10th Standard, Social, History, Chapter – 5
Social and Religious Reform Movements
EXERCISES
I Fill in the blanks with suitable words:
1. The 19th Century is called the period of ‘Indian Renaissance’.
2. Raja Ram Mohan Roy started the newspaper ‘Samvada Kaumudi’.
3. The founder of Prarthana Samaj was Atmaram Panduranga
4. Freedom was the basic necessity of every individual was believed by Jyotiba Phule.
5. Swami Vivekananda’s guru was Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
6. Young Bengali movement was started by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio.
II Discuss the following in groups and write the answers:
7. What were the preachings of the Brahmo Samaj?
Answer: Brahmo Samaj was in the forefront of the social and religious reformation in the 19th Century. It attempted to bring in reforms in the traditions and customs in Hindu religion. It opposed idol-worship and polytheism, and encouraged monotheism. It condemned performance of yagas and rituals. Since English education exposed Indians to Western political thought, it enabled the development of nationalism among Indians.
The teachings of the Brahmo Samaj centered on monotheism, rejecting idol worship, Sati, and the caste system, while promoting women’s emancipation and education, and universal brotherhood. It emphasized the importance of human reason and conscience over scriptures and rituals, advocating for prayer and meditation as paths to worship the eternal God.
8. Analyse the call of Dayananda Saraswati to return to the Vedas.
Answer: Dayananda Saraswati travelled throughout the country giving lectures and emphasized that the Vedas were the source of truth and knowledge. In this context, he advised people to ‘Back to the Vedas’.
He encouraged widow marriage. He urged people to use swadeshi goods. He propounded his teachings in a book called ‘Satyartha Prakasha’. ‘Purification Ritual’ was the main activity of Arya Samaj.
9. Explain the reforms propagated by Satyashodhak Samaj.
Answer: Satyashodhak Samaj urged for prohibition of liquor. It vehemently opposed gender inequality, denial of human rights, and exploitation of people and practice of untouchability. It started a movement for social justice. Jyotiba Phule established a primary school for girls. He condemned the slavery being forced on shudras and casteless classes including dalits, and denounced the people responsible for such slavery. He advocated free and compulsory education in order to bring about reform in the social system. It began struggles on behalf of farmers. Phule wrote in detail about exploitation in his book ‘Ghulamagiri’ (‘Slavery’).
10. Analyse objectives of the Aligarh Movement.
Answer: The Aligarh Movement aimed at promoting harmony of Eastern and Western ideas through transformation of the Muslims in their political, social, educational, religious and philosophical beliefs. The leadership of this movement was borne by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. With an intention to provide modern education to the Muslim community, he started ‘The Anglo-Oriental College’. Later on, this college was renamed as ‘Aligarh Muslim University’. Its main objective was to provide religious education along with western education, and to create a modern society through western education. Sir Syed remained outside the National Congress and brought the Muslim community together. He supported female literacy and condemned polygamy and ideas against widow marriage.
11. Explain the vision of Ramakrishna Mission.
Answer: Swami Vivekananda established Ramakrishna Mission in order to propagate the ideals of his teacher, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. The main objective of this organization was to spread the message of equality of all religions and to put that into practice.
Ramakrishna Ashram has many branches all over the world. The mingling of ancient, modern and western thinkers can be seen here.
Ramakrishna Mission is continuing to nurture culture through education and social service. Vivekananda emphasized that nation and religion were like the two faces of a coin. He tried his best in his lifetime to free India from casteism, poverty, illiteracy and unawareness. He believed that the desire of Vivekananda was to educate people. The educated people will bring reforms in the society. He wanted the formation of legislation and through legislation, social reforming rules must be implemented. He urged to stop the blind following of westerns.
12. Which were the reforms brought about by Annie Besant?
Answer: Annie Besant, an Irish lady started the activities of Theosophical Society in India and gave it new vitality. She aroused pride in Indian culture through her lectures. She attempted to establish equality, universal brotherhood and harmony in society. Annie Besant gave her full support to the freedom struggle. She started a newspaper called ‘New India’. In 1916 C.E, she started Home Rule movement. She was the President of the Congress Session in 1917. She contributed immensely to Indian philosophy and the Independence struggle.
13. Explain the contributions of Sri Narayana Guru Dharma Paripalana Yogam.
Answer: The caste differences were too much in Kerala and there were many prohibitions in place. During that period, all were not allowed to use facilities like tanks and roads. They were barred from wearing footwear. Restrictions were there on women’s dress also. They were not allowed to schools. These communities had to lead a suffocating life without basic human rights. In order to address this issue, Sri Narayana Guru started Dharma Paripalana Yogam movement. One Caste, One Religion and One God for human beings was the basic idea of Sri Narayana Guru. Education is the only path to achieve this he declared. He built alternate temples for the backward communities as they were denied entry into temples.
14. List out the highlights of Periyar movement.
Answer: ‘Self-Respect Movement’ led by E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker became a new force in South India. Ramaswamy who came out of Congress in 1925, started Self Respect League in 1926. He was called Periyar (Senior Person) out of love by people. Periyar believed that Congress was in favour of Varna system and started a new movement based on Dravida Racial Identity. He said Tamil was the language of Dravidians. He championed equality and criticized caste and gender-based discrimination. He participated in the temple entry movement in 1924 held at Vaikom of Kerala. He became the president of the Justice Party in 1939. He started an association called ‘Dravida Kazhagam’. He also started an English magazine under the tittle ‘Revolt’.
Even today, Periyar remains as the ideological symbol in Tamil Nadu politics. This is more evident in all the political parties of Tamil Nadu retaining the word ‘Dravida’ with their names.
15. Which were the principles advocated by Derojio?
Answer: ‘Young Bengal Movement’ movement was started by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. The principles advocated by Derojio was as follows.
- Derozio worked towards spreading the message that only rational thinking would liberate people from the clutches of superstitions and social discrimination.
- The young Bengal movement held discussions and debates on issues like nature, humanism, God and other various topics.
- Derozio was an advocate of Women Rights and opposed caste based discrimination. This grew into a new movement, but the influence of this movement was limited to Calcutta and a few areas of Bengal.
- He also worked towards creating text books to inculcate new education system. This angered many traditionalists.
16. What are the contributions of Swami Vivekananda to the Society?
Answer: The contributions of Swami Vivekananda to the Society are as follows.
- Swami Vivekananda established Ramakrishna Mission in order to propagate the ideals of his teacher, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. The main objective of this organization was to spread the message of equality of all religions and to put that into practice.
- He stressed the significance of the individual, his presence and ability. He maintained that apart from prayer and practice of yoga, social service was also necessary for achievement of salvation (moksha).
- Ramakrishna Mission is continuing to nurture culture through education and social service. Vivekananda emphasized that nation and religion were like the two faces of a coin.
- Swami Vivekananda tried his best in his lifetime to free India from casteism, poverty, illiteracy and unawareness.
- He urged to stop the blind following of westerns.
- In 1893, at the Chicago Conference of World Religions, Swami Vivekananda upheld the greatness of India by advocating tolerance of all religions, and maintaining that all religions were true.
III Activity:
1. Visit Ramakrishna Ashram and collect information about the views of Swami Vivekananda.
IV Projects:
1. Visit libraries and read books of social reforms. With the help of your teacher, collect information from the internet on the subject.
2. Learn from your teacher about the organizations working towards social reform.
