Dared to rethink the sacred
Raja Ram Mohan Roy (May 22, 1772-Sept 27, 1833)
Chandigarh, Updated At : 06:30 AM May 22, 2025 IST
Early 19th-century Bengal — a palimpsest of Persianate refinement, British bureaucracy, and orthodox anxieties — sets the stage for a man who dared to rethink the sacred. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, born into a Bengali Brahmin family, stood at the cusp of civilisational crosscurrents, drawing as much from the Upanishads as he did from Enlightenment thought and the quietly reasoned sermons of Unitarian Christianity. Yet, his concern was neither with the West nor with a revivalist East — his gaze was fixed on the idea of God, and the moral universe such a vision might demand.
