This volume contains the first Bengali translations of some of the English Works of Rammohun Roy. These include his: Brief Remarks regarding Modern Encroachments on the Ancient Rights of Females according to the Hindu Law of Inheritance (1822); Press Regulation: Memorial to the Supreme Court (1823); Appeal to the King-in-Council (1823); a letter to an unknown addressee on the political and economic evils of the caste system in India (18 January 1828); Rights of Hindus over Ancestral Property (1830); a note on the Life of the People of India (1831); Revenue System of India (1831); Judicial System of India (1831); India: Its Boundary and History (1832); a note on the Settlement in India by Europeans (1832); a letter addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France in Paris, on the irrelevance and irrationality of the system of passports and visas (04 January 1832); more on the Judicial and Revenue Systems of India (1833); and, Grant’s colonial Jury Bill (1833).
The modern Indian literati did not translate these texts into the mother tongues of the people of India, because they did not want the first-generation learners among the children of our oppressed genders, tribes, castes and communities to read Rammohun in their respective mother tongues. Lest they start cogitating deeply about the policy issues related to the future oriented transformation of our societies; and, start asking disturbing questions like, why did Rammohun and his followers fail, and why, in general, did liberalism and humanism fail to strike roots, evolve and gain strength in the various societies of India.
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