Q. Consider the following statements:
1.He was a polyglot.
2.Rabindranath Tagore called him a Bharatpathik.
3.He assisted Alexander Duff to set up the General Assembly’s Institution, which later became the Scottish Church College.
Which of the following personalities is being referred to in the statements given above?
Answer: B
Notes:
- A polyglot, Roy knew Bengali and Persian, but also Arabic, Sanskrit, and later, English. His exposure to the literature and culture of each of these languages bred in him a scepticism towards religious dogmas and social strictures. For instance: practices such as Sati.
- Rabindranath Tagore called him a ‘Bharatpathik’ by which he meant to say that Rammohun combined in his person the underlying spirit of Indic civilisation, its spirit of pluralism, tolerance and a cosmic respect for all forms of life,” says historian Amiya P Sen.
- In 1817, he collaborated with Scottish philanthropist David Hare to set up the Hindu College(now, Presidency University).
- He followed it up with the Anglo-Hindu Schoolin 1822 and, in 1830, assisted Alexander Duff to set up the General Assembly’s Institution, which later became the Scottish Church College.
