Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Parsi and other reform and revivalist movements of the 19th-20th centuries
Background and Causes of Socio-Religious Reform
The Basics
British rule had spread across most of India by the mid-nineteenth century. Wood's Despatch of 1854 set up schools, colleges and universities teaching Western science and ideas. Indian society still carried deep social evils. Women suffered from female infanticide and child marriage. Polygamy was common, and widows were expected to commit sati, burning themselves on their husbands' funeral pyres. Widows who survived often faced a life of humiliation. The caste system placed untouchables at the bottom, with severe social disabilities. This blocked social mobility and national unity. In the eyes of reformers, Hindu religious practice had become a mixture of idolatry, polytheism and priestly control over scriptural knowledge. Ordinary people depended on priests to interpret religion.
By the late 1820s, Calcutta's educated Bengali youth had tasted Western liberal ideas through English education. Raja Rammohan Roy's reformist writings had already opened debate on social evils. But a sharper, more radical voice was about to emerge from within Hindu College itself.
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Social Reform in Bengal
The Basics
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was born in 1820 into a very poor family in Bengal. He educated himself through hardship. He rose in 1851 to become principal of Sanskrit College in Calcutta. He was a deep Sanskrit scholar. He was also open to Western ideas. He blended Indian and Western thought in his work.
By the mid-nineteenth century, Maharashtra under British rule had a rigid caste order. Brahmins dominated education, administration and religious authority. Non-Brahmin castes, especially untouchables, faced social degradation and exclusion from learning and public life.
After Dayananda's death in 1883, followers carried the work forward. Lala Hansraj led the setting up of Dayananda Anglo-Vedic (DAV) schools, the first established at Lahore in 1886, to combine Vedic values with Western-style education. Swami Shraddhananda took the opposite emphasis, starting the Gurukul near Hardwar in 1902 to teach in a traditional framework. Leaders such as Pandit Gurudutt and Lala Lajpat Rai also carried the movement forward.
The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 in New York, United States. Its founders were Madame H.P. Blavatsky, a Russian, and Colonel H.S. Olcott, an American. Neither was Indian, but both admired Indian thought and philosophy. They drew on the Upanishads and the schools of samkhya, yoga and Vedanta. They believed contemplation and prayer could link the soul with God. They also accepted the Hindu ideas of karma and reincarnation.
By the 1920s, Madras Presidency already had a strong non-Brahmin movement, begun by the Justice Movement. It claimed that Brahmins, though a small minority, dominated government jobs, education and temple priesthood.
After 1857 the British suspected Muslims of leading the revolt, and this suspicion was deepened by Wahabi activities among them. Muslim upper classes had largely avoided Western education and culture. They fell behind in government jobs and modern professions. This backwardness, combined with official mistrust, was the problem Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898) set out to solve.
Women's Status and Social Reform - Sati, Widow Remarriage, Age of Consent
The Basics
By the mid-nineteenth century, sati and infanticide had been outlawed. But Hindu and Muslim women still faced child marriage, purdah and denial of property rights. Widow remarriage remained banned among upper castes. Widows, especially young ones, had to live an ascetic, humiliating life after their husband's death. Men, in contrast, could marry many times over. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, principal of Sanskrit College, Calcutta, led the next wave of reform.
Anti-Caste Movements and Struggle Against Untouchability
The Basics
At the start of this struggle, untouchables made up about twenty percent of the Hindu population. They were barred from temples, schools, wells and public jobs. Their touch, and in parts of the south even their shadow, was treated as polluting.