The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 1

by R. V. Russell

Brahmo Samāj Religion.—This monotheistic sect of Bengal numbered only thirty-two adherents in the Central Provinces in 1911, of whom all or nearly all were probably Bengalis. Nevertheless its history is of great interest as representing an attempt at the reform and purification of Hinduism under the influence of Christianity. The founder of the sect, Rām Mohan Roy, a Brāhman, was born in 1772 and died in England in 1833. He was sent to school at Patna, where under the influence of Muhammadan teachers he learnt to despise the extravagant stories of the Purānas. At the age of sixteen he composed a tract against idolatry, which stirred up such a feeling of animosity against him that he had to leave his home. He betook himself first to Benares, where he received instruction in the Vedas from the Brāhmans. From there he went to Tibet, that he might learn the tenets of Buddhism from its adherents rather than its opponents; his genuine desire to form a fair judgment of the merits of every creed being further evidenced by his learning the language in which each of these finds its expression: thus he learnt Sanskrit that he might rightly understand the Vedas, Pāli that he might read the Buddhist Tripitaka, Arabic as the key to the Korān, and Hebrew and Greek for the Old and New Testaments.[1] In 1819, after a diligent study of the Bible, he published a book entitled The Precepts of Jesus, the Guide to Peace and Happiness. Although this work was eminently appreciative of the character and teaching of Christ, it gave rise to an attack from the missionaries of Serampore. Strange to say, Rām Mohan Roy so far converted his tutor Mr. Adam (himself a missionary) to his own way of thinking that that gentleman relinquished his spiritual office, became editor of the Indian Gazette, and was generally known in Calcutta as ‘The second fallen Adam.’[2]

2. Much esteemed by the English.

Rām Mohan Roy was held in great esteem by his English contemporaries in India. He dispensed in charities the bulk of his private means, living himself with the strictest economy in order that he might have the more to give away. It was to a considerable extent due to his efforts, and more especially to his demonstration that the practice of Sati found no sanction in the Vedas, that this abominable rite was declared illegal by Lord William Bentinck in 1829. The titular emperor of Delhi conferred the title of Rāja upon him in 1830 and induced him to proceed to England on a mission to the Home Government. He was the first Brāhman who had crossed the sea, and his distinguished appearance, agreeable manners, and undoubtedly great ability, coupled with his sympathy for Christianity, procured him a warm welcome in England, where he died in 1833.[3]

3. Foundation of the Brahmo Samāj.

Rām Mohan Roy, with the help of a few friends and disciples, founded, in 1830, the Brahmo Samāj or Society of God. In the trust deed of the meeting-house it was laid down that the society was founded for “the worship and adoration of the eternal, unsearchable and immutable Being who is the Author and Preserver of the Universe, but not by any other name, designation or title peculiarly used by any men or set of men; and that in conducting the said worship and adoration, no object, animate or inanimate, that has been or is or shall hereafter become ... an object of worship by any men or set of men, shall be reviled or slightingly or contemptuously spoken of or alluded to either in preaching, or in the hymns or other mode of worship that may be delivered or used in the said messuage or building.”[4] This well exemplifies the broad toleration and liberality of the sect. The service in the new theistic church consisted in the recital of the Vedas by two Telugu Brāhmans, the reading of texts from the Upanishads, and the expounding of the same in Bengali. The Samāj, thus constituted, based its teaching on the Vedas and was at this time, though unorthodox, still a Hindu sect, and made no attempt at the abolition of caste. “Indeed, in establishing this sect, Rām Mohan Roy professed to be leading his countrymen back to the pure, uncorrupted, monotheistic religion of their Vedic ancestors; but his monotheism, based, as it was, essentially upon the Vedanta philosophy, was in reality but a disguised Pantheism, enriched as regards its ethics by ideas derived from Muslim and Christian literature and theology.”[5]

4. Debendra Nāth Tagore.

After the death of its founder the sect languished for a period of ten years until it was taken in hand by Debendra Nāth Tagore, whose father Dwārka Nāth had been a friend and warm admirer of Rām Mohan Roy, and had practically maintained the society by paying its expenses during the interval. In 1843 Debendra drew up a form of initiation which involved the renunciation of idolatry. He established branches of the Brahmo Samāj in many towns and villages of Bengal, and in 1845 he sent four Pandits to Benāres to copy out and make a special study of the Vedas. On their return to Calcutta after two years Debendra Nāth devoted himself with their aid to a diligent and critical study of the sacred books, and eventually, after much controversy and even danger of disruption, the Samāj, under his guidance, came to the important decision that the teaching of the Vedas could not be reconciled with the conclusions of modern science or with the religious convictions of the Brāhmos, a result which soon led to an open and public denial of the infallibility of the Vedas.

“There is nothing,” Professor Oman remarks, “in the Brāhmic movement more creditable to the parties concerned than this honest and careful inquiry into the nature of the doctrines and precepts of the Vedas.”[6]

5. Keshub Chandar Sen.

The tenets of the Brahmo Samāj consisted at this time of a pure theism, without special reliance on the Hindu sacred books or recognition of such Hindu doctrines as the transmigration of souls. But in their ordinary lives its members still conformed generally to the caste practices and religious usages of their neighbours. But a progressive party now arose under the leadership of Keshub Chandar Sen, a young man of the Vaidya caste, which desired to break altogether with Hinduism, abolish the use of sect marks and the prohibition of intermarriage between castes, and to welcome into the community converts from all religions. Meanwhile Debendra Nāth Tagore had spent three years in seclusion in the Himalayas, occupied with meditation and prayer; on his return he acceded so far to the views of Keshub Chandar Sen as to celebrate the marriage of his daughter according to a reformed theistic ritual; but when his friend pressed for the complete abolition of all caste restrictions, Debendra Nāth refused his consent and retired once more to the hills.[7] The result was a schism in the community, and in 1866 the progressive party seceded and set up a Samāj of their own, calling themselves the Brahmo Samāj of India, while the conservative group under Debendra Nāth Tagore was named the Adi or original Samāj. In 1905 the latter was estimated to number only about 300 persons.[8]