The Bengali scholar, religious reformer, and public intellectual, often called the father of the Indian Renaissance, who fused deep learning in Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and English to argue for a rational, monotheistic reform of Hinduism, campaigned against the burning of widows, founded the reformist Brahmo Sabha, and pioneered modern education, a free press, and political petition under a colonial rule he both used and partly endorsed.
A Brahmin scholar who could argue scripture in Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and English set out to prove that the oldest Hindu texts taught one God, and that much of what passed for religion around him was later invention. From that conviction Rammohun Roy attacked idol worship, fought to end the burning of widows, built schools, and launched newspapers. He worked through British rule even as he denounced its abuses, and that choice still divides his admirers. Some call him the father of modern India. Others ask whether a reformer who leaned on the colonizer can be claimed by the nation at all.