Social And Religious Reform Movements In The 19th Century

Social and Religious reform movements in the 19th century came about to free the population from various religious rigidities that our previous ancestors had to face. Many practices which were followed in the name of religion but were not in line with humanitarian values and feelings shackled the Indian Society in the first half of the 19th century.

Socio Religious Reform Movement

The Socio Religious movement in the 19th century was brought about to fight against all types of inhuman practices and superstitions prevalent in the country. It arose every community of the Indian population to break free from the caste system, untouchability, purdah system, sati, child marriage, social inequalities, and illiteracy. The Socio religious reform movement attacked bigotry, superstitions, and the hold of the priestly class. When the Britishers introduced their language and modern ideas, it deeply impacted Indian society. Ideas such as liberty, social equality, fraternity, democracy, justice and economic equality were forever going to change Indian society.

Need For Social And Religious Reform Movements In The 19th Century

The impact of the British colonisation and introduction of Western Culture was important to this awakening in the Indian Social Systems. But this was not only due to the fact that the Britishers brought about modern ideas into the system but also out of fear of colonisation by the West. The Indian Social System saw this as a danger to their religious and cultural sentiments which were going to be affected due to the Western influence. There was a need that arose to make the necessary changes in the system in order to rejuvenate the society and its institution in the wake of colonial conquest. Therefore the socio religious reform movements in the 19th century was not an end goal rather an emergence of the anti-colonial consciousness in Indian society.

Early Reform Movements And Raja Rammohan Roy

Back at the beginning of the 18th century Raja Rammohan Roy emerged as the central figure to the social reforms. Rammohan Roy was a perfect combination of East and West. Well-versed in Indian culture, Roy was also a man of great literary talent. He made special efforts to study Christianity and Islam to get a better understanding of them. Setting up of the Brahmo Samaj is integral to the socio religious movement in the 19th century, which forbade idol worship and discarded meaningless rituals and rites such as sacrificial killing. The Samaj also forbade attacking any other religion and believed in the unity of all religions. The abolishment of Sati in 1929 is accredited to the works of Raja Rammohan Roy who was heavily attacked by the Orthodox Hindus for his arousal of public opinion on Sati. He deeply opposed the caste system and advocated the abolition of polygamy and child marriage. In the year 1876, Dr Atma Ram Pandurang established the Prarthna Sabah with the objective to introduce social reforms in society. Shri R.C. Bhandarkar and Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, two prominent figures of the Prarthna Samaj devoted themselves to the work of social reforms such as inter-caste dining, inter-caste marriages, widow remarriage and improvement of women and depressed class. The reforms that were brought were supported by the Britishers and some of the reformers also supported the reformative and legislative steps taken by the British Government.

Methods Of Reform

Various methods of social and religious reform movements in the 19th century were adopted. These were:

1. Reform From Within

The followers of this method of reforms believed that effective change can be brought about only from within. This technique, entitled by Raja Rammohan Roy, was followed throughout the 19th century and efforts were made to create awareness amongst the people of the society. By organising debates, publishing papers and discussing the various religious practices, a societal change was brought about at the grassroots level. Common examples of these are Rammohan Roy’s campaign against Sati in 1818, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s pamphlets on widow marriage and B.M. Malabari’s efforts to increase the age of consent.

2. Reforms Through Legislation

Reforms through legislative intervention came from faith in the legislative system. Advocates of this type of reform, Keshub Chandra Sen, Mahadev Govind Ranade and Veeresalingam in Bengal, Bombay and Andhra respectively believed that reform without approval from the state remains ineffective. Therefore, demands to sanction legislation for widow remarriage, civil marriage and to increase the age of consent were put up.  One major shortcoming of this type of method was the lack of acceptance of change by people. Even after legal sanctions, the effects were limited because they failed to realise the role of legislation as an instrument for change and not change in itself. Also, the British governments supported reforms through their own narrow view of political and economic benefit and therefore did not want to intervene if it could affect its own interests.

3. Reform Through Symbol Of Courage

Another method of reform that was limited to the Derozians or Young Bengal Movement was through non-conformist individual activity. Henry Lui Vivian Derozio was a teacher in the Hindu College of Calcutta. Derozio promoted radical ideas through his teaching and organised debates and discussions on literature, philosophy, history and science, and inspired his students to question authority. The Derozians as they were called represented a radical stream within the reform movement. Prominent members of the group Dakshinarajan Mukherjee, Ram Gopal Ghose and Krishna Mohan Banerjee were fiery patriots. They cherished the ideals of the french revolution and the liberal thinking of Britain. A major weakness was their inability to draw upon the cultural traditions of Indian society. The Young Bengal movement continued after the death of Derozio at age 22 due to cholera. The members of the group then continued with preaching his radical views through teaching and journalism.

4. Reforms Through Social Work

Bringing about social change through social work was evident in the work of some prominent social reformers. While they all believed in the service of the man they all had different ideologies and had some distinctive features about themselves. Vidyasagar was not content with advocating widow remarriages through publications and pamphlets and therefore devoted his entire life to their cause. Even then, he was able to achieve just a handful of marriages. Vidyasagar’s inability to achieve something substantial was a recognition of the limitation of social reforms through effort. Arya Samaj, founded by Dayanand Saraswati tried to inculcate a sense of self-respect and self-reliance among the people of India and promoted nationalism. Dayanand Saraswati preached the teachings of Vedas and Western Science and opposed idolatry, rituals, priesthood and the caste practices preached by the Brahmins. Ramakrishna Paramhansa was a firm believer of God and dedicated his entire life to God. he believed in the service of mankind as a means to salvation because he believed man is the embodiment of God. His most devoted pupil, Narendra Nath Dutta, better known as Swami Vivekananda made his mission to spread the message and teachings of his guru throughout the entire world.