Rammohan Roy and the Samaj Rammohan Roy (17721833), hailed as the 'Father of Modern India', represented a synthesis of the thoughts of the East and West. He condemned idolatry and polytheism in religion. In 1809, he wrote Tuhfat-i-Muwahidin (Gift to Monotheists), a Persian tract. Proclaiming the Vedanta Sutras as the fountainhead of Indian knowledge, he translated them into English between 1816 and 1819. Eclectic in his religious ideas, he worked to reform Hinduism while defending it from the attacks of Christian missionaries. In 1814, he founded the Amitya Sabha which became the Brahmo Samaj in 1828. The Brahmo Samaj was founded on the principle of reason as found in the Vedas and Upanishads.
It emphasised monotheism. It believed that God was the source of all things that exist. Stressing on love for mankind and service to men, it was against belief in incarnation, meditation, sacrifices and existence of priests as mediators. It opposed idolatry, ritual, superstition, sati and the caste system. A champion of women's rights, Raja Rammohan wrote the tract 'Modem Encroachments on the Ancient Rights of Females according to the Hindu Law of Inheritance'. He advocated widow remarriage and education for women. It was largely due to his efforts that sati was declared a punishable offence when William Bentinck passed an Act (Regulation No. 17) against the same in December 1829. Rammohan established the Hindu college in Calcutta in 1817. In his letter to Lord Amherst in 1823, he pleaded for an English-medium education system in India teaching western sciences and philosophies. The Vedanta College formed in 1825, offered Indian as well as western learning. To initiate public opinion on political questions, he brought out the Sambad Kaumadi (1821), the first Indian newspaper managed and published by Indians, and a Persian weekly, Mirat-ul-Akbar.
Later Developments After Rammohan's death, the Samaj was led by Debendranath Tagore, who had organised a Tattvabodhini Sabha at Jorosanko and founded a monthly journal, Tattvabodhini Patrika, to spread its ideas. Keshab Chandra Sen, who founded in 1861 the fortnightly Indian Mirror-the first Indian daily paper in English-which articulated the Samaj's views, represented a very radical wing in the Samaj. Differences between Tagore and Sen led to a split in the Samaj in 1866. The Tagore group formed the Adi Brahrno Samaj while the Sen group formed the Brahmo Samaj of India. Debendranath compiled the Brahrno Dharma, a religious text, from various Hindu texts. He also explained the Brahrno form of worship or Brahrnopasana. Sen promulgated the Nav Vidhana to emphasise the mystic side of religion and fuse Hindu and Christian ideas.
A later schism came in 1878. It resulted when Keshab Sen violated the Brahrno Marriage Act of 1872 by getting his underage daughter married to the Maharaja of CoochBehar who was also underaged. The secessionists formed the Sadharan Brahrno Samaj which informed the public on social and political issues through journals such as the Tattva-Kaumudi, The Indian Messenger, The Sanjibari, The Navyabharat and Prabasi.
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