Emergence of Reform Movements
The British characterized Indian society in the
nineteenth century as being caught in a vicious circle of superstitions and
obscurantism. In their view idolatry and polytheism reinforced orthodoxy
impelling the people to follow them blindly. The social conditions were equally
depressing. And the condition of women was deplorable. The practice of sati
came in for particular condemnation. The division of society according to birth
resulting in the caste system was also criticized. Most importantly, the
British argued that without their intervention there was no possibility of
deliverance from these evils for Indians. Needless to say, this was a
self-serving argument, articulated by missionaries and Utilitarians to justify
British rule.
Utilitarians: believers in the
doctrine of greatest happiness of
the greatest number
India was a much bigger, more complex and diverse
country in the early nineteenth century. Conditions varied vastly across it.
The social and cultural evils had been fought by Indian reformers through the
ages. But the advent of the British with their Enlightenment ideas undoubtedly
posed a new challenge. This chapter looks at how social reform movements
emerged in various parts of the country.
The development of the Western culture and ideology
forced the traditional institutions to revitalize themselves. During the second
half of the nineteenth century, the expression of protest and desire for change
were articulated through various reform movements. These movements aimed at
reforming and democratizing the social institutions and religious outlook of
the Indian people. The emergence of new economic forces, spread of education,
growth of nationalist sentiment, influence of modern Western thoughts, ideas
and culture, and awareness of the changes taking place in Europe strengthened
the resolve to reform.
What gave these reform movements an ideological
unity were rationalism, religious universalism and humanism. This perspective
enabled them to adopt a rational approach to tradition and evaluate the
contemporary socio-religious practices from the standpoint of social utility.
For example, Raja Rammohun Roy repudiated the infallibility of the Vedas and
during the Aligarh Movement, Syed Ahmed Khan emphasized that religious tenets
were not immutable. As Keshab Chandra Sen said, ‘Our position is not that
truths are to be in all religions, but that all established religions of the
World are true.’
These movements enveloping the entire cultural
stream of Indian society brought about significant practices in the realms of
language, religion, art and philosophy. These reform movements can be broadly
classified into two categories:
1. Reformist
Movements
2. Revivalist
Movements
Both the movements depended in varying degrees on
an appeal to the lost purity of religion. The primary difference between them
lay in the degree to which they relied on tradition or on reason and
conscience. The social reform movements formed an integral part of the
religious reforms primarily because all the efforts towards social ills like
caste- and gender– based inequality derived legitimacy from religion.
Initially, the social reform movement had a narrow social base – they were
limited to the upper and middle strata of the society that tried to adjust
their modernized views to the existing social reality. From then on, the social
reform movements began to percolate to the lower strata of society to reconstruct
the social fabric. Heated debates among the intellectuals expressed in the form
of public arguments, tracts and journals played a big role in taking new ideas
to large sections of the people, as well as to reformulate older ideas in a new
form.
At the start, organizations such as the Social
Conference, Servants of India and the Christian missionaries were instrumental
in giving an impetus to the social reform movements along with many enlightened
individuals about whom we dwell on in the following pages. In later years,
especially by the twentieth century, the national movement provided the
leadership and organization for social reform.
Raja Rammohun Roy, was a man of versatile genius.
He established the Brahmo Samaj in August, 1828. The Brahmo Samaj was committed
to “the worship and adoration of the eternal, unsearchable, immutable Being who
is the Author and Preserver of the Universe”. His long term agenda was to
purify Hinduism and to preach monotheism for which he drew authority from the
Vedas. He emphasized human dignity, opposed idolatry and social evils such as
sati. A retired servant of the East India Company, he was conversant in many
languages including Persian and Sanskrit. His ideas and activities were aimed
at the political uplift of society through social reform. He was a determined
crusader against the inhuman practice of Sati. His tract written in 1818, A Conference Between an Advocate for and an Opponent of the Practice of Burning
Widows, cited sacred texts to
prove that no religion sanctioned the burning alive of widows. His efforts
fructified and the Company through an enactment of law (1829) declared the
practice of sati a crime.
The overall contribution of Brahmo Samaj can be
summed up as follows
1. It
denounced polytheism, idol worship, and the faith in divine avatars (incarnations)
2. It
condemned the caste system, dogmas and superstitions.
3. It wanted
the abolition of child marriage, purdah
system and the practice of sati
4. It
supported widow remarriage
Inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution,
Rammohun Roy left for Europe and died in Bristol. After his death there was a
steady decline but for the new lease life given to it by Devendranath Tagore
(father of Rabindranath Tagore). After him the organization was taken forward
by Keshab Chandra Sen from 1857. The strength of the organization is known from
the number of branches it had in 1865, 54 Samajas (fifty in Bengal, two in
North West Province, one each in Punjab and Madras) . In course of time, the
Brahmo Samaj broke into two namely Devendranath Tagore’s, ‘Brahmo Samaj of
India’ and Keshub Chandra Sen’s ‘Sadharan Brahmo Samaj’.
In Tamilnadu, Kasi Viswanatha Mudaliar was an
adherent of the Samaj and he wrote a play titled Brahmo Samaja Natakam to
expound the ideas of the Samaj. He
also wrote a tract in support of widow remarriage. In 1864, a Tamil journal
titled Tathuva Bodhini was started
for the cause of the Brahmo Samaja.
The Brahmo Samaj met with great opposition from
orthodox elements in Bengal society such as the Hindu Dharma Sabha. However,
there were also reformers such as Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, who advocated the
same ideas but drew on Hindu scriptures as authority.
Even though the Brahmo Samaj did not win many
adherents, it had a big impact on the intellectuals. In the early stages, many
young men seized of the radical ideas avidly propagated them. Tagore’s family
was a Brahmo family and its influence can be seen in his writings and ideas.
An off-shoot of the Brahmo Samaj, the Prarthana
Samaj, was founded in 1867 in Bombay by Atmaram Pandurang (1823– 98). The
Prarthana Samaj as an organization never had any great influence but its
members, like M. G. Ranade (1852-1901), R. G. Bhandarkar, and K.T. Telang, were
among the great leaders of nineteenth-century Maharashtra and they became the
founders of the social reform movement in later years.
Prarthana Samaj was similar to Brahmo Samaj, but it
was consciously linked with the bhakti
tradition of the Maharashtrian saints. The Prarathana Samaj continued its work
mainly through educational work directed at women and workers at the lower
level. It concentrated on social reforms like inter-dining, inter-marriage,
remarriage of widows, and uplift of women and depressed classes.
The National Social Conference organized at the
initiative of M.G. Ranade met each year immediately after the Indian National
Congress (1885) annual sessions. Justice Ranade was an erudite scholar with a
keen intellect and under his able guidance the Prarthana Samaj became the
active centre of a new social reformation in western India. He was one of the
founders of the Widow Marriage Association and was an ardent promoter of the
famous Deccan Education Society. Its object was to impart such education to the young as would fit them for the unselfish
service of the country. When Ranade died in 1901, his leadership was taken over
by Chandavarkar.
The founder of the Arya Samaj was Dayananda
Saraswati (1824–83). Dayananda, a Gujarati, left home in his youth to become an
ascetic. For seventeen years he wandered around India. In 1863 he became a
wandering preacher, and five years later he added the establishment of schools
to his activities. In 1872 he met the Brahmos in Calcutta. In 1875 he founded
the Arya Samaj and published his major work the Satyarth Prakash. In his view, contemporary Hinduism had become
degenerate. Therefore he rejected puranas, polytheism, idolatry, the role of
Brahmin priests, pilgrimages, many rituals and the prohibition on widow
marriage. As a good Sanskrit scholar, he made a call to“Back to the Vedas”. He
wanted to shape society on the basis of the Vedas. He disregarded the puranas.
Like the other social reformers, he encouraged female education and remarriage
of widows.
Swami Dayananda’s sphere of influence was largely
in the Punjab region where the trading community of Khatris experienced great
mobility in colonial times. However, in the Punjab region, there was much
communal conflict among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. Dayananda’s Shuddi (purification) movement i.e., conversion of non-Hindus to Hindus was
controversial and provoked controversies especially with the Ahmadiya movement.
Arya Samaj is considered to be a revivalist
movement. Dayananda’s influence continued into the twentieth century through
the establishment of Dayananad Anglo Vedic (DAV) schools and colleges.
As we saw above, the early reform movements in
Bengal were radical, questioning and criticising tradition very strongly. In
response to this emerged the Ramakrishna Mission as an important religious
movement. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886), a poor priest in a temple at
Dakshineswar near Kolkata, had no formal education but led an intense spiritual
life. He had a deep faith in the inherent truth of all religions and tested its
belief by performing religious service in accordance with the practices of
different religions. According to him ‘all the religious views are but
different ways to lead to the same goal.’ In a backlash, the later generation
of Western educated intellectuals were drawn to Ramakrishna’s broad view,
mysticism and spiritual fervour. He expounded his views in short stories and
admirable parables which were compiled by an admirer as Ramakrishna Kathamrita (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna).
The most famous among his disciples was a young graduate of the Calcutta University named Narendranath Dutta, afterwards famously called Swami Vivekananda(1863–1902). Emphasising practical work over philosophizing he established the modern institution of the Ramakrishna Mission. He carried Ramakrishna’s message all over India and the world. His learning, eloquence, spiritual fervour and personality gathered round him a band of followers across the country, many of whom also joined the national movement. He attended in 1893 the famous, ‘Parliament of Religions’ at Chicago, and made a deep impact on those congregated there. The Mission opened schools, dispensaries and orphanages and helped people during their time of distress caused by calamities.
Swami Vivekananda was a
personification of youth and boldness and referred to as the Morning Star of
the Modern India. In the words of Valentine Chirol, ‘the first Hindu whose
personality won demonstrative recognition abroad for India’s ancient
civilization and for her newborn claim to nationhood.’
Even as Indian intellectuals felt challenged by
western Enlightenment and rationalistic movements, there was a strain of
thinking in the West which looked to the East for spiritual salvation. From
this idea emerged the Theosophical Society, founded by Madam H.P. Blavatsky and
Colonel H.S. Olcott in the United States of America in 1875. They came to India
in 1879 and established their headquarters at Adyar in 1886. Under the
leadership of Annie Besant, who came to India in 1893, the Theosophical Society
gathered strength and won many adherents. The Theosophical Society started
associations across south India. Though involved in many controversies, the
Society played an important role in the revival of Buddhism in India.
Iyotheethoss Pandithar, the radical Dalit thinker, was introduced to modern
Buddhism through his interaction with Colonel Olcott who took him to Sri Lanka.
There he met many Buddhist monks including the renowned revivalist Anagarika
Dharmapala and Acharya Sumangala.
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