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In the history of modern India, the socio-religious reforms occupy a significant place
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The spread of liberal ideas of the west provided further stimulus for the emergence of reform movements.
Raja Rammohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj
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Raja Rammohan Roy established the Brahmo Samajat Calcutta in 1828 in order to purify Hinduism and to preach monotheism.
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He is considered as the first ‘modern man of India’.
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Born in 1772 in the Hooghly district of Bengal
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He studied the Bible as well as Hindu and Muslim religious texts
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He had excellent command over many languages including English, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
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In 1815, he established the Atmiya Sabha.
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Later, it was developed into the Brahmo Sabha in August 1828.
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He preached that there is only one God.
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He combined the teachings of the Upanishads, the Bible and the Koran in developing unity among the people of different religions.
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The work of the Atmiya Sabha was carried on by Maharishi Debendranath Tagore (father of Rabindranath Tagore),
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Who renamed it as Brahmo Samaj
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Raj Rammohan Roy is most remembered for helping Lord William Bentinck to declare the practice of Sati a punishable offence in 1829.
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He also protested against the child marriage and female infanticide.
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He felt that the caste system was the greatest hurdle to Indian unity.
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He favoured inter-caste marriages.
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He himself adopted a Muslim boy
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In 1817, he founded the Hindu College (now Presidency College, Calcutta) along with David Hare, a missionary.
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Rammohan Roy started the first Bengali weekly Samvad Kaumudi
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Edited a Persian weekly Mirat-ul-akhbar.
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He stood for the freedom of the press
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Rammohan died in Bristol in England in 1833
Henry Vivian Derozio and the Young Bengal Movement
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Henry Vivian Derozio was the founder of the Young Bengal Movement.
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He was born in Calcutta in 1809 and taught in the Hindu College, Calcutta.
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He died of cholera in 1833.
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His followers were known as the Derozians and their movement the Young Bengal Movement.
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They attacked old traditions and decadent customs.
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They also advocated women’s rights and their education.
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They founded associations and organized debates against idol worship, casteism and superstitions
Swami Dayanand Saraswathi and the Arya Samaj
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The Arya Samaj was founded by Swami Dayanand Saraswathi at Bombay in 1875.
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Born in Kathiawar in Gujarat, Swami Dayanand (1824-83) was a scholar, a patriot, a social reformer and a revivalist.
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He believed the Vedas were the source of true knowledge.
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His motto was “Back to the Vedas”.
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He was against idol worship, Child marriage and caste system based on birth.
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He encouraged intercaste marriages and widow remarriage
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He started the Suddhi movement to bring back those Hindus who had converted to other religions to its fold.
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He wrote the book Satyartha Prakash which contains his ideas.
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The Arya Samaj, though founded in Bombay, became very powerful in Punjab and spread its influence to other parts of India.
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The first Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) School was founded in 1886 at Lahore.
Prarthana Samaj
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The Prarthana Samaj was founded in 1867 in Bombay by Dr. Atmaram Pandurang
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It was an off-shoot of Brahmo Samaj
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It was a reform movement within Hinduism and concentrated on social reforms like inter-dining, inter-marriage, widow remarriage and uplift of women and depressed classes.
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Justice M.G. Ranade and R.G. Bhandarkar joined it in 1870 and infused new strength to it.
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Justice Ranade promoted the Deccan Education Society.
Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Mission
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The original name of Swami Vivekanandawas Narendranath Dutta (1863-1902)
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He became the most famous disciple of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
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He was born in a prosperous Bengali family of Calcutta and educated in Scottish Church College.
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In 1886 Narendranath took the vow of Sanyasa and was given the name, Vivekananda.
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He preached Vedantic Philosophy
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Swami Vivekananda participated at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago (USA) in September 1893 and raised the prestige of India and Hinduism very high.
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Vivekananda preached the message of strength and self-reliance.
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He asked the people to improve the lives of the poor and depressed classes.
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He founded the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur in Howrah in 1897.
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It is a social service and charitable society.
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The objectives of this Mission are providing humanitarian relief and social work through the establishment of schools, colleges, hospitals and orphanages.
Theosophical Society
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The Theosophical Society was founded in New York (USA) in 1875 by Madam H.P. Blavatsky, a Russian lady, and Henry Steel Olcott, an American colonel
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Their main objectives were to form a universal brotherhood of man without any distinction of race, colour or creed and to promote the study of ancient religions and philosophies.
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They arrived in India and established their headquarters at Adyar in Madras in 1882.
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Later in 1893, Mrs Annie Besant arrived in India and took over the leadership of the Society after the death of Olcott.
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Mrs Annie Besant founded the Central Hindu School along with Madan Mohan Malaviya at Benaras which later developed into the Banaras Hindu University.
Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
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Pandit Ishwar Chandra was a great educator, humanist and social reformer
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He was born in 1820 in a village in Midnapur, Bengal.
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He rose to be the Head Pandit of the Bengali Department of Fort William College.
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Vidyasagar founded many schools for girls
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He helped J.D. Bethune to establish the Bethune School.
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He founded the Metropolitan Institution in Calcutta
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He protested against child marriage and favoured widow
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Remarriage which was legalised by the Widow Remarriage Act (1856).
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It was due to his great support for the spread of education that he was given the title of Vidyasagar.
Jyotiba Phule
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Jyotiba Phule belonged to a low caste family in Maharashtra
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He waged a life-long struggle against upper caste domination and Brahmanical supremacy.
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In 1873 he founded the Satyashodak Samaj to fight against the caste system.
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He pioneered the widow remarriage movement in Maharashtra and worked for the education for women.
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Jyotiba Phule and his wife established the first girls’ school at Poona in 1851
Muslim Reform Movements
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The Muslim reform movements started a little later because they had avoided western education in the beginning.
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The first effort was in 1863 when the Muhammad Literary Society was set up in Calcutta
Aligarh Movement
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The Aligarh Movement was started by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98) for the social and educational advancement of the Muslims in India
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In 1866, he started the Mohammadan Educational Conference as a general forum for spreading liberal ideas among the Muslims.
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In 1875, he founded a modern school at Aligarh to promote English education among the Muslims.
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This had later grown into the Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College and then into the Aligarh Muslim University.
The Deoband School
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The orthodox section among the Muslim ulema organised the Deoband Movement.
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It was a revivalist movement whose twin objectives were
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To propagate among the Muslims the pure teachings of the Koran and the Hadi
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To keep alive the spirit of jihad against the foreign rulers.
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The new Deoband leader Mahmud-ul-Hasan (1851-1920) sought to impart a political and intellectual content to the religious ideas of the school.
Sikh Reform Movement
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Baba Dayal Das founded the Nirankari Movement
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He insisted the worship of God as nirankar (formless).
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The Namdhari Movement was founded by Baba Ram Singh.
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His followers wore white clothes and gave up meat eating.
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The Singh Sabhas started in Lahore and Amritsar in 1870 were aimed at reforming the Sikh society.
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They helped to set up the Khalsa College at Amritsar in 1892.
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They also encouraged Gurmukhi and Punjabi literature.
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In 1920, the Akalis started a movement to remove the corrupt Mahants (priests) from the Sikh gurudwaras
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Later, the Akalis organised themselves into a political party
Parsi Reform Movement
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The Parsi Religious Reform Association was founded at Bombay by Furdunji Naoroji and S.S. Bengalee in 1851.
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The Parsi Religious Reform Association was founded at Bombay by Furdunji Naoroji and S.S. Bengalee in 1851.
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Naoroji published a monthly journal, Jagat Mithra
Saint Ramalinga
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Saint Ramalinga was one of the foremost saints of Tamil Nadu in the nineteenth century.
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His divine powers came to be recognised at the early age of eleven.
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In 1865 he founded the Samarasa Suddha Sanmargha Sanghafor the promotion of his ideals of establishing a casteless society.
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He composed Tiru Arutpa
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In 1870 he moved to Mettukuppam, a place three miles away from Vadalur.
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There he started constructing the Satya Gnana Sabaiin 1872.
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He introduced the principle that God could be worshipped in the form of Light
Self-Respect Movement and Periyar E.V.R.
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Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy was a great social reformer. In 1921, during the anti-liquor campaign he cut down 1000 coconut trees in his own farm.
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In 1924, he took an active part in the Vaikam Satyagraha
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The objective of the Satyagraha was to secure for untouchables the right to use a road near a temple at Vaikom in Kerala.
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He started the “Self-Respect Movement”. The aims of the ‘Self -Respect Movement’ were to uplift the Dravidians and to expose the Brahminical tyrany and deceptive methods by which they controlled all spheres of Hindu life
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He denounced the caste system, child marriage and enforced widowhood
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He himself conducted many marriages without any rituals
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Such a marriage was known as “SelfRespect Marriage.
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He attacked the laws of Manu, which he called the basis of the entire Hindu social fabric of caste
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He founded the Tamil journals Kudiarasu, Puratchi and Viduthalai to propagate his ideals
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On 27th June 1970 by the UNESCO organisation praised and adorned with the title “Socrates of South Asia”