Women Caste And Reform - Class 8 History - Extra Questions

Ramakrishna mission 

The untouchables were not given the same rights like the upper caste. For instance, they were not allowed to use the same wells as the upper caste did nor were they allowed to attend the same schools.

One of his greatest achievements in the field of social reforms, was his efforts to abolish the Sati in 1829 with the help of Governor General William Bentinck.

He started two newspapers- one in Bangali, called the Sambad Kaumudi and another in persian, called the Mirat-ul-Akbar.

Ambedkar fought for the rights of Dalit. He himself was a dalit and was disturbed by the discrimination shown towards the dalits by the upper caste people.

His studies inspired the development of the spirit of Liberty, Equality and Freedom.

Pandita Ramabai a self-educated reformer from Maharashtra had dedicated her life to liberate women from social restictions and opened 'Sarda Sadan' a home for widows.

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was another reformer from Bengal. Born in a poor Brahmin family in 1820. His greatest contribution was the upliftment of widows and education of women. 

Sister Nivedita, who originally belonged to Ireland became a prominent disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She also supported the Indian National Movement, she championed for women's education and also worked for their emancipation.

Raja Rammohan Roy was the founder of Brahmo Samaj. It became an important organisation of religious reforms. It believed in the basic unity of all religions and forbade idol worship.

Jyotirao Govindrao Phule was a prominent social reformer and thinker of the nineteenth century India. Mahatma Jyotiba Phule was also a pioneer in women's education in India and fought for the education of girls throughout his life.  He also formed the Satya Shodhak Samaj with the aim of liberating the Shudras and to protect them from exploitations of the Brahmins.

Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 to propagate the teaching of his guru, Ramakrishna Paramhamsa.

One of the worst evils of Indian Society is the dowry system. The word ‘dowry’ means the property and money that a bride brought to her husband’s house at the time of her marriage. It is a custom that is prevalent in all the sections of our society in one form or the other. At the beginning, it was voluntary, but later on, the social pressure was such that very few could escape from it.

Ramakrishna Mission is an Indian socio-religious organisation founded by Swami Vivekanand on 1 May 1897. It was established in order to propagate the ideals of Ramakrishna Paramahansa. It conducts research in the field of health care, elementary and higher education, tribal welfare and culture.

Samvada  Kaumudi was a Bengali weekly newspaper published from Kolkata in the first half of the 19th century by Ram Mohan Roy. It was a noted pro-Reformist publication that actively campaigned for the abolition of the practice of 'Sati'. Satyarth Prakash is an 1875 book written originally in Hindi by Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati, a renowned religious and social reformer and the founder of Arya Samaj. In 1914, Annie Besant purchased the Madras Standard newspaper and renamed it New India, which, thereafter, became the chosen organ for her tempestuous propaganda for India’s freedom. Jyotiba Phule wrote the famous book called 'Gulamgiri'.

Swami Vivekanand emphasized on:

He was a noted Dalit leader, He himself was a Dalit and fought for the rights of the Dalits.

They thought that justice can only be achieved when people are treated equally.

Untouchability, in its literalsense, is of practise of ostracising a minority group by segregating them from the mainstream by social custom and legal mandate.

Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj in 1875, an organization that attempted to reform Hinduism. He also supported widow remarriage. He published many pamphlets to spread his ideas. He stressed on the spread of learning and education of all.

Shuddhi Movement was started by Arya Samai in earlier part of 20th century to bring back the people who had converted to Islam and Christianity from Hinduism. 

He said one has to interpret one’s religion according to the changing times. Otherwise, religion becomes sluggish. Sir Ahmad Khan fought against traditions, superstitions, ignorance and irrationalities thoughout his life. He said without an open mind, any social and intellectual development  is impossible. He did not support the Purdah system for Muslim women. He called for educating Muslim girls. He did not accept Polygamy. All these aspects were part of his struggles. In order to implement his ideals into practice, he founded Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh in 1875. He utilized this institution to spread the western scientific and cultural ideas. This institution later became Aligarh Muslim University.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded a reform association known as the Brahma Sabha (Brahma Samaj) in Calcutta. He supported the ideas to spread the knowledge of western education in the country and bring about greater freedom and equality for women. He wrote about the way women were forced to bear the burden of domestic work, confined to the home and the kitchen, and not allowed to move out and became educated. As a result of his efforts, the practice of Sati was banned in 1829.

The different reasons people had for not sending girls to school were: 

a) The original name of Swami Dayananda Saraswati was Mulshankar.
b) His Guru was Swami Virjanand.
c) His motto was "Go back to Vedas"
d) The Arya Samaj advocated women education, intercaste marriage and interdining.

In Madras town of the 19th century, very cheap small books were brought to markets and were sold at crossroads, so the poor people could purchase It. From the late 19th century, issues of caste discrimination began to be written in many printed tracts and essays, all these helped to draw the attention of poor people.
These social reformers were successful to drew attention & poor people by their print work
(i) The social reformers like Jyotiba Phule wrote about the injustices of the caste system in his book Gulamglri (1871).
(ii) In the 20th century, BR Ambedkar and EV Ramaswamy Naicker wrote about casteism and their writing was read by people all over India.
(lii) Kashibaba, a Kanpur mill-worker, wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal' in 1938, which suggested the links between caste and class exploitation.

Swami Vivekananda- Ramakrishna MissionHenry Vivian Derozio- Young Bengal Movement

Pandita Ramabai criticised the social differences between men and women. She felt that Hinduism was oppressive towards women and wrote a book about the miserable lives of upper caste Hindu women. She founded a widow's home at Poona to provide shelter to widows who had been treated badly by their husbands’ relatives. Here women were trained so that they could support themselves economically.

Jyotirao Phule supported education for girls. He established schools for girls in Maharashtra. He also advocated for caste equality. He opposed any type of slavery (gulamgiri) not only in India but also in the USA.

Jyotirao Phule attacked the Brahman's' claim that they were superior to others since they were Aryans. He argued that the Aryans were foreigners, who came from outside the subcontinent and defeated and subjugated the true children of the country. Aryans began looking at the defeated people as inferiors, as low-caste people. Phule further said that the upper castes had no right to their land and power. In reality, the land belonged to the indigenous people, the land belonged to the indigenous people, the so-called low castes.

In 1873, Phule wrote a book named Gulamgiri, meaning slavery. Some ten years before this, the American Civil War had been fought, leading to the end of slavery in America. Phule dedicated his book to all those Americans who had fought to free slaves, thus establishing a link between the conditions of the lower caste in India and the black slaves in America. As this example shows, Phule extended his criticism of the caste system to argue against all forms of inequality. He was concerned about the plight of upper-caste women, the miseries of the laborer, and the humiliation of the low castes.