The Founding Fathers of Liberal Thinking in Modern India

What is liberal thinking? A simple definition is having an open mind on different issues and being less inclined to biases, holding prejudices and following conservative and traditional practices and views.

Since the time of independence, and the start of the Modern or Contemporary Era, opinions, ideas, feelings and ways of life have begun to change. The catalysts people say, were the influx of ideas from the West. The British brought with them new perspectives, the idea of a modern society with modern norms that were not configured to old traditions and backward ideas where discrimination and prejudice were inherent. What people fail to see is that the British cannot be entirely credited with the introduction of “modern or liberal thinking” to our nation. Rammohan Roy, a social and religious reformer and philosophical thinker born in 1772 to a moderately prosperous Vaishnavi Hindu family in Bengal, fought against the policies of sati and child marriage in the early and mid nineteenth century, an age which was dominated by the Christian missionaries who were on a pursuit to convert people and the ever non-complying and uber fanatic Hindu priests, the two of whom never agreed on anything except that Rammohan Roy was coming in their way. When sati was legally abolished in 1829, the credit was given to Governor General William Bentinck, without so much as half a mention of Raja Rammohan Roy who had actually been indispensible in the fight against it. In his paper, Relations between Men and Women written in 1818, he has expressed his strong opinion of how women are not treated fairly and they are subjected to unfair stereotypes, stereotypes that they are not given a chance to change. He has posed a question to society asking it that even though women are not given a chance of getting an education, are called untrustworthy, are married at a young age, are sometimes treated badly due to polygamy and are charged with want of resolution, even then how can society tie them down and set them on fire? With sentiments and expressions like these that we now take for granted but were unheard of in those times, it is evident that liberal thinking began much before the start of the Modern Era.

Closely following the footsteps of the Hindu reformer came [Sir] Syed Ahmed Khan, a Muslim Modernist, social activist and philosopher who possibly influenced by the acclaimed Rammohan Roy, became the first modernizer of Indian Islam. Born in 1817 to a family of administrative officials in the time of Emperor Akbar, like the Hindu phisopher, Khan was also keen for an upgrade to “modern education” which included studying works of history, science, mathematics and political economy. Khan was bent upon introducing this new type of education to Muslim men and like Roy was very motivated towards his cause. Both men actually had an astonishing number of similarities, some of which include bringing about reforms for their desired causes (women and Muslims), being prolific at a number of languages which included Arabic, Persian and English, travelling to England at the same age (57) though it was years apart and wanting to adopt the “modern education system” which didn’t focus on the Sanskrit shlokas which Roy believed wasn’t useful in the daily life. Khan however wanted the “modern curriculum” for a different reason. He believed that had his countrymen known about the power of the British Empire, (which would be taught in the new system) they would not have tried to revolt against the latter and the “unfortunate events” of the revolt of 1857 could have been avoided.

Born in 1861 to a family of scholars, social reformers and entrepreneurs, Rabindranath Tagore is one of the country’s most famous names today. A lauded author, dramatist, poet, artist and musician he has reshaped Bengal’s literature and music. He is widely remembered as the first Asian winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for “Gitanjali” which has been refined and edited by renowned Irish poet W.B Yeats. Tagore came from a rich and well cultured family. He was educated in England though he chose to drop out to continue self-education, he was the most widely travelled Indian of his time having been to all the seven continents except Antarctica and he was consequently encouraged to have a liberal ideology and not just follow old Indian norms. Like Syed Ahmed Khan, he too wanted to begin an institution, which he did in 1921 on family-owned land in Bengal. His curriculum again differed from that of Roy and Khan’s. Tagore’s institution- Viswa- Bharti, taught not only science and humanities but art and music as well, the latter of which had been given virtually no importance in Roy or Khan’s institutions. After having travelled the amount that he had, he had reached an understanding of India’s place in the world that was more profound than any others. Tagore was “a patriot without being a nationalist”. In the aftermath of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, he repudiated his knighthood saying that he didn’t want to accept such an honor from a nation that killed his countrymen. However he wasn’t a xenophobe like everyone around him seemed to be those days. Tagore’s ideal situation was to have a more civil and nuanced relationship between India and the British Empire.

Tagore also had a considerably direct connection to Rammohan Roy. His grandfather was a close associate of the latter and his family was one of the first to join Bramo Samaj, Roy’s monotheistic reformist movement. Tagore also mentions Roy in his essay ‘India and the West’, where he calls Roy “a great man of modern India who has not allowed any blind belief or ancestral habit to obscure his vision and he has accepted the West without betraying the East and he did not sell himself by holding out a beggar’s palms but assessed the true value of whatever he took.”

Liberal thinking is the reason that we have moved past our ancient rules and make new ones that are better suited to the time and age. The reason our existence is so much easier than that of our forefathers, is because of men like these. Rammohan Roy. Syed Ahmad Khan. Rabindranath Tagore. Though they had slight differences in their main goal of “modern education”, they are the reason women rights, illegality of child marriage, sati and discrimination based on caste or religion now exist. Our current education system is most comparable to Tagore’s institution, which shows the evolution of liberal ideas from the time of Roy to Khan to Tagore. All these men defied the social norms by putting forward their ideas, which at that point would have been greeted which a lot of scorn, anger and disagreement. Therefore this a testimony to their courage and their belief in doing what was right. As times change, we are exposed to newer and newer ideas and our way of thinking is becoming more liberal day by day. However this is an ode to the people who started it all: the founding fathers of liberal thinking in modern India.

Sources for this thesis: 'Makers of Modern India' by Ramachandra Guha