Raja Rammohan Ray: The Father of Modern India

by Bruce Carlisle Robertson

Ram Mohan Ray is called the "Father of Modern India" in recognition of his epoch-making social, educational, and political reforms. Bruce Robertson argues that Ray's intellectual and spiritual roots have been misunderstood even by those who have been most lavish in their praise. Made a hero
for standing up to the British government in politics, his memory has been tainted by an ill-informed consensus, namely that he gave in to Europeans on matters of religion.
Nothing could have been further from the truth, Robertson argues. While Ray's political legacy may be said to have endured, his enormous contribution to modern Indian religious sectarian dialogue, where his greatest originality may be found, is sadly forgotten. Robertson argues that Ray set the
agenda for modern India in his vision of a self-determining, modern, pluralistic society founded upon the Upanishadic principles of freedom of sadhana and one rule of law for all.

Genres: Philosophy

222 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 1995

Reviews

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 2 out of 5]

A. L. Basham once alleged that "Hindu texts often delight the theologian as much as they exasperate the historian." The foremost issue with Robertson's book is that the author has become so preoccupied with Vedantic texts that he absolutely disregards their historical component. There are Indianists who will contend that the given epoch in 5,000 years of history when a text was articulated is much less important than the fundamental and static philosophy of the text. It is implausible that Robertson makes no discrepancy between the Upanishads as a text that influenced the Buddha in the 6th century B.C., the Vedanta credited to Sankara in the following millennium, and the Vedanta as verbalized by Rammohan in the milieu of the 19th century Bengal Renaissance. A difficult 2 on 5.