Raja Rammohun Roy : Encounter with Islam and Christianity and The Articulation of Hindu Self-Consciousness

This exceptional work is a study of the interreligious views of Raja Rammohun Roy - the 19th century's premier Hindu reformer, theologian, and polemicist - whose many initiatives heralded a rebirth of Hindu identity, both in India and abroad. The momentum of Roy's initiatives continued thereafter in all of India's efforts in religious, social and political transformation. His works and ideas awakened a self-awareness to discover the past, making it relevant to the present and visualizing a promising future. Herein is discussed Roy's meeting with both Islam and Christianity, an encounter that sharpened the Hindu mind to come to terms with these two vigorous Abrahamic faiths - one of which held a long and checkered history in India and the other, the faith of colonial domination.