Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Raja Ram Mohan Roy, one .JT\of the great reformers of renaissance India has commanded respect to the point of veneration and has been acclaimed as a Versatile presence on the Indian Historical firmament. All his life, he fought to reform the society because he believed that social and religious reform was the very foundation of political advancement. A harbinger of the idea of universal humanism, an apostle of monotheism, the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, an advocate of the freedom of the press and a champion of women's cause, "Ram Mohan Roy was indeed, what Gopal Krishna Gokhale called him, 'the maker of modem India'.
Ram Mohan Roy was born on May 22, 1772 in Radhanagar, a village in Hoogly district of West Bengal. That was a time when the Muslim rule was on the decline, law and order was at the lowest ebb, social values and religious institutions were shaken sand economy was in chaos. It was a time when an all-round reconstruction and renovation was necessary for the continued existence of social life and order.
Ram Mohan received his elementary education in the village school as was the practice in those days. He acquired knowledge of his mother tongue, Bengali which he perfected through self-study. His father sent him to Patna to learn Persian and Arabic. This proved a boon, as Ram Mohan could study the Sufi writers and glean gems from them to be tallied with the Vedantic philosophy. Thus, his mental field was broadened. It brought him out of the narrow confines of religious views. Three maxims that Roy loved to repeat were from the Sufi thoughts. These were 'Man is the slave of benefits', 'The enjoyment of the worlds rests on these two points-kindness to friends and civility to enemies' and the third one, '"The way of serving God is to do good to man.'
One of the most endearing traits of Ram Mohan Roy's personality was his tolerant attitude to all religions. He had studied Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. During his pilgrimage to Tibet, he got