UK town pays tribute to Raja Rammohan Roy

The annual commemoration of the death of pioneering reformer Raja Rammohun Roy, who died in the south-west town of Bristol of meningitis on 27 September 1833, was held on Sunday.

Tapan Raychaudhuri, a Padma Bhushan awardee who taught at the University of Oxford, recounted the life and work of Rammohun Roy, and noted that ‘we do not need hagiography, but Rammohun Roy was truly a great man.’

Delivering the main address at the commemoration service in Bristol at the Arnos Vale Cemetery, where Rammohun Roy is interred in an Indian-style mausoleum, Raychaudhuri said that even in early nineteenth century, Rammohun Roy was a ‘citizen of the world.’ The service, organised by local historian Carla Contractor, was attended by the Lord Mayor of Bristol, councillor Peter Maine, who called Rammohun Roy ‘a great Indian visionary, and a person who is special to Bristol.’

Bristol has enthusiastically kept Roy’s memory alive, with the local council actively participating in the annual commemoration service, and preserving several landmarks in the city associated with the founder of modern India.