Rammohun and the Brahmos
Description:
Pages: 37
Year of Publication: 1994
Price: HB Rs 80, FB Rs 60
ISBN:
HB 81-7189-722-3 (8171897223)
FB 81-7189-723-1 (8171897231)
About the Author:
Pradip Sen was born in 1926 and did his education from St. Xavier’s School and College, Calcutta. He married Aloka De in 1950 and has two sons and a daughter. After a lifetime in commerce he has now retired and lives in Bangalore, where he spends his time writing poetry.
Teaser:
[From Part I: Rammohun Roy]
What was he like, the great Rammohun
Father of modern India, founder of the Brahmo Samaj,
What manner of man he,
Now just a slab in a Bristol cemetery?
Born 1722 died 1833 of hallowed memory,
Overshadowed today, you might say, by those who came after;
Intrepid seeker, implacable enemy of suttee
Scholar, linguist, tireless pamphleteer,
Combining the best of Hindu, Islamic and Christian thought,
Was he all that he is made out to be?
Born at Radhanagar, a village in Bengal,
Fifteen years after Plassey, into a Brahmin zamindari family;
The Roys were a privileged lot, whose forbears
Had served the Moguls and been rewarded suitably.
But times were hard, famine in the land, marauding bands,
Sanyasis in rebellion, anarchy and superstition,
Hindu society caste-ridden, infanticide and suttee,
A ghastly form of suicide,
The Muslim elite powerless, effete,
And John Company in endless pursuit of profit.
How did the young Rammohun react?
Contents:
Long Historical Poem in Three Parts