History of India - 6 (c.

1750 - 1857)

Assignment
Socio - Religious Reform Movements
Jobial Alex
Introduction

The conquest of India by the British during the 18th and 19th century exposed some serious
weaknesses and drawbacks of Indian social institutions. The response, indeed, was varied but the
need to reform social and religious life was a commonly shared conviction. It also brought in
completely new sets of ideas and social world. The exposure to post-Enlightenment rationalism that
came to signify modernity brought a change in the outlook of a select group of Indians.

From the thirties of the nineteenth century, there was in India a wave of reforming activities, which
influenced the minds of her people through the wholesome activities of different samajas, societies
and other organisations such as Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Aligarh movement etc.
The major social problems which came in the purview of these reforms movements were
emancipation of women in which sati, infanticide, child marriage and widow re-marriage were taken
up, casteism and untouchability, education for bringing about enlightenment in society and in the
religious sphere idolatry, polytheism, religious superstitions, and exploitation by priests. The
movement described as the “Indian Renaissance” or “Indian Awakening” grew in enormity in the
latter half of the century.

Kenneth W Jones proposes a definition of 'socio-religious movements' in “The New Cambridge

History of India; Socio-religious reform movements in British India“. He elucidates that the term
'socio' implies an attempt to reorder society in the areas of social behaviour, custom, structure or
control. All socio-religious movements demanded changes, ranging from the relatively limited
approach of defensive and self-consciously orthodox groups to radicals who articulated a sweeping
condemnation of the status quo. The term 'religious' refers to the type of authority used to
legitimize a given ideology and its accompanying programme. This authority was based on scriptures
that were no longer considered to be properly observed, on a reinterpretation of doctrines, or on
scriptural sources arising from the codification of a new religious leader's message.

The introduction of western education and ideas had far reaching impact on the Indian Society.
Through the glasses of utility, reason, justice, and progress, a select group of individuals began to
explore the nature of their own society leading to a gradual emergence of public opinion. The
debates between the Orientalists on one side, and the Utilitarians, Liberals and Missionaries on the
other also enabled the penetration of ideas, at least amongst the upper section of society. The
resultant cultural change led to introspection about Indian traditions, institution, and culture.

Jones put forth two distinct types of movement within the period of British rule, 'transitional' and
'acculturative' which emerged because of the uneven development of a colonial milieu and the
persistence of indigenous forms of socio-religious dissent. Transitional movements had their origins
in the pre-colonial world and arose from indigenous forms of socio-religious dissent, with little or no
influence from the colonial milieu, either because it was not yet established or because it had failed
to affect the individuals involved in a particular movement whereas acculturative movements,
originated within the colonial milieu and was led by individuals who were products of cultural
interaction.

The Brahmo Samaj

The Brahmo Samaj, an acculturative movement among Bengali Hindus, was led by members of the
English-educated elite and supported by them, opines Kenneth W Jones. It originated within the
colonial environment of Calcutta and flowed out to other cities, then towns, following a line of
Bengali emigrants north-west to the Punjab. It was carried to the South and West as well by
Brahmos leaders.

Kali Kinkar Datta traces the spiritual parentage of Brahmo Samaj to Rammohun Roy (1772-1833),
who appeared as the herald of a new age and ‘the father and patriarch of modern India’ during a
period of transition marked by contact and the mingling of old and new values and ideas of the East
and West. Roy first attempted to establish an organizational base for his ideas when in 1815 he
founded the Atmiya Sabha (Friendly Association). Nine years later Roy organized the Brahmo Sabha
that met for the first time on 20 August 1828. A Trust Deed filed by Roy provided a sketchy
statement of principles for the Sabha which included a reaffirmation of egalitarianism, Roy's concept
of the deity, 'the Eternal Unsearchable and Immutable Being who is the Author and Preserver of the
Universe', a prohibition of all forms of idolatry and sacrifice, and a ban on criticism of other religious
beliefs and practices. After Roy's death in 1833, the leadership of the Brahmo movement was taken
over by Debendranath Tagore who provided the movement with a better organisational structure
and ideological consistency. But the movement was actually taken out of the limited elite circles of
Calcutta literati into the district towns of east Bengal by Bijoy Krishna Goswami and Keshub Chandra
Sen in the 1860s. Goswami bridged the gap between Brahmoism and the popular religious tradi- tion
of Vaishnavism, while Sen's specific focus was to reach larger numbers of non-Westernised Bengalis
in the eastern Gangetic plains and to take the movement outside Bengal to other provinces of India.

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay states that if missionary activities had been one major contribution of
Keshub Sen to the Brahmo movement, the other contribution was a renewed attention to social
reforms. He brought in some amount of radicalism into the movement, by attacking caste system, by
focusing on the question of women's rights, by promoting widow remarriage and inter-caste
marriages etc. But this radicalism also brought the first rift within the Brahmo movement. Basically,
as Meredith Borthwick has shown, it was a schism between Keshub's followers, for whom social
progress and reform were more important than anything else, and the followers of Debendranath,
who preferred to maintain their identification with Hindu society. The former in 1866 established
their Brahmo Samaj of India, while the latter sought to retain their identity under the rubric of Adi
(original) Brahmo Samaj.

The acculturated ideology of Brahmoism with its reinterpreted Hinduism, western organizational
forms of a voluntary religious association with congregational meetings, society officers,
missionaries, a creed, printed literature and bank accounts, also reached to the far South and to the
west coast through the travels of its leaders. Thus the Brahmos provided a new Hinduism and a
model of religious organization to others within the colonial milieu. Their own movement split into
three different directions, the Adi Samaj back towards the parent religion, the New Dispensation
towards a cult centred on the person of Keshab Chandra Sen and focusing on elements of the bhakti
past, and the Sadharan Samaj that held to the original teachings of Rammohun Roy.

The Prarthana Samaj

According to Jones the establishment of a new society dedicated to changing the religious and social
life of Maharashtra came from the internal heritage of the Paramahansa Sabha and from the
external influences brought primarily by Keshab Chandra Sen. In 1867 Dr Atmaram Panderung
(1823-98), and a small circle of friends, created a new organization, the Prarthana Samaj (Prayer
Society) ‘with aims of rational worship and social reforms’, points out Sivanath Sastri.
Bandyopadhyay suggests that although its founder president was Atmaram Pandurang, the real
spirit behind it was Mahadev Gobind Ranade, who was ably assisted by Bhandarkar and N.G.
Chandavarkar. CF Andrews observes that ‘the last, and, in many ways, the most enduring aspect of
the new reformation in India……. is linked most closely with the name of Justice Ranade’. All the
leading personalities in this new organisation were Western educated Marathi Brahmans. As for its
philosophy, like the Brahmo movement, the Prarthana Samaj also preached monotheism,
denounced idolatry, priestly domination and caste distinctions. K.K. Datta states that instead of
speculations on religion the samaj devoted itself to salutary social reforms through night schools for
working people, a Depressed Classes Mission for elevating the spiritual and social condition of the
depressed classes, a Ladies’ Association for the education of girls and several other institutions for
social service and education. Later it developed a syncretism and connected itself to the
Maharashtrian bhakti tradition. A section of the Prarthana Samaj membership who were attracted to
Aryan ideology and were excited by Dayananda, led by SP Kelkar, broke away and founded the
Brahmo Samaj of Bombay in mid 1970s.

The Prarthana Samaj maintained its distinction from the Brahmo movement of Bengal. The most
notable distinction was in its cautious approach in contrast to the relatively more confrontational
attitudes of the Bengali Brahmos. "The peculiar feature of the movement in [Bombay] Presidency", M
G Ranade pointed out, was that its goal was "not to break with the past and cease all connection
with our society”. It was this gradualist approach, which made Prarthana Samaj relatively more
acceptable to the larger society opines Bandyopadhyay.

The Prarthana Samaj retained its intellectualized vision of religious and social questions, and while it
strove to change customs in both areas, it did not have the use of powerful emotional concepts and
symbols to sustain its efforts and its followers argues Jones. The Samaj did attempt to provide
education to all classes of the society and sought changes in four areas: they wished to end the ban
on widow remarriage, to abandon all caste restrictions, to abolish child marriage, and to encourage
the education of women.

Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Vivekanada

Sumit Sarkar refers to Ramakrishna Paramhansa as the saintly Dakshineswar priest who cast a spell
over Calcutta's sophisticated intellectuals precisely through his eclecticism and rustic simplicity.
Jones suggests that Ramakrishna did not teach a structured set of ideas. Two themes, however, ran
through his discussions, the universality of all religions - all were true and led to God, and a
corresponding logical conclusion that beliefs and rituals of Hinduism should be preserved. If all
religions were true there existed no reason for criticism or conversion. The teachings of Ramakrishna
were popularized by Keshab Chandra Sen after 1875 when the two met for the first time.

The message of Ramakrishna was carried to all parts of India through his most ardent and beloved
disciple, Narendranath Datta who became famous throughout the world as Swami Vivekananda. ‘He
was’, remarks Valentine Chirol in “India”, ‘the first Hindu whose personality won demonstrative
recognition abroad for India’s ancient civilisation and for her new born claim to nationalism.’ In the
1890s, Vivekananda leapt to fame after a memorable appearance at the Chicago Congress of
Religions. According to Sarkar Vivekananda was very far from being an obscurantist or revivalist in
any crude sense. One major effect of his work still was to weaken social reform further by
condemning it (no doubt with considerable justice) as elitist and inspired by alien models and
replacing it by the ideal of social service, and the Ramakrishna Mission founded by him in 1897 has
proved an efficient philanthropic organization with no claims to social radicalism.

Vivekananda was, indeed, a patriot from the core of his heart, with faith in the evolution of Indian
civilisation, an intense zeal to revive all that was good and great in her civilisation and to serve it in
all possible ways for her onward march, quotes K.K Datta.

Vivekananda's vision of Hinduism was deeply divided between its glorious past and a degenerate
present. In this he shared the perceptions of Rammohun Roy and other Hindu thinkers of the
nineteenth century. Hindus were filled with superstition, with the trivia of elaborate rituals, rent by
jealousy of anyone who might attempt to provide leadership or direction, and 'possessing the
malicious nature befitting a slave', cites Eknath Ranade in “Swami Vivekananda’s Rousing Call to the
Nation”.

To counter this depressing description of contemporary life Vivekananda offered a complex set of
ideas. To Vivekananda the one universal religion was Vedanta, an expression of Hindu spiritual
supremacy. He linked this concept to a dualistic division of the world between East and West.
Vivekananda labelled the West as materialistic and contrasted it with a spiritual East by which he
meant India and Hinduism. The restored Hinduism that Vivekananda wished for was not based on
social criticism, but on selfless action by the dedicated followers of Ramakrishna, who would find
their salvation through social service, and at the same time prove the superiority of their beliefs.
Begun with the teachings of a traditional sanyasi, this socio-religious movement drew into it young
members of the English-educated elite thus creating an acculturative movement. It also proved to be
successful among non-Hindus of the West under Vivekananda's leadership and in so doing was the
first Hindu movement to explore a totally new source of support. When Vivekananda died, he left his
ideas, plus the less structured teachings of Ramakrishna and a social service organization. The major
pieces existed, but only in the twentieth century would these fuse together and create a successful
socio-religious movement, infers Jones.

The Arya Samaj

The Arya Samaj was formally started in Kathiawar, on 10 April 1875, by Swami Dayanand
Saraswati(1824-1883) whose admirable work, Satyartha Prakash, expounded his unique doctrines.
His motto was ‘Back to the Vedas’. He invoked the authority of the vedas as the most authentic
Indian religious texts and sought to purge Hinduism of all its post-vedic accretions, opines
Bandyopadhyay. However, Van der veer in “Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India”
argues that it is difficult to ignore the Western Orientalist touch in his discourse that tried to project
Hinduism as a “religion of the book”, like Christianity and Islam. Macdonald in “The Government of
India” suggests that Swami Dayanand wanted to reform society on the basis of the vedas by ‘a
pruning of all the engrafted shoots upon the vedas.’

Swami Dayanand claimed that the Vedas alone contained "scientific truths", and therefore, the
religion based on these texts was superior to Christianity and Islam, points out Gyan Prakash. K.K
Datta remarks that he opposed polytheism, idolatry, caste restrictions, child marriage and the
prohibition of sea voyages and supported female education and the remarriage of widows. He also
denounced untouchability, and repudiated caste system but at the same time, he upheld the
fourfold varna division, thus retaining the core of the Indian social organisation, suggests Christophe
Jaffrelot

In 1893, the Arya Samaj split on the two issues of meat-eating vs vegetarianism and Anglicized vs
Sanskrit-based education. The moderate 'College' faction led by Hans Raj and Lajpat Rai hence
forward concentrated on building up a chain of 'Dayanand Anglo-Vedic' colleges, and also developed
a somewhat sporadic interest in Congress politics as well as a more sustained involvement in
swadeshi enterprise. The more openly revivalist and militant 'Gurukul' faction founded by Lekh Ram
and Munshi Ram started the Hardwar Gurukul in 1902 (unaffiliated to the official educational
system, unlike the D.A.V. and based on principles of brahmacharya and Vedic training). They
emphasized proselytization through paid preachers and shuddhi. Within both groups, however, the
general trend was towards a shift 'from Arya Dharm to Hindu consciousness' (Jones)—and a
consciousness quite often openly communal and anti-Muslim.

Sarkar attributes the success of Dayanand’s message to its very ambiguity, for it combined sharp
criticism of many existing Hindu practices with an extremely aggressive assertion of the superiority
over all other faiths, Christianity, Islam or Sikhism, of purified Hinduism based on Vedic infallibility.
The specific goals of the social reformers were thus absorbed into a dominant pan-Hindu revivalist
framework.

Jones argues that drawing its leadership and members from educated Hindus, primarily of the upper
castes, the Arya Samaj adopted an imported organizational structure and parliamentary procedures.
The two wings of the Samaj created a wide variety of institutions, offered new forms of worship,
introduced proselytism, including paid missionaries, a conversion ritual, and reduced their teachings
to a fundamental creed. Commitment to Aryan ideals focused the energies and wealth of their
devotees into a variety of fields. It also provided the necessary psychological strength to publicly
oppose existing rituals and customs. The ideals of the Samaj were not only preached, but put into
action. The Samaj with its aggressive defence of Vedic Hinduism reinforced the lines drawn between
Hindus and other religions. They also created escalating religious conflict. In the process, Aryan
Hinduism had become a creedal religion, repeatedly defined and explained through a system of
proselytism and conversion.
Deoband

A pattern of clear-cut reformist-revivalist conflict with the first tending to be loyalist and the second,
anti-British, seems at first to be evident in late-nineteenth century Indian Islam, the two poles being
represented by Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan's Aligarh movement and the Deoband Darul-Ulum or
seminary. The Deoband school, based on a broad support of the ashraf Muslims, provided an
effective Islamic educational system that promoted their ideas of return to proper Islamic practice,
and created the foundation of a revived class of ulama who could function without the patronage or
power of a Muslim state. Rigidly orthodox, unlike the Wahhabis, and hostile to Sayyid Ahmed for his
theological innovations and political loyalism alike, Deoband attracted relatively poor students who
could not afford Western education, remained influential through the madrasah teachers it
produced and in the twentieth century provided fairly consistent support to Congress nationalism,
opines Sarkar. Two major figures in the founding of the Deoband school were Muhammad Qasim
Nanautawi (1833-77) and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi (1829-1905). Both had their homes in towns of the
Doab, came from families of the 'ulama class, and were influenced by the intellectual life of Delhi. In
1867 they opened a madrassah at the Chattah Masjid in Deoband. They wanted their school to be a
separate institution and not merely an appendage to the local mosque. The casual and personal
teaching style used for centuries was replaced by a permanent teaching staff. Students enrolled in
the school studied a defined curriculum with annual examinations. Much of the organizational form
was adopted from British institutions and then modified to fit the needs of Deoband.

Deobandis conceived of Islam as having two points of focus, shariat (the law, based on scriptures
and religious knowledge), and the tariqah (path, derived from religious experience) points out Jones.
Thus they accepted Sufism with its forms of discipline and the role of the ulama in interpreting the
four schools of Islamic law. The Qur'an, hadith, qiyas (analogical reasoning), and ijma (consensus)
provided the foundation of religious knowledge, but understanding them required the ulama as
guides. The Deobandis, while accepting Sufism, rejected numerous ceremonies and the authority of
pirs who claimed sanctity by their descent rather than by their learning. Knowledge granted
authority and not inheritance. Pilgrimages to saints' tombs, and the annual death rites of a particular
saint (the 'urs), also lay outside acceptable Islamic practice.

Aziz Ahmad in “Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan”, states that their syllabus focused on
Islamic texts, covering 'Arabic and Persian grammar, prosody and literature, history of Islam, logic,
Greco-Arab philosophy, kalam, dialects, disputation, medieval geometry and astronomy, Greco-Arab
medicine, jurisprudence, the hadith and tafsir (Commentaries on the Qur'an)'. In time Persian was
de-emphasized; instead the seminary utilized Arabic as the language of the scriptures and Urdu as
the language of north-Indian Muslims. The Deobandi curriculum was designed to prepare students
for their role as members of the ulama and in doing so to strengthen that group as the link between
Islamic religion and culture, and the Muslim population.

The impact of Deoband as a school and a transitional socio-religious movement, according to Jones,
grew first from its new style of Islamic education with an appointed staff, fixed curriculum, and
regular examinations. This structure, as well as the methods used to raise funds, was adopted from
the English model of education and the organization of voluntary associations. The Deobandis gained
widespread respect and influence in the North and beyond through their students and the
numerous fatwa on questions of proper religious practice. They also inspired the founding of schools
modelled after the Deoband ul-'Ulum, debated with opponents of Islam and with those Muslims
who rejected their vision of Islam. The Deobandis were not products of the colonial milieu, but of
the living tradition of Indo-Muslim thought and practice.

Aligarh Movement

Sayyid Ahmed Khan’s Aligarh movement succeeded in ‘rousing to new life the whole of Indian Islam
and it brought to light a New Islam with exponents like Maulavi Chirag Ali, Syed Amir Ali,
Muhammad Iqbal, AM Maulavi etc. opines KK Datta. He tried to convert upper-class Muslims of
western U.P. to the virtues and benefits of English education through a Scientific Society (1864), a
modernistic Urdu journal Tahzib al-aklilaq (1870), and the Aligarh Anglo-Muhammadan Oriental
College (1875). According to Sarkar his interpretation of Islam emphasized the validity of free
enquiry (ijtihad) and the alleged similarities between Koranic revelation and the laws of nature
discovered by modern science. Sayyid Ahmed had always stressed the need to import Western
education to upper-class Muslims as Muslims, and to thus foster in them a sense of corporate unity.
He brought a new message for the members of his community. As an ‘apostle of reconciliation’ he
advocated changes in the political, religious, educational and social ideas of the Muslims in India by
producing harmony between the old faith and the modern rationalism, oriental learning and modern
education, in short by bringing about, as Macdonald remarks in “The Government of India”, ‘a
working agreement between East and West’.

For Sayyid Ahmad the answer to the present dilemma of the Muslims lay in an education that
disseminated elements of English knowledge within an Islamic context. In June 1875, the
Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College of Aligarh opened its doors. ‘He had’, remarks Dr. Titus in
“Indian Islam”, ‘ a vision of an Indian Muslim Oxford, which should train young men of character and
capacity in all that is best in Occidental learning’. The institution enrolled students at the elementary
levels, studying the standard government curriculum under an English headmaster, but doing so in a
carefully constructed Islamic environment. Jones suggests that Sayyid Ahmad envisioned the college
as preparing men to serve the quam. It would supply educated, honest, public-spirited leaders able
to work with the English government, and to protect the Muslim community. In time this elite would
lift the Muslims into a cooperative dominance, ruling India in partnership with the British. In 1886,
he founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Educational Conference to popularize and encourage
the fusion of English and Islamic education, states Aziz Ahmed.

K. K Datta remarks that though not in agreement with the Congress and opposed to it during its
early days, Sir Syed was an ardent nationalist with some liberal views. He advocated social reforms
like the abolition of purdah, education of women, etc., and organised a vigorous propaganda
through his magazine Tahjib-ul-akhlaq.

According to Jones the efforts of Sayyid Ahmad Khan to defend and then strengthen the Muslim
community marked a sharp break with previous attempts to purify Islam and return it to its past
glory. Sayyid Ahmad envisioned the creation of an administrative elite which would govern in
cooperation with the British rather than focus its attention on the ulama. He incorporated western
knowledge including science, looked to a new type of education as the prime tool of his campaign,
and justified this through his own system of scriptural interpretation. Sayyid Ahmad was concerned
with the fate of the Muslims as a religiously defined community. This concentration on Muslims as a
group of people rather than on proper religious practice led him to reject the Indian National
Congress, oppose aggressive Hinduism, and to lay the foundation for a consciousness that evolved
into religious nationalism. He was opposed by Muslim movements that did not accept his inclusion
of western learning into Islam.

Conclusion

Within nearly a century of British rule over the South Asian subcontinent, socio-religious movements
reshaped much of the social, cultural, religious, and political life of this area. Three civilizations
provided models for movements of dissent and protest that sought to 'purify' and restructure
contemporary society. New associations, techniques, and forms of group consciousness came into
being during these years as religious change encountered increased politicization and competing
nationalism. The historic process of internal dissent and cultural adjustment was dynamic as the
traditions of the past flowed into the colonial milieu, and were increasingly altered by that
environment. At the same time we also witness widening the gap between Hindus and Muslims both
at the level of the elite and of the peasant masses as the 'modernistic' trends like the Brahmo or
Prarthana Samajas or the more secular movements of Young Bengal or Vidyasagar had not only been
entirely Hindu in composition; with few exceptions, they too had operated with a conception of
'Muslim tyranny' or a 'medieval' dark age from which British rule with its accompanying alleged
'renaissance' or 'awakening' had been a deliverance as well as the emergence of similar movements
in Indian Islam.

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay draws our attention to some of the special features of these social and
religious reform movements of the nineteenth century, which made such transformation possible.
These movements, first of all, had remained confined to a narrow social space, as the reformist spirit
appealed only to a small elite group, who were primarily the economic and cultural beneficiaries of
colonial rule. In Bengal, the reform movement involved only a small number of Western educated
elite who were known by the general term bhadralok (gentlefolk). The reformers never even tried to
take the reform to the people, as the language of reform, the chaste Sanskritised Bengali prose of
Rammohun Roy for example, remained incomprehensible to the uneducated peasants and artisans.
Similarly in western India, the members of the Prarthana Samaj were the English educated Chitpavan
and Saraswat Brahmans, some Gujarati merchants and a few members of the Parsi community. And
in Madras Presidency, where English education made much slower progress and caste domination of
the Brahmans remained unshaken, the reform ideas took longer to appear. Lacking in a broad social
base, the reformers of the early nineteenth century thus exhibited an intrinsic faith in the
benevolent nature of colonial rule and relied more on legislation for imposing reform from above.
There was very little or no attempt to create a reformist social consciousness at the grass-roots level,
where religious revivalism later found a fertile ground.

Equally important is the colonial character of the reforms, as the Indian reformers' positions in a
significant way mirrored the colonial mind and therefore also the ambivalence of the colonial policy
planners. The dominant colonial assumption of the time was that religion was the basis of Indian
society and this religion was encoded in the scriptures. The civilising mission of the colonial state was
thus seen to lie in giving back to the natives the truths of their own little read and even less
understood shastras.
However, although Indian modernisers looked towards the colonial state for support and direction
and post- Enlightenment rationality shaped their visions, they could neither leave their tradition, nor
forget their Indian identity. The Indian modernisation project therefore always felt a compulsion to
construct a modernity that would be located within Indian cultural space. To summarise their
position in Christophe Jaffrelot's words, they "undertook to reform their society and its religious
practices in order to adapt them to Western modernity while preserving the core of Hindu
tradition." It was through this project that the cultural essence of Indian nationhood, its difference
from the colonising West, was gradually imagined by the Indian intelligentsia.

Bibliography

 Jones, Kenneth W. Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India, New Cambridge

History of India, Vol.3.1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
 Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar. From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India. Delhi: Orient
Blackswan, 2004.
 Sarkar, Sumit. Modern India 1885 – 1947. Delhi: Macmillan India Ltd, 1983.
 Datta, Kali Kinkar. A Social History of Modern India. Delhi: The Macmillan Company of India
Ltd, 1975.