Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Raja Ram Mohan Roy could read many, many languages — Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, English, Bengali — and he asked hard, brave questions of everyone around him. He was upset that some widows were being forced onto their husband's funeral fires, a cruel practice called sati.

He worked and wrote and pleaded, until the law was changed and this practice was banned. He also started a new group called the Brahmo Samaj, which taught that there is one God, that everyone is equal, and that we should always keep learning.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born in 1772 in Bengal into a Brahmin family. Deeply curious, he studied Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, English and later Hebrew and Greek.

He read the scriptures of many religions and became convinced that unjust customs should not hide behind religion.

In 1828 he founded the Brahmo Sabha (later the Brahmo Samaj), a reform movement that stood for one formless God, the equality of all people, and the education of women. He campaigned tirelessly against sati — the burning of widows — and his efforts led to its ban by Governor-General William Bentinck in 1829.

He also pushed for modern education in English and in the sciences alongside traditional learning, and started newspapers in Bengali, Persian and English. He is often called the father of the Bengal Renaissance and the modern Indian mind.