VidBodh AcademyThe art and science of civil services preparation
Student login
All 24 themes of modern India Now open: Socio religious reform movements

Part A The British conquest 1707 to 1857

  1. 01Mughal decline and the regional powers
  2. 02The European trading companies
  3. 03The Carnatic Wars
  4. 04The conquest of Bengal
  5. 05The wars of expansion
  6. 06Instruments of expansion and the frontiers
  7. 07Resistance before 1857
  8. 08The Revolt of 1857

Part B Awakening and early nationalism 1857 to 1915

  1. 09Socio religious reform movements
  2. 10Rise of organised nationalism
  3. 11Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi
  4. 12Revolutionary nationalism, first phase

Part C The Gandhian era 1893 to 1947

  1. 13Gandhi in South Africa
  2. 14The First World War years
  3. 15Khilafat and Non Cooperation
  4. 16Civil Disobedience
  5. 17The Left in the national movement
  6. 18Caste movements and the depressed classes
  7. 19Peasant, worker, tribal and princely state movements
  8. 20Quit India and the INA
  9. 21Communal politics and the Muslim League
  10. 22Partition and independence
  11. 23Women, capitalists, foreigners and others

Part D After 1947 1947 to 1975

  1. 24Integration and reorganisation

Theme 9Part B · Awakening and early nationalism

Socio religious reform movements

1815 to 1929 · reformers, their societies and the laws they won

Before Indians organised politically, they argued about their own society: caste, the status of women, idol worship, education. This theme is person centred. Each movement is placed where it began and tied to the people who led it.

182018401860188019001920BengalBrahmowidow remarriageChicagoWestern IndiaPhule schoolPrarthanaSatyashodhakNorth IndiaArya SamajDAVCHCMuslim and SikhDeobandAligarhQadianThe southAruvippuramSNDPAyyankali

Event 11815 to 1916

Reform on the map

Reform movements grew where English education, printing presses and cities came first, so the earliest are in the presidency towns. Later movements spread to Punjab, the United Provinces and the far south.

CalcuttaBrahmo Samaj 1828 Belur Math 1898Ramakrishna Mission 1897 BombayPrarthana Samaj 1867 PuneSatyashodhak Samaj 1873 BombayArya Samaj 1875 LahoreArya Samaj HQ, DAV 1886 KangriGurukul 1902 AgraRadha Soami 1861 AdyarTheosophical Society 1882 BenaresCentral Hindu College 1898 AligarhMAO College 1875 Deoband 1866 QadianAhmadiyya 1889 LucknowNadwatul Ulama 1894 CalcuttaAbdul Latif 1863 AmritsarSingh Sabha 1873 MadrasVeda Samaj 1864 RajahmundryVeeresalingam AruvippuramNarayana Guru 1888 TrivandrumAyyankali 1907

Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.

Reform begins in Calcutta, where English education, the press and the Company's capital met. Brahmo Samaj (1828), Young Bengal at Hindu College, Vidyasagar, and later the Ramakrishna Mission (Calcutta 1897; Belur Math 1898).

Event or centreReform movementsCaste and anti caste movementsMuslim reformSikh reform

Event 21815 to 1897

Bengal: from Rammohan to Vivekananda

Calcutta produced the first generation of reformers, and the first divisions among them.

  1. Raja Rammohan Roy1772 to 1833Atmiya Sabha (1815), Brahmo Sabha (1828). Worship of one formless God, against idolatry, sati, polygamy and caste. Campaigned for Bentinck's abolition of sati (1829). Supported English and science education; ran Persian and Bengali papers.
  2. Debendranath Tagore1817 to 1905Tattvabodhini Sabha (1839); revived the Brahmo Samaj in 1843.
  3. Keshab Chandra Sen1838 to 1884Took Brahmoism across India; split to form the Brahmo Samaj of India (1866). His followers left again over his under age daughter's marriage to the prince of Cooch Behar (1878) to form the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj.
  4. Henry Vivian Derozio1809 to 1831Teacher at Hindu College; his radical students, Young Bengal, challenged every custom.
  5. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar1820 to 1891Campaigned for the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act (1856); opened Sanskrit College to non Brahmins; wrote the Bengali primer Barna Parichay.
  6. Swami Vivekananda1863 to 1902Disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa of Dakshineswar. Spoke at the Parliament of Religions, Chicago (1893); founded the Ramakrishna Mission (1897) for social service.

Event 31849 to 1916

Western India: reform and anti caste

In Bombay and Pune reform was more practical and less about theology, and it produced India's first great anti caste thinker.

Prarthana Samaj, 1867

  • Founded by Atmaram Pandurang (1867); M. G. Ranade and R. G. Bhandarkar joined soon after and led it.
  • Inter caste dining and marriage, widow remarriage, women's education.
  • Ranade began the Indian National Social Conference (1887).

Jyotiba Phule

  • With Savitribai Phule, opened a school for girls at Pune (1848).
  • Founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (1873) for the lower castes; wrote Gulamgiri (1873).
  • Rejected Brahmin authority altogether.

Women reformers

  • Pandita Ramabai: Arya Mahila Samaj (1882), Sharada Sadan for widows (1889).
  • D. K. Karve: widows' home (1896) and the SNDT Women's University (1916).
  • Behramji Malabari: campaign for the Age of Consent Act (1891).

Parsi reform

  • Rahnumai Mazdayasnan Sabha (1851), with Dadabhai Naoroji and Naoroji Furdonji.
  • Women's education and simpler ritual.

Event 41875 to 1902

North India: Arya Samaj and Theosophy

In Punjab and the north, reform took a more assertive form, proud of the Vedic past and ready to compete with Christian and Muslim missions.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati and the Arya Samaj

  • Founded at Bombay (1875); headquarters at Lahore (1877). His book: Satyarth Prakash.
  • Slogan: Go back to the Vedas. Against idol worship, ritual, caste by birth and child marriage; for widow remarriage and women's education.
  • Shuddhi: reconversion of those who had left Hinduism.
  • Split after his death (1883): the DAV college group (Lala Hansraj, Lajpat Rai), Lahore 1886, and the Gurukul group (Swami Shraddhanand), Kangri 1902.

The Theosophical Society

  • Founded by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott in New York (1875); moved to Adyar, Madras (1882).
  • Praised Hindu and Buddhist philosophy to Indians themselves.
  • Annie Besant founded the Central Hindu College at Benares (1898), later the core of Banaras Hindu University, and led the Home Rule League (Theme 14).

Event 51863 to 1894

Muslim and Sikh reform

Muslim reform split into two answers to British rule: modern education at Aligarh and religious revival at Deoband.

Aligarh

Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan: Scientific Society at Ghazipur (1864), Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College at Aligarh (1875), later Aligarh Muslim University (1920). Modern science and English for Muslims, loyalty to the British, and, later, distance from the Congress.

two answers

Deoband

Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi founded the Dar ul Ulum (1866). Orthodox religious training for ulama, rejection of British culture; it welcomed the Congress and opposed Sayyid Ahmad.

  • Ahmadiyya: founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad at Qadian (1889); liberal and educational, though its claims made it controversial among Muslims.
  • Nadwatul Ulama (Lucknow, 1894): Shibli Nomani tried to bridge the two schools.
  • Singh Sabha (Amritsar 1873, Lahore 1879): Sikh schools, Khalsa College Amritsar (1892), Punjabi in Gurmukhi; it led to the Akali movement of the 1920s.

Event 61864 to 1924

The south: reform from below

In Kerala and the Tamil and Telugu country, reform was led above all by and for castes kept outside the temple and the village.

  1. Sree Narayana Guru1856 to 1928Consecrated a Shiva idol at Aruvippuram (1888), defying the Brahmin monopoly; One caste, one religion, one God for man. SNDP Yogam (1903) for the Ezhavas.
  2. Ayyankali1863 to 1941Rode a bullock cart on roads closed to Pulayas (the villuvandi protest); Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham (1907); led a farm labourers' strike for the right of Pulaya children to go to school.
  3. Vaikunda Swami1809 to 1851Ayya Vazhi in south Travancore, against caste and the ban on lower caste women covering their upper bodies.
  4. Kandukuri Veeresalingam1848 to 1919Father of the Telugu renaissance; widow remarriages and girls' schools at Rajahmundry.

Reform written into law

  1. 1829 Sati abolished (Bentinck, Regulation XVII)
  2. 1843 Slavery abolished in British India
  3. 1850 Caste Disabilities Removal Act
  4. 1856 Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act
  5. 1870 Female Infanticide Prevention Act
  6. 1872 Native Marriage Act: civil marriage
  7. 1891 Age of Consent Act: 12 years
  8. 1929 Sarda Act: marriage age 14 for girls, 18 for boys

Who's who16 people

People

Raja Rammohan Roy

Brahmo Samaj

Father of the Indian renaissance.

Keshab Chandra Sen

Brahmo Samaj of India

Split the Brahmos in 1866.

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

Bengal

Widow remarriage.

Swami Vivekananda

Ramakrishna Mission

Chicago, 1893.

M. G. Ranade

Prarthana Samaj

Social Conference (1887).

Jyotiba Phule

Satyashodhak Samaj

Gulamgiri (1873).

Savitribai Phule

Pune

First woman teacher of the girls' school.

Pandita Ramabai

Sharada Sadan

Education of widows.

Dayananda Saraswati

Arya Samaj

Satyarth Prakash; back to the Vedas.

Annie Besant

Theosophical Society

Central Hindu College, Benares.

Sayyid Ahmad Khan

Aligarh

MAO College (1875).

Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi

Deoband

Dar ul Ulum (1866).

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Qadian

Founder of the Ahmadiyya.

Sree Narayana Guru

Kerala

SNDP Yogam.

Ayyankali

Kerala

Rights of the Pulayas.

Kandukuri Veeresalingam

Andhra

Widow remarriage, girls' schools.

Key terms8

Terms

Brahmo Samaj
Rammohan Roy's society of monotheistic worship (1828).
Young Bengal
Derozio's radical students at Hindu College.
Shuddhi
Arya Samaj ceremony to bring converts back to Hinduism.
Satyashodhak Samaj
Society of seekers of truth, Phule's anti caste body (1873).
SNDP Yogam
Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (1903).
Dar ul Ulum
The seminary at Deoband (1866).
Age of Consent Act
1891; raised the age of consent for girls to 12.
Sarda Act
Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929.

Maps are drawn on the Survey of India outline used across VidBodh; maps that leave the subcontinent use a world base with India shown as the Survey of India depicts it. Coloured glows show where a power held sway, a movement spread or tribute was collected; they are not borders.