Social Reform Movements in India

Factors Giving Rise to the Desire for Reform

• Earlier invaders settled in India and became part of the land
• The British arrived when India was stagnant, unlike enlightened 18th-century Europe

Social Conditions Ripe for Reform

• Religious superstitions and magic prevailed.
• Priests had unhealthy influence.
• Idolatry and polytheism reinforced their position.
• Scriptural knowledge monopoly led to deception.
• Hook Swinging Festival was a form of ritual suffering.

Position of Women

• Female infanticide, child marriage, and polygamy were prevalent.
• Sati Pratha was described by Raja Rammohan Roy as murder.

The Caste Problem

• Segregation existed.
• Untouchability prevailed.
• Caste was a major obstacle to national unity and democracy.

Opposition to Western Culture

• There was a systematic attempt to spread colonial culture and ideology.
• Efforts aimed to reinvigorate traditional institutions and realize the potential of traditional culture during the 19th century

New Awareness among Indians

• The impact of modern Western culture and defeat by a foreign power led to awakening
• Colonization due to weaknesses in Indian social structure and culture

Reform Movements

• Reformist movements include Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Aligarh Movement
• Revivalist movements include Arya Samaj and Deoband movement

Direction of Social Reform

• Initially linked to religious reforms, later adopted a secular approach
• Reform movements had narrow social base initially, but later penetrated lower strata
• A two-point agenda pushing for the betterment of women's status and to remove disabilities of untouchability
• Appealed to individualism and equality.
• True religion did not sanction an inferior status to women

Steps to Improve Women's Position

• Raja Rammohan Roy led to the abolition of Sati
• Regulation of 1829 outlawed Sati
• Bengal regulations of 1795 and 1804 declared infanticide illegal
• 1870 Act made birth registration compulsory and verified female children

Widow Remarriage

• Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar advocated widow remarriage with the Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, 1856
• Vidyasagar cited Vedic texts to prove widow remarriage was sanctioned
• Vishnu Shastri Pandit founded the Widow Remarriage Association in the 1850s
• Karsondas Mulji started Satya Prakash in Gujarati in 1852 to advocate widow remarriage
• D.K. Karve married a widow in 1893 and became secretary of the Widow Remarriage Association
• Veerasalingam Pantulu formed an association for widow remarriage in Telugu-speaking Madras areas

Controlling Child Marriage

• The Native Marriage Act (or Civil Marriage Act), 1872, had limited impact
• B.M. Malabari introduced Age of Consent Act (1891), forbidding marriage of girls below age 12
• The Sarda Act (1930) set marriage age at 18 for boys and 14 for girls
• Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Act, 1978 raised marriage age to 18 for girls and 21 for boys

Education of Women

• Christian missionaries established Calcutta Female Juvenile Society in 1819
• The Bethune School (J.E.D. Bethune) was founded in Calcutta in 1849
• Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was associated with 35+ girls schools in Bengal
• Charles Wood’s Despatch on Education was in 1854
• The Indian Women’s University was set up by Professor D.K. Karve in 1916
• Tarabai Shinde wrote “Stripurushtulna” criticizing social differences between men and women

Women's Organizations

• In 1910, Sarla Devi Chaudhurani formed Bharat Stree Mahamandal in Allahabad
• Ramabai Ranade created Ladies Social Conference in 1904 in Bombay
• Pandita Ramabai Saraswati formed Arya Mahila Samaj, advocating for improved Indian women’s education before the English Education Commission, which was then referred to Queen Victoria
• In 1925, Mehribai Tata formed National Council of Women
• Margaret Cousins founded the All India Women’s Conference (AIWC) in 1927

Factors Mitigating Caste-Based Discrimination

• British rule introduced private property in land
• Modern commerce/industry/urbanization/transport contributed to change
• Equality before the law was established
• Judicial functions of caste panchayats were taken away
• Administrative services became open to all castes, with a secular education system
• Social reform movements like Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, and Arya Samaj
• The national movement
• Increased education opportunities and general awakening among lower castes
• Babasaheb Ambedkar formed All India Scheduled Castes Federation
• All India Depressed Classes Association was formed by other leaders
• Named by John Allen, Coolie Ships carried Indian laborers (mostly lower-caste) to Mauritius
• The Satnami Movement, by Ghasidas in central India, to improve social status of lower caste
• Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar led the Mahad Satyagraha in March 1927 against caste Hindu customs.
• In December 1927, Ambedkar and his colleagues burnt the 'Manusmriti'.
• In 1924, Dr. Ambedkar established the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha
• The Constitution of free India has made equality and non-discrimination imperative

Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833)

• Father of Indian Renaissance and maker of Modern India
• Believed in modern scientific approach, human dignity and social equality
• He wrote 'Gift to Monotheists' in 1809
• In 1814, he set up Atmiya Sabha in Calcutta to promote monotheistic ideals and campaign against social ills
• Vedanta, is based on reason and scriptures, departure is justified for reasoning.
• Selecting the best from different cultures.
• Founded Brahmo Sabha in 1828 later known as Brahmo Samaj
• Advocated prayers/meditation/readings of Upanishads
• Against graven image, statue or sculpture
• Discarded faith in divine avataras and Criticized caste system
• Agenda to purify Hinduism and preach monotheism through Precepts of Jesus (1820)
• Aims to purify Hinduism of evil practices
• Government Regulation in 1829 enacted abolition of sati
• Supported David Hare in founding Hindu College in 1817
• In 1825, He established Vedanta college to offer both Indian and Western social and physical sciences
• Supporter of freedom of the Press and pioneer in Indian journalism
• Founded Mirat Ul Akbar and Sambad Kaumudi
• Condemned oppressive practices of Bengali zamindars
• Demanded Indianisation of superior services and separation of executive from judiciary.
• Advocated judicial equality between Indians and Europeans

Debendranath Tagore and Brahmo Samaj

• Joined the Samaj in 1842
• Headed the Tattvabodhini Sabha, founded in 1839
• Organ of the Tattvabodhini Patrika in Bengali, to systematically study India's past and propagate Rammohan's ideas.
• There was an informal association of the two sabhas
• Worked on two fronts: reformist movement in Hinduism but opposed Christian missionaries

Keshab Chandra Sen and the Brahmo Samaj

• Made the acharya in 1858
• Sen popularized the movement, opening branches outside Bengal
• Debendranath Tagore disliked Keshab's radical ideas, including cosmopolitanism with the society and inter-caste marriages
• Keshab Chandra Sen was dismissed from acharya in 1865
• Keshab and his followers founded the Brahmo Samaj of India in 1866
• Debendranath Tagore's Samaj became known as Adi Brahmo Samaj
• In 1878, the marriage of Keshab's thirteen-year-old daughter to the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar caused a split in Keshab's Brahmo Samaj
• Previously considered an incarnation by some followers, Keshab was accused of authoritarianism
• Ananda Mohan Bose, Shibchandra Deb, and Umesh Chandra Datta started the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj.
• The Samaj's influence did not extend beyond Calcutta and Bengal, and it lacked a lasting impact

Prarthana Samaj

• The Prarthana Samaj was founded in Bombay by Atmaram Pandurang in 1867 with the help of Keshab Chandra Sen
• The Paramahansa Sabha served as a precursor to the Prarthana Samaj.
• Mahadeo Govind Ranade joined the Samaj in 1870 and helped it gain an all-India character
• Other leaders included R.G. Bhandarkar and N.G. Chandavarkar
• Emphasis on monotheism and more concerned with social reforms than religion
• Education, persuasion, and non-confrontation favored of confronting Hindu orthodoxy
• It had a four-point social agenda: disapproval of caste, women's education, widow remarriage, and raising the marriage age

Young Bengal Movement and Henry Vivian Derozio

• Henry Vivian Derozio was an Anglo-Indian at Hindu College (1826-31).
• Inspired asked his pupils to think freely and rationally, question all authority, and support women's rights/education
• Derozio was the first nationalist poet of modern India.
• Lacked long term radical views for society and support, link with masses, and failed to take up peasant issues Bookish Radicalism
• The movement built on RRMY's tradition of public education on social, economic, and political questions

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

• He broke the priestly scriptural monopoly by opening Sanskrit College
• Devised a new Bengali primer and prose style.
• Launched widow remarriage support movement
• Crusader against child marriage and polygamy.
• He helped organize thirty-five girls schools
• Secretary of the Bethune School (established in 1849)

Paramahansa Mandali

• Founded in 1849 in Maharastra by Dadoba Pandurang, Mehtaji Durgaram, and others.
• It was a secret society to reform Hindu religion/society.
• The core ideals were based on love and moral conduct and Freedom of thought/rationality encouraged
• Primarily seeking breaking caste rules, meetings had lower caste people taken by the members ,Advocated widow remarriage /women’s education

Satyashodhak Samaj and Jyotiba or Jyotirao Phule

• Founded in Satara, Maharashtra with a Mali community
• Opposed against domination/brahminical supremacy.
• The Samaj was Founded in 1873
• The main aims are to for social service and and spread education and Used the symbol of Rajah Bali against Rama.
• Advocated for Sarvajanik Satyadharma and Gulamgiri.
• Savitribai opened a girls’ school at Poona and Launched widow remarriage movement in Maharashtra an
• Awarded them the title of 'Mahatma' for his social reform work.
• Believed Aryans were foreigners and had no right to their land/power
• "Gulamgiri" was "Meaning Slavery". Dedicated this book to those Americans fought against slavery

Servants of India Society

• Founded by Gopal Krishna Gokhale/M.G. Ranade in 1905
• To train national missionaries for service of India and promote interests and was to remain aloof from INC)
• Narayan Malhar Joshi for league in Bombay worked to conditions of life and work, and founded Trade Union Congress in 1920

Ramakrishna Movement

• Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in Dakshineshwar, Calcutta.
• Believed He attained spiritual experience.
• His objectives involved monks renouncing practices through Ramakrishna Math
• After his death, Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897

The Ramakrishna Movement

• Salvation via renunciation, meditation, and bhakti amid Westernization
• Promoted the oneness of all religions
• "As many faiths, so many paths"and said service for human is through God's Service

Swami Vivekananda

• Narendranath Datta preached message and tried to reconcile with contemporary Indian Hindu and islam society:
• Used Upanishads, Gita, Buddha, and Jesus to express human values.with a fully"for our own motherland a junction of the two approach.
• Belived Vedanta was with a superior appraoch
• Knowledge without action useless, secular + moral uplift, equality
• Called in 1893 for "blend the materialism of the West and the harmony"for society through Vedanta

Swami Vivekananda

• Instilled a sense of cultural pride in Indian youth
• He taught the doctrine of service - that is the Shiva,
• His belief was that recognizing the Utility and fervor.
• Vedanta makes religious leaders better religious leader.

Dayananda Saraswati and Arya Samaj

• Revivalist , against to Western
• Unit was Bombay 1875
• Views = Satyarth Paakash
• Views - classless/castless society
• India Rock of Ages
• "common reigion" Vedas

Dayananda Saraswati and Arya Samaj

• Vedic times accepted.
• Interperation criticized, scriptures, orthodoxy attack, notion system.

Dayananda Saraswati and Arya Samaj

Minimum 25/16

• Encored=intercaste
• DAV School , opinion curriculum for culture, guru parties.

Dayananda Saraswati and Arya Samaj

for culture, and the Vedas was a vegetarian split School retained,sabha majority parties.

Dayananda Saraswati and Arya Samaj

The guru 1900 Policy Vedic, science, and and and purification during20s

Seva Sadan

• Founded by D Gidumal 1908
• For widows, against child marriage, discarded women

Dharma Sabha

=Radhakant deb,

• Opposed education

Dev Samaj

• Founded in Lahore by S Agnihotri. the guru, and Shastra