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Tamil Nadu HSE Second Year History study materials
Tamil Nadu HSE Second Year History study resources

Tamil Nadu HSE Second Year History: Social and Religious Reform Movements in India and Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu HSE Second Year History · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Social and Religious Reform Movements in India and Tamil Nadu

Social and Religious Reform Movements in India and Tamil Nadu. Questions pair a reformer with the organisation founded, the year, and the specific practice attacked.

Bengal and western India

  • Rammohun Roy founded the Atmiya Sabha (1815) and the Brahmo Sabha (1828); the abolition of sati came in 1829 under Bentinck. Vidyasagar's campaign produced the Widow Remarriage Act, 1856.
  • Derozio's Young Bengal radicalised students; Keshab Chandra Sen later formed a separate Brahmo body.
  • Prarthana Samaj (1867) in Bombay; Arya Samaj (1875) under Dayananda Saraswati preached "back to the Vedas", Shuddhi and opposition to idolatry and caste rigidity; Jyotiba Phule's Satyashodhak Samaj (1873) attacked Brahminical domination.

Southern and Tamil initiatives

  • The Theosophical Society was founded in New York in 1875 and moved its headquarters to Adyar in 1882; Annie Besant made it a political force through the Home Rule League.
  • Narayana Guru, with the SNDP (1903), taught "one caste, one religion, one God"; the Vaikom Satyagraha (1924–25) and the Travancore Temple Entry Proclamation (1936) translated reform into law.
  • In Tamil country, Vallalar Ramalinga Swamigal's Samarasa Suddha Sanmarga Sangam, Maraimalai Adigal's Pure Tamil Movement, and Periyar's Self-Respect Movement (1925), with Kudi Arasu as its paper, attacked caste and ritual hierarchy.
  • Muthulakshmi Reddy, the first woman legislator in Madras, pushed the 1927 Act against the devadasi system.

Worked example

Compare Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj. Both were monotheistic, opposed idolatry and rejected caste exclusiveness, but the Brahmo Samaj drew on rationalism and Western education, working through persuasion and legislation, whereas the Arya Samaj rooted authority in the Vedas and used Shuddhi and denominational education. The comparison must name a criterion - scripture, method, social base - before judging.

Traps

  • Atmiya Sabha (1815) is not Brahmo Sabha (1828).
  • The Theosophical Society's founding is 1875 in New York; Adyar is 1882.
  • Periyar's Self-Respect Movement is 1925, not 1917 (Justice Party).