Ram Mohan Roy

Ram Mohan Roy campaigned against the burning of widows, founded a monotheist reform movement, and died in Bristol before he could get home. He was born to a Brahmin family in Bengal, learned Persian and Arabic before Sanskrit, read the Quran and the Upanishads and later the Bible, and worked for the East India Company as a revenue official until an inheritance freed him. What he argued was that the Vedanta taught a single formless God and that image worship, caste rigidity and the burning of widows were later corruptions - a case he made in Bengali, Persian and English pamphlets against furious orthodox opposition. He pressed the government on sati for years, gathering figures and scriptural argument, and Bentinck's prohibition in 1829 was passed with his support and defended by him before the Privy Council when the orthodox party appealed. He founded the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the ancestor of the Brahmo Samaj. He argued for English and scientific education, a free press and Indian representation on juries. The Mughal emperor sent him to London as an envoy with the title Raja. He died of meningitis at Stapleton near Bristol in 1833 and is buried at Arnos Vale. He founded newspapers in Bengali and Persian and campaigned against a press ordinance that required licensing, closing his own Persian paper rather than submit to it. He argued in print with Christian missionaries at Serampore while publishing his own selection of the moral teachings of Jesus, which lost him their support and gained him a Unitarian following in England and America. He also argued for the rights of women to inherit property. His grave at Arnos Vale was paid for by Dwarkanath Tagore, who visited England after him. Bristol keeps a statue of him and Kolkata several.

• Lived: 1772 CE – 1833 CE
• Nationality: Indian
• Roles: activist