SOCIO-RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS FOR REFORM

SOCIO-RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS FOR REFORM

In the nineteenth century and the early parts of the twentieth century it is
the members from middle classes who began to think in terms of reforming
and modernising Indian society. The reformist attempts contained both
religious and social components. Let us briefly discuss the reformist and
revivalist movements of the nineteenth century India.


The Reformist Movements

One of the early nineteenth century reformers was Raja Ram Mohun Roy
(1772-1833) of Bengal who believed that Indians could become progressive
if they shed the superstitions and evil practices such as Sati, infanticide,
etc. He advocated a new kind of religion which combined Christian
teachings with Vedanta. He founded the Brahmo Samaj which was meant
to be a spiritual forum, where a monotheistic, non-idolatrous worship
could be conducted by its members who had nothing to do with caste or
superstition. Ram Mohun Roy’s influence was mainly confined to urban,
literate groups of Bengal. In the same century, Mahadev Govind Ranade,
a jurist of Maharashtra, founded the Prarthana Samaj in Bombay. This was
broadly modeled on the Brahmo Samaj of Bengal. The social reactions
raised by the two movements were, however, quite different. The Brahmo
Samaj by its insistence on Western-inspired liberalism gave rise to a stormy
othodox reaction. Ram Mohun’s reforms were strongly opposed by
orthodox Hindus led by Radha Kant Dev. Here was a confrontation
between tradition and modernity. By contrast, the liberal trends initiated
by Prarthana Samaj did not create a direct conflict between tradition and
modernity. Unlike the members of Brahmo Samaj, its members did not
lead a distinctive, anti-traditionalist life style. So, there was no sharp reaction
from society.

The Revivalist Movements

Two revivalist movements may be also mentioned. The Arya Samaj
launched by Dayananda Saraswati (1824-1883) was based on an appeal
to people to shed the unhealthy features of Hinduism (such as narrowness
of caste, superstition, ritualism, etc.) and go back to the pristine purity of
Vedas.

It sponsored a kind of education which had both traditional and
modern components. The D.A.V. or Dayananda Anglo-Vedic Colleges
spread education in North India on a wide scale.

The Ramakrishna Mission founded by Vivekananda had a two fold purpose: one, to make educated
people in India to realise their responsibility to the weaker sections and take steps to remove poverty and social backwardness; second, to propogate
Indian Vedanta to the Westerners. In regard to first, many schools and hostels were founded in urban, rural and tribal areas to improve education and
employment prospects of common people. In regard to second, Advaita centers were established in many Western countries to bring about spiritual
awakening among Western people.

Other Movements

Just as reformist and revivalist movements were precursors for social reforms in India and they gave impetus to scholarly activities related to
socio-cultural awakening in Indian society., we find that in post- Independence period, degradation of environment and misguided
development related movements have also influenced intellectual activity
among shows sociologists who focus on the study of …. and problems
related to deforestation (Jain 1984) ….., 1994 and 1998-99, 2001 & 2001
6+ 2003 Sillitoc et al 2002 displacement B 1995 , Fernades……) and
unbalanced sex ratio in India (Patel……). Most of these issues are products
of movements taking place in different parts of the country.
Except this brief mention of such trends, we will not go into these details
as these developments in Sociology will be included in the syllabus of
course of master’s degree in Sociology.