Chapter 7 – Women, Caste and Reform Notes

Content Structure

1. Women’s lives 200 years ago and today
2. Working Towards Change
- 2A. Changing the lives of widows
- 2B. Girls begin going to school
- 2C. Women write about women
- 2D. Law against child marriage
3. Caste and Social Reform
- 3A. Demands for equality and justice
- 3B. Gulamgiri
- 3C. Who could enter temples?
- 3D. The Non-Brahman movement
- 3E. Organising for reform
  - 3E. 1. The Brahmo Samaj
  - 3E. 2. Derozio and Young Bengal
  - 3E. 3. The Ramakrishna Mission and Swami Vivekananda
  - 3.E. 4. The Prarthana Samaj
  - 3E. 5. The Veda Samaj
  - 3E. 6. The Aligarh Movement
  - 3E. 7. The Singh Sabha Movement

1. Women’s lives 200 years ago and today

(i) Life Today

Most middle-class girls go to school and study with boys.
Many women go to college, get jobs, and marry when they are adults.
They can marry anyone from any caste or community.
Widows can remarry.
Women have the right to vote and stand for elections.
However, not everyone enjoys these rights equally.
Poor people often cannot afford education.
Some families still do not allow women to choose their husbands.

(ii) Life 200 Years Ago

Children were often married at a young age.
Hindu and Muslim men could have more than one wife.
Some widows were expected to burn themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre (called “sati”).
Women had few property rights and almost no education.
Many believed that educated women would become widows.

(iii) Caste System in Society

Society was divided into castes:
- Upper castes: Brahmins (priests) and Kshatriyas (warriors).
- Middle castes: Traders and moneylenders (Vaishyas).
- Lower castes: Peasants, artisans (Shudras).
- Lowest castes: People doing cleaning and “polluting” jobs (called “untouchables”).
Untouchables were treated unfairly:
- Could not enter temples or use the wells and ponds of the upper castes.
- Were seen as inferior.

(iv) Changes Over Time

In the 19th and 20th centuries, many of these unfair practices started changing.

2. Working Towards Change

(i) New Ways to Share Ideas

Books, newspapers, and pamphlets became cheaper and easier to read.
More people could share their thoughts and discuss social issues like social, political, economic, and religious.

(ii) Reformers Wanted Change

Some people wanted to improve society and end unfair customs.
Raja Rammohun Roy (1772–1833) started Brahmo Samaj to bring change.

(iii) Rammohun Roy’s Work

He supported the British education of all people, especially women.
He wanted women to have more freedom and not just do housework.

2A. Changing the lives of widows

(i) Raja Rammohun Roy and Widow Remarriage

Rammohun Roy was deeply affected by the struggles of widows.
He started a campaign to stop sati (widow burning).
He knew many languages, including Sanskrit and Persian.
He wrote that ancient texts did not support sati.
Many British officials also criticized sati and supported Rammohun.
In 1829, sati was banned.

(ii) Using Ancient Texts for Change

Later reformers used the same method as Rammohun Roy.
They found verses in ancient texts that supported their ideas.
They argued that harmful customs were against early traditions.

(iii) Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar and Widow Remarriage

Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar used ancient texts to support widow remarriage.
British officials agreed, and in 1856, a law allowed widow remarriage.
Many people opposed him and even boycotted him.

(iv) Widow Remarriage Movement

In the Madras Presidency, Veerasalingam Pantulu formed a widow remarriage group.
In Bombay, young reformers worked for the same cause.
In North India, Swami Dayanand Saraswati (founder of Arya Samaj) supported widow remarriage.

(v) Challenges Faced

Few widows remarried because society did not accept them.
Many conservative groups opposed the new law.

“We first tie them down to the pile” – Rammohun Roy published many pamphlets to spread his ideas. Some of these were written as a dialogue between the advocate and critic of a traditional practice. Here is one such dialogue on sati:

ADVOCATE OF SATI – Women are by nature inferior in understanding, without resolution, unworthy of trust … Many of them, on the death of their husbands, become desirous of accompanying them; but to remove every chance of their trying to escape from the blazing fire, in burning them we first tie them down to the pile.

OPPONENT OF SATI: When did you ever afford them a fair opportunity to exhibit their natural capacity? How then can you accuse them of wanting to understand? If, after instruction in knowledge and wisdom, a person cannot comprehend or retain what has been taught him, we may consider him deficient; but if you do not educate women, how can you see them as inferior?

1C. Girls begin going to school

(i) Reformers Supported Girls’ Education

Reformers like Vidyasagar in Calcutta and others in Bombay started schools for girls.
They believed education would improve women’s lives.

(ii) Opposition to Girls’ Education

Many people feared schools would keep girls away from home and household work.
They did not want girls to travel in public places.
Because of this, most educated women studied at home, taught by fathers, husbands, or themselves.
Rashsundari Debi secretly learned to read and write at night.

(iii) Growth of Girls’ Schools

In the late 19th century:
- Arya Samaj started girls’ schools in Punjab.
- Jyotirao Phule opened schools in Maharashtra.

(iv) Muslim Women and Education

In aristocratic Muslim homes, women learned to read the Koran in Arabic.
Female teachers visited homes to teach them.
Mumtaz Ali used the Koran to support women’s education.

(v) Urdu Novels and Women’s Learning

In the late 19th century, Urdu novels were written.
These helped women learn about religion and household management in an easy language.

2C. Women write about women

1. Early Efforts by Muslim Women

In the early 20th century, the Begums of Bhopal promoted women’s education and founded a primary school for girls in Aligarh.
Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain established schools for Muslim girls in Patna and Calcutta.
She strongly criticized conservative views and believed religious leaders treated women unfairly.

2. Women Entering Universities (1880s Onwards)

By the 1880s, Indian women started attending universities.
Many trained to become doctors and teachers.
Women began to write and publish their views on gender inequality.

3. Notable Female Reformers

Tarabai Shinde wrote Stripurushtulna (A Comparison between Women and Men), criticizing gender discrimination.
Pandita Ramabai, a Sanskrit scholar, argued that Hinduism oppressed women.
She wrote about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women.
She founded a widows’ home in Poona, offering shelter and vocational training.

4. Resistance from Orthodox Groups

Orthodox Hindu nationalists feared that educating women would corrupt Hindu culture and family values.
Orthodox Muslims also worried about the impact of these changes.

5. Women’s Active Role in Reform Movements

By the end of the 19th century, women took charge of reform efforts.
They wrote books, edited magazines, and founded schools, training centers, and women’s associations.
In the early 20th century, they created political pressure groups for:
- Women’s right to vote (female suffrage)
- Better healthcare and education

6. Women in Political Movements

From the 1920s, women joined nationalist and socialist movements.
Leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose supported women’s equality and freedom.
Nationalists promised equal voting rights for men and women after independence.
However, until then, women were encouraged to focus on the anti-British struggle.

Law against child marriage

With the growth of women’s organisations and writings on these issues, the
momentum for reform gained strength. People challenged another established custom – that of child marriage. There were a number of Indian legislators in the Central Legislative Assembly who fought to make a law preventing child marriage. In 1929, the Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed without the kind of bitter debates and struggles that earlier laws had seen. According to the Act, no man below the age of 18 and no woman below the age of 16 could marry. Subsequently, these limits were raised to 21 for men and 18 for women.

3. Caste and Social Reform

(i) What Reformers Did

A few reformers voiced opposition to caste oppression.
Rammohun Roy translated an old Buddhist book that said bad things about caste.
The Prarthana Samaj thought that all castes were psychologically equal.
In 1840, Paramhans Mandali was started in Bombay to stop prejudice.

(ii) Breaking Caste Rules

Upper-caste reformers aimed to remove caste rules.
Secret meetings allowed them to eat together and break caste rules.

(iii) Christian Missionaries and Education

Christian missionaries opened schools for tribal and lower-caste children.
Education helped them get better jobs in the future.

(iv) Poor People Moving to Cities

Many poor people left villages to find work in cities.
Jobs included:
- Building roads, digging drains, cleaning cities.
- Sweeping, carrying loads, pulling rickshaws.

(v) Working in Other Countries

Some headed to work on Assam, Mauritius, Trinidad, and Indonesia’s plantations.

(vi) Jobs in the Army

The Mahar people, who were thought to be “untouchable,” got jobs in the Mahar Regiment.
In the army, B.R. Ambedkar’s dad worked as a teacher.

Who could produce shoes?

Leatherworkers have been traditionally held in contempt since they work with dead animals, which are seen as dirty and polluting. During the First World War, however, there was a huge demand for shoes for the armies. Caste Prejudice against leatherwork meant that only the traditional leatherworkers and shoemakers were ready to supply army shoes. So they could ask for high prices and gain impressive profits.

3A. Demands for equality and justice

(i) People Demand Equality

People from non-Brahman classes began to fight against unfair treatment in the late 1800s.
They wanted fair treatment for everyone.

(ii) Important Leaders and Their Work

Ghasidas – Satnami Movement (Central India)
- Helped leatherworkers get respect in society.
Haridas Thakur – Matua Sect (Eastern Bengal)
- Helped poor farmers (Chandala cultivators).
- Questioned old religious rules that allowed caste discrimination.
Shri Narayana Guru (Kerala)
- From the Ezhava caste.
- Believed all people are equal.
- Famous words: “One caste, one religion, one God for humankind.”

(iii) How They Helped

These leaders helped the people of their non-Brahman groups.
They stopped practices that were unfair and made people from lower classes feel bad about themselves.
They helped people learn to respect and believe in themselves.

3B. Gulamgiri

(i) Who Was Jyotirao Phule?

He was born in 1827; he studied in Christian missionary schools.
He criticized caste discrimination and Brahman superiority.

(ii) Phule’s Ideas About Caste

He said that the land was ruled by Aryans who came from outside of India.
Before the Aryans came, the people who lived in India were like children of the land.
The land actually belonged to the people who were called “low castes.”

(iii) The Golden Age Before Aryans

Phule believed that before Aryan rule, warrior-peasants ruled the land fairly.
He told Shudras (workers) and Ati-Shudras (untouchables) to work together to fight discrimination.
He started the Satyashodhak Samaj to work for fair rights for all castes.

(iv) His Book—Gulamgiri (Slavery)

It was written in 1873 and was about unfair treatment based on caste.
Phule gave the book to Americans who fought against slavery as a gift.
People from lower castes in India were compared to black slaves in the United States.

(v) Phule’s Fight Against All Injustice

He also stood up for upper-caste women who were treated unfairly.
Poor workers who were treated badly.

(vi) Others Who Continued His Work

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in the western part of India.
In Southern India, E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker was present.

3C. Who could enter temples?

Born into the Mahar Caste
- Ambedkar was born into the Mahar caste, which faced discrimination.
Experience of Caste Discrimination
- He had to sit on the ground outside the classroom in school.
- He wasn’t allowed to use the same water faucets as kids from higher castes.
Higher Education Abroad
- He got a scholarship to study in the U.S.
- In 1919, he went back to India and wrote about how caste differences hurt people.
Temple Entry Movements (1927-1935)
- Ambedkar began a movement in 1927 to allow Dalits to join temples.
- When Dalits utilized temple water, upper-caste priests were hurt.
- He oversaw three movements for temple admission.
Aim of His Struggle
- He wanted to show that society was biased against people of a certain group and change that.

3D. The Non-Brahman movement

Beginning of the Non-Brahman Movement
- In the early 1900s, it began.
- Non-Brahman castes took charge and got more education, money, and power.
- They said that the Brahmans were Aryan invaders who took power from the Dravidian people who lived there before.
Periyar’s Early Life and Discontent with Caste Discrimination
- Born into a middle-class family.
- Studied the Sanskrit texts and lived as a hermit.
- Joined the Congress but quit after seeing discrimination based on race at a feast.
Founding of the Self-Respect Movement
- Untouchables were seen as the real guardians of Tamil and Dravidian culture.
- Dalits were told to give up religious views that supported unfair social conditions.
- Hindu texts like the Manusmriti, Bhagavad Gita, and Ramayana were criticized for supporting male authority and the caste system.
Reactions to Periyar’s Views
- Some upper-caste nationalist leaders looked at their own ideas and said they were wrong.
- To protect social differences, conservative Hindu groups fought against him and created groups like Sanatan Dharma Sabhas and Brahman Sabha.
Ongoing Struggles
- Caste inequality was still being talked about after the colonial period was over.
- People are still fighting for social equality.

3E. Organising for reform

3E. 1. The Brahmo Samaj

Examined the positive and negative elements of many religions.

(i) What was the Brahmo Samaj?

In the year 1830, a society was established with the purpose of improving religious activities.

(ii) What Did It Believe?

There will be no worship of idols or sacrifices of animals.
Indian holy books called the Upanishads were used as a guide.
They couldn’t say bad things about other religions.

(iii) Influence from Other Religions:

took great ideas from both Hinduism and Christianity.

3E. 2. Derozio and Young Bengal

Who was Derozio?
- During the 1820s, a professor at the Hindu College in Calcutta.
What Did He Teach?
- Students were encouraged to think freely and to speak out against authority.
The Young Bengal Movement:
- His students questioned long-standing customs and traditions.
- They requested that women be given availability of education.
- They battled for the right to think and speak freely.

3E. 3. The Ramakrishna Mission and Swami Vivekananda

What was the Ramakrishna Mission?
- It was named for Swami Vivekananda’s teacher, Ramakrishna Paramhansa.
- Focused on doing good things and helping others to grow spiritually.
Who was Swami Vivekananda?
- In 1863, he was born as Narendra Nath Dutta.
- Added modern thoughts to Ramakrishna’s simple teachings.
- Share India’s spiritual knowledge with everyone in the world.
Famous Speech in Chicago (1893)
- People were shocked at how much he knew about the Vedanta theory.
- His work was praised by the New York Herald, which also said that India did not need missionaries.
His Concern for India
- The shameful statement that so many Indians are poor.
- They thought that making people’s lives better was the only way to bring about real change.
- Indians were told to put past their small trust differences and work for the progress of the country.
His Vision of Nationalism
- They thought that nationalism should bring people together, not separate them.
- Believed that problems in the world could be fixed if nations were fair to each other.
- It got young people to work together to make the future better.
- Hope and strength for India became an example of that.

3E. 4. The Prarthana Samaj

When and Where Was It Started?
- Started in 1867 in Bombay, which is now called Mumbai.
What Did It Aim to Change?
- Don’t put limits on caste.
- Stop marrying kids who are too young.
- Help women get an education.
- Encourage women to get married again.
Religious Influence
- Read Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian books and got ideas from them.
- promoted moral lessons and prayers over rituals.

3E. 5. The Veda Samaj

Where and When Was It Started?
- Started in the year the year 1864 in Madras, which is now called Chennai.
- The Brahmo Samaj provided ideas.
Main Goals:
- Stop being prejudiced based on gender.
- Help widows get married again.
- Help women get an education.
Religious Beliefs:
- Followed one God.
- Hindus who disagreed with myths and rituals.

3E. 6. The Aligarh Movement

When and Who Founded It?
- Sayyid Ahmed Khan started it in Aligarh in 1875.
What Did It Become?
- Aligarh Muslim University later changed its name.
What Was Taught?
- Muslims were given modern schooling.
- Western science and other areas were taught..
Impact of the Aligarh Movement:
- prompted big changes in how Muslims are taught.
- Muslims learn how to use current technology.

3E. 7. The Singh Sabha Movement

When and Where Were They Started?
- In 1873, the first Singh Sabha was set up in Amritsar.
- In Lahore, another one was set up (1879).
Main Goals:
- Remove away all the myths from Sikhism.
- Stop being prejudiced based on gender.
- Sikh customs should not be affected by customs from other religions.
Focus on Education:
- encouraged Sikhs to get a modern education.
- Sikh lessons were mixed with modern topics.