The Cambridge Companion to Rammohun Roy
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 31. August 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
330 pages
978-1-009-54716-1 (ISBN)
Description
Rammohun Roy (1774-1833) has been variously celebrated-or critiqued-as the 'Father of Modern India', 'the Erasmus of India', the first embodiment of the Bengal Renaissance under British rule, or, indeed, as the first modern Indian intellectual whose dilemmas revealed (to later analysts) the constraints of a colonial formation of politics and economy. He agitated for the freedom of the press, argued against the practice of sati, fought for the Hindu widow's right to inherit property, founded a religious organisation (the Brahmo Samaj) based on Unitarian principles, and gave evidence on Indian issues to the British parliament in 1831. He has been acknowledged as one of the progenitors of modern Bengali prose. His international reputation was unprecedented - much admired in America, he was feted in Britain and France, and the Spanish Constitution of Cadiz was dedicated to him. The Cambridge Companion to Rammohun Roy offers a revaluation of Rammohun's life and work through fresh readings of his life and legacy. It also aims to present a global connected history of modern thought in the early nineteenth century, prioritising local sources in both the English press and Bengali-language publications that were so far unexplored.
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Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-54716-1 (9781009547161)
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Persons
Dipesh Chakrabarty is Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the college at University of Chicago. He is also the founding member of the journal Subaltern Studies, a consulting editor of Critical Inquiry, a founding editor of Postcolonial Studies, and has served on the editorial boards of the American Historical Review and Public Culture. His research combines the social history of modern India with postcolonial historiography in works that influence the field at large. His awards include the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Indian Institute of Management, Toynbee Prize, Tagore Memorial Prize, and honorary doctorates from the University of London, University of Antwerp, and the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris. He is the author of Rethinking Working-Class History: Bengal 1890-1940 (2000). Rosinka Chaudhuri is Director and Professor of Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. She was inaugural Mellon Professor of the Global South at Oxford University, 2017-18, and has held visiting positions at St Hugh's College, Oxford, King's College, London, Delhi University, Cambridge University and Columbia University. She has authored Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal: Emergent Nationalism and the Orientalist Project (Seagull: 2002), Freedom and Beef-Steaks: Colonial Calcutta Culture (Orient Blackswan: 2012) and The Literary Thing: History, Poetry and the Making of a Modern Cultural Sphere (Oxford University Press: 2013, Peter Lang: 2014). Tanika Sarkar is a historian of women's histories and social movements in colonial and post-colonial India. She retired as the Chair of Modern History, at the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University having previously taught at Indraprastha College and St. Stephen's College in New Delhi, India. She is the author of numerous books including, Bengal 1928-34 : The Politics of Protest (Oxford, 1987); Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation: Community, Religion and Cultural Nationalism (Permanent Black, Indiana University Press and Hurst, 2001), Rebels, Wives, Saints: Designing Selves and Nations in Colonial Times (Permanent Black and Seagull, 2009), Words to Win: The Making of a Modern Autobiography (Kali for Women, 1999; Zubaan Books, 2014) Hindu Nationalism in India (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Editor
University of Chicago, US
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, India
Ashoka University, India
Content
Acknowledgements; Introduction Dipesh Chakrabarty, Rosinka Chaudhuri and Tanika Sarkar; Part I.?Rammohun Roy in History and Memory: 1. Rammohun as Signifier Amit Chaudhuri; 2. The Liberal Rammohun Roy: A History of Indian Intellectual History Nazmul Sultan; 3. Rammohun Roy: 'A Mere Landlord'? Disputes, Debates, Disagreements Rosinka Chaudhuri; 4. Imperial Emissary: Raja Ram Mohan Roy's Fateful Passage to England Sudipta Sen; 5. Rammohun Roy: His Songs and Contribution to Bengali Music Amit Das; 6. Rammohun Roy in Bengali Muslim Memory and History Mohammad Azam; Part II.?Rammohun Roy and Religion's Reason: 7. Rethinking Rammohun's Vedanta: Some Contemporary Reflections Amiya P. Sen; 8. Rammohun Roy the Modern Vedanti Dermot Killengley; 9. Rammohun Roy, Celebrity Unitarian Lynn Zastoupil; 10. Modernity and Monotheism: The Literary Moment of Raja Rammohan Roy Anustup Basu; 11. Reason and Rammohun Roy Rudrangshu Mukherjee; Part III.?Rammohun Roy, an Argumentative Indian?: 12. Between Advocate and Opponent: The Sati Debate in Colonial Bengal Paul B. Courtright; 13. The Spiritual, the Religious and the Secular in Rammohan Roy's Public Hermeneutic Praxis Rahul Govind; 14. Rammohun versus Kashinath: Gender, Scripture and Custom in Early-Nineteenth-Century Debates on Widow Burnings Tanika Sarkar; 15. Rammohun's 'Moral Revolution': Neo-prescriptivism and Normative Controversy in Early-Nineteenth-Century Kolkata Thomas Newbold; 16. Rajopanishad: On Rammohun Roy and Translation Brian A. Hatcher; Notes on Contributors; Index.