1/n #SadarPranam to Ishwara within you @PritishNandy Ji. @Payal_Rohatgi is absolutely correct when she says Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a British Puppet & he created the bad image of India in name of Sati. I explain in thread below. You may respond in full capacity but not before n/n. https://twitter.com/PritishNandy/status/1132690234024423424

2/n Raja wrote to Victor Jacquemont that “India requires many more years of English dominance so that she might not have many years to lose while she is reclaiming her political independence.”

Ref: Leaders of National Movement by Vidya Dhar Mahajan, pg 4
http://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/58820.pdf

3/n Raja Ram Mohan Roy proclaims that “Indians are fortunately placed by the Providence under the protection of the whole British Nation.”

Ref: Leaders of National Movement by Vidya Dhar Mahajan, pg 4
http://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/58820.pdf

4/n Raja Ram Mohan Roy goes on to thank god for putting India under the government of the English. (Read Snippet)

Ref: Leaders of National Movement by Vidya Dhar Mahajan, pg 4
http://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/58820.pdf

5/n Raja Ram Mohan Roy was advocate of European Colonisation (Check Snippet)

Ref: Leaders of National Movement by Vidya Dhar Mahajan, pg 4
http://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/58820.pdf

6/n @PritishNandy now let me give you some bigger shockers about Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Before Macaulay could offer to taper our “Cultural” identity Raja was already up for it. Heard of his famous letter to Lord Armherst? Let me give you few insight. Read

7/n Raja Ram Mohan Roy had written to Lord Amherst,the then Governor-General of India on Dec 11,1823 (12 years b4 Macaulay’s Minute), attacking the traditional Sanskrit education system prevalent at that time in India. Read Snippet.

Ref: https://apworld14.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/1/23519582/seeking_western_education.pdf

8/n Raja proposed that the funds proposed for educating Indians (East India Company’s charter,1813) should instead be invested in employing European gentlemen of talents and education to instruct the natives of India in mathematics, natural philosophy... (read snippet)

9/n In his letter, Raja brutally takes on the policy of the General Committee of Public Instruction, led by H. H. Wilson, that later established a Sanskrit College in Calcutta in January 1824.

10/n The letter can also be read in “English works of Raja Ram Mohan Roy” edited by Jogendra C Ghosh, P 322.

Link https://www.rarebooksocietyofindia.org/book_archive/196174216674_10151378258591675.pdf

11/n Raja batted for founding a college devoted completely to the European system of learning instead of a spending the government’s money on yet another Sanskrit college.

12/n The General Committee on Public Instruction provided funds for the founding of a Sanskrit College in Calcutta, that opened in the same in the year 1823 on the ideas exactly opposite to the Hindoo College (now Presidency University).

13/n It was ignition of European education using English as the medium of instruction. There Henry Derozio was leading a band of young students, towards radical thinking that made many reject the Hinduism & convert to Christianity or join the Brahmo Samaj”

14/n Yesterday I shared few snippets on RRMR’s opinion abt British Raj & Sanskrit Education. Though I’ve still not denied his attribute as reformer. Today I’m going to put whole historical account of “Sati” to understand 19th century. Keep following thread https://twitter.com/aabhas24/status/1132933592969957376?s=21

15/n The Greek historian Aristobulus, who traveled to India with the expedition of Alexander in 327 BCE, recorded that he had heard that among certain tribes widows in Taxila were glad to burn along with their husbands, and that those who declined to die were held in disgrace.

16/n Source for above:
The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3, pg 112. Link: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Geography_of_Strabo.html?id=0cZfAAAAMAAJ

“The essential point to be noted is that Aristobulus hears & doesn’t witness.”

Let’s read further.

17/n Axel Michaels: “the first inscriptional evidence of the practice is from Nepal in 464 CE, and in India from 510 CE. The early evidence suggests that widow-burning practice was seldom carried out in the general population.”

Check snippet.

18/n Source for above Snippet.
Hinduism: Past and Present
By Axel Michaels, pg 149-53

https://books.google.com/books/about/Hinduism.html?id=PD-flQMc1ocC

As per this source “Sati” wasn’t a regular Indian Practice nor Scriptures supported it. It also existed in other parts of world,eg,Greece

Let’s know more. Read on.