As the dust of politics settles down on statements made by a state-level senior leader on Raja Rammohun Roy – saying that Roy was a ‘British agent’ who started a vicious cycle of religious conversion ~ it is time to note where the leader had ‘slipped up’ before he tendered his apology. In today’s age social reformers, freedom-fighters are routinely being insulted in public fora, their achievements derided, devalued and their legacies being marginalized or erased.

When it comes to Raja Rammohun Roy, he occupies pride of place, a high social and cultural status. In ‘The Intellectual Roots of India’s Freedom Struggle’, written by Prithwindra Mukherjee, Rammohun Roy is the ‘pioneer’ in the genesis of nationalism in India. Highlighted in every history book is Rammohun Roy’s achievement to be the first to bring about a synthesis between religions of the East and West. This was made possible because of his vast knowledge of universal history. His deep reading of Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabian and Persian texts gave him the ability to understand core principles while removing deadwood of the past. Mukherjee explained, “He restored traditional spiritual teaching of the Vedanta in the new universal faith that he founded. Irrefutable in his arguments, culling support from trustworthy Sanskrit texts, he gave back to Brahmanism its purest monotheistic vision.”

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In Brahmo Sabha, later Brahmo Samaj, he institutionalized his vision, his dream of a new world based on equality, liberty, justice, and brotherhood. There was a price to be paid too: he was mercilessly attacked when he denounced the social injustices perpetuated by Hindu orthodoxy, notably the practice of Sati, when widows at the time of their spouse’s cremation, immolated themselves. Coming back to modern-day accusations of Rammohun Roy being a ‘British agent’, there is need to know more about what the Raja’s mission was in Britain in 1831. This is where Prof Amar Farooqui’s recent ‘Governors of Empire’ opens up vistas of financial skullduggery, and bureaucratic delays by chief functionaries of East India Company.

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“Rammohun Roy’s presence in London when the Privy Council took up the Dharma Sabha’s appeal (against sati abolition) was a coincidence,” explained the Professor. “Rammohun Roy had travelled to England primarily to carry out a task assigned to him by the Mughal Emperor. He had been sent by Akbar Shah as his........

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