Socio-Religious Movement-Part-2

Socio-Cultural Reform Movements and their Leaders

1.Raja Rammohan Roy and Brahmo Samaj

• Raja Rammohan Roy (1772-1833) is often called the the FATHER OF INDIAN RENAISSANCE AND THE MAKER OF MODERN INDIA, was a man of versatile genius.

• He knew more than a dozen languages including Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, English, French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. A knowledge of different languages helped him broadbase his range of study.

• He demanded the INDIANISATION of superior services and separation of the executive from the judiciary.

• He demanded judicial equality between Indians and Europeans

• He supported the revolutions of Naples and Spanish America and condemned the oppression of Ireland by absentee English landlordism

His Associate's

• Roy had David Hare, Alexander Duff, Debendranath Tagore, P.K. Tagore, Chandrashekhar Deb and Tarachand chakraborty were his associate's

Rammohan Roy Beleived in-

• the modern scientific approach

• principles of human dignity

• social equality & monotheism.

Rammohan Roy did not want to establish a new religion. He only wanted to purify Hinduism of the evil practices which had crept into it.

Gift of Monotheists

• He wrote GIFT TO MONOTHEISTS (1809) and translated into Bengali the Vedas and the five Upanishads to prove his conviction that ancient Hindu texts support monotheism.

Atmiya Sabha

• In 1814, he set up the Atmiya Sabha (or Society of Friends) in Calcutta to propagate the monotheistic ideals of the Vedanta and to campaign against idolatry, caste rigidities, meaningless rituals and other social ills.
• Strongly influenced by rationalist ideas, he declared that Vedanta is based on reason and that, if reason demanded it, even a departure from the scriptures is justified.

Precepts of Jesus

• In his Precepts of Jesus (1820), he tried to separate the moral and philosophical message of the New Testament, which he praised, from its miracle stories.

Brahmo sabha-1828

• Raja Rammohan Roy founded the Brahmo Sabha in August 1828 it was later renamed Brahmo Samaj.

• Through the Sabha he wanted to institutionalise his ideas and mission. The Samaj was committed to "the worship and adoration of the Eternal, Unsearchable, Immutable Being who is the Author and Preserver of the Universe" Prayers, meditation and readings of the Upanishads were to be the forms of worship and no graven image, statue or sculpture, carving, painting, picture, portrait, etc., were to be allowed in the Samaj buildings, thus underlining the Samaj's opposition to idolatry and meaningless rituals.

• it discarded faith in divine avataras

• it took no definite stand on the doctrine of karma and transmigration of soul and left it to individual Brahmos to believe either way

• it criticised the caste system.

• The Samaj also tried to incorporate teachings of other religions and kept its emphasis on human dignity, opposition to idolatry and criticism of social evils such as sati.

• Later on in Brahmo Samaj the followers of Rammohan, the Derozians and independent thinkers such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Ashwini Kumar Datta were also added

Opposition to Roy's Idea

Dharam Sabha

• Founded by Raja RADHAKANT DEB who organised the Dharma Sabha to counter Brahmo Samaj, propaganda.

ANTI-SATI STRUGGLE of Rammohan roy

• He started his anti-sati struggle in 1818 and he cited sacred texts to prove his contention that no religion sanctioned the burning alive of widows, besides appealing to humanity, reason and compassion.

• He also visited the cremation grounds, organised vigilance groups and filed counter petitions to the government during his struggle against sati.

Government Regulation of 1829

• His efforts were rewarded by the Government Regulation in 1829 which declared the practice of sati a crime.

• Roy was against polygamy and favoured widow remarriage

Support to David hare

• He supported David Hare's efforts to found the HINDU COLLEGE IN 1817

Vedanta college

• In 1825, he established a Vedanta college where courses in both Indian learning and Western social and physical sciences were offered.

Freedom of Press

• He was bold supporter of freedom of the Press and as a pioneer in Indian joumalism, Roy brought out journals in Bengali, Hindi, English, Persian to educate and inform the public and represent their grievances before the government.

2.DEBENDRANATH TAGORE(1817-1905) AND BRAHMO SAMAJ

• He was father of Rabindranath Tagore

Tattvabodhini Sabha

• It was founded in 1939

• Tagore headed the Tattvabodhini Sabha which, along with its organ TATTVABODHINI PATRIKA IN BENGALI

• It was devoted to the systematic study of India's past with a rational outlook and to the propagation of Rammohan's ideas.

•  After Ramohans death he was the main leader behind Brahmo samaj

• He joined the Samaj in 1842.

Tagore's Work-

• according to him within Hinduism, the Brahmo Samaj was a reformist movement

• But on the same tim it opposed the Christian missionaries for their criticism of Hinduism and their attempts at conversion.

3.Keshab Chandra sen(1838-1884) 

• He Joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1858.

• During his time the Samaj was extended outside Bengal and branches are opened in the United Provinces, Punjab, Bombay, Madras and other towns.

Conflict Between Debendernath Tagore & Keshab Chandra

• Debendranath did not like some of Sen's ideas such as

• his strong views against the caste systom, even open support to inter-caste marriages.

• inclusion of teachings from all religions during Samajs meeting

• Due to these Reasons Keshab Chandra Sen was dismissed from the office of acharya in 1865.

3.Brahmo Samaj Of india( 1866) , Adi Brahmo Samaj & Sadharan Brahmo Samaj

• Due dismissal of keshab chandra from Brahmo samaj in 1865 he and his followers founded the Brahmo Samaj of India in 1866, -while Debendranath Tagore's Samaj came to be known as the Adi Brahmo Samaj.

• In 1878, Keshab married his thirteen-year-old daughter to the minor Hindu Maharaja Of Cooch-behar with all the orthodox Hindu rituals

• this events led to developement of anger against the keshab and caused another split in Keshab's Brahmo Samaj of India.

• After 1878, the disgusted followers of Keshab set up new organisation, the SADHARAN BRAHMO SAMAJ.

• It was started by ANANDA MOHAN BOSE, SHIBCHANDRA DEB AND UMESH CHANDRA DATTA.

Philosphy- 

• one God, the belief that no scripture or man is infallible, belief in the dictates of reason, truth and morality was followed

Spread-

• Dayal Singh College at Lahore - 1910

• In Punjab, the Dayal Singh Trust sought to implant Brahmo ideas by the opening of Dayal Singh College at Lahore in 1910.

4.Prathana Samaj

• FOUNDED in 1867

• FOUNDERS-Keshab Chandra Sen helped Atmaram Pandurang found the Prarthana Samaj in Bombay

• OTHER LEADERS-R.G. Bhandarkar , N.G. Chandavarkar, Mahadeo Govind Ranade

1870

• MAHADEO GOVIND RANADE joined the samaj in 1870, and much of the popularity of and work done by the society was due to his efforts. His efforts made the samaj gain an all-India character.

Objective-

• Focus on monotheism ,religion and social reforms .

• The Prarthana Sabha was very attached to the bhakti cult of Maharashtra.

There was four-point social agenda

(i) disapproval of caste system,

(ii) women's education,

(iii) widow remarriage,

(iv) raising the age of marriage for both males and females.

5.Widows Home Association

• Dhondo Keshav Karve and Vishnu Shastri Along with Ranade founded the Widow Remarriage Movement as well as Widows Home Association with the aim of providing education and training to widows so that they could support themselves.

6.Younfg Bengal Movement & Henry Vivin Derozio(1809-31)

• Derozio was perhaps the first nationalist poet of modern India

• A young Anglo-Indian, Henry Vivian Derozio , who taught at the Hindu College from 1826 to 1831, was the leader and inspirer of this progressive trend.

• Inspiration -French Revolution, and its ideas like love liberty, equality and freedom, and opposition to decadent customs and traditions.

• The Derozians also supported women's rights and education.

• Derozio was removed from the Hindu College in 1831 because of his radicalism.

Reasons for failuire 

• The main reason for their limited success was the prevailing social conditions at that time, which were not ripe for the adoption of radical ideas.

• Further, there was no support from any other social group or class.

• The Derozians lacked any real link with the masses; for instance, they failed to take up the peasants' cause.

Success

• They demanded induction of Indians in higher grades of services, protection of ryots from oppressive zamindars, better treatment to Indian labour abroad in British colonies, revision of the Company's charter,

7.Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

Sanskrit college

• In 1850, he became the principal of Sanskrit College.

• He opened the Sanskrit College to non-brahmins.

• He introduced Western thought in Sanskrit College to break the self-imposed isolation of Sanskritic learning.

• As an academician, he evolved a new methodology to teach Sanskrit. He also devised a new Bengali primer and evolved a new prose style.

Widow remarriage

• Vidyasagar started a movement in support of widow remarriage which resulted in legalisation of widow remarriage.

Against Child Marriage

• He was also a crusader against child marriage and polygamy.

8.Bethune school

• It was stablished in 1849

• The Bethune School, founded in Calcutta, was the result of the powerful movement for women's education that arose in the 1840s and 1850s.

• As secretary of Bethune School, he was one of the pioneers of higher education for women in India.

9.Balshastri Jhambekar (1812-1846)

• He was a pioneer of social reform through journalism in Bombay

Darpan

• He started the newspaper Darpan in 1832. Known as the father of Marathi journalism, -Jambhekar used the Darpan to awaken the people to awareness of social reforms, such as widow remarriage, and to instil in the masses a scientific approach to life.

Bombay native library

• Jambhekar founded the Bombay Native General Library and started the Native Improvement Society of which an offshoot was the Students Literary and Scientific Library

Digdarshan-1840

• In 1840, he started Digdarshan which published articles on scientific subjects as well as history.

Elphinston college

• He was the first professor of Hindi at the Elphinston College, besides being a director of the Colaba Observatory.

10.Paramhansa Mandali

• FOUNDED IN1849 in MAHARASHTRA,

• FOUNDERS- Dadoba Pandurang, Mehtaji Durgaram

Ideology

• The ideology of the society was closely linked to that of the Manav Dharma Sabha. -Besides believing that one god should be worshipped, the society also said real religion is based on love and moral conduct. Freedom of thought was encouraged as was rationality.

• They were also against caste system

• At their meetings, food cooked by lower caste people was taken by the members. These mandalis also advocated widow remarriage and women's education.

11.Satya Shodhak Samaj & Jyotiba Phule(1827-1890)

• Jyotiba Phule , born in Satara, Maharashtra, belonged to the mali (gardener) community and organised a powerful movement against upper caste domination and brahminical supremacy.

• Phule used the symbol of Rajah Bali as opposed to the brahmma symbol of Rama.

Satyashodhak Samaj (Truth Seeker's Society)

• It was founded by Phule founded the in 1873, with the leadership of the samaj coming from the backward classes, palis, telis,kumbis, saris and dhangars.

The main aims of the movement were

(i) 'social service

(ii) spread of education among women and lower caste people.

• Phule's works, Sarvajanik Satyadharma and Gulamgiri became sources of inspiration for the common masses.

• Phule aimed at the complete abolition of the caste system and socio-economic inequalities; he was against Sanskritic Hinduism.

Women Education

• He along with his wife, Savitribai, opened a GIRLS' SCHOOL AT POONA, he was a pioneer of widow remarriage movement in Maharashtra and also opened a home for widows in 1854.

• Phule was awarded the TITLE 'MAHATMA for his social reform work.

12.Gopal Hari Deshmukh(1823-1892)

• He was given tittle of LOKAHITAWADI'

• He was a social reformer and rationalist from Maharashtra.

• He held the post of a judge under British raj, but wrote for a weekly PRABHAKAR under the pen name of Lokahitawadi on social reform issues.

• He attacked Hindu orthodoxy and supported social and religious equality. He wrote against the evils of the caste system. -He played a leading role in founding the periodicals, Gyan Prakash, Indu Prakash and Lokahitawadi,

13.Gopal Ganesh Agarkar(1856-1895)

• He was an educationist and social reformer from MAHARASHTRA. A strong advocate of the power of human reason, he criticised the blind dependence

• He was a co founder of the New English School, the Deccan Education Society and Fergusson College.

• He was a principal of Fergusson College. -He was also the first editor of Kesari the journal started by Lokmanya Tilak.

• He started his own periodical, Sudharak, which spoke against untouchability and the caste system.

14.The Servants of India Society Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915),

• It was founded in 1905

• He founded the SERVANTS OF INDIA SOCIETY in 1905 with the help of M.G. Ranade.

Aim-

The aim of the society was to train national missionaries for the service of India

• to promote, by all constitutional means, the true interests of the Indian people, and

• to prepare a cadre of selfless workers who were to devote their lives to the cause of the country in a religious spirit.

15.Srinivasa Shastri-

• He Became president of servants of indian society After Gokhale's death in 1915

16.Social service league

• It was founded by Narayan Malhar Joshi A follower of Gokhale, in Bombay with an aim to secure for the masses better and reasonable conditions of life and work.

• They organised many schools, libraries, reading rooms, day nurseries and cooperative societies. Their activities also. included police court agents' work, legal aid and advice to the poor and illiterate, excursions for slum dwellers, facilities for gymnasia and theatrical performances, sanitary work, medical relief and boys' clubs and scout corps,

• Joshi also founded the All India Trade Union Congress (1920).

17.The RamKrishna Movement & Swami VIvekaNanda

• Ramakrishna Paramahansa was a priest at the Kali temple in Dakshineswar near Calcutta

• His childhood name was Gadadhar Chattopadhyay

• Ramakrishna experienced spiritual trances (ecstasy) from a very early age. He considered and emphasised that Krishna, Hari, Rama, Christ, Allah are different names for the same God.

• There are various ways to achieve god, he argued; but one must stick to one’s own path in a world of fairly rigid divisions.

Two objectives of the Ramakrishna movement were

(i) to bring into existence a band of monks dedicated to a life of renunciation and practical spirituality, from among whom teachers and workers would be sent out to spread the universal message of Vedanta

(ii) in conjunction with lay disciples to carry on preaching, philanthropic and charitable works, looking upon all men, women and children, irrespective of caste, creed or colour, as veritable manifestations of the Divine.

• Paramahamsa himself laid the foundations of the Ramakrishna Math with his young monastic disciples as a nucleus to fulfil the first objective.

• Ramakrishna was married to Saradmani Mukherjee, later known as Sarada Devi. Ramakrishna considered Sarada as the embodiment of the Divine Mother.

Swami VivekaNanda (Narendra Nath Dutta)(1862-1902)

• He spread Ramakrishna's message and tried to reconcile it to the needs of contemporary Indian society.

• He emerged as the preacher of neo-Hinduism. Certain spiritual experiences of Ramakrishna, the teachings of the Upanishads and the Gita and the examples of the Buddha and Jesus are the basis of Vivekananda's message to the world about humam values.

• He subscribed to the Vedanta which he considered a fully rational system with a superior approach.

• His mission was to bridge the gulf between paramartha (service) and vyavahara (behaviour), and between spirituality and day-to-day life.

• Vivekananda believed in the fundamental oneness of God

• In 1893, he participated in the All World Religious Conference (Parliament of Religions) at Chicago in the United States of America. He argued that Vedanta was the religion of all and not of the Hindus alone.

• The keynote of his opening address was the need for a healthy balance between spiritualism and materialism.

Ramkrishna Mission

• Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897.

• The headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission are at Belur near Calcutta.

• The Mission stands for religious and social reform. The Mission conducts extensive work in health care, disaster relief, rural management, tribal welfare, elementary and higher education and culture. 

• It is a deeply religious body. but it is not a proselytising body.

• It does not consider itself to be a sect of Hinduism, In fact, this is one of the strong reasons for the success of the Mission. Unlike the Arya Samaj, the Mission recognises the utility and value of image worship in developing spiritual fervour and worship of the eternal omnipotent God, although it emphasises on the essential spirit and not the symbols or rituals. 

• It believes that the philosophy of Vedanta will make a Christian a better Christian, and a Hindu a better Hindu.

18.Dayananda Saraswati & Arya Samaj

• Dayananda Saraswati or Mulshankar was born in the old Morvi state in Gujarat in a brahmin family.

• He spent two and a half years at Mathura as a disciple of a blind saint scholar Swami Virjananda, who taught him the philosophic interpretation of the Vedas

• The first Arya Samaj unit was formally set up by him at Bombay in 1875 and later the headquarters of the Samaj were established at Lahore.

• The Arya Samaj Movement, can be considered as revivalist in form though not in content.

He wrote three books

• Satyartha Prakash in Hindi
• Veda Bhasya Bhumika, an introduction to his Vedic commentary,
• Veda Bhasya,

• His vision of India included a classless and casteless society, a united India and an India free from foreign rule, with Aryan religion being the common religion of all.

• He took inspiration from the Vedas and considered them to be India's Rock of Ages, the infallible and the true original seed of Hinduis He gave the slogan "Back to the Vedas".

• Dayananda's slogan of Back to the Vedas was a call for a revival of Vedic learning and Vedic purity of religion and not a revival of Vedic times. He accepted modernity and displayed a patriotic attitude to national problems.

• He criticised later Hindu scriptures such as the Puranas and the ignorant priests for perverting Hinduism.

• Dayananda launched a frontal attack on Hindu orthodoxy, caste rigidities, untouchability, idolatry, polytheism, belief in magic, charms and animal sacrifices, taboo on sea voyages, feeding the dead through shraddhas, etc.

• He advocated that God, soul and matter (prakriti) were distinct and eternal entities and every individual had to work out his own salvation in the light of the eternal principles governing human conduct

• He held the world to be a battlefield where every individual has to work out his salvation by right deeds, and that human beings are not puppets controlled by fate.

• Dayananda subscribed to the Vedic notion chaturvarna system in which a person was not born in any caste but was identified as a brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya or shudra according to the occupation the person followed.

• Intercaste marriages and widow remarriages were also encouraged

Arya Samaj-

• The Arya Samaj fixed the minimum marriageable age at twenty-five years for boys and sixteen years for girls.

• Equal status for women was the demand of the Samaj, both in letter and in spirit.

• Opposes the idol-worship and reincarnation theory of God but accepts the doctrine of ‘Karma’ and transmigration of soul. 

• The Samaj also helped the people in crises like floods. famines and earthquakes.

Education & Arya Saamaj

• They established Dayananda Anglo-Vedic (D.A.V.) schools, first at Lahore in 1886 which sought to emphasise the importance of Western education.

• Swami Shraddhanand started the Gurukul at Hardwar in 1902 to impart education in the traditional framework.

The ten guiding principles of the Arya Samaj are 

(i) God is the primary source of all true knowledge; 

(ii) God, as all-truth, all-knowledge, almighty, immortal, creator of Universe, is alone worthy of worship; 

(iii) the Vedas are the books of true knowledge; 

(iv) an Arya should always be ready to accept truth and abandon untruth; 

(v) dharma, that is, due consideration of right and wrong, should be the guiding principle of all actions; 

(vi) the principal aim of the Samaj is to promote world's well-being in the material, spiritual and social sense; 

(vii) everybody should be treated with love and justice; 

(viii) ignorance is to be dispelled and knowledge increased; 

(ix) one's own progress should depend on uplift of all others; 

(x) social well-being of mankind is to be placed above an individual's well-being.

• The work of the Swami after his death was carried forward by Lala Hansraj, Pandit Gurudutt, Lala Lajpat Rai and Swami Shraddhanand, among others.

Shuddhi Movement

• Shuddhi provided for the reconversion of such persons to Hinduism who were converted to other relegion. This movement was primarily directed against the Christian missionaries, who had converted a large number of Hindus, particularly from the depressed classes to Christianity.

• This led to increasing communalisation of social life during the 1920s and later snowballed into communal political consciousness.