Question

List any three issues that the socio-religious reform movements worked for

Answer 1

The main objective of the movement in western India was removal or eradi­cation of social discrimination prevalent against the various lower caste groups.

Thinkers like Vishnubawa Brahmachari, Jyotiba Phule, Ranade and many others played a crucial role in the development of this social awareness.

The most important thinkers who initiated an intellectual revolt against the social discrimination were Bal Shastri Jambhakar (1812-1846), Dadoba Pandurang Tarkhadkar (1814-1882), and Bhaskar Pandurang Tarkhadkar (1816-1847), Gopal Hari Deshmukh popularly known as Lokhitwadi (1823-1882) and Vishnu Bhikaji Gokhale (1825-1873) popularly known as Vishnubawa Brahmachari. Of the above intellectuals, Jambhakar was the pioneer of the intellectual revolt with his writings and Dadoba gave to them an organizational shape by founding the Paramhansa Sabha in 1840.Bhaskar Pandurang was the first militant nationalist critic of the colonial rule of the British and by his eight long letters published in Bombay Gazette in 1841, exposed the colonial exploi­tation. By writing Shatapatru or 100 letters in the Prabhakar, a Marathi weekly between 1848 and 1856, Lokhitavadi broadened the scope of the intellectual revolt.

Lokhitavadi also criticized casteism and emphasized the aspects of oneness of humanity. A Brahmin by birth he employed a Muslim cook and ate the food cooked by him. The Paramahansa Sabha is a secret society whose objective was the demolition of all caste distinctions. In the latter half of the 19th century, the most notable intellectuals who spearheaded social reform movement were Pandit Vishnu Parasuram Shastri (1827-1876), Jyotiba Phule (1827-1890), R.G. Bhandarkar (1837-1925), Narayan Mahadev Paramanand (1838-1893) M.G. Ranade (1842-1901), Vishunasastri Chiplankar (1850-1882), K.T. Telang (1850-1893) Ganesh Vasudev Joshi (1851-1911), Narayan Ganesh Chandravarkar (1855-1923) and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar (1856-1895). Vishnu Parasuram Shastri Pandit advocated widow remarriages and also took active part in the women’s emancipation movements.In 1865, he started Vidhava Vivaha Uttejaka Mandal and married a widow in 1875. He started the first school for untouchables in 1854 and in 1851 he with his wife started a girl’s school at Poona. ‘Maharshi’ Bhandarkar performed the widow remarriage of his daughter in 1891 and advocated vigorously the Hindu Muslim unity Mahadev Govind Ranade reorganized Paramhansa Sabha in 1867 as Prarthana Samaj.It preached monotheism and denounced priestly domination and caste distinction. Chiplankar started Nibandhamala in 1874; a monthly Marathi magazine devoted to the cause of social reform. K.T. Telang was responsible for the introduction of compulsory primary education in Bombay. He was a brilliant academician who critically examined the economic policy of the British government. Chandravarkar also devoted his time for the propa­gation of Prarthana Samaj.

Agarkar, another intellectual of commitment was an iconoclast of eminence and proved himself to be an uncompromising ratio­nalist. Sumit Sarkar points out: “The anti-Brahmin toxin was first sounded in Maharashtra in the 1870s by Jyotiba Phule with his book, Ghulamgiri (1872) and his organization, the Satyasodhak Samaj (1873) which strongly pleaded for saving the lower castes from the hypocritical Brahmins and their opportunistic scriptures.” Tamil Nadu was another area where we notice the anti-Brahmin movement being very strong. It is visible as a movement also in British adminis­tered Andhra. Satyasodhak Samaj launched direct attacks on the upper caste moneylenders and landlords and also challenged the ritual status of the Brahmins.