DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0498
488 Modern Hindu Theism. Rammohun Roy.
adopted a nearly true theory of the unity and personality of
God; he had abandoned the doctrines of transmigration and
final absorption of the soul; he had professed his belief in
a day of judgment; he had accepted the Christian miracles,
and had even declared Jesus Christ to be the 'Founder of
truth and true religion,' and had admitted that the Son of
God was empowered by God to forgive sins; but he never
entirely delivered himself from his old prepossessions, and
the alleged purity of his monotheism was ever liable to be
adulterated with pantheistic ideas. In the eyes of the law
he always remained a Brahman. He never abandoned the
Brahmanical thread, and had too lively a sense of the value
of money to risk the forfeiture of his property and the con-
sequent diminution of his usefulness and influence, by formally
giving up his caste. In fact, though far in advance of his age
as a thinker, he laid no claim to perfection or to perfect dis-
interestedness of motive as a man.
Unfortunately for the interests of India, Rammohun Roy's
career was cut short prematurely. In 1830 the ex-Emperor
of Delhi, having long felt himself ill-treated by the Indian
Government, deputed Rammohun Roy to lay a representation
of his grievances before the Court of Great Britain, at the
same time conferring on him the title of Raja. The Raja's
great wish had always been to visit England and inter-
change ideas with the Western thinkers. He also wished to
oppose in person a threatened appeal against the law for the
abolition of Suttee (Satl), the passing of which had been
just effected through his exertions, and which only required
the royal assent. He was aware, too, that the granting of a
new charter to the East India Company was about to be
discussed in Parliament, and he felt the importance of
friends. Murder, theft, or perjury, though brought home to the party by
a judicial sentence, so far from inducing loss of caste, is visited with no
peculiar mark of infamy./
adopted a nearly true theory of the unity and personality of
God; he had abandoned the doctrines of transmigration and
final absorption of the soul; he had professed his belief in
a day of judgment; he had accepted the Christian miracles,
and had even declared Jesus Christ to be the 'Founder of
truth and true religion,' and had admitted that the Son of
God was empowered by God to forgive sins; but he never
entirely delivered himself from his old prepossessions, and
the alleged purity of his monotheism was ever liable to be
adulterated with pantheistic ideas. In the eyes of the law
he always remained a Brahman. He never abandoned the
Brahmanical thread, and had too lively a sense of the value
of money to risk the forfeiture of his property and the con-
sequent diminution of his usefulness and influence, by formally
giving up his caste. In fact, though far in advance of his age
as a thinker, he laid no claim to perfection or to perfect dis-
interestedness of motive as a man.
Unfortunately for the interests of India, Rammohun Roy's
career was cut short prematurely. In 1830 the ex-Emperor
of Delhi, having long felt himself ill-treated by the Indian
Government, deputed Rammohun Roy to lay a representation
of his grievances before the Court of Great Britain, at the
same time conferring on him the title of Raja. The Raja's
great wish had always been to visit England and inter-
change ideas with the Western thinkers. He also wished to
oppose in person a threatened appeal against the law for the
abolition of Suttee (Satl), the passing of which had been
just effected through his exertions, and which only required
the royal assent. He was aware, too, that the granting of a
new charter to the East India Company was about to be
discussed in Parliament, and he felt the importance of
friends. Murder, theft, or perjury, though brought home to the party by
a judicial sentence, so far from inducing loss of caste, is visited with no
peculiar mark of infamy./