64 SOCIAL SCIENTIST had been replaced by a new one, mostly composed of absentee land-lords. Ram Mohan not only belonged to this class of proprietors who were "enriched by the plunders of millions of poor peasants3' but was their mouthpiece.50 His connections with the aristocracy whose dependence on the British had earned them great fortune sometimes inhibited his outlook and it was not always possible for him to ignore the interests of his class. This explains, to a certain degree, his advocacy of the indigo planters. In fact, Ram Mohan's strong plea for the indigo planters punched a hole in his radicalism. Ram Mohan had among other qualities an "openness to new experience", both with people and the new ways of doing things.51 It need not be doubted anyway that he had a mind that constantly "looked out15,52 that the influence on him of western liberal and utilitarian principles was considerable and wholesome. There were thus in Ram Mohan's intellectual make-up two completely different, almost opposite, influences that evoked completely different, almost opposite, responses. To return from this useful digression to our main theme, it must now be said that RamMohan, in spite of his being the most inquiring and the most 'modern3 man of his day, seemed to have unwittingly slipped into advocacy of the indigo planters and European settlement in India • SUBHAS BHATTACHARYA * E J Hobsbawm, Industry and Emp ire, (Vol 3 of Pelican Economic History of Britain) 1969, Ch 12, p 225. 2 Ibid., Ch. 12, p 232. 8 Ibid.,Ch 12, p 231. 4 Pramode Sengupta, Ml Bidroha 0 Bangali Samaj Cin Bengali) Calcutta 1960, p 22. 5 Ibid., p 22. 6 The letter has been quoted at length by Promode Sengupta, op. cit., p 158. 7 Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay, Sambadpatra Sekaler Katha (in Bengali) Vol 1, Calcutta p 384-5. 8 A Tripathi, Trade and Finance in the Bengal Presidency, 1793-1833, Ch 1. 9 N K Sinha in the History of Bengal 1757-1905, Calcutta 1967, p 128. 10 Ibid., p 124. 11 Ibid, 12 Ibid. 18 Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1833), Vol 2, Part 2 quoted inTara Chand, History of the Freedom Movement in India, Vol 1, p 383. 14 Ibid. 15 Select Committee Report, Vol 2, Part I, quoted in Tara Chand, op. cit., p 384. 16 The full text of Ram Mohan^s speech was reproduced in the Asiatic Journal, Vol 2^ New Series, May-August, 1830 and has been reprinted in Rammihan Rachanavali, First edition, Calcutta, p 529. 17 Dwarakanath's speech also appeared in the Asiatic Journal. Part of it has been quoted in Pramode Sengupta, op. cit., p 160. *8 British Parliamentary Papers, Vol 45. 19 S D Collet, The Life and Letters of Raja Rammohan Roy, D K Biswas and P C Ganguli (Eds) Calcutta,? 319. 2 ° Amal Home, Rammohan Roy: The Man and His Work, Rammohan Centenary Publicity Booklet No 1, Calcutta, ld33, referred to in the supplementary notes by editors ia Collet,^, cit., p 382.