the missionary register. I have spread the knowledge of Vedanta among the general public so that the place of superstition gets demolished like a pack of cards. In this situation, the social reformist movement will again get into force. Then nobody would be able to catch up with its activities.’’
The number of criticisers of Rammohan was much more. They blamed him as an atheist. In this issue Rammohan had only one answer, ‘‘I have criticised superstition and religion blindness not the Hindu religion. Those who are blaming me of criticising the Hindu religion, are first suggested to prove me wrong.’’
Rammohan kept himself busy with the social reformist movement. He did a commendable job by making the people around the globe aware.
After reading the Vedantasaar, people’s feeling began to change. On 1st February 1816, a government gazette was published, in which following was mentioned—
‘‘Vedantasaar is a very interesting book. After seeing the book it may be said that it is the outcome of a very broad minded brain.’’
After the publication of Vedantasaar, European missionaries began to believe in Rammohan. Rammohan had impressed the Europeans as well as the Americans. The intellectual had various discussions on Vedantasaar. They concluded that there is clear cut uniqueness involved in Brahmanism. The American intellectuals, Thoro and Emerson, praised the Vedantasaar a lot.
India sent its first message for the western countries through the Vedantasaar. Through this message, the foreigners came to know the true picture of India. Prior to this, they considered Indian as a nation of snake charmers, but now their views about India changed. The foundation stone which had changed their thought was Vedantasaar. This creation of theirs had enhanced the respect of the Indians among the foreigners and also changed the mindset of the foreigners historical preview.
In 1707 the Mughal empire was under demolition. In that very year Aurangzeb died. India was divided into various states. Hyderabad and Karnataka became the independent Muslim states. In 1739 Nadirshah had established the reign of terror in Delhi. He also looted Delhi. When he died the Mughal rulers seemed to be dividing among themselves. In the 18th century, there developed a state of chaos all over India. All the states whether small or big, seemed to be fighting among themselves for their selfish needs. The whole country seemed to be breaking into various parts. At that time there was no one who could stop India from paralysing.
Chambal district went into the hands of the Mughals. The southern district of Vindhyachal came under the Marathas. Now Mughals had very little control with themselves that too in Delhi and Agra. Now the Mughal rulers were only distributing the titles and degrees. They did not have a single penny to look after their own army. The treasure was empty. Due to lack of enough finance, their kingdom was under threat. Now Delhi had lost its importance as the capital city—Europeans were fighting with the samantavadi strengths in India. They wanted to establish their rule over India with their strength. Europeans had proved their strength by defeating their enemies in the Plassey war. The business houses there were getting transformed in to army camps. On the other side, there was going on political conflict between England and France. This affected the political system of Europe.
In 1765 the East India Company had acquired the ‘Diwani’ rights of the Bengal province from the then king of Delhi, Shah Alam. In return of this, the East India Company promised to give Shah Alam a certain share of the taxes obtained from Bengal. A huge amount was transferred every year of the revenue obtained into the books of the company. This made the company rich in no time. The rights of security were also in the hands of the company.
The whole world was taken to surprise by the ‘Diwani’ rights of Bengal going into the hands of East India Company. This was because of the fact that the Britishers who were doing business in Bengal for the last one hundred and fifty years, now had become ‘Diwans ‘ after the Plassey war. But they had not enough knowledge to run the administrative work there. The responsibilities of ruling the country come under the Nawab of Murshidabad. He was always lost into lustful activities.
Warren Hastings, who was the then Governor General of Bangal was very intelligent. He contributed a lot in the development of the British Empire under his leadership. He also lent a helping hand in the development of the states of India. He was the one who strengthened the administrative framework of the British Empire. There was immense spreading of culture, literacy, education, literature all over under his rule. Many Sanskrit and Persian books were translated into various languages under the ancient literature. In 1784 William Joanes established the Asiatic society. Warren Hastings contributed a lot in this work. In 1781 he had established many Muslim madarsas.
Lord Cornwallis had laid the foundation stone of the British Empire while Lord Wallesley had built a huge building over the foundation. Under this a landlord class was developed between the farmers and the government. Zamindaars or landlords were very loyal to the government. They performed the duty of delivering the revenue to the government treasure with great devotion and care. Cornwallis was posted all the British youngsters to all the administrative posts of India.
William Fort College was established in Calcutta under the rule of Wallesley. After that ‘Baptist Mission’ was also established in Srirampur. Rammohan’s life is related to both these places in one way or the other. There was war going on in the north, western and southern states of the country. Shah Alam of Delhi, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan of south, Maratha Raghunath Rao, Maharaja Ranjeet Singh—all were fighting against the British rule in their own ways, but the Britishers were successful in defeating all of them in various wars.
In that period of chaos all around, there spread superstitions and various kinds of religious falsehood in the whole society. In this situation, Modern western knowledge spread all over India for the first time. This was the result of the contribution of the Britishers and the Christian missionaries. A new and improvised culture was developed due to the principles laid down by the Britishers which led to the birth of the landlords.
Due to isolation among the people, they divided into various sections. East India Company had its hold in India till 1857. Thereafter the British Empire strengthened its rule in India. From then onwards, India started fighting for its freedom form the British rule. This struggle ended in 1947. India, by then was divided on the grounds of religion, secularism and casteism. The society was as upset with the reactions of the Hindus as well as Muslims. Nobody was ready to support each other. The rulers were supporting the Britishers from behind. Some of the businessmen and landlords of the society were engaged lustful activities. The society was becoming senseless due to the superstitions and religious falsehood spread all around. In this way the whole country was heading towards demolition. The superstitious people had their say all over India.
Sati Pratha had spread to a very large extent. It had caught hold of the society. In this situation Rammohan raised to the reformation and development of the society.
He openly supported the freedom struggle in America, Spain, Italy and France because he knew very well that there would be some day freedom struggle in India also. In this struggle all these counties would help India in freeing itself from the clutches of the political system. Due to this only he was supporting the freedom struggle going on in these countries.
The feelings of social reform and public welfare refloated in his thoughts. Rammohan supported freedom in every sphere of life. The society criticised severely his struggle for idol worship but he was unmoved by this criticism and continued with his mission.
He also criticised multiple marriage system. He was the first ever Indian to deliver the speech on India’s freedom. He was hoped for early independence of India. He was of the view that the Britishers would not rule over India for more than 40 years from now. After 40 years India would be able to lay the foundation stone of democracy and go hand in hand with the other well-developed nations of the world.
Rammohan shut the mouths of his criticisers by saying that all the priests of the Christians were from Asia. Rammohan always opposed the laws which were formed against the interest of the common people. He believed that the darkness inside the human mind would be eliminated with the light of knowledge. For this, he chose the newspapers as the perfect medium.
Through these newspapers, he tried his best to spread the light of knowledge among the people. One of the newspapers ‘Samvad Kaumudi’ was published in Bengali language and the other one ‘Mirat-ul Akhboor’ was published in Persian language. Once he severely criticised England in the Persian newspaper. When he sent financial help to the drought-affected people of Ireland, the Britishers became very angry with him.
