Hindus, Modern

Hindus, Modern a term recently used to designate a class of Hindu reformers, who call themselves Brahmists, and represent a school of thought which originated fifty or sixty ago with Rammohun Roy, who undertook to reform Hinduism on the basis of the Veda alone, the religion of which he held to be a pure theism. In 1846 they became dissatisfied with the Veda, and adopted Intuitionalism. They have planted societies throughout Bengal, Madras, the North-west Provinces, the Punjab, and Bombay. They ignore idol worship, caste, metempsychosis, and all Brahminical ceremonies. The Tuttu Bodheney Press, of Calcutta, has issued a great number of their publications (see Dr. Duff, in Christian Work for 1862; Foreign Missions, by Dr. Anderson). SEE RAMMOHUN ROY. (J. T. G.)