Bengal - Socio-Cultural Reform Movement

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Brahmo Samaj
Raja Rammohan Roy
  • Raja Rammohan Roy (1772-1833), father of Indian Renaissance. Maker of Modern India.
  • Faith in monotheism, Wrote Gift to Monotheists (1809) book.
  • 1814, Atmiya Sabha (or Society of Friends) in Calcutta to propagate the monotheistic ideals. creative and intellectual process of selecting the best from different cultures.
  • Founded the Brahmo Sabha in August 1828; it was later renamed Brahmo Samaj.
  • Long-term Agenda - purify Hinduism and to preach monotheism - based on the twin pillars of reason and the Vedas and Upanishads.
  • Not want to establish a new religion, only wanted to purify Hinduism.
  • strong opposition from orthodox elements like Raja Radhakant Deb who organised the Dharma Sabha to counter Brahmo Samaj propaganda.
  • Features.
    • Denounced polytheism and idol worship.
    • Discarded faith in divine avataras (incarnations).
    • Denied that any scripture.
    • Doctrine of karma.
    • Criticised the caste system.
  • Aimed at political uplift of the masses through social reform.
  • Efforts of Raja Rammohan Roy
    • Anti-sati struggle in 1818 - visited the cremation grounds, organised vigilance groups and filed counter petitions to the government during his struggle against sati - Government Regulation in 1829.
    • Campaigner for women’s rights - According an inferior social status to women, Right of inheritance and property for women.
    • Supported David Hare’s efforts to found the Hindu College in 1817.
    • In 1825, he established a Vedanta college where courses in both Indian learning and Western social and physical sciences were offered.
    • Supporter of freedom of the Press - journals in Bengali, Hindi, English, Persian
    • Political Activity - Condemned oppressive practices of Bengali zamindars and demanded fixation of maximum rents, demanded abolition of taxes on tax free lands, reduction of export duties, abolition of the East India Company’s trading right, Indianisation of superior services, separation of the executive from the judiciary & judicial equality between Indians and Europeans and that trial be held by jury.
    • Cooperation of thought and activity and brotherhood among nations.
    • Supported the revolutions of Naples and Spanish America and condemned the oppression of Ireland by absentee English landlordism and threatened emigration from the empire if the reform bill was not passed.
Debendranath Tagore and Tattvabodhini Sabha
  • Maharishi Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905), father of Rabindranath Tagore gave new life to rahmo Samaj.
  • Joined the Samaj in 1842. Earlier, Tagore headed the Tattvabodhini Sabha (founded in 1839).
  • Organ Tattvabodhini Patrika in Bengali.
  • Work on Two Front
    • Hinduism, the Brahmo Samaj was a reformist movement; outside, it resolutely opposed the Christian missionaries for their criticism of Hinduism and their attempts at conversion.
  • Supported widow remarriage, women’s education, abolition of polygamy, improvement in ryots’ conditions and temperance
Keshub Chandra Sen and Brahmo Samaj of India
  • Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-1884), acharya by Debendranath Tagore.
  • popularising the movement branches opened outside Bengal - United Provinces, Punjab, Bombay, Madras and other towns.
  • Debendranath did not like some of Sen’s ideas, found too radical. against the caste system, open support to inter-caste marriages,  dismissed from the office of acharya in 1865.
  • So, Founded Brahmo Samaj of India in 1866. (Known as Adi Brahmo Samaj)
  • 1878, Keshab's thirteen-year-old daughter married to the minor Hindu Maharaja of Cooch-Behar with all the orthodox Hindu rituals cause split in Keshab’s Brahmo Samaj, considered Keshab's  as an incarnation.
  • After 1878, followers of Keshab set up a new organisation, the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj by Ananda Mohan Bose, Shibchandra Deb and Umesh Chandra Datta.
  • number of Brahmo centres were opened in Madras.
  • Dayal Singh Trust, opening of Dayal Singh College at Lahore in 1910.
Significance of the Brahmo Samaj
  • Attacked many dogmas nd superstitions & attacked casteism
  • Prevailing Hindu prejudice against going abroad.
  • Respectable status for women in society - ondemned
  • sati, worked for abolition of purdah system, discouraged child marriage and polygamy, crusaded for widow remarriage and for provisions of educational facilities.
  • Influence of the Brahmo Samaj, much beyond Calcutta and, at most, Bengal.
Prarthana Samaj
  • 1867, Keshab Chandra Sen helped Atmaram Pandurang found the Prarthana Samaj in Bombay.
  • Secret society to spread liberal ideas and encourage the breakdown of caste and communal barriers.
  • Mahadeo Govind Ranade (1842-1901), joined the samaj in 1870 - gain all-India character.
  • Other Leaders - R.G. Bhandarkar (1837-1925) and N.G. Chandavarkar (1855-1923).
  • Attached to the bhakti cult of Maharashtra.
  • Four-point social agenda
    1. Disapproval of caste system.
    2. Women’s education.
    3. Widow remarriage.
    4. Raising the age of marriage for both males and females
  • Dhondo Keshav Karve and Vishnu Shastri were champions of social reform with Ranade.
  • Along with Karve, Ranade founded the Widow Remarriage Movement. Widows’ Home Association, providing education and training to widows.
Henry Vivian Derozio and Young Bengal Movement
  • Young Anglo-Indian, Henry Vivian Derozio (1809-31), first nationalist poet of modern India.
  • Hindu College from 1826 to 1831 inspiration from the great French Revolution.
  • Inspired his pupils to think freely and rationally, question all authority, love liberty, equality and freedom, and oppose decadent customs and traditions.
  • Supported women’s rights and education.
  • Failed to have a long-term impact, removed from the Hindu College in 1831 because of his radicalism, prevailing social conditions - no support from any other social group or class.
  • Lacked any real link with the masses failed to take up the peasants’ cause. bookish in charater.
  • Carried forward Rammohan Roy’s tradition of public education on social, economic and political questions.
  • Demanded induction of Indians in higher grades of services, protection of ryots from oppressive zamindars, better treatment to Indian labour abroad in British colonies, revision of the Company’s charter, freedom of press and trial by jury.
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
  • Great scholar and reformer, Vidyasagar’s ideas blend of Indian and Western thought.principal of Sanskrit College.
  • Break the priestly monopoly, opened the Sanskrit College to non-brahmins.
  • Western thought in Sanskrit College to break the self-imposed isolation of Sanskritic learning.
  • Widow remarriage - resulted in legalisation of widow remarriage & crusader against child marriage and polygamy & women’s education.
  • Thirty-five girls’ schools many of which he ran at his own expense.
  • Pioneers of higher education for women in India.
  • Bethune School, founded in Calcutta.
  • Many believed that girls who had received Western education would make slaves of their husbands.

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