WOMEN CASTE AND
REFORM
HISTORY CHAPTER 8
ACTIVITY:-
NAME SOME SOCIAL EVILS THAT EXISTED IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY?
SOCIAL EVILS
• CHILD MARRIAGE
• SATI
• POLYGAMY AMONG MALES
• WIDOW REMARRIAGE NOT ALLOWED
• NO ACCESS TO EDUCATION FOR GIRLS
• FEMALE INFANTICIDE
• CASTE SYSTEM
EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
MOVEMENTS
• Rise of new educated class in India
• Stress on the achievements of ancient India by Indian scholars as well as western scholars
• Development of new forms of communication
• Growing awareness of what is happening around them
SOCIAL REFORMERS
• They are people who felt that changes were necessary in society, and unjust practices
needed to be done away with
• They thought that the best way to ensure such changes was by persuading people to give
up old practices and adopt a new way of life.
SATI PRATHA
RAJA RAM MOHUN ROY
Well versed in Sanskrit, • Campaigned against Sati by publishing
Persian and several
other Indian and pamphlets and writing in newspapers
European languages • His efforts led to the ban of the practice of
Showed through his ‘Sati’ in 1829
writings that the
practice of sati had no • The strategy adopted by Raja Ram Mohun
sanction in ancient texts Roy was to cite the a text or verse from
the ancient texts and suggest that the
practice as it existed was against early
tradition
HOOK SWINGING FESTIVAL
• In this popular festival, devotees
underwent a peculiar form of suffering
as part of ritual worship.
• With hooks pierced through their skin
they swung themselves on a wheel.
WIDOW REMARRIAGE
ISHWARCHANDRA VIDHYA SAGAR
• Used the ancient texts to suggest that
widows could remarry
• His suggestions was adopted by the
British officials, and a law was passed in
1856 permitting widow remarriage
Set up schools for girls in Calcutta
VEERASALINGAM
PANTULU SWAMI DAYANAD SARASWATI
By 19th century, the
movement in favour
of widow remarriage • Founded the reform
spread to other parts association called
of the country Arya Samaj in 1875,
an organization that
In Telugu-speaking
attempted to reform
areas of the Madras
Hinduism and re-
Presidency,
establish Vedas.
Veerasalingam
Pantulu formed an
• He also supported
association of widow
widow remarriage
remarriage
EDUCATION OF THE GIRL CHILD
When the first schools were opened in the mid-nineteenth century, people were afraid that:
• Schools will take girls away from home and prevent them from doing their domestic
duties
• Travelling through public places in order to reach schools would have a corrupting
influence on them
The first school in India to provide girl students
with a curriculum that was equivalent to the one
that was offered to the boys
Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya, 1875
SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS WERE ESTABLISHED BY:
• Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar in Bengal Muslim reformers like Mumtaz Ali reinterpreted
verses from the KORAN to argue for woman's
• Arya Samaj in Punjab education
• Jyoti Rao Phule in Maharashtra
WOMEN WRITE ABOUT WOMEN
• However, women who belonged to progressive families learnt to read and write. Many of
them could express their discontent and anger through their writings. A large number of
autobiographies were written by them.
• A scholar of Sanskrit
• Wrote a book about the
BEGUM ROKEYA An educated woman in miserable lives of upper
SAKHAWAT Pune, published a book- caste women
HOSSAIN STRIPURUSHTULNA-(A • Founded a mission in
Started a school for comparison between Poona to provide shelter to
Muslim girls in Patna Women and Men) widows and poor women
and Calcutta
WOMEN
By the end of 19th century
Child Marriage Restraint Act
• Wrote books was in 1929. According to this
• Founded schools and training institutes Act, no man below the age of
18 and no woman below the
• Set up Women’s associations age of 16 could marry
By the end of 20th century
• Formed political pressure groups to push through laws for female suffrage and better health care
and education.
• Joined various nationalist and socialist movements
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Find out the names of male leaders who lent their support to the demands for
greater equality and freedom for women?
LAW AGAINST CHILD MARRIAGE
• Child Marriage Restraint Act-According to this Act, no man below 18 and women below
16 could marry
• Subsequently these limits were raised to 21 for men and 18 for women.
CASTE AND SOCIAL REFORM-AGAINST CASTE
INEQUALITIES
PARAMHANS MANDALI
• A secret socio-religious group founded in Bombay in 1840 to work for abolition of caste.
• Many of the reformers and members belonged to the upper-caste.
• They met in secret meetings and violated caste taboos on food and touch, in an effort to
get rid of the hold of caste prejudice in their lives.
SECTS FOUNDED BY NON-BRAHMIN CASTES
• They tried to change those habits and practices which provoked the contempt of dominant
castes.
• They tried to create a sense of self-esteem among the subordinate castes
DEMANDS FOR EQUALITY AND JUSTICE
In the second half of the 19th century, people from the non-Brahman castes also began
organising movements against caste discrimination and condemned social equality and
justice:
GHASIDAS
• Started the SATNAMI MOVEMENT in Central
India.
• Worked among the leather workers and organized a
movement to improve their social status
DEMANDS FOR EQUALITY AND JUSTICE
SHRI NARAYANA GURU
• A Guru from the lower caste (Ezhava caste) in Kerala.
• Proclaimed ideas of unity for his people.
• He argued against treating people unequally on the basis of
caste differences
• According to him, all humankind belong to the same caste
• His favourite slogan-One caste, one religion and One God
for human kind
DEMANDS FOR EQUALITY AND JUSTICE
JYOTIRAO PHULE
• Attacked the claim of Brahmans that they were more superior as
they were the Aryans
• According to him, ‘Aryans were foreigners who came from outside
the subcontinent and defeated and subjugated the true children of
the country-the indigenous people who lived here before the
coming of the Aryans.
• According to him, the upper caste had no right to their land and
power, as the land belonged to the indigenous people.
• He claimed that before the Aryan rule, there existed a golden age
when warrior peasants tilled the land and ruled the Maratha
countryside in just and fair ways.
• He proposed that shudras and ati-shudras should unite to challenge
caste discrimination.
DEMANDS FOR EQUALITY AND JUSTICE
(CONTD.)
JYOTIRAO PHULE
• He starts the SATYASHODAK SAMAJ to propagate caste
equality.
• In 1937, Phule wrote a book named GULAMGIRI, meaning
slavery. He dedicated this book to all Americans who fought to
free slaves.
• He was concerned about all kinds of inequalities
DEMANDS FOR EQUALITY AND JUSTICE
• Was a Dalit born into the Mahar family
• As a child was forced to sit outside the classroom on the ground
• Was not allowed to drink water from taps that upper-caste
women used
• Dalits were not allowed to enter temples or drink water from the
temple tank
• Stated the TEMPLE ENTRY MOVEMENT, in which
MAHAR caste followers participated by drinking water from the
temple tank.
• He led three such movements between 1927 and 1935
E. V. RAMASWAMY NAICKER OR PERIYAR
Came from a middle-class family.
Had studied Sanskrit scriptures
He became a member of the Congress only to leave it as during a feast
organized by the Nationalists, seating arrangements followed caste
distinction.
Started the SELF-RESPECT MOVEMENT
He argued that untouchables were the true upholders of an original Tamil
and Dravidian culture, which has been subjugated by Brahmans
All religious authorities saw social divisions and inequality as God-given
Hence, untouchables had to free themselves from all religions to achieve
social equality
He was critical of Hindu scriptures as he felt that these texts have been used
to establish the authority of Brahmans over lower caste and domination of
men over women
ORGANISING FOR REFORM-REFER PAGE 90 & 91
• The Brahmo Samaj
• Derozio and Young Bengal
• The Ramakrishna Mission
• Parthana Samaj
• Veda Samaj
• Aligarh Movement
• Singh Sabha Movement
