Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian social and religious reformer of the early nineteenth century, widely honored as "the Father of the Indian Renaissance" for his role in shaping modern Indian intellectual and reform movements. In 1828 he founded the Brahmo Sabha, later known as the Brahmo Samaj, a reform movement that advocated a monotheistic reinterpretation of Hindu tradition drawing on Vedantic scripture while opposing practices it viewed as later corruptions, including idol worship and rigid caste distinctions as then practiced. He campaigned prominently and publicly against the practice of sati, in which a widow was expected to immolate herself on her husband's funeral pyre, combining scriptural argument with sustained public advocacy that contributed directly to the British colonial government's formal prohibition of the practice in Bengal in 1829. He was also an early advocate for modern, Western-style education in India, for freedom of the press, and for women's property rights, and he traveled to England in 1830, where he continued his advocacy before dying in Bristol in 1833. His combination of reformist religious thought and practical social campaigning made him one of the most influential figures in nineteenth-century Indian intellectual history.