Rammohun Roy

Also called: Raja Rammohun Roy · Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World"

Meaning

Rammohun Roy (1772–1833) was a Bengali religious and social reformer. He started the Bengali newspaper Sambad Kaumudi in 1821 and founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1828. He used print to argue against sati and idol worship and for belief in one God [2][3].

He matters because he was one of the first Indians to use the printed newspaper to fight a public battle over religion and society. His work showed how print moved reform debates out of temples and caste councils and into public view.

Explanation

Background: why a reformer turned to print

• In the early nineteenth century, reform fights moved out of the family, the caste panchayat (village or caste council) and the temple. They moved into print.
• Four big issues were argued in tracts (short printed pamphlets) and newspapers:
• sati (a widow burning herself on her husband's funeral pyre)
• monotheism (belief in one God only)
• Brahmanical priesthood (the power of priests to decide what is right)

• idolatry (worship of images)

• Roy took a clear side on all four. He opposed sati, idolatry and priestly control. He supported monotheism.

• Print gave him a new kind of reach:
• His ideas spread far beyond Calcutta.
• He wrote in everyday Bengali, not classical Sanskrit or Persian, so ordinary people could read his arguments and reply to them.

Sambad Kaumudi: his main weapon

• Sambad Kaumudi was a Bengali newspaper. Its first issue came out on 4 December 1821. The name means "The Moon of Intelligence" [2].
• It was written for ordinary Bengali readers. Its columns carried:
• petitions (formal requests) to the colonial government
• arguments for social reform

• complaints about daily life under British rule [2]

• The campaign against sati:

• Roy used the paper for a decade-long campaign against sati [2].
• The paper kept public opposition alive year after year [2].
• Sati was banned by law in 1829 [2].

The orthodox reply: a press war

• The Hindu orthodoxy (the defenders of old custom) did not stay silent. They commissioned Samachar Chandrika, a newspaper made to argue against Roy.
• This is the key exam point. Both sides used the same new tool. Print helped conservatives as well as reformers.
• Every claim now got a printed reply, and every reply got another answer. This back-and-forth made readers take sides. It helped create a reading public.

Results: the Brahmo Samaj and a new kind of press

• Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1828. It brought together people who believed in a universal religion based on one Supreme God [3].
• His newspaper carried these ideas to Bengali readers [2][3].
• His larger effect on the press:
• Before him, the press in India mainly served the colonisers (the British rulers).
• He helped make it serve the colonised (Indians) too [2].

Time, place and evidence

• Period: early nineteenth century, under British rule. He lived from 1772 to 1833.
• Place: Bengal, with Calcutta as the centre of the Bengali press.
• Key people:
• Rammohun Roy, the reformer and publisher of Sambad Kaumudi.

• The Hindu orthodoxy, who backed Samachar Chandrika against him.

• Key dates in order:

• 1821: Sambad Kaumudi begins (first issue 4 December 1821) [2]
• 1828: Brahmo Samaj founded [3]

• 1829: sati banned by law [2]

• How we know: from the newspapers themselves (Sambad Kaumudi and the rival Samachar Chandrika), and from the NCERT Class 10 chapter "Print Culture and the Modern World". Britannica's accounts of the print revolution in India and of the Brahmo Samaj also describe his work [2][3].

Don't confuse with

• Samachar Chandrika: Roy did not run this paper. The Hindu orthodoxy commissioned it to argue against him. Roy's paper was Sambad Kaumudi.
• Bengal Gazette: two papers had this name, and neither was Roy's. James Augustus Hickey started one in 1780, an English weekly and the first newspaper in India [5]. Gangadhar Bhattacharya started the other, the first newspaper published by an Indian.
• Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar (1822): these were Persian newspapers. Bombay Samachar (1822) was Gujarati. Roy's Sambad Kaumudi (1821) was Bengali.
• Deoband Seminary (1867): this was also a religious movement that used print. But it was a Muslim madrasah (religious college) in Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh, founded by Muhammad Abid Husayn. It issued fatwas (religious rulings) and was not linked to the Brahmo Samaj [4].

Prelims Hooks

• Sambad Kaumudi, a Bengali newspaper, was started by Rammohun Roy in 1821. Its first issue came out on 4 December 1821 [2].
• "Sambad Kaumudi" means "The Moon of Intelligence" [2].
• Samachar Chandrika was commissioned by the Hindu orthodoxy to oppose Rammohun Roy in print.
• Rammohun Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1828, based on belief in one Supreme God [3].
• Sati was banned by law in 1829, after Roy's decade-long press campaign [2].
• Order of events: Bengal Gazette by Hickey (1780) → Sambad Kaumudi (1821) → Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Bombay Samachar (1822) → Brahmo Samaj (1828) → sati ban (1829).

Mains Points

• Print did more than carry Roy's ideas. It changed how reform was argued.
• Roy wrote in everyday Bengali, so ordinary readers joined the debate and scholars no longer controlled it.
• Every argument now invited a printed reply. Sambad Kaumudi (1821) was answered by Samachar Chandrika.

• Roy kept the anti-sati campaign going in print until the 1829 ban [2].

• Print helped both sides. Roy used it for reform, and the Hindu orthodoxy used it to defend custom. So an answer that treats the press only as a force for modern, liberal change is incomplete. The real change was that religious authority now had to win public opinion.

• Roy helped turn the press from a tool of the colonisers into a voice of the colonised [2]. Sambad Kaumudi carried petitions to the government and complaints about British rule alongside its reform articles. This built a habit of public criticism among Indians that later supported nationalism.

Related concepts

• Sambad Kaumudi
• Samachar Chandrika
• Mirat-ul-Akhbar
• Bombay Samachar
• Rast Goftar
• Deoband Seminary
• Ramcharitmanas

Read more

• Religious reform and public debates in print