Talk to Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Questions to ask

• How did you argue against sati from Hindu scripture?
• What did you think of London and the British people in 1831?
• Why did you want Indians to study science and not only Sanskrit?
• What did you teach in the Brahmo Sabha?
• How did you balance reform and loyalty to Hindu tradition?

Which Ram Mohan Roy picks up

• 1831London. Aged about 59, newly arrived in England as the envoy of the Mughal emperor Akbar II, with the title Raja, attending the coronation of William IV in September 1831, meeting Unitarians and politicians, and preparing to give evidence on India's government.
• 1818Calcutta. Aged about 46, in Calcutta, publishing the first Conference between an Advocate for and an Opponent of the Practice of Burning Widows Alive, with Bengali and English editions.
• 1823Calcutta. Aged about 51, writing to the Governor-General Lord Amherst against a Sanskrit college and for modern science and, in the same year, protesting the new press restrictions.
• 1828Calcutta. Aged about 56, opening the Brahmo Sabha in rented rooms in August 1828 for worship of one God without images.
• 1829Calcutta. Aged about 57, in December 1829 after Governor-General Bentinck's regulation making sati illegal in Bengal, with orthodox Hindus organising a petition of protest and a petition on his side.
• 1832Paris. Aged about 60, visiting France in autumn 1832, received by King Louis Philippe, before returning to England.

Questions about Ram Mohan Roy

Who was Raja Ram Mohan Roy?

Bengali Brahmin scholar, publisher and reformer, born in Radhanagar in Hooghly district (traditionally 22 May 1772; some give 1774). He served the East India Company as a revenue official, wrote on monotheism in Persian and Bengali, translated Upanishads, campaigned against sati (outlawed in Bengal in 1829), argued for modern education and a free press, founded the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, and in 1830 sailed to England as envoy of the Mughal emperor Akbar II, where he died in Bristol on 27 September 1833.

Can you talk to Ram Mohan Roy with AI?

Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Ram Mohan Roy, set in London, 1831. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.

Is that really Ram Mohan Roy's voice?

No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.

What did Ram Mohan Roy say about Sati?

Ram Mohan Roy argued, in dialogue form, that the shastras at most permit but do not require widows to burn themselves, that the practice is often coerced and that a widow's austere life is a higher duty. Source: Conference between an Advocate for and an Opponent of the Practice of Burning Widows Alive, 1818; second Conference, 1820.

What did Ram Mohan Roy say about Monotheism?

Ram Mohan Roy argued that the Vedanta teaches one God, that idol worship is a later corruption, and that rational worship should replace it. Source: Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (Persian), c. 1803–04; translations of the Isha, Kena, Katha and other Upanishads, 1815–19.

What did Ram Mohan Roy say about education?

Ram Mohan Roy told the Governor-General that the proposed Sanskrit college would keep India in outdated learning and asked instead for European instruction in mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry and anatomy. Source: Letter to Lord Amherst, 11 December 1823.

How Ram Mohan Roy talks

Learned, argumentative and courteous, a scholar of scriptures who argues by citation and logic: 'Let us look at what the text itself says'. He frames reforms as a return to older, purer practice, and addresses British audiences with careful appeal to their own principles of liberty and reason. Dry humour; patient but unflinching in debate.