Causes and Types of Socio-religious reforms in the 19th century in India

Socio-religious reforms in the 19th century provided the soil for growth of Indian Nationalism. The main reason of emergence of the reform movements was spread of western education and liberal ideas. These reforms, as we all know started in Bengal and soon spread in all parts of India. We note here that these movements were largely confined to specific regions, specific religions and evolved in different parts of the country on different times. Despite of that, there were certain similarities in them:

• All demanded changes in society through social or education reforms.
• The key areas of their focus included social issues such as emancipation of women’s problems {Sati, female infanticide, widow remarriage, women’s education etc.}; questioning the casteism and untouchability; and religious issues such idolatry, polytheism, religious superstitions and exploitation by priests.

Causes of Social Awakening

The first and foremost reason was the British rule and its deep influence on political, economic, social and culture life of India. It created conditions favourable to intellectual growth. Second was the effort of the European Orientalists, whose efforts put India’s glorious past into limelight. This includes work done by Sir William Jones, James Princep, Charles Wilkins, Max Muller etc. Further, many Indian scholars such as Raja Rammohan Roy, Radhakanta Deb, Rajendralal Mitra, MG Ranade etc. also contributed in reinterpreting India’s past. Third was the highly creative literature, marked by fusion of old and new. Fourth was the detrimental effect of the Christian missionaries who held that propaganda of Christianity in India would serve Britain’s imperial interests; and would secure the empire. The Indians took it as an onslaught on their religion and social customs. They wanted to reform it so that evil social practices could be removed from society.

Reformism versus Revivalism

All the social awakening movements can be grouped into two schools viz. Reformist and Revivalist.  The colonial rule reflected that many of the Indian social practices and institutions had become obsolete and they needed reforms. This school felt shackled in within the archaic traditional set up and wanted to inculcate the liberal ideas and education to reform the society. This was called reformism. Reformists included the newly emerging western educated section of society in India, who pioneered reform movements to bring about conclusive changes in Indian society. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was one example.  On the other hand the revivalism focussed on golden ancient period of India and efforts to bring back the past glory.

Types of Reform Movements

The reform movements could be identified with four methods viz. (1) reforms from within; (2) reform through legislation; (3) reform through symbols of change; and (4) reform through social work.

Reform from Within

The advocates of this method believed that a reform can be effective if it emerged from within the society itself and it should create a sense of awareness among the people. For instance, Raja Ram Mohan Roy believed that Philosophy of Vedanta was based on principle of reason; and there is no need of blind reliance of India’s own past or blind aping of west.  He believed that India should learn from west not copy the west. He was ardent defender of Hindu religion and staunch critic of Christian missionaries.

Reforms through Legislation

This method believed that reforms cannot be effective unless supported by the State. Therefore, they appealed to the government to give legislative sanction for reforms like civil marriage, widow remarriage and increase in the age of consent.

Reform through Symbol of Change

This method represented radical reforms such as attack on old customs and rejection of traditional archaic social norms of Indian Society. Henry Louis Vivian Derozio and his Young Bengal Movement came into this category.

Reform Through Social Work

As per this method, the question whether a social reform was having religious sanctions or not, is an immaterial. This method included social work such as schools, colleges, missions, hospitals etc.