General Awareness Social-Religious and Cultural Reforms (`19^(th)-20^(th)` Century)

Social-Religious Reform Movements

`color{purple} ul{"Social and Religious Movements"}`

`color{green} ✍️` India in the 19th century witnessed a series of reform movements undertaken in various parts of the country which were oriented toward a re-structuring of the Indian society along modem lines.
`color{green} ✍️` Impact of modern Western culture soon gave birth to a new awakening in India.
`color{green} ✍️` Western conquest exposed the weakness and decay of Indian society.
`color{green} ✍️` Thoughtful Indians began to look for the defects of their society and for ways and means of removing them.
`color{green} ✍️` While large number of Indians refused to come to terms with the West and still put their faith in traditional Indian ideas and institutions, others gradually came to hold that modern Western thought provided the key to the regeneration of their society.
`color{green} ✍️` They were impressed in particular by modem science and the doctrines of reason and humanism.
`color{green} ✍️` The new social groups-the capitalist class, the working class, the modern intelligentsia-demanded modernisation since their own interests demanded it.
`color{green} ✍️` Attempts to explore India’s past by the first generation of British rulers helped to sharpen educated classes’ consciousness of their own existence.
`color{green} ✍️` Early reformers were groping to find suitable answers. But the agenda for the modernization was not set by the western influence because the logic for reform was sought to be located within India’s past.

`color{purple} ul{"Hindu Reform Movements"}`

`color{green} ✍️` Reform movements which took deep roots within Bengal have often been also termed as Bengal Renaissance.
`color{green} ✍️` Bankim Chandra Chatterji and Bipin Chandra Pal referred to developments in the 19th century Bengal as a period of Renaissance.
`color{green} ✍️` It may not be proper to compare European Renaissance with developments in Bengal as the context was entirely different and the patterns not too similar.
`color{green} ✍️` The features which were referred to while talking of a Bengal Renaissance may be clubbed under three major categories, i.e. historical rediscovery, linguistic and literary modernisation and socio-religious reforms.

Brahmo Samaj

`color{green} ✍️` Founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1828. He earlier started Atmiya Sabha in 1814.

`color{green} ✍️` He is regarded as a great leader and reformer of modern India.

`color{green} ✍️` He was also one of the earliest propagators of modern education.

`color{green} ✍️` He laid emphasis on human dignity and criticised social evils.

`color{green} ✍️` He gave enthusiastic assistance to David Hare, who founded the famous Hindu College in Calcutta.

`color{green} ✍️` Established a Vedanta College in which courses both in Indian and Western social and physical sciences were offered.

`color{green} ✍️` He was opposed to Sanskrit system of education; because he thought it would keep the country in darkness.

`color{green} ✍️` Launched a movement for the abolition of Sati through his journal Sabad Kaumudi (1819).

Arya Samaj

`color{green} ✍️` The Arya Samaj was founded by Swami Dayanand Saraswati in 1875 in Bombay.

`color{green} ✍️` Swami Dayanand Saraswati was born in 1824 in Gujarat. His original name was Mula Shankar.

`color{green} ✍️` He was known as the earliest Neo-nationalist.

`color{green} ✍️` He looked on the Vedas as India’s “Rock of Ages,” the true original seed of Hinduism.

`color{green} ✍️` His motto was “Go back to Vedas”.

`color{green} ✍️` He disregarded Puranas, idol worship, casteism, and untouchability.

`color{green} ✍️` He strongly advocated widow remarriage.

`color{green} ✍️` His views were similar to that of Ram Mohan Roy.

Ramakrishna Mission

`color{green} ✍️` Founded by Vivekanand (earlier, Narendranath Dutta) (1863 – 1902) in 1897, 11 years after the death of his guru Ram Krishna Paramhans.

`color{green} ✍️` It was established by Swami Vivekananda to carry on humanitarian relief and social work after the death of his guru.

`color{green} ✍️` He was born in Calcutta in 1863.

`color{green} ✍️` He had faith in all religions and performed religious exercises in accordance with Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity.

`color{green} ✍️` He wanted to make the Vedanta practical. His mission was to bridge the gulf between paramartha (service) and vyavahara (behaviour), and between spirituality and day-to-day life.

`color{green} ✍️` An Irish woman Margaret Noble (Known as sister Nivedita) popularized Ramakrishna Mission after Vivekanand’s death.

Young Bengal Movement

`color{green} ✍️` The Young Bengal movement was launched in Calcutta by a group of radical Bengali free thinkers, called Derozians, emerging from Hindu College. They were known as Derozians after Henry Louis Vivian Derozio.

`color{green} ✍️` Derozio (1809-1831), had come to Calcutta in 1826 and was appointed in the Hindu College as a teacher of English literature and History.

`color{green} ✍️` Derozio’s intense zeal for teaching and his interactions with students created a sensation at Hindu College. He constantly encouraged students to think freely, to question and not to accept anything blindly. His teachings inspired the development of the spirit of liberty, equality and freedom. His activities brought about intellectual revolution in Bengal.

`color{green} ✍️` Derozio died of cholera soon after at the young age of 22 in 1831.

`color{green} ✍️` Long after Derozio’s death, his influence lived on among his former students, who came to be known as Young Bengal and many of whom became prominent in social reform, law, and journalism.

Dharma Sabha

`color{green} ✍️` Radhakanta Deb (1784-1867) was a scholar and a leader of the Calcutta conservative Hindu society, the adopted son and heir of Maharaja Nabakrishna Deb.

`color{green} ✍️` He always showed marked interest in promoting education, particularly English education among the Hindus; he also advocated female education.

`color{green} ✍️` Radhakanta Deb, along with his conservative Hindu friends, was the leader a society called Dharma Sabha (founded by his father Gopi Mohun Deb).

`color{green} ✍️` The chief objective of all the activities of the Dharma Sabha was only to counter the propaganda of the Brahmo Samaj.

Paramhansa Mandali

`color{green} ✍️` Paramahansa Mandali was founded by Dadoba Panderung (1842-82) and Bal Shastri Jambhekar of Maharashtra in 1849.

`color{green} ✍️` Dadoba in his book Dharma Vivechan, outlined seven principles of this new movement: that God alone should be worshipped; real religion is based on love and moral conduct; spiritual religion is one; every individual should have freedom of thought; our actions and speech should be consistent with reason; mankind is one caste; and the right kind of knowledge should be given to all.

`color{green} ✍️` These principles denied polytheism of popular Hinduism, the caste system and the Brahmanical monopoly of knowledge.

`color{green} ✍️` All members were required to take a pledge that they would abandon caste restrictions and take food and drink prepared by a member of a lower caste.

`color{green} ✍️` Young educated Brahmans from Maharashtra joined the Mandali, but the movement collapsed after 1860.

Veda Samaj

`color{green} ✍️` Veda Samaj was established by Keshab Chandra Sen and K.Sridharalu Naidu in 1864.

`color{green} ✍️` K. Sridharalu Naidu later visited Calcutta to study the Brahmo Samaj movement and when he returned, he renamed the Veda Samaj as Brahmo Samaj of Southern India in 1871.

`color{green} ✍️` Sridharalu Naidu translated books of Brahmo Dharma into Tamil and Telegu.

Prarthana Samaj

`color{green} ✍️` Following Rammohan's ideas, the Paramhansa Sabha was founded in 1849. It aimed at eradicating social evils on the same footing what the Brahmo Samaj was doing.

`color{green} ✍️` Prarthana Samaj was established in 1867.

`color{green} ✍️` Like the members of the Brahmo Samaj, the followers of Prarthana Samaj aimed at social reforms.

`color{green} ✍️` They condemned caste system and preached equality of man.

`color{green} ✍️` For the upliftment of women, they wanted to impart higher education to women; further, they emphasised on the principle of increasing the age of marriage for both males and females. They also advocated widow remarriage.

`color{green} ✍️` R. G. Bhandarkar, Mahadev Govinda Ranade and N. G. Chandravarkar were prominent leaders of the Prarthana Samaj.

Swaminarayan Sampraday

`color{green} ✍️` Swaminarayan Sampraday previously known as the Uddhav Sampraday, is a Hindu sect propagated by Swaminarayan (or Sahajanand Swami) (1781-1830).

`color{green} ✍️` Swaminarayan was handed the leadership of the Uddhav Sampraday by his guru Ramanand Swami to continue to propagate the teachings and philosophy of Vishishtadvaita, which originates from the Sri Sampradaya.

`color{green} ✍️` The organisation is based on vedic and puritic Hinduism.

`color{green} ✍️` Before Swaminarayan died, he split the administration of the Swaminarayan Sampraday into two seats for his two adopted sons: the Nar Narayan Dev Gadi (gadi means seat) is headquartered in Ahmedabad and the Laxmi Narayan Dev Gadi is headquartered in Vadtal. This was done by means of a legal document, called the Desh Vibhag Lekh.

Namdhari/Kuka Movement

`color{green} ✍️` There are two names associated with the start of this movement i.e. Baba Balak Singh and Bhagat Jawar Mal.

`color{green} ✍️` The important teaching of Bhagat Jawar Mal was that his disciples should live a simple teetotaller life and all other rituals except the chanting the name of God should be discarded, this is how the sect was called “Namdhari”.

`color{green} ✍️` While reciting Sikh Mantras or repeating the name, the Namdharis often developed emotions, and screamed and shouted out of passion for God, and hence are also called the ‘Kukas’ or the shouters.

Indian Reform Association

`color{green} ✍️` The Indian Reform Association was formed on 29 October 1870 with Keshub Chunder Sen as president.

`color{green} ✍️` It represented the secular side of the Brahmo Samaj and included many who did not belong to the Brahmo Samaj.

`color{green} ✍️` The objective was to put into practice some of the ideas Sen was exposed to during his visit to Great Britain.

`color{green} ✍️` The Indian Reform Association was formed to promote “the social and moral reformation of the natives of India.”

`color{green} ✍️` The comprehensive objective of the Association was to be served through five departments of activity – cheap literature, education, female improvement, temperance, and charity.

Theosophical Society

`color{green} ✍️` The Theosophical Society was first founded by a Russian lady, Madam H.P. Blavatsky and a former English army officer, Colonel H .S. Olcott in the United States of America in 1875.

`color{green} ✍️` Under their inspiration the Theosophical Society of India came into being at Adyar in Madras in 1886.

`color{green} ✍️` Mrs. Annie Besant made the movement very popular in India.

- It represented both Indian and international character.

`color{green} ✍️` The society conducted researches on Hindu religious thoughts, translated and published Hindu scriptures which helped the process of intellectual awakening of India.

Deccan Education Society

`color{green} ✍️` In 1880 Vishnushastri Chiplunkar and Bal Gangadhar Tilak founded the New English School in Pune.

`color{green} ✍️` In 1884 they created the Deccan Education Society with Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Mahadev Ballal Namjoshi, V. S. Apte, V. B. Kelkar, M. S. Gole, and N. K. Dharap.

Seva Sadan

`color{green} ✍️` The Parsi social reformer Behramji M. Malabari founded the Seva Sadan as a social reform and humanitarian organisation in 1885.

`color{green} ✍️` He campaigned his entire life against child marriage and “enforced widowhood”.

`color{green} ✍️` Seva Sadan specialized in taking care of socially discarded and exploited women of all castes, providing education, welfare, and medical services.

Indian National Social Conference

-`color{green} ✍️` Indian (National) Social Conference was founded by M.G. Ranade and Raghunath Rao.

`color{green} ✍️` It was virtually the social reform cell of the Indian National Congress.

`color{green} ✍️` Its first session was held in Madras in December 1887.

`color{green} ✍️` The Conference met annually as a subsidiary convention of the Indian National Congress, at the same venue, and focused attention on social reform.

`color{green} ✍️` The Conference advocated intercaste marriages and opposed polygamy.

`color{green} ✍️` It launched the famous “Pledge Movement” to inspire people to take an oath to prohibit child marriage.

Muslim Socio-Religious Movements

`color{green} ✍️` The Muslim socio-religious movements in India were mainly aimed at purifying the religion.

`color{green} ✍️` The most important socio-religious movements related to Islam religion include the Ahmadiyya movement, the Faraizi movement, the Tariqah-i-Muhammadiyah movement, the Aligarh movement, etc.

`color{green} ✍️` The Ahmadiyya movement is considered one of the most influential and important Muslim socio-religious movements in India.

`color{green} ✍️` The aims and objectives of the Muslim socio-religious movements were different from each other.

 
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