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9. Women, Caste and Reform (History)

This chapter is about status of women in India in 19thcentury. The Women discrimination was on the peak. They were treated like a slave or maid even in their own houses.

Also, the other discriminative issues of the society which stopped development in the society and personal development, especially the poor and untouchables.

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What this chapter is about ?

Apart from Women discretion, There were many other wrong traditions were followed. Some of them are mentioned as under:

(1) Sati System

(2) Male Domination and Caste Discrimination based on type of work they do in the society.

(3) Child marriage (4) Bandhua Mazdoori and Gulami (Bonded

Labourers)(5) Right to Education(6) Spiritual Equality of all Castes.(7) Unethical ways of medical treatment.

DatelineDates Events1772-1833

Raja Rammohun Roy brought a lot of reformations in the Indian society during this period.

1829 Sati was Banned.

1856 A law was passed to permit widow remarriage.

1875 The Arya samaj was founded.

1929 The child marriage Restraint act was passed

1927-1935

Ambedkar led three temple entry movements between this period.

In Earlier days, Sati (a Virtuous Women) was a custom where a widow has to immolate herself on her husband's pyre , or committed suicide in another fashion.

Willingly or against her wish.

Sati system

The practice was initially legalized by the colonial British officials specifying conditions when sati was allowed. then the practice was outlawed in 1829.

Followed up by laws in the same directions by the authorities.

The general ban for the whole of India issued by Queen Victoria in 1861.

In Nepal, sati was banned in 1920.

The Indian Sati Prevention Act from 1988 further criminalized any type of aiding, abetting, and glorifying of sati

Over the time, Education, various awareness activists, and various reform movements played a great role in changing the social status of women in Indian society.

Men were allowed to do anything of their choice but women were treated as slaves even in their own houses. They were not allowed education, choice husband or second marriage. However, In some parts Men were allowed (Be it Hindu or Muslim) more than one marriage.

The people were divided on the basis of work they perform and on the basis of their caste. No other work was allowed to them. The higher caste people never allow them education and discriminated as untouchables.

Male Domination and Caste Discrimination

An early age marriage where the Boy and the Girl are innocent and does not understand the meaning of Marriage System. As per Indian Judiciary system, Age of a Girl under 18 years or of the boy under 21 years is considered as Child Marriage.

In child Marriage, both boy and the girl are not developed mentally and physically . Thus resulting in to mental stress / medical complications.

Most child marriages involve under age women in poor socio-economic conditions.

Child Marriage

In the earlier times, The upper caste people who actually rule the village people distribute loans in various kind to needy poor people. In return, some or all family members were booked for labour work at their farms or at home.

Bandhua Mazdoor (Bonded Labourers) and Gulami

In the olden times, the society was based on and Caste and the type of work they do. The lower caste people (shudra) who were un touchable. They were not allowed to enter temples or drink water from the well meant for upper caste. Their children were not allowed education.

Spiritual Equality of all Castes

Despite available medication in Ayurveda / Homeopath / Unani medicine by the known respective people, the people fall prey in the hands of sadhus and babas and maulavis who were treating patients with unnatural, unhealthy ways.

In those times the patient were sent out of community area to get out of illness naturally or in a temples outside village so that the god will cure their illness.

Unethical ways of medical treatment

In this popular festival, devotees underwent a peculiar form of suffering as a part of ritual worship . With hooks pierced through their skin they swung themselves on a wheel . In the early 19th century ,when European officials begin criticising Indian customs and rituals as barbaric , this was one of the rituals that came under attack.

Hook Swinging Festival

The attitude towards women and social customs started changing from the early nineteenth century.

The changes took place due to various reasons:-1) Awareness was created among women and the

society in general as people started reading more and more . People started reading books, newspapers , magazines , leaflets and pamphlets as they were much cheaper by then.

Working towards change

2) There were debates and discussions about social customs and practices which also helped in creating awareness among the people.

Ordinary people could read and many of them could also write and express their ideas in their own languages. All kinds of issues like social, political, economic and religious issues were debated and discussed by men. These discussions brought about many changes . These debates were often initiated by Indian reformers and reform groups

Who are Social Reformers Some people are described as reformers as they felt that changes were necessary in the society, and unjust practices needed to be done away with. The thought that the best way to ensure these changes was to give up old practices and adopt a new way of life. Examples of some great reformers are : Raja ram Mohan Roy, Ishwarchandra vidya sagar , Swami Dayanand Saraswati ,Tara bai shinde , Pandita Rama Bai Begum Rokeya and Sakhawat Hossain

Who are Social Reformers ?

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian religious, social, and educational reformer, and humanitarian, who challenged traditional Hindu culture such as 'Sati‘ and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule. He is called the "Maker of Modern India," and also the "Father of Modern India ."  He is also regarded as the "Father of the Bengal Renaissance." He, along with Dwarkanath Tagore and other prominent  Bengalis of the early 19th century, founded the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, which engendered the Brahmo Samaj, an influential Indian socio-religious reform movement during the Bengal Renaissance. His influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration, and education, as well as religion.

 

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Ram Mohan Roy was well versed in sanskrit , persian and several other Indian and European languages . Roy pointed out to the people that ‘sati’ was not practised during the olden days. Through his writings he condemned the practice of ‘sati’. As the British were also opposed to the practise of ‘sati’ they supported Roy and a law was passed banning ‘sati’ in the year 1829 .

The approach taken by Rammohan was used by later reformers as well. Whenever they wished to challenge a practice that seemed harmful, they tried to find a verse or sentence in the ancient sacred texts that supported their point of view. They then suggested that the practice as it existed at present was against early tradition.

Changing The Lives of Widows

Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar was an Indian Bengali polymath and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance.   Vidyasagar was a philosopher, academic , educator , writer, translator, printer, publisher, entrepreneur, reformer, and philanthropist. His efforts to simplify and modernize Bengali prose were significant. He also rationalized and simplified the Bengali alphabet and type, which had remained unchanged since Charles Wilkins and Panchanan Karmakar had cut the first wooden Bengali type in 1780 .

Ishwarchandra Vidhya Sagar

Ishwarchandra Vidhyasagar suggested that widows could remarry .

His suggestion was adopted by British officials, and a law was passed in 1856 permitting widow remarriage.

Many were against the remarriage of widows. They opposed Vidyasagar and boycotted him.

During the second half of the 19th century , the movement in favour of widow remarriage spread to other parts of the country .

In Madras presidency, Veerasalingam Pantulu formed an association for widows remarriage.

All reformers felt that it was necessary to educate women in order to improve their conditions .

Vidhyasagar set up schools for girls in Calcutta . Veerasalingam established a girls school at

Dhavaleswaram and Rajamundry. Problems Faced by Girls to go to

School• When schools for girls opened in the mid 19th

century, many people were afraid of them.• They feared that schools would take girls away from

home , prevent them from doing their domestic work.

Girls Began To Go To School

From the early 20th century , Muslim women played a notable role in promoting education among women . Primary school for girls was started at Aligarh. Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain started school for muslim girls in Patna and Calcutta.

In the 1880s , Indian women started going to universities for higher education. They became doctors and teachers.

Many women began to write about the place of women in society.

Women Write about Women

Veerasalingam was one of the greatest personalities and earliest reformers in India to demand for redical changes in Telugu Indian society. He had a keen in sight , great courage and dynamic energy. He fought against untruth and championed the cause of progress with vigour . He fought for education for women, and remarriage of widows . He started Vivekavardhini , a monthly journal, to point out and criticise the defects in the society.

In 1874 , he established a girls school at Dhavleshvaram to encourage women’s education. In 1884, he established another school for girls in Rajmundry .

Veerasalingam Pantulu

Pandita Rama Bai Pandita Ramabai  was an Indian Christian who tried to change many things in India. A poet and scholar, she tried hard to improve (make better) the lives of women in India. She wrote many books including her popular The High-Caste Indian Woman, which showed the troubles of child wives and women in India.

 

Pandita Rama Bai

Tara Bai Shinde Tarabai Shinde (1850–1910) was a feminist activist who protested patriarchy and caste in 19th century India. She is known for her published work, Stri Purush Tulana ("A Comparison Between Women and Men"), originally published in Marathi in 1882. The pamphlet is a critique of upper-caste patriarchy, and is often considered the first modern Indian feminist text. It was very controversial for its time in challenging the Hindu religious scriptures themselves as a source of women's oppression, a view that continues to be controversial and debated today.

Tara Bai Shinde

Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain was a leading feminist writer and social worker in undivided Bengal during the early 20th century. She is most famous for her efforts on behalf of gender equality and other social issues. She established the first school aimed primarily at Muslim girls, which still exists today. She was a notable Muslim feminist; modern feminist writers such as Taslima Nasrin cite her as an influence. Begum Rokeya also wrote short stories and novels. Her important works are Sultana' s Dream and Padmarag.

 

Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain

• Apart from demanding equal right for women and social reformers also fought against the caste system that was prevalent in India during the early 20th century.

• The Prarthana Samaj adhered to the tradition of Bhakti that believed in spiritual equality of all castes .

• Paramhans Mandali was founded in 1840, in Bombay, to work for the abolition of castes.

• Many of these reformers were people of upper castes.

Caste and Social Reform

In the 19th century , Christian missionaries started setting up schools for tribal groups and “lower”- caste children. These were trained to find a footing in the changing world. Soon the poor left the villages and started looking for jobs in the cities.

There were plenty of jobs in the cities. Drains had

to be dug, roads laid, buildings constructed, and cities cleaned. This required coolies, diggers, carriers, bricklayers, sewage cleaners, sweepers, palanquin bearers and rickshaw pullers. Many started working in plantations in India .

Some of them even went to far off countries like Mauritius, Trinidad and Indonesia. The poor were happy to leave their villages and find work else work . They were happy to escape from the oppression and humiliation they suffered from the upper-caste landlords.

Guru Ghasi Das (1756–1850) was an advocate of the Satnami sect ion of Hinduism in the early 19th century. GhasiDas was a farmer who worked for low-caste Indians, particularly the Leather workers and organised a movement

Haridas Thakur’s Matua sect worked in eastern Bengal. He worked among the Chandala cultivators.

Shri Naryana Guru was a guru from Ezhava caste in the modern day Kerala. He argued against unequal treatment of people on the basis of caste. He believed that all human beings belonged to the same caste.

Ghasidas, Haridas Thakur andShri Naryana Guru

Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, born in 1827 was one of the most vocal amongst the low caste leaders. He studied in Christian missionary school. He attacked the Brahmans’ claim to superiority. He argued that the Aryans were foreigners who subjugated the true children of the country. He said that the upper caste had no right to land and power and the land belonged to the low caste people who were the original inhabitants of the land in the peninsula. Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj to promote caste equality. He wrote a book named Gulamgiri; in 1873. He dedicated his book to all those Americans who had fought against slavery.

Gulamgiri

Dr.B.R. Ambedkar Ambedkar was born in a Mahar family. From a very early age he expirienced caste discrimination. In school he was forced to sit outside the class room on the ground, and was not allowed to drink water from taps that upper caste children used.

Ambedkar finished his schooling and went to the US for higher studies.

He returned to India in 1919.

Who Could Enter Temples

During the second half of the 19th century, people from within the “lower” castes began organising movements against caste discrimination, and demanded social equality and justice.

Ghasidas founded the Satnami movement in Central India. He belonged to the ‘lower caste’ , and worked among the leatherworks and orgnised a movement to improve their social status.

Haridas Thakur worked among the “low” caste Chandala cultivators in eastern Bengal. He questioned the Brahmanical texts that supported the caste system.

Demands for Equality and Justice

All the leaders came from “low” castes and worked amongst them. They tried to change those habits and practices among “low” castes which provoked “upper” castes’ contempt. They tried to create a sense of self-esteem amongst the lower castes.

He wrote widely on the power the “upper” caste had in the society.

In 1927, Ambedkar started a temple entry movement , in which Mahar caste followers participated.

The Mahar caste people who were called Dalits used water from the temple tank. This outraged the upper caste people.

Ambedkar led three such movements for temple entry between 1927 and 1935.

His aim was to make everyone see the power of caste prejudices within society.

The non- Brahman movement started in the early 20th century. It was started by non Brahman castes which were educated, wealthy and influential.

E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker • E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker , or Periyar came from a

middle-class family. • He had been a ascetic in his early life and had studied

sanskrit scriptures. • Later, he became a member of the Congress. He soon left

the Congress as he felt that the Party discriminated among castes. The lower castes were made to sit at a distance from the upper castes.

The Non-Brahman Movement

TO GROW, LET’S NOT FIGHT FOR CASTE AND GENDER,

TOGETHER WE CAN !!!

LETS GROW TOGETHER AND

HELP DEVELOP OUR NATION.

Thank you