Rammohun Roy by Phillip Medhurst

THE ESSEX HALL LECTURE 1992

RAMMOHUN ROY AND “THE DAY-STAR OF APPROACHING MORN”

PHILLIP MEDHURST

This is the Essex Hall Lecture for 1992 and it was delivered in Bristol, on April 11,
1992. Essex Hall is the London headquarters of the General Assembly of Unitarian
and Free Christian Churches and stands on the site of the building where the first
avowedly Unitarian congregation in an English speaking country met over two
hundred years ago. The lecture was founded in 1892 and many distinguished
persons in various fields have contributed to the series. The delivery of the lecture is
one of the leading events during the General Assembly’s Annual Meetings.

A complete list of previous lectures, many of which are still available for purchase,
may be obtained by application to the Information Department of the General
Assembly, at the address printed below.

Published by the Unitarian Information Department of the General Assembly of
Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

Essex Hall, 1-6 Essex Street, Strand, London WC2R 3HY. (071) 240 2384

ISBN 085319 921

© 1992 by Phillip Medhurst

Phillip Medhurst was born in Leicester in 1948. After Grammar School he gained an
open scholarship to Oxford where he read English then Theology and trained for
the Anglican ministry. After ordination in 1973 he held various parochial,
chaplaincy and educational appointments before relinquishing Anglican Orders in
1988. Mr Medhurst in now Head of Religious Studies and Lay Chaplain in an
independent secondary school in Worcestershire.


1. RAMMOHUN ROY: "WHAT AN INTERESTING MAN IS THIS!"

In 1817 Engish versions of some Hindu Scriptures were published in London. (1)
These translations had, in fact, first appeared in Calcutta during the previous year.
They had been made by a certain Hindu of independent means called “Rammohun
Roy”. The reprint had been edited by one John Digby while on leave from his
duties with the Bengal civil service. In it he prefixes an account of the translator:
"Rammohun Roy . . . is by birth a Brahmin of very respectable origin, in the

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province of Bengal, about forty-three years of age. His acquirements are
considerable: to a thorough knowledge of the Sanscrit (the language of the
Brahminical Scriptures) he has added Persian and Arabic; and possessing an acute
understanding, he early conceived a contempt for the religious prejudices and
absurd superstitions of his caste . . . . . . . . . . He was afterwards employed as a
Dewan, or principal native officer, in the collection of revenues, in the district of
which I was for five years Collector, in the East India Company's Civil Service. By
perusing all my public correspondence with diligence and attention as well as by
corresponding and conversing with European gentlemen, he acquired so correct a
knowledge of the English language to be enabled to write and speak it with
considerable accuracy." (2)

The earliest published notices of Rammohun had in fact appeared in Baptist
Periodicals in 1816. (3) But the earliest published notice of Rammohun in a
Unitarian Journal shows that within five years of Digby's account there had been a
fascinating turn in events. The correspondent quotes in full a letter written by
Rammohun in English dated Sept. 5, 1820. In his own words it explains why
Rammohun had become the subject of attention from Christians of such widely
differing views: “. . . . I regret . . . . that the followers of Jesus, in general, should
have paid much greater attention to inquiries after his nature than to the observance
of his commandments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On this consideration I have compiled
several passages of the New Testament which I thought essential to Christianity,
and published them under the designation of "Precepts of Jesus", at which the
Missionaries at Serampur have expressed great displeasure, and called me, in their
review of the tract, an injurer of the cause of truth. I was, therefore, under the
necessity of defending myself in an ‘Appeal to the Christian Public’. . . . ." (4)

A further notice in 1822 (5) gave the controversy some human interest: "Mr. Adam,
a Baptist Missionary, awakened by the arguments of this Hindoo Reformer, has
declared himself a Unitarian, and established a Unitarian press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mr.
Adam . . . . . remains at Calcutta, supported and encouraged by some of its
respectable inhabitants, who are about to erect an Unitarian Chapel for him."

Dr. Lant Carpenter had been minister of Lewin's Mead Meeting in Bristol since
1817. It is unlikely that he or his household would have overlooked these and other
notices which appeared in "The Monthly Repository" (6), the chief organ of the
Unitarian movement at that time. But we can imagine the impact which the
following letter to Dr. Carpenter from Henry Taylor of Liverpool (7) would have
had upon the minister's family as a whole: "My Dear Sir,/ The accompanying copy
of Rammohun Roy's ‘Final Appeal’ is forwarded to you by desire of the author, as
you will find expressed in a letter I have lately received from him, and a copy of
which I also transmit for your perusal. What an interesting man is this! Why do not
our Unitarian Fund Committee commence a correspondence with him, for who so

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proper, or so well qualified to convert the heathen? Books should be sent him, and
in short every means should be pursued to assist him in his noble though arduous
undertaking." Rammohun's letter is designed to introduce himself to leading British
Unitarians, among whom he numbers Dr. Carpenter. It had an immediate effect.
Dr. Carpenter wrote, "His services in the cause of philanthropy and religion were, in
a special manner brought forward to this congregation (ie. Lewin's Mead); when an
appeal was made to it, answered with more than its wonted liberality to assist in the
establishment of Unitarian worship in the capital of British India." (8)

The particular reasons for the Unitarian interest in Rammohun were early indicated
(in 1817) by Thomas Belsham, the minister of the Essex Street Chapel in London.
The first was to do with Rammohun's social status and education: "Rammohun Roy,
a learned, eloquent, and opulent Brahmin, having by the proper exercise of his own
understanding, discovered the folly and absurdity of the Hindoo mythology and of
idol-worship . . . . . . . has entered his protest against their impious, barbarous and
idolatrous rites. Such doctrine from a person of such exalted rank, at first excited
great astonishment, and gave infinite offence. But by degrees, the courage,
eloquence, and perseverance of this extraordinary man prevailed over all the
opposition; and it is said that many hundreds of the native Hindoos, and especially
of the young people, have embraced his doctrine." (9)

So far, Christianity had only made any headway with the poor of India.
Furthermore, Rammohun's rank and education overcame any reservations which
might have been entertained about the moral and intellectual calibre of his race.
Such concerns seem uppermost in an anonymous poetic obituary that was later to
appear in a Bristol newspaper:


"Twas thine to see, to feel the shame.
Alas, what millions are blind!

Insensible they bear the name,

But ‘Man’ is not their grade or kind -
Dark, vicious, cruel, mean, and base,


A grov'lling, vile, and abject race." (10)

Rammohun is deemed praiseworthy on the grounds that he is untypical of his race.
The extent to which racial prejudice could affect the assessment of a person even, as
in the case of Rammohun, of recognised worthiness, is illustrated by the remark of
someone who was able to observe him socially on his later visit to England: "He is a
curiosity certainly but seems to me to be very much bewildered and, blacklike,
generally to agree with the last speaker". (11)

The second aspect of Rammohun's significance as outlined by Belsham's early notice
is more important: "He told a worthy clergyman at Calcutta about a year ago, that

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he preferred Christianity to all other religions, and would certainly embrace it, if it
were not for the doctrine of the Trinity. This was an insurmountable obstacle. At the
beginning of this year, in January 1817, he informed the same respectable
clergyman, that he was now in the way of ascertaining whether the doctrine of the
Trinity is or is not the doctrine of the New Testament . . . . . . . . The result of this
enquiry has not yet reached England." (11) The immediate fruit of Rammohun's
enquiry was his four pages of mild and inoffensive preface to "The Precepts of
Jesus" (1820). As a result of criticism this then evoked a first "Appeal in Defence"
(1820) of 20 pages and a "Second Appeal" (1821) of 150 pages, and culminated in a
"Third and Final Appeal" (1823) of 256 pages.

All of these had been inspired by a controversy which had been raging with the
Baptist missionaries working at Serampore, where Carey, Marshman and Ward had
founded a College in 1818. They were the first Protestant missionaries from England
to establish work in India. Rammohun assisted them with a translation of the Bible
and to this end learned both Hebrew and Greek. "The Precepts of Jesus: The Guide
to Peace and Happiness" was printed at the Baptist Mission Press in 1820. It was
mainly a compilation of the ethical sayings of Jesus, taken primarily from the first
three Gospels, but without the historical or mythological framework. Thus Jesus's
birth, death and resurrection, as well as the miracles, were all left out. The emphasis
was on the authoritative teaching of Jesus. Rammohun explained that he wished to
avoid controversy, and whether he believed them or not miraculous events were
liable to arouse doubts and disputes among free-thinkers and anti-Christians.
Furthermore the accounts of miracles and wonders would carry little weight among
Hindus, because Hindu mythology contained tales of an even more wonderful
nature.

The "Precepts" immediately came under attack from Joshua Marshman. He
deplored this attempt by what he called a "heathen" to misrepresent Christianity.
He argued that the precepts of Jesus in themselves could not be a guide to peace
and happiness. Only belief in the deity of Christ and his atoning death could bring
peace. Furthermore, in his sayings Jesus had claimed attributes of divinity for
himself.

Rammohun was surprised at being attacked by a Christian rather than a Hindu, and
was offended at being called a "heathen". Nevertheless, he took up the challenge in
his three "Appeals". In these he showed that he was something more than a deist
who, under the influence of Unitarianism, denied the divinity of Christ.
Rammohun's attitude to Christianity sprang from a real concern for the uniqueness
of Christ and his teaching. A modern Indian Christian has argued quite
convincingly that Rammohun's was an early attempt to demythologise the Christian
religion: "He saw, what the missionaries could not see, that Jesus would simply be
understood as another avatar if Christianity was presented in traditional western

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garb. A story about a saviour who was born under miraculous circumstances, who
performed supernatural deeds, who was put to death, but cheated his enemies and
came to life again - would fit in excellently with the Vishnu Puranas and would be
well received on the level of popular Hinduism . . . . . . . at the cost of the unique
message of Jesus which India needed." (12)

The significance of Rammohun for Dr. Carpenter did not reside solely in aspirations
towards the spread of Christianity in India. The worthy Rajah's views on the Trinity
was a vindication of struggles closer to home. Commenting on Rammohun's
endeavours – "whose writings display a remarkable acquaintance with the great
points at issue between the Unitarian and the Trinitarian" – he remarks: "I have long
been convinced that the unbelieving world will not be Christianised until the
Christian world in general is Unitarianised; and the writings of the Hindoo
Reformer add strength to this conviction." (13) The cherished hope that Rammohun
would be the means by which a Unitarian form of Christianity would be established
in India persisted even after his untimely death. Harriet Martineau expressed it in a
hymn written for an obituary service:

"No faithless tears, O God! we shed
For him . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

No faithless tears! Though many dream
To see his face by Ganges' stream;
Though thousands wait on many a shore,
The voice that shall be heard no more.." (14)

Miss Acland, in the same anthology (15), even gave expression to a pious fantasy
that Rammohun's grave would become a place of pilgrimage for his converted
compatriots:

"Perchance when o'er thy loved paternal bower,
The Sun of Righteousness shall healing rise, -
When India's children feel his noon-day power,
And mingle all in Christian sympathies, -

Hither their pilgrim footsteps duly bound,
With fervent zeal, these hallowed haunts shall trace,
And sweetly solemn tears bedew the ground
Where sleeps the friend and prophet of their race!"

Rammohun had arrived in England in 1831. Dr. Carpenter's eldest daughter Mary
was an accomplished young woman of 24. Her father had conducted a school for
boys, and Mary took her place in the classes, helped her mother in the domestic

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side, and at an early age assumed duties as a teacher. When, because of health
problems, Dr. Carpenter had to give up the school, Mrs. Carpenter in 1829 opened a
boarding school for young ladies in which Mary did most of the teaching. Mary
was no doubt fully in her father's confidence and shared his hopes and aspirations
for the dawn of enlightenment signalled by Rammohun's endeavours.

Soon after Rammohun's arrival in April Dr. Carpenter and he met and the Reformer
was conducted to a meeting of the Unitarian Association in Essex Street which
expressed sympathy for his arduous and philanthropic labours and delight at his
presence among them. It was no doubt at about this time that Mary was inspired or
called upon by her father to exercise her literary skills and express the significance
of the Rammohun-phenomenon in poetic form. The result was a sonnet preserved
in manuscript in Manchester College library:


"When from afar we saw thy burning light
Rise gloriously o'er darkened India's shore
In spirit we rejoiced, and yet still more

Arose our admiration and delight

When, steadfast to pursue thy course aright,
We saw thee brave fierce persecution's power.
As yet we knew thee not, but that blest hour

Which first revealed thee to our longing sight

Awakened for thee deepest Christian love,
And told us thou hadst sat at Jesus' feet. -

But now a glowing halo from above
Circles our thought of thee when to the seat

Of Mercy, rapt in ardent prayer, we come.

Our Father, lead Thy wandering children home!"

What has been conveniently forgotten here is Rammohun's attempts to return to the
pure monotheism of the Hindu Scriptures. Although nowhere spelled out, it was
evident that Rammohun believed that all religions stemmed from a common
monotheistic root apprehended by reason. But in the eyes of Mary Carpenter
Rammohun has discovered revealed Truth. Having "sat at Jesus' feet" he is ready to
assist in the leading of the "wandering children" of India home to their fore-destined
place in the fold of Unitarian Christianity. Hopes were high.

They were soon to be cruelly dashed. A month or so after arriving at Bristol as the
guest of the Carpenters Rammohun died. There is no record of the discussions
which took place among the Unitarians of Bristol during the three weeks between
this sad event and the Rajah's interment at Stapleton Grove. Despite the apparent
affinity of principle between the Hindu reformer and his mentors, it was difficult
for those arranging the funeral to decide on the appropriate rites. In the event, the

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actual committal took place in silence. The wisdom and reverence of this decision in
the face of some very pressing polemical considerations was well explained in
poetic tribute to the Rajah's memory by a certain Miss Dale:


"No voice, no whisper broke the deep repose
When to the earth that sacred dust was given;
All silently the sacrifice arose
From kindling hearts, in one pure flame, to Heaven.
Pure from the sun of righteousness it came
Upon those hearts. Language, to common thought
Interpreter, had dimmed that holy flame
Or, with the prism's power, to sight had brought
The varying hues which human frailty throws
O'er things divine. Oh! never more misplaced,
Than at that grave where narrow bounds inclose
Him, whose diffusive love had all mankind embraced." (16)

Clearly, in the face of providing valedictory rites on this most solemn of occasions,
their confidence in the Christian convictions of the deceased had wavered. But it
soon became apparent that Rammohun's sympathies had to be spelled out.

Even before Rammohun's interment a biographical notice appeared from the pen of
his secretary Sandford Arnot. It made no mention of his Unitarian sympathies.
There was evidently a pressing need to spell out the "true meaning" of Rammohun's
life. This need was met by Dr. Carpenter in his "Review" of the Rajah's life, but
something was needed to coincide with the interment – something which could be
used on the occasion if not during the actual event, and which would create the
appropriate impression in the press. Mary's literary talents were prevailed upon.
The result was a series of five sonnets. They tell us a great deal about the
"mythology" of Unitarians at this time.

II. RAMMOHUN: "THE DAY-STAR OF APPROACHING MORN"

When Rammohun came to London he was feted by fashionable society. He met the
famous and beautiful actress Fanny Kemble and visited the theatre with the Duke of
Devonshire to see her play. These gaieties no doubt played into the hands of the
"Puritan" party. The Carpenters' first task was to counter any possible aspersions on
their hero's character. Dr. Carpenter attempted to offset any possible rumours in
his biography written immediately after Rammohun's death: "I had myself repeated
opportunities of observing with earnest respect how he appreciated true delicacy in
the female character and I learn that, while he always maintained his habitual
politeness to the sex, and may have therefore misled the superficial observer, he
manifested a very prompt and clear discrimination as to individuals, and that he

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commonly expressed strong dislike, and even disgust, where they seemed to him to
depart from that true modesty which is essential to its excellence." (17) A
biographical explanation for Rammohun's regard for the female sex recounted by
Dr. Carpenter smacks a little of romantic legend, but there is no reason to doubt that
the worthy divine obtained the information from Rammohun himself: "Without
disputing the authority of his father, he often sought from him information as to the
reasons of his faith; he obtained no satisfaction; and he at last determined at the
early age of 15, to leave the paternal home, and sojourn for a time in Tibet, that he
might see another form of religious faith. He spent two or three years in that
country, and often excited the angers of the worshippers of the Lama by his
rejection of their doctrine that this pretended deity – a living man – was the creator
and preserver of the world. In these circumstances he experienced the soothing
kindness of the female part of the family; and his gentle, feeling heart lately dwelt
with deep interest, at the distance of more than forty years, on the recollections of
that period which, he said, had made him always feel respect and gratitude towards
the female sex." (18)

But Rammohun's altruistic concern for the status of women in India was genuine,
and probably inspired his reforming endeavours. In 1811 his brother, Jaganmohun,
died and his widow committed sati on his funeral pyre. We do not know whether
Rammohun witnessed this, but he was profoundly affected. Between 1814 and 1820
the main drive of his writings was to counter the alleged religious justification of
this atrocious custom and then to actively promote the rights of women. During his
researches in Sanscrit literature, he had been impressed by the purity of its
monotheistic doctrines in contrast to the prevailing idolatry of his own days. He
therefore translated the Vedanta into Bengali and made abridgements of this in
English and Hindustani. Next, in 1816, he translated two of the Upanishads into
Bengali and English and, in 1817, wrote a defence of Hindu theism in Bengali. In
1818 he published, in English, his first tract on sati. In this he showed that the
custom was not ordained by Hindu Scripture. In a second tract, published in 1820,
he made an eloquent appeal in defence of the rights of women, showing that they
were in no way inferior to men and were in some way superior to them.

All of this is skilfully woven into one of Mary's sonnets:


"Exil'd from home e'en in thy earliest youth,
The healing balm of woman's love was pour'd
Into thy troubled breast, and thence were stor'd

Deep springs of gratitude and pitying ruth

To lead thy race to that primeval truth
Which, bright and pure, on all alike bestow'd,
Points heavenward; and to guide them on the road

Of Christian faith was thine. But yet to soothe

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Neglected woman, to assert her right
To drink of wells of everlasting life;

To snatch her, trembling midst the dismal night
Of pagan horrors, from the fiery strife

Of dark-soul'd zealots - this must wake our love,

This, fervent, raise our thanks for thee above."

For all the historical veracity of what she has written, the central thesis of the sonnet
- that Rammohun's vocation was to lead his race "on the road/ Of Christian faith"
and to assert Indian woman's "right/To drink of wells of everlasting life" - is lop-
sided. The Unitarian movement's aspirations at this time have begun to affect their
account of Rammohun's activities.

We have already seen how, in the eyes of Mary, to have published the precepts of
Jesus was to have "sat at the feet" of Jesus. For Mary, the words of Jesus are a divine
revelation of salvific power. John's Gospel provided the appropriate metaphor in
the story of Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well: "Jesus
answered and said unto her. ‘If thou knewest the gift of God, and who is it saith to
thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given
thee living water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst
again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life.’" (John 4:10,13-15) It is true that "primeval truth" is accessible to all:
the kindness which Rammohun met from women in his youth become "Deep
springs of gratitude and pitying ruth". But there is no doubt in Mary's mind that
this "primeval truth" finds its consummation in the teaching of Jesus.

The story of the Samaritan woman was an ideal example of the ministry of Jesus to
those outside the authoritative Judaic revelation; the subject of womanhood allows
Mary to introduce it, and she develops it in another sonnet in the series:


Thy Nation sat in darkness, for the night
Of pagan gloom was o'er it. Thou wast born
Midst superstition's ignorance forlorn.

Yet in thy breast there glow'd a heavenly light

Of purest truth and love, and to thy sight
Appear'd the day-star of approaching morn.
What ardent zeal did then thy life adorn,

From deep degrading guilt to lead aright

Thy fallen people, to direct their view
To that bless'd Sun of Righteousness, whence beams

Guidance to all that seek it – faithful, true –
To call them to the Saviour's living streams!

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The cities of the East have heard thy voice:

Nations behold your God! Rejoice! Rejoice! (Isaiah 40:9)

In a polemical vindication of Unitarianism (19) Lant Carpenter wrote: ". . . . . those of
us who have observed the enquiries of Rammohun Roy of Calcutta . . . . . . . cheer
themselves with the conviction that the day-star of Unitarianism has arisen . . . . in
the East." Hand in hand with the certainty that the teaching of Jesus carried an
authoritative revelation went an eschatology that assured these Unitarian Christians
that they were on the winning side. Once again, it was Scripture that provided the
basis for their confidence. Mary recounts how her father read the fortieth chapter of
Isaiah at the memorial service held a week or so after Rammohun's death. (20) A
marginal note tells us that the last line of Mary's first sonnet refers to the same
passage: "O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings . . . . say unto the cities of Judah,
‘Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand . . ‘"

This cheerful eschatology expressed itself in political as well as religious categories.
The idea that humankind was progressing inevitably towards a new dawn in which
an enlightened liberalism would triumph was very much part of the climate of
ideas. The continuator of Sophia Collet's biography of Rammohun describes it as "a
time of crucial transition in the political history of the United Kingdom. He (ie.
Rammohun) was an eager and sympathetic spectator of the stupendous revolution
achieved by the first Reform Bill. The process began which has by successive
extensions of the franchise transformed the government of this nation in fifty years
from a close oligarchy to a democracy. While he was here, he saw the East India
Company changed by statute from a trading concern into a political organisation:
and that was practically the last renewal of its charter, prior to its replacement, in
1858, by the Imperial Government. He saw the Act pass which abolished slavery
throughout the British dominions. The period of his visit also covers the passing of
the Factory Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . He was here, in a word, when the New England was
being born out of the heart of Old England – the New England of democracy, of
social and industrial reform . . . . . . and of Imperial policy tempered by
Noncomformist Conscience." (21)

This political eschatology is expressed in another of Mary's sonnets:


"Far from thy native clime, a sea-girt land
Sits thron'd among the nations. In the breasts
Of all her sons immortal Freedom rests,

And of her patriots many a holy hand

Has sought to rouse the world from the command
Of that debasing tyrant who detests
The reign of truth and love. At their behests

The slave is free, and Superstition's band

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