EMERGENCE OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
SYLLABUS
HY2C01 MODERN INDIAN HISTORY (AD 1857 - 1992)
Course: 2 - EMERGENCE OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
No. of credits: 2
No. of contact hours per week: 3
Aim of the Course: To enable the students to understand and analyse the development of Nationalism in India, in the light of new studies and researches.
UNIT I - Social and Religious Movements of the 19th Century
• Development of Nationalism - Formative Forces - English Education.
• Social reform movements - Brahma Samaj and the acculturative aspects - Aryasamaj and
the deculturative aspects.
• Reforms among in the Sikh Community - Nirankari Movement -Namadhari Movement –
Singh Sabha.
• Assertion of backward classes - Jyothiba Phule - Narayana Guru – Anticaste Movements.
• Aligarh Movement and Sir Sayyid Ahammed Khan.
• Wahabi Movement
• Swami Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna Mission.
• Theosophical Society.
• Women's Organisations.
UNIT II – Emergence and Functioning of National Associations
• Formation of political associations upto 1885 - Aims and objectives.
• Indian National Congress - Early Policies - Constitutional Methods - petitions and
memorials - The Moderates.
• Dada Bhai Naoroji - Exposing Colonialism - Drain Theory.
• Divisive policies of the colonial government - Lord Curzon and the Partition of Bengal -
National agitation - Swadesi Movement – National Educational Institutions - Development of
Extremist Group - Surat Split.
UNIT III – Challenges and Responses
• Anti-imperialist struggles of Indians outside India - the Ghadar party.
• Terrorist and the radical associations
• Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League
• Minto Morly Reforms - Nationalist responses to the reforms
• First World War and Indian Nationalism - Home Rule Movement – Advent of Gandhi –
Champaran Sathyagraha and Ahammedabad Mill Strike.
• Beginning of Trade Union Movement.
Readings
Bandopadhyaya Sekhar : Plassey to Partition
Bipan Chandra (et. al) : India's Struggle for Independence
Bipan Chandra (et. al) : Nationalism and Colonialism in Modern India
Metcalf Barbara. D and Thomas. R. Metcalf : A Concise History of Modern India 4th Edition,
OUP, 2008
Dharam Kumar & Tapan Ray Chaudhuri : The Cambridge Economic History of Indian
1707-1970
Desai.A.R : Social Background of Indian Nationalism Popular Prakasan, Bombay, 1976.
Kulke Herman : State in India 1000-1800
Panikkar. K.N. : Culture ideology Hegemony Intellectual and Social consciousness in Colonial India Tulika, New Delhi, 1995
Sarkar Sumit : Modern India 1885-1947
Majumdar. R.C. : The Struggle for Freedom
Further Readings
Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand : My Experiments with Truth.
Tara Chand : History of Freedom Movement in India (Four volumes)
Naoroji Dadabhai : Poverty and un-British rule in India
Irfan Habib : Essays in Indian History
Chatterjee Partha : National Thought and the Colonial World
Chatterjee Partha : Wages of Freedom
Chatterjee Partha : A Possible India
Chandra Sekhar. S : Colonialism Conflict and Nationalism, Viswa Prakasam, New Delhi, 1995
Gosh. S.C. : The History of Education in Modern India ,Orient Longman, Hyderabad, 1995
Bhattacharya Sabya Sachi & Romila Thapar (ed) : Situating Indian History, OUP, 1986.
Ania Loomba : Colonialism/Post Colonialism
Cohn Bernard. S : Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge
Pandey Gyanendra : The Construction of Communalism in colonial North India, O.U.P. 1990.
Sarkar Sumit : Writing Social History Oxford and Delhi, 1998.
Hanlon O'Rasalind : Caste Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jyothi Rao Phule and Low Caste Protest Movement in Nineteenth Century Western India, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1985.
Seal Anil : Emergence of Indian Nationalisation, Cambridge University Press, 1960.
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Reform among the Indian Muslims
Aligarh Movement
The Muslims were generally opposed to the western culture and English education in the early phase of colonial rule in India primarily because the British had captured political power from the Muslim rulers which had adversely affected the prospects of the nobility and the ulema. The Muslims had led several movements against the British of which the last and the greatest was the Revolt of 1857. The Revolt shattered the fabric of the Muslim upper classes in North India. With the failure of the Muslim confrontation with the British, a change in the entire political outlook was felt necessary and there was a wide recognition of the need for adjustment with the new age of western domination and western intellectual outlook.
At this juncture, there appeared on the scene one of the greatest men Muslim India has produced in recent times. He was Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan who set about his task with a clear vision and an extraordinarily firm resolve, disdaining alike the open hostility of the conservative ulema and the ridicule of his own friends and colleagues. Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan was in the judicial service of the East India Company at the time of the Revolt of 1857 and stood loyal to the Government. After his retirement from service he appeared in the role of a socio-religious reformer. Through his writings he strongly pleaded for a rationalist and non-conformist trend in religious outlook and political vision.
Sir Sayyid liberalized Indian Islam and took upon himself the triple task of religious reinterpretation, social reform and education. He was tremendously impressed by modern scientific thought and worked all his life to reconcile it with Islam. He declared that Quran alone was the authentic work for Islam and all other Islamic writings were secondary. Even the Quran he interpreted in the light of contemporary rationalism and science. In his view any interpretation of the Quran that conflicted with human reason, science or nature was in reality a misinterpretation. He repudiated the view held by some theologians that the Hindus were kafirs. He stressed the unity of the Hindus and Muslims. He tried to reform the Muslims and believed that the instrument of emancipation was modern education, its rational approach and scientific methods. He came to the conclusion that only by taking to western education would the Muslims be able to overcome their backwardness and come to an understanding with the rulers. All his life he struggled against blind obedience to tradition, dependence on custom, ignorance and irrationalism. He urged the people to develop a critical approach and freedom of thought. He made the town of Aligarh the centre of his activities and in 1875 founded the Aligarh School as a centre for spreading western science and culture (which was upgraded in 1877 to a college and named Muhammedan Anglo-Oreintal College and is the forerunner of the Aligarh Muslim University). The whole range of his activities came to be known as the Aligarh movement.
The reformist zeal of Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan also embraced the social sphere. He urged the Muslims to give up medieval customs and ways of thought and behaviour. In particular he wrote in favour of raising women’s status in society and advocated the removal of purdah and spread of education among women. He also condemned the custom of polygamy and easy divorce.
Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan was a great believer in religious toleration. He believed that all religions had a certain underlying unity which could be called practical morality. Believing that a person’s religion was his or her private affair, he condemned any sign of religious bigotry. However, towards the end of the 19th century he began to oppose the nationalist movement and Hindu-Muslim unity. In his view a Hindu-Muslim alliance could only be disadvantageous to the Muslim community, which was much smaller in number, educationally backward, politically immature, and economically insecure. Alliance with the Hindus against the British could only lead to the loss of British patronage and to the exploitation and subjugation of the Muslims by the overwhelming Hindu majority. Thus began modern Muslim separatism in India.
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SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS REFORM MOVEMENTS
The consolidation of British power in India in the 18th and 19th centuries led to fundamental changes in Indian society. The British contact and the spread of modern western ideas exposed the weakness and decay of Indian society and reflected the obsoleteness of Indian social customs and institutions. Thoughtful Indians began to look for the defects of their society and for ways and means of removing them. The new intelligentsia, which imbibed the modern western culture, and were impressed by modern science and the doctrines of reason and humanism, recognized the need to launch movements to reform social institutions and religious outlooks inherited from the past. The socio-religious movements were expressions of this newly emerging western educated section of society in India. While these movements in general were inspired by modern science and reason, some of them were revivalist in trend and appealed to the ‘golden’ Indian past. This tended to impart a retrogressive character to these movements. However, they played an important role in creating cultural consciousness among western liberal educated Indians and in arousing patriotic feelings among the people of India. This new awakening is popularly known as the Indian Renaissance.
Rajaram Mohan Roy and the Brahma Samaj
The central figure in the Indian social awakening was Ram Mohan Roy, who is the first great leader of modern India and came to be known as the ‘Father of Modern India’. He initiated new ideas which characterized the early years of the 19th century and gave birth to the Indian Renaissance. He represented a synthesis of the thought of East and West and acted as a bridge between the past and the present. He attempted to modernize the religion and customs of India without sacrificing the essentials of tradition.
Ram Mohan Roy was born in an orthodox Brahmin family of Bengal. He became a profound scholar of Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, English and Bengali and also knew foreign languages like Greek, Latin and Hebrew. He tried to understand the essential principles of all the prominent religions of the world. He was a learned scholar in Sanskrit literature and Hindu philosophy. In order to understand Islam he studied the Quran and Persian and Arabic literature. To study the Bible in original he learned Greek and Hebrew. In 1809 he wrote in Persian his famous work Tuhfat-ul- Muwah-hiddin (Gift to Monotheists) in which he raised his arguments against the belief in many gods (polytheism) and strongly pleaded for the worship of a single god. In 1820 he published his Precepts of Jesus – the Guide of Peace and Happiness, which contained his conviction about the simplicity and morality of the Christian religion. His other works include Manazaratul Adyan, a discussion in Persian on various religions and the translation of some parts of Vedanta and Upanishads.
Ram Mohan Roy stood for a rational approach to religion. He was deeply influenced by the monotheism and anti-idolatry of Islam, Sufism, the ethical teachings of Christianity and the liberal and rational doctrines of the west. He desired to rid the Hindu society of all irrational and evil customs. He vigourously opposed worship of idols, rigidity of caste, and prevalence of meaningless religious rituals. He condemned the priestly class for encouraging these practices. He held that all the ancient texts of the Hindus preached monotheism or worship of one god. To carry on a persistent struggle against the religious and social evils which were widely prevalent among the Hindus of Bengal, he started the Atmiya Sabha in 1815 which was transformed into Brahma Sabha in 1828 and later known as Brahma Samaj. The new society was to be based on the twin pillars of reason and the Vedas and Upanishads. It was also to incorporate the teachings of other religions.
Ram Mohan Roy propounded that the Vedanta gave the purest form of theistic principles, uncontaminated by idolatry. While looking back to ancient texts for his religious views, he depended ultimately on the power of human reason. He believed that the philosophy of Vedanta was based on this principle of reason. But for him there was no blind reliance on India’s own past or blind aping of the west. On the other hand, he put forward the idea that new India, guided by reason, should learn the best from East and West. He stood for the reform of Hinduism and opposed its replacement with Christianity. He vigorously defended Hindu religion from the attack of the Christian missionaries. He believed that basically all religions preach a common message and that their followers are all brothers under the skin.
He was the first and one of the greatest champions of emancipation of Indian women. He opposed polygamy, kulinism and sati and came out in support of the inheritance of the property by daughters. He led a life-long crusade against the custom of women becoming sati and urged the British government to promulgate a law for its abolition. As a result of his sustained efforts, the Governor General Lord William Bentinck passed a regulation in 1829 which declared sati illegal and punishable as a criminal offence. This regulation began the process of social reform through social legislation.
Ram Mohan Roy was also a relentless crusader against child marriage and the rigidity of the caste system, which he described as undemocratic and inhuman. He stood for the freedom of widows to remarry and equal rights of men and women.
Ram Mohan Roy was one of the earliest propagators of modern education which he looked upon as a major instrument for the spread of modern ideas in the country. He was also guided by the vision of an independent and resurgent India. He wanted to unite the Indians and opposed the caste system which destroyed national unity and patriotic feeling. However, Roy looked with favour upon the British rule in India. He admired it for inaugurating progressive measures of social reform and establishing modern educational institutions.
Brahma Samaj after Roy
For ten years after Ram Mohan Roy’s death and till the rise of Dwaraknath Tagore the Brahma Samaj lost its vigour due to the lack of dynamic leaders. Tagore’s Tattvabodhini Sabha worked as the main organizational wing of the Brahma Samaj till it merged with the Samaj in 1843. Its main objectives were promotion of religious enquiry and spread of the knowledge of the Upanishads. Akshay Kumar Datta and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, two prominent leaders of the movement, soon joined hands with Tagore.
The most influential leader of the Brahma Samaj after Roy was Kesab Chandra Sen. Young Keshab drew around him a number of earnest young men with whom he established in 1859 a small society known as Sangat Sabha. Its main objective was to discuss the spiritual and social problems of the day. The members of the Sabha decided to give up their caste, to discard the sacred thread, to refuse to associate with idolatrous festivals, etc. ceremonies were remodeled from which everything idolatrous was eliminated. Sen was a strong supporter of emancipation of women, female education, intercaste marriages and organized a campaign against child marriage. But these radical measures led to a schism in the Brahma Samaj in 1866. Devendranath’s group, calling itself Adi Brahma Samaj, separated from Sen’s group. The Brahma Samaj faced a second split in 1878 in connection with the marriage of Sen’s daughter, both the bride and the bridegroom being underage. The marriage was conducted in accordance with Hinndu rites which was a violation of the rules of the Brahma Samaj. Following these developments, a new organization called Sadharana Brahma Samaj came into existence. The second split dealt a fatal blow to the Brahma movement. After the death of Kesab Chandra Sen’s death in 1884, the movement lacked an efficient leadership. Thereafter it declined steadily.
Prarthana Samaj
Religious reform was begun in Bombay in 1840 by the Paramahans Mandali which aimed at fighting idolatry and the caste system. Perhaps the earliest religious reformer in western India was Gopal hari Deshmukh, known popularly as ‘Lokahitavadi’, who made powerful rationalist attack on Hindu orthodoxy, and preached religious and social equality.
The Prarthana Samaj was founded in 1867 in Maharashtra by Mahadev Govinda Ranade and R.G. Bhandarkar. It aimed at reforming Hindu religious thought and practice in the light of modern knowledge. It preached the worship of one god and tried to free religion out of caste and priestly domination. It was powerfully influenced by the Brahma Samaj. Its activities also spread to south India as a result of the efforts of the Telugu reformer, Veeresalingam.
Ranade pointed out that most of the prevailing customs were totally different from the practices observed in earlier times. He cited such examples as the dependant status of women, child marriage, prohibition of widow marriage, seclusion of women, prohibition of foreign travel, untouchability, etc. Ranade stood for a Hinduism purified of evils and interpreted in the light of modern theistic philosophy.
Later on two other leaders, namely Dhondo Keshav Karve and Vishnu Sastri, joined hands with Ranade to work for social reform. Ranade and Karve launched a widow marriage movement and started Widows’ Home Association, to provide education to widows. The Widow’s Home aimed at making widows self-supporting by giving them training as teachers, midwives or nurses.
Arya Samaj
In North India, the Arya Samaj undertook the task of reforming Hindu religion. Arya Samaj was founded by Dayananda Saraswati in 1875 with its headquarters at Lahore. Dayananda believed that selfish and ignorant priests had perverted Hindu religion with the aid of the Puranas which he said were full of false teachings. For his own inspiration he went to the Vedas which he regarded as infallible, being the inspired word of God and the fount of all knowledge. He rejected all later religious thought if it contradicted with the Vedas. After studying the Vedas he came to the conclusion that the “Aryans were the chosen people, the Vedas the chosen gospel and India the chosen land”. Dayananda summarized his basic ideas in his work Satyartha Prakash. This total dependence on the Vedas and their infallibility gave his teachings an orthodox colouring.
Dayananda looked upon the Vedas as “India’s Rock of Ages”. He believed that the Hindu religion and the Vedas upon which it was based were eternal, unalterable, infallible and divine. Therefore he gave the slogan “Go Back to the Vedas” and the “Vedas are the source of all knowledge”. He rejected the authority of the later scriptures like the Puranas, which in his view were responsible for the evil practices of idol worship and other superstitious beliefs in the Hindu religion. On the assumption that the Vedas were the source of all knowledge and by rejecting all post-Vedic developments, the Arya Samaj denounced the infinite number of meaningless rites and the worship of images of Gods and goddesses which split the people into numerous sects, repudiated the authority of the Brahmans and launched a crusade against all religious superstitions.
The Arya Samajists were vigorous advocates of social reform and worked actively to improve the condition of women, and to spread education among them. They fought untouchability and the rigidities of the hereditary caste system. They were opposed to the practice of child marriage and supported widow marriage and inter-caste marriages. They stood for equal rights for men and women in social and educational matters. The Samaj established a network of Dayananda Anglo Vedic schools and colleges for the education of both boys and girls.
Some activities of the Arya Samaj were, however, very controversial. The foremost was the Shuddhi programme, which was meant to open the doors of Hinduism for those who had embraced other religions. Shuddhi provided for the reconversion of such persons to Hinduism. This movement was mainly directed against the Christian missionaries who had converted a large number of Hindus to Christianity. Another programme of the samaj, which created considerable trouble, was protection of the cow. In 1882 the Arya Samaj formed a ‘Cow Protection Association’. The aggressive activities of some of its agents and the equally sensitive response of the Muslim theologians led to the outbreak of serious riots in some parts of the country.
The two most important contributions of the Samaj were that it attempted to inculcate a sense of pride in India’s pride and worked for the spread of western education. It played a very progressive role in the earlier stages of national awakening when it attacked religious superstitions and numerous social evils and also when it adopted the programme of mass education and equality of men and women. While its reformist work tended to unite people, its religious work tended to divide people and contributed much to the growth of communalism in North India in the 20th century.
Theosophical society
The Theosophical society was founded in by Madam H.P. Blavatsky and Colonel H.S. Olcott in New York in 1875. The founders arrived in India in 1879 and established their headquarters of the society at Adayar near Chennai. In 1888 Annie Besant joined the society in England. The theosophist movement prospered in India with her arrival in India in 1893.
The theosophical society stood for making comparative study of all oriental religions, but considered ancient Hinduism as the most profound spiritual religion in the world. Theosophy accepted the spiritual philosophy of Hinduism and its doctrine of Karma and transmigration of the soul. It preached the universal brotherhood of man. s religious revivalists the theosophists were not very successful. But they made a peculiar contribution to the developments in modern India. It was a movement led by westerners who glorified Indian religions and philosophical tradition. It promoted a spirit of national pride among the Indians.
The theosophical society did commendable work in the field of education. Its most successful achievement was the establishment of the Central Hindu School at Benares. The society opened schools for boys, for women and for the depressed classes. The society opposed child marriage, advocated abolition of caste, the uplift of outcastes, and the amelioration of the condition of widows.
Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Mission
The Ramakrishna monastic order and mission was established in 1887 by Vivekananda, the chief disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Ramakrishna was a saintly person who sought religious salvation in the traditional ways of renunciation, meditation and devotion. He drew spiritual inspiration from the Vedanta and the Upanishads but regarded all religions as different paths leading to the same goal. In his search for religious faith or the realization of God he lived with mystics of other faiths, Muslims and Christians. He again and again emphasized that service of man was service of God, for man was the embodiment of God.
It was his great disciple, Swami Vivekananda, who popularized the religious message of Ramakrishna and who tried to put it in a form that would suit the needs of contemporary Indian society. By stressing the need of social action he said that knowledge unaccompanied by action in the actual world in which we lived was useless. He declared that he would talk of religion only when he succeeded in removing poverty and misery from the country. He argued that education would automatically rid the society of all its ailments. Even while espousing the superiority of Indian philosophical tradition, and laying his faith in the Vedanta as a fully rational system, he too proclaimed the essential oneness of all religions.
After the death of Ramakrishna in 1886, Vivekananda dedicated his life for the propagation of his master’s message and soon made a tour around the country which convinced him of the vast misery and suffering of the common people. In his second tour in 1893, he attended the World parliament of Religions at Chicago which created great impression about the spiritual preeminence of Hindu philosophy. The New York Herald reported: “after hearing we feel how foolish is to send missionaries to this learned nation”. After four years of stay abroad Vivekananda returned to India and established two principal centres for training men as sanyasis for the religious and social work of the Mission. The Ramakrishna Mission actively served the society, such as in alleviating suffering, providing medical aid to the sick and looking after the orphans. Under the auspices of the Mission, schools were opened and philanthropic centres were established.
Vivekananda made a signal contribution to the nascent Indian nationalism. Though he never directly preached anti-British policies or nationalism as such, the net result of all his exhortation for reform, unity, awakening and freedom gave rise to a strong feeling of nationalism. Therefore he is generally held as the spiritual precursor of India’s freedom movement.
Rajaram Mohan Roy and the Brahma Samaj
The central figure in the Indian social awakening was Ram Mohan Roy, who is the first great leader of modern India and came to be known as the ‘Father of Modern India’. He initiated new ideas which characterized the early years of the 19th century and gave birth to the Indian Renaissance. He represented a synthesis of the thought of East and West and acted as a bridge between the past and the present. He attempted to modernize the religion and customs of India without sacrificing the essentials of tradition.
Ram Mohan Roy was born in an orthodox Brahmin family of Bengal. He became a profound scholar of Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, English and Bengali and also knew foreign languages like Greek, Latin and Hebrew. He tried to understand the essential principles of all the prominent religions of the world. He was a learned scholar in Sanskrit literature and Hindu philosophy. In order to understand Islam he studied the Quran and Persian and Arabic literature. To study the Bible in original he learned Greek and Hebrew. In 1809 he wrote in Persian his famous work Tuhfat-ul- Muwah-hiddin (Gift to Monotheists) in which he raised his arguments against the belief in many gods (polytheism) and strongly pleaded for the worship of a single god. In 1820 he published his Precepts of Jesus – the Guide of Peace and Happiness, which contained his conviction about the simplicity and morality of the Christian religion. His other works include Manazaratul Adyan, a discussion in Persian on various religions and the translation of some parts of Vedanta and Upanishads.
Ram Mohan Roy stood for a rational approach to religion. He was deeply influenced by the monotheism and anti-idolatry of Islam, Sufism, the ethical teachings of Christianity and the liberal and rational doctrines of the west. He desired to rid the Hindu society of all irrational and evil customs. He vigourously opposed worship of idols, rigidity of caste, and prevalence of meaningless religious rituals. He condemned the priestly class for encouraging these practices. He held that all the ancient texts of the Hindus preached monotheism or worship of one god. To carry on a persistent struggle against the religious and social evils which were widely prevalent among the Hindus of Bengal, he started the Atmiya Sabha in 1815 which was transformed into Brahma Sabha in 1828 and later known as Brahma Samaj. The new society was to be based on the twin pillars of reason and the Vedas and Upanishads. It was also to incorporate the teachings of other religions.
Ram Mohan Roy propounded that the Vedanta gave the purest form of theistic principles, uncontaminated by idolatry. While looking back to ancient texts for his religious views, he depended ultimately on the power of human reason. He believed that the philosophy of Vedanta was based on this principle of reason. But for him there was no blind reliance on India’s own past or blind aping of the west. On the other hand, he put forward the idea that new India, guided by reason, should learn the best from East and West. He stood for the reform of Hinduism and opposed its replacement with Christianity. He vigorously defended Hindu religion from the attack of the Christian missionaries. He believed that basically all religions preach a common message and that their followers are all brothers under the skin.
He was the first and one of the greatest champions of emancipation of Indian women. He opposed polygamy, kulinism and sati and came out in support of the inheritance of the property by daughters. He led a life-long crusade against the custom of women becoming sati and urged the British government to promulgate a law for its abolition. As a result of his sustained efforts, the Governor General Lord William Bentinck passed a regulation in 1829 which declared sati illegal and punishable as a criminal offence. This regulation began the process of social reform through social legislation.
Ram Mohan Roy was also a relentless crusader against child marriage and the rigidity of the caste system, which he described as undemocratic and inhuman. He stood for the freedom of widows to remarry and equal rights of men and women.
Ram Mohan Roy was one of the earliest propagators of modern education which he looked upon as a major instrument for the spread of modern ideas in the country. He was also guided by the vision of an independent and resurgent India. He wanted to unite the Indians and opposed the caste system which destroyed national unity and patriotic feeling. However, Roy looked with favour upon the British rule in India. He admired it for inaugurating progressive measures of social reform and establishing modern educational institutions.
Brahma Samaj after Roy
For ten years after Ram Mohan Roy’s death and till the rise of Dwaraknath Tagore the Brahma Samaj lost its vigour due to the lack of dynamic leaders. Tagore’s Tattvabodhini Sabha worked as the main organizational wing of the Brahma Samaj till it merged with the Samaj in 1843. Its main objectives were promotion of religious enquiry and spread of the knowledge of the Upanishads. Akshay Kumar Datta and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, two prominent leaders of the movement, soon joined hands with Tagore.
The most influential leader of the Brahma Samaj after Roy was Kesab Chandra Sen. Young Keshab drew around him a number of earnest young men with whom he established in 1859 a small society known as Sangat Sabha. Its main objective was to discuss the spiritual and social problems of the day. The members of the Sabha decided to give up their caste, to discard the sacred thread, to refuse to associate with idolatrous festivals, etc. ceremonies were remodeled from which everything idolatrous was eliminated. Sen was a strong supporter of emancipation of women, female education, intercaste marriages and organized a campaign against child marriage. But these radical measures led to a schism in the Brahma Samaj in 1866. Devendranath’s group, calling itself Adi Brahma Samaj, separated from Sen’s group. The Brahma Samaj faced a second split in 1878 in connection with the marriage of Sen’s daughter, both the bride and the bridegroom being underage. The marriage was conducted in accordance with Hinndu rites which was a violation of the rules of the Brahma Samaj. Following these developments, a new organization called Sadharana Brahma Samaj came into existence. The second split dealt a fatal blow to the Brahma movement. After the death of Kesab Chandra Sen’s death in 1884, the movement lacked an efficient leadership. Thereafter it declined steadily.
Prarthana Samaj
Religious reform was begun in Bombay in 1840 by the Paramahans Mandali which aimed at fighting idolatry and the caste system. Perhaps the earliest religious reformer in western India was Gopal hari Deshmukh, known popularly as ‘Lokahitavadi’, who made powerful rationalist attack on Hindu orthodoxy, and preached religious and social equality.
The Prarthana Samaj was founded in 1867 in Maharashtra by Mahadev Govinda Ranade and R.G. Bhandarkar. It aimed at reforming Hindu religious thought and practice in the light of modern knowledge. It preached the worship of one god and tried to free religion out of caste and priestly domination. It was powerfully influenced by the Brahma Samaj. Its activities also spread to south India as a result of the efforts of the Telugu reformer, Veeresalingam.
Ranade pointed out that most of the prevailing customs were totally different from the practices observed in earlier times. He cited such examples as the dependant status of women, child marriage, prohibition of widow marriage, seclusion of women, prohibition of foreign travel, untouchability, etc. Ranade stood for a Hinduism purified of evils and interpreted in the light of modern theistic philosophy.
Later on two other leaders, namely Dhondo Keshav Karve and Vishnu Sastri, joined hands with Ranade to work for social reform. Ranade and Karve launched a widow marriage movement and started Widows’ Home Association, to provide education to widows. The Widow’s Home aimed at making widows self-supporting by giving them training as teachers, midwives or nurses.
Arya Samaj
In North India, the Arya Samaj undertook the task of reforming Hindu religion. Arya Samaj was founded by Dayananda Saraswati in 1875 with its headquarters at Lahore. Dayananda believed that selfish and ignorant priests had perverted Hindu religion with the aid of the Puranas which he said were full of false teachings. For his own inspiration he went to the Vedas which he regarded as infallible, being the inspired word of God and the fount of all knowledge. He rejected all later religious thought if it contradicted with the Vedas. After studying the Vedas he came to the conclusion that the “Aryans were the chosen people, the Vedas the chosen gospel and India the chosen land”. Dayananda summarized his basic ideas in his work Satyartha Prakash. This total dependence on the Vedas and their infallibility gave his teachings an orthodox colouring.
Dayananda looked upon the Vedas as “India’s Rock of Ages”. He believed that the Hindu religion and the Vedas upon which it was based were eternal, unalterable, infallible and divine. Therefore he gave the slogan “Go Back to the Vedas” and the “Vedas are the source of all knowledge”. He rejected the authority of the later scriptures like the Puranas, which in his view were responsible for the evil practices of idol worship and other superstitious beliefs in the Hindu religion. On the assumption that the Vedas were the source of all knowledge and by rejecting all post-Vedic developments, the Arya Samaj denounced the infinite number of meaningless rites and the worship of images of Gods and goddesses which split the people into numerous sects, repudiated the authority of the Brahmans and launched a crusade against all religious superstitions.
The Arya Samajists were vigorous advocates of social reform and worked actively to improve the condition of women, and to spread education among them. They fought untouchability and the rigidities of the hereditary caste system. They were opposed to the practice of child marriage and supported widow marriage and inter-caste marriages. They stood for equal rights for men and women in social and educational matters. The Samaj established a network of Dayananda Anglo Vedic schools and colleges for the education of both boys and girls.
Some activities of the Arya Samaj were, however, very controversial. The foremost was the Shuddhi programme, which was meant to open the doors of Hinduism for those who had embraced other religions. Shuddhi provided for the reconversion of such persons to Hinduism. This movement was mainly directed against the Christian missionaries who had converted a large number of Hindus to Christianity. Another programme of the samaj, which created considerable trouble, was protection of the cow. In 1882 the Arya Samaj formed a ‘Cow Protection Association’. The aggressive activities of some of its agents and the equally sensitive response of the Muslim theologians led to the outbreak of serious riots in some parts of the country.
The two most important contributions of the Samaj were that it attempted to inculcate a sense of pride in India’s pride and worked for the spread of western education. It played a very progressive role in the earlier stages of national awakening when it attacked religious superstitions and numerous social evils and also when it adopted the programme of mass education and equality of men and women. While its reformist work tended to unite people, its religious work tended to divide people and contributed much to the growth of communalism in North India in the 20th century.
Theosophical society
The Theosophical society was founded in by Madam H.P. Blavatsky and Colonel H.S. Olcott in New York in 1875. The founders arrived in India in 1879 and established their headquarters of the society at Adayar near Chennai. In 1888 Annie Besant joined the society in England. The theosophist movement prospered in India with her arrival in India in 1893.
The theosophical society stood for making comparative study of all oriental religions, but considered ancient Hinduism as the most profound spiritual religion in the world. Theosophy accepted the spiritual philosophy of Hinduism and its doctrine of Karma and transmigration of the soul. It preached the universal brotherhood of man. s religious revivalists the theosophists were not very successful. But they made a peculiar contribution to the developments in modern India. It was a movement led by westerners who glorified Indian religions and philosophical tradition. It promoted a spirit of national pride among the Indians.
The theosophical society did commendable work in the field of education. Its most successful achievement was the establishment of the Central Hindu School at Benares. The society opened schools for boys, for women and for the depressed classes. The society opposed child marriage, advocated abolition of caste, the uplift of outcastes, and the amelioration of the condition of widows.
Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Mission
The Ramakrishna monastic order and mission was established in 1887 by Vivekananda, the chief disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Ramakrishna was a saintly person who sought religious salvation in the traditional ways of renunciation, meditation and devotion. He drew spiritual inspiration from the Vedanta and the Upanishads but regarded all religions as different paths leading to the same goal. In his search for religious faith or the realization of God he lived with mystics of other faiths, Muslims and Christians. He again and again emphasized that service of man was service of God, for man was the embodiment of God.
It was his great disciple, Swami Vivekananda, who popularized the religious message of Ramakrishna and who tried to put it in a form that would suit the needs of contemporary Indian society. By stressing the need of social action he said that knowledge unaccompanied by action in the actual world in which we lived was useless. He declared that he would talk of religion only when he succeeded in removing poverty and misery from the country. He argued that education would automatically rid the society of all its ailments. Even while espousing the superiority of Indian philosophical tradition, and laying his faith in the Vedanta as a fully rational system, he too proclaimed the essential oneness of all religions.
After the death of Ramakrishna in 1886, Vivekananda dedicated his life for the propagation of his master’s message and soon made a tour around the country which convinced him of the vast misery and suffering of the common people. In his second tour in 1893, he attended the World parliament of Religions at Chicago which created great impression about the spiritual preeminence of Hindu philosophy. The New York Herald reported: “after hearing we feel how foolish is to send missionaries to this learned nation”. After four years of stay abroad Vivekananda returned to India and established two principal centres for training men as sanyasis for the religious and social work of the Mission. The Ramakrishna Mission actively served the society, such as in alleviating suffering, providing medical aid to the sick and looking after the orphans. Under the auspices of the Mission, schools were opened and philanthropic centres were established.
Vivekananda made a signal contribution to the nascent Indian nationalism. Though he never directly preached anti-British policies or nationalism as such, the net result of all his exhortation for reform, unity, awakening and freedom gave rise to a strong feeling of nationalism. Therefore he is generally held as the spiritual precursor of India’s freedom movement.
Reform Movements among Sikhs
Efforts to reform Sikh religion and society were begun by the end of 19th century. It appeared through Nirankari, Namdhari and Singh sabha movements.
The Nirankari Movement
Baba Dayal Das (1783-1855) founded this movement in 1840s .It aimed at restoring the purity of religion and return to original Sikhism and emphasised the worship of God as Nirankar (formless). It also meant a rejection of idolatry and priests. Stressing the importance and authority of Guru Nanak and Adi Granth he prohibited eating meat, drinking liquor, lying, cheating etc.
Darbara Singh began to issue Hukamnamas (statements describing both doctrine and approved rituals). Under his leadership Nirankaris attained rapid growth. He opened 40 new sub centres. Rattan Chand , younger brother and successor of Darbara Singh also established new centres and appointed biredars (leaders) for each congregation(sangat). The members of this movement were mainly from the urban non-jat section of the Sikh community.
Namdhari Movement
Baba Ram Singh (1816-85) was the founder of this movement. He became the disciple of Balak Singh of the Kuka Movement. Followers saw him as the reincarnation of Guru Gobind Singh. Balak Singh advised Sikhs to avoid all unnecessary forms of worship except chanting the name of God and lead a simple life. Before his death he chose Ram Singh as his successor.
In 1857 Ram Singh formally inaugurated the namdhari movement with asset of rituals modelled after Guru Gobind Singh’s founding of the Khalsa. Namdharis dressed in white with a white turban. They were not to worship gods, idols graves, tombs etc. The acknowledged women to be equal to men, encouraged widow remarriage, rejected dowry and child marriage. They were to abstain from cheating stealing, adultery, eating beef etc. and were committed to cattle protection. They were strongly anti British. They also came into conflict with Muslims. Baba ram Singh was arrested and exiled to Burma where he died in 1885.
Singh Sabhas
Shaken by the Namdhari unrest, the speeches of Shradha ram of Arya Samaj, and by Christian Conversions, a small group of prominent Sikhs led by Thakur Singh Sandhawalia and Giani gian Singh formed sinhg sabha of Amritsar on October 1, 1873. It’s aims were
- Restore Sikhism to its pristine purity.
- Publish historical religious books and periodicals
- Propagate knowledge using Punjabi
- Return such apostates to their original faith and
- Involve Englishmen in the educational programme of the Sikhs.
This movement got wider acceptance from the Sikh community. It also engaged in the preparation of a definitive text of the Dasam Granth. Soon the Amritsar sabha was rivalled by a new organisation called The Lahore Singh Sabha led by Professor Gurmukh Singh and Bhai Ditt Singh. Lahore Sabha was more democratic and it accepted members from all caste including untouchables. In 1880 a General Sabha was established to provide central organization for all Singh sabhas. Later it was renamed as Khalsa Diwan. Both these sabhas cooperated well in establishing a Sikh College. Singh sabhas continued to expand with the establishment of newer branches and later they engaged in a struggle for control over the Sikh places of worship.
Reform among Parsis
Absence of unity in Parsi community and christian missionary criticism on them caused the beginning of religious reform movements among the parsis of Bombay in the mid of 19th century.
English educated youths like Naoroji Furdunji, Dadabhai Naoroji, SS Bengalee and others formed Rehnumai Mazdayazan Sabha. They published a journal named rast goftar and campaigned against orthodoxy in religious field, modernization of parsi social customs regarding marriage, social position and education of women. Reformers targeted the Young Parsi priests and Parsis became the most reformed and westernized community in india. In the words of Kenneth W Johnes Rehnumai Mazdayazan Sabha was a movement having acculturative tendancy. As a result Parsis were able to contribute important figures like S.S. Bengalee who advocated legislative move to reform condition of factory workers, B.M. Malabari a journalist who stood against child marriage and leaders of national Movement like Dadabhai naoroji, Pheroshah mehta and Dinshaw Watcha.
Reform among the Indian Muslims
Wahabi Movement
It represents the earliest notable attempt to reform the Muslims of India. It was dominant in Bengal, Bihar, UP, Punjab and North Western Frontier Province during the period 1820-1870. This movement aimed at restoring the Indian Islam to its pristine purity was begun by Sayyid Ahmad of Rai Barely (1756-1831). It is also called as ‘Waliyullahi’ Movement. He urged the Muslims to purge out polytheism, tomb worship and other non Islamic practices from their life. Many of his ideas were actually borrowed from Shah Waliyullah, the 18th century Muslim reformer of Delhi. Waliyullah adviced the Muslims to frame their life in accordance with the teachings of Holy Quran and traditions of Prophet. The resemblance with ideas of 18th century Arabian reformer Abdul Wahab prompted his opponents to brand his movement as ‘Wahabi’. Later Wahabis became an anti British political movement and engaged in a jihad (holy war) to transform the British India from a ‘Dar ul harb’ (land of infidels) to ‘Dar ul Islam’ ( land of Islam). They moved towards Afgan frontier and fought against Sikhs in which Sayyid Ahmad was killed. With the British conquest of Punjab Wahabis fully turned against British under the leadership of Wilayayt Ali and Inayat ali. British suppressed and haunted Wahabis. Much of them were either hanged or imprisoned or deported to Andaman. Aligarh Movement
The Muslims were generally opposed to the western culture and English education in the early phase of colonial rule in India primarily because the British had captured political power from the Muslim rulers which had adversely affected the prospects of the nobility and the ulema. The Muslims had led several movements against the British of which the last and the greatest was the Revolt of 1857. The Revolt shattered the fabric of the Muslim upper classes in North India. With the failure of the Muslim confrontation with the British, a change in the entire political outlook was felt necessary and there was a wide recognition of the need for adjustment with the new age of western domination and western intellectual outlook.
At this juncture, there appeared on the scene one of the greatest men Muslim India has produced in recent times. He was Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan who set about his task with a clear vision and an extraordinarily firm resolve, disdaining alike the open hostility of the conservative ulema and the ridicule of his own friends and colleagues. Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan was in the judicial service of the East India Company at the time of the Revolt of 1857 and stood loyal to the Government. After his retirement from service he appeared in the role of a socio-religious reformer. Through his writings he strongly pleaded for a rationalist and non-conformist trend in religious outlook and political vision.
Sir Sayyid liberalized Indian Islam and took upon himself the triple task of religious reinterpretation, social reform and education. He was tremendously impressed by modern scientific thought and worked all his life to reconcile it with Islam. He declared that Quran alone was the authentic work for Islam and all other Islamic writings were secondary. Even the Quran he interpreted in the light of contemporary rationalism and science. In his view any interpretation of the Quran that conflicted with human reason, science or nature was in reality a misinterpretation. He repudiated the view held by some theologians that the Hindus were kafirs. He stressed the unity of the Hindus and Muslims. He tried to reform the Muslims and believed that the instrument of emancipation was modern education, its rational approach and scientific methods. He came to the conclusion that only by taking to western education would the Muslims be able to overcome their backwardness and come to an understanding with the rulers. All his life he struggled against blind obedience to tradition, dependence on custom, ignorance and irrationalism. He urged the people to develop a critical approach and freedom of thought. He made the town of Aligarh the centre of his activities and in 1875 founded the Aligarh School as a centre for spreading western science and culture (which was upgraded in 1877 to a college and named Muhammedan Anglo-Oreintal College and is the forerunner of the Aligarh Muslim University). The whole range of his activities came to be known as the Aligarh movement.
The reformist zeal of Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan also embraced the social sphere. He urged the Muslims to give up medieval customs and ways of thought and behaviour. In particular he wrote in favour of raising women’s status in society and advocated the removal of purdah and spread of education among women. He also condemned the custom of polygamy and easy divorce.
Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan was a great believer in religious toleration. He believed that all religions had a certain underlying unity which could be called practical morality. Believing that a person’s religion was his or her private affair, he condemned any sign of religious bigotry. However, towards the end of the 19th century he began to oppose the nationalist movement and Hindu-Muslim unity. In his view a Hindu-Muslim alliance could only be disadvantageous to the Muslim community, which was much smaller in number, educationally backward, politically immature, and economically insecure. Alliance with the Hindus against the British could only lead to the loss of British patronage and to the exploitation and subjugation of the Muslims by the overwhelming Hindu majority. Thus began modern Muslim separatism in India.
Assertion of Backward Classes
Sri Narayana Guru
The second half of the 19th century witnessed the rise of several social reform movements in Kerala. The most important aspect of these movements was the awakening of the lower caste people and their struggle against the evils of the Hindu society. In the prevailing caste system of Kerala the lower caste people were not only untouchables but unapproachables too. They were denied the freedom of worship and the right to use public roads. They were also denied the opportunity of education and were kept away from government services. The peaceful atmosphere provided by the British rule and the New Learning prepared these people to struggle against the rigidity of the caste system.
The most important reformer of modern Kerala and probably the greatest figure in Kerala Renaissance was Sri Narayana Guru. He was born in 1855 in an Izhava family at Chempazhanthi near Thiruvananthapuram. He had started criticizing caste rules and Brahmin superiority from his early days. His earliest and notable social intervention was the consecration of the idol of Siva at Aruvipuram near Thiruvananthapuram. It became a revolutionary act because according to the Vedic tradition Brahmins alone had the right to install a deity in a temple. His act provoked the caste Hindus but when they questioned him he gave the reply that he had installed an ‘Izhava Siva’ and not a ‘Brahmin Siva’. It unleashed a veritable revolution because it questioned the age-old Brahmin domination and provided the lower castes freedom of worship which was denied to them for centuries. Following the Aruvipuram example, the Guru established several temples in various parts of Kerala in which he appointed Izhavas as priests. Other lower castes were also allowed to worship in these temples.
Sri Narayana Guru wanted to make the Izhavas a model community. He asked them to strengthen themselves through association, emancipate through education and to advance through industrial enterprises. To provide the Izhavas organizational strength, he formed the Sri Narayana Dharmaparipalana Yogam (SNDP Yogam) in 1903. Under the auspices of the Yogam, large number of schools and other educational institutions were started. Many industrial establishments were also started with a view to provide the Izhavas new employment opportunities and to raise their social status (their traditional occupation of toddy-tapping and coconut-picking were perceived as degraded in the existing caste-based occupational system).
Sri Narayana Guru tried to reshape the Izhavas as a model community also by urging them to eradicate several evil and irrational customs practiced by them such as the Talikettu Kalyanam. He vigorously campaigned against the luxurious way of conducting marriages and asked people to perform marriages in the most simple manner. He asked the Izhavas not to drink nor to make or sell toddy. He wanted them to be industrious and enterprising and to think and live rationally.
Though Sri Narayana Guru worked for the upliftment of the Izhavas, he was not a sectarian philosopher and reformer. His message was ‘one caste, one religion and one God for humanity’. He was against narrow religious thinking and caste distinctions. He stated that in essence all religions profess the same ideals and are in fact different paths to the same goal. He advised each and every individual to be good irrespective of his or her religious faith. His philosophy was Advaita which was based on the Upanishadic ideology. He convened an all-religious conference at Aluva in 1924 to “know and to inform” or to exchange ideas among each other.
Sri Narayana Guru died in 1928. By the time of his death, the social revolution started by him had become a grand success. Within a short span of time his message of human love and universal brotherhood extended to embrace almost all castes and communities of Kerala and paved the way for a greater social awakening.
Women’s Movements
In the 19th century the emancipation of women became a matter of prime concern for the socio-religious reformers. Women then were shamelessly exploited, kept backward and were victims of many degrading customs like sati, female infanticide, purdah, child marriage, polygamy, etc. The reformers saw these customs to be the perverted practices born of ignorance and fear, and followed blindly. Since women were denied education, they also lacked education.
In the view of the reformers, as long as women remained exploited and backward, society could not advance. Women’s status was therefore the most important symbol of social change. The earliest reform groups focused attention on women-related issues. Their activities provided a stimulus and the atmosphere to improve the lot of the Indian women. Ram Mohan Roy worked for the abolition of sati and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar championed widow remarriage and female education. Dayanand Saraswati, Viresalingam and Ranade also encouraged female education and widow marriage.
Following the initial activities of male reformers, several women activists started their efforts to improve the condition of women. The role of Pandita Ramabai was remarkable as a pioneer in women’s education and a rebel champion of women’s rights. She founded the Sharda Sadan, a school for widows, in Bombay and Mukti near Pune. Her greatest legacy was her effort, the first in India, to educate widows.
Emancipation of women took a new momentum with the spread of education among them and with the establishment of a number of associations formed for women by women themselves. The earliest of such a movement was the Bharat Stree Mahamandal formed in 1910 at Allahabad by Saraladevi Chaudharani. In 1915 Dorothy Jinarajadasa founded the Women’s Indian Association with the principal aim of encouraging female education. The most important and the first truly Indian women organization was the All-India Women’s Conference, founded in 1927. The conference discussed vital issues on female education, child marriage and purdah.
Sri Narayana Guru
The second half of the 19th century witnessed the rise of several social reform movements in Kerala. The most important aspect of these movements was the awakening of the lower caste people and their struggle against the evils of the Hindu society. In the prevailing caste system of Kerala the lower caste people were not only untouchables but unapproachables too. They were denied the freedom of worship and the right to use public roads. They were also denied the opportunity of education and were kept away from government services. The peaceful atmosphere provided by the British rule and the New Learning prepared these people to struggle against the rigidity of the caste system.
The most important reformer of modern Kerala and probably the greatest figure in Kerala Renaissance was Sri Narayana Guru. He was born in 1855 in an Izhava family at Chempazhanthi near Thiruvananthapuram. He had started criticizing caste rules and Brahmin superiority from his early days. His earliest and notable social intervention was the consecration of the idol of Siva at Aruvipuram near Thiruvananthapuram. It became a revolutionary act because according to the Vedic tradition Brahmins alone had the right to install a deity in a temple. His act provoked the caste Hindus but when they questioned him he gave the reply that he had installed an ‘Izhava Siva’ and not a ‘Brahmin Siva’. It unleashed a veritable revolution because it questioned the age-old Brahmin domination and provided the lower castes freedom of worship which was denied to them for centuries. Following the Aruvipuram example, the Guru established several temples in various parts of Kerala in which he appointed Izhavas as priests. Other lower castes were also allowed to worship in these temples.
Sri Narayana Guru wanted to make the Izhavas a model community. He asked them to strengthen themselves through association, emancipate through education and to advance through industrial enterprises. To provide the Izhavas organizational strength, he formed the Sri Narayana Dharmaparipalana Yogam (SNDP Yogam) in 1903. Under the auspices of the Yogam, large number of schools and other educational institutions were started. Many industrial establishments were also started with a view to provide the Izhavas new employment opportunities and to raise their social status (their traditional occupation of toddy-tapping and coconut-picking were perceived as degraded in the existing caste-based occupational system).
Sri Narayana Guru tried to reshape the Izhavas as a model community also by urging them to eradicate several evil and irrational customs practiced by them such as the Talikettu Kalyanam. He vigorously campaigned against the luxurious way of conducting marriages and asked people to perform marriages in the most simple manner. He asked the Izhavas not to drink nor to make or sell toddy. He wanted them to be industrious and enterprising and to think and live rationally.
Though Sri Narayana Guru worked for the upliftment of the Izhavas, he was not a sectarian philosopher and reformer. His message was ‘one caste, one religion and one God for humanity’. He was against narrow religious thinking and caste distinctions. He stated that in essence all religions profess the same ideals and are in fact different paths to the same goal. He advised each and every individual to be good irrespective of his or her religious faith. His philosophy was Advaita which was based on the Upanishadic ideology. He convened an all-religious conference at Aluva in 1924 to “know and to inform” or to exchange ideas among each other.
Sri Narayana Guru died in 1928. By the time of his death, the social revolution started by him had become a grand success. Within a short span of time his message of human love and universal brotherhood extended to embrace almost all castes and communities of Kerala and paved the way for a greater social awakening.
Women’s Movements
In the 19th century the emancipation of women became a matter of prime concern for the socio-religious reformers. Women then were shamelessly exploited, kept backward and were victims of many degrading customs like sati, female infanticide, purdah, child marriage, polygamy, etc. The reformers saw these customs to be the perverted practices born of ignorance and fear, and followed blindly. Since women were denied education, they also lacked education.
In the view of the reformers, as long as women remained exploited and backward, society could not advance. Women’s status was therefore the most important symbol of social change. The earliest reform groups focused attention on women-related issues. Their activities provided a stimulus and the atmosphere to improve the lot of the Indian women. Ram Mohan Roy worked for the abolition of sati and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar championed widow remarriage and female education. Dayanand Saraswati, Viresalingam and Ranade also encouraged female education and widow marriage.
Following the initial activities of male reformers, several women activists started their efforts to improve the condition of women. The role of Pandita Ramabai was remarkable as a pioneer in women’s education and a rebel champion of women’s rights. She founded the Sharda Sadan, a school for widows, in Bombay and Mukti near Pune. Her greatest legacy was her effort, the first in India, to educate widows.
Emancipation of women took a new momentum with the spread of education among them and with the establishment of a number of associations formed for women by women themselves. The earliest of such a movement was the Bharat Stree Mahamandal formed in 1910 at Allahabad by Saraladevi Chaudharani. In 1915 Dorothy Jinarajadasa founded the Women’s Indian Association with the principal aim of encouraging female education. The most important and the first truly Indian women organization was the All-India Women’s Conference, founded in 1927. The conference discussed vital issues on female education, child marriage and purdah.
