Women Caste and Reform

1. What social ideas did the following people support?
a. Rammohun Roy
b. Dayanand Saraswati
c. Veerasalingam Pantulu
d. Jyotirao Phule
e. Pandita Ramabai
f. Periyar
g. Mumtaz Ali
h. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Answer.
a. Rammohun Roy – Ban of Sati
b. Dayanand Saraswati – Widow Remarriage
c. Veerasalingam Pantulu – Widow Remarriage
d. Jyotirao Phule – Equality amongst castes
e. Pandita Ramabai – Women’s education
e. Periyar – Equality to untouchables
f. Mumtaz Ali – Women’s education
g. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar – Widow remarriage
2. State whether true or false:
(a) When the British captured Bengal they framed many new laws to regulate the rules
regarding marriage, adoption, the inheritance of property, etc.
(b) Social reformers had to discard the ancient texts in order to argue for reform in social
practices.
(c) Reformers got full support from all sections of the people of the country.
(d) The Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed in 1829.
Answer.
(a) True
(b) False
(c) False
(d) False
3. How did the knowledge of ancient texts help the reformers promote new laws?
Answer.
Ram Mohan Roy was well-versed in Sanskrit, Persian and several other Indian and European
languages. He tried to show through his writings that the practice of widow burning had no
sanction in ancient texts. The strategy adopted by Ram Mohan Roy was used by later reformers
as well. Whenever they wished to challenge a practice that seemed harmful, they tried to find a
verse or sentence in the ancient sacred texts that supported their point of view. They then
suggested that the practice, as it existed at present, was against early tradition. Ishwar Chandra
Vidyasagar used the ancient texts to suggest that widows could remarry.
4. What were the different reasons people had for not sending girls to school?
Answer.
There were the following reasons for people not sending their girls to school:
a. They feared that schools would take girls away from home.
b. Schools will prevent them from doing their domestic duties.
c. Girls had to travel through public places in order to reach school.
d. Travelling to schools would have a corrupting influence on them.
e. They felt that girls should stay away from public spaces.
5. Why were Christian missionaries attacked by many people in the country? Would some
people have supported them too? If so, for what reasons?
Answer.
The Christian missionaries were attacked by the people, as they were involved in the religious
conversion of poor and tribal people, that is, converting a Hindu into a Christian. These
missionaries also set up schools for tribal and poor kids to learn. However, the larger section of
people who looked down upon the poor people and tribal people did not like the idea of exposing
tribal people to education. Hence, the attacks on Christian missionaries started.
6. In the British period, what new opportunities opened up for people who came from
castes that were regarded as “low”?Answer.
The poor from the villages and small towns, many of them from low castes, began moving to the
cities where there was a new demand for labour. Some also went to work in plantations in
Assam, Mauritius, Trinidad and Indonesia. The poor and the people from low castes saw this as
an opportunity to get away from the oppressive hold that upper-caste landowners exercised over
their lives and the daily humiliation they suffered.
7. How did Jyotirao, the reformer, justify his criticism of caste inequality in society?
Answer.
Jyotirao Phule, who stood against caste inequality, believed that the upper castes being ‘Aryans’,
were not the original inhabitants of their lands. He put forward his opinions by telling people that
the land has always belonged to the lower-caste people and that the Aryans were outsiders. He
looked forward to the golden age when lower-caste people would live peacefully without the
intrusion of upper castes.
8. Why did Phule dedicate his book Gulamgiri to the American movement to free slaves?
Answer.
Jyotirao Phule wrote his book, ‘Gulamgiri’ in 1873. The title of the book means ‘Slavery.’ From
1861 to 1865, the American Civil war was being fought. The Civil War began primarily as a result
of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. Phule dedicated his book
to all those Americans who had fought to free slaves, thus establishing a link between the
conditions of the “lower” castes in India and the black slaves in America.
9. What did Ambedkar want to achieve through the temple entry movement?
Answer.
In 1927, Ambedkar started a temple entry movement, in which his Mahar caste followers
participated. Brahman priests were outraged when the Dalits used water from the temple tank.
His aim was to make everyone see the power of caste prejudices within society.
10. Why were Jyoti Rao Phule and Ramaswamy Naicker critical of the national movement?
Did their criticism help the national struggle in any way?
Answer.
Jyoti Rao Phule and Ramaswamy Naicker both were critical of the national movement, as they
thought that there were no differences between anti-colonialists and colonialists. Phule thought
that the upper-caste people who wanted to fight against the British would want to rule once the
British left. Phule was always against the upper caste people, as he called them the ‘outsiders.’
Naicker was a part of the Congress party, and his experiences led him to believe that the party
was not free from the taint of casteism. So, he was reluctant to take part in the anti-British
national movement that was not concerned about creating a caste-less society.
Their criticism helped strengthen the national struggle. Reformists started restructuring their
thoughts to get rid of the differences between the upper caste and lower caste. The national
struggle became the tool to eradicate caste differences, and religious and gender inequality.

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1. What social ideas did the following people support?

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