WOMEN, CASTE AND REFORM
Module
1. SOCIAL EVILS
2. REFORM MOVEMENTS
3. REMOVAL OF UNTOUCHABILITY
PRESENT
Nowadays most girls from middle class families
go to school , and often study with boys
 On growing up, many of them go to colleges
and universities , and take up jobs after that.
 They have to be adults before they are legally
married, and according to the law, they can
marry anyone they like.
 All women, like all men can vote and stand for
elections.
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PAST
In the past most children were married of at an
early age.
 In some parts of the country, widows were praised
if they chose death by burning themselves on the
funeral pyre of their husbands, this was called
“sati”.
 In many parts of the country people believed that
if a woman was educated, she could become a
widow.
 In most region, people were divided along lines of
caste.

SATI
Nov. 30,1818.
Conference Between an Advocate for, and an Opponent
of, the Practice of Burning Widows Alive .
 Advocate.—I am surprised that you endeavour to
oppose the practice of Concremation and
Postcremation of Widows,1 as long observed in this
country.
 Opponent.—Those who have no reliance on the
Shastru, and those who take delight in the selfdestruction of women, may well wonder that we
should oppose that suicide which is forbidden by all
the Shastrus, and by every race of men.

Advocate.—You have made an improper
assertion, in alleging that-When a widow is
absent from her husband at the time of his
death, she may in certain cases burn herself
along with some relick representing the
deceased. This practice is called Unoomurun or
Postcremation.
CASTE DIVISION
Brahmans and Kshatriyas considered themselves
as “upper castes”.
 Traders and moneylenders were placed after
them and were known as “vaishyas”.
 Peasants and artisans such as weavers and
potters were referred to as “shudras”.
 At the lowest place were those who labored to
keep cities and villages clean and they were
known as “untouchables”.

CASTE DIVISION
UNTOUCHABLES
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Untouchables were not allowed to enter
temples, draw water from wells used by the
upper castes, or bath in the pond were upper
caste bathed.
They were seen as inferior human beings.
MADIGAS-LEATHERWORKERS
REFORMERS
People are described as reformers because
they felt that changes were necessary in
society, and unjust practices needed to be
done away with.
 They thought that the best way to ensure such
changes was by persuading people to give up
old practices and adopt a new way of life.

INDIAN REFORMERS
RAJA RAMMOHUN ROY
 ISHWARCHANDRA VIDYASAGAR
 VEERASALINGAM PANTULU
 SWAMI DAYANAND SARASWATI
 MUMTAZ ALI
 TARABAI SHINDE
 PANDITA RAMABAI
 PERIYAR
 SHRI NARAYANA GURU
 JYOTIRAO PHULE
 B.R AMBEDKAR

RAJA RAMMOHUN ROY
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Raja Rammohun roy formed a reform association
known as The Brahmo Sabha in Calcutta.
Rammohun roy was keen to spread the knowledge of
western education in the country.
He began a campaign against the practice of Sati.
He tried to show in his writings that widow burning
had no sanction in ancient texts.
Many British officials were more than willing to listen
to Rammohun who was reputed to be a learned man.
In 1829 sati was banned.
SAINTS ON SATI
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'That woman who, on the death of her husband,
ascends the burning pile with him, is exalted to
heaven, as equal to Uroondhooti.
'She who follows her husband to another world, shall
dwell in. a region of joy for so many years as there are
hairs in the human body, or thirty-five millions.
'As a serpent-catcher forcibly draws a snake from his
hole, thus raising her husband by her power, she
enjoys delight along with him.
'The woman who follows her husband expiates the
sins of three races; her father's line, her mother's
line, and the family of him to whom she was given
a virgin.
 'There possessing her husband as her chiefest
good, herself the best of women, enjoying the
highest delights, she partakes of bliss with her
husband as long as fourteen Indrus reign.
 'Living let her benefit her husband; dying she
commits suicide.'

RAJA RAMMOHUN ROY
ISHWARCHANDRA VIDYASAGAR
Ishwarchandra vidyasagar, used the ancient
texts to suggest that widows should remarry.
 His suggestion was adopted by British officials
and a law was passed in 1856 permitting
widow re-marriage.
 Vidyasagar in Calcutta set up schools for girls.

ISHWARCHANDRA VIDYASAGAR
VEERASALINGAM PANTULU

In the telugu speaking areas of the madras
presidency, veerasalingam pantulu formed an
association for widow re-marriage.
VEERASALINGAM PANTULU
SWAMI DAYANAND SARASWATI
Swami dayanand saraswathi formed an
association called arya samaj.
 He believed infallibility of the vedas.
 He was against idol worship.
 He supported widow re-marriage and wanted
women to be educated.

SWAMI DAYANAND SARASWATI
GIRLS START GOING TO SCHOOL
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Many reformers in Bombay set up school for girls.
When the first schools were opened in the mid nineteenth
centaury, many people were afraid of them.
Many people felt that schools would take girls away from
home, prevent them from doing the domestic duties.
Moreover, girls had to travel through public places in order
to reach school.
Many people felt that this could have a corrupting influence
on them.
Therefore, throughout the nineteenth century, most
educated woman were thought at home by liberal fathers or
husbands
THE FIRST INDIAN GIRLS SCHOOL
MUMTAZ ALI
Mumtaz interpreted verses from the koran.
 She wanted all women to be educated.
 She encouraged women to learn both religion
and a language to understand the outside
world.
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WOMEN WRITE ABOUT WOMEN
Indian women began to enter in universities.
 Some of them trained to be doctors and some
became teachers.
 Many women began to write and publish their
critical views on the place of women in society.
 Tarabai shinde,a woman educated at home at
poona, published a book, stripurushtulna
criticizing the social differences between
women and men.

STRIPURUSHTULNA-TARABAI SHINDE
PANDITA RAMABAI
Pandita Ramabai, a great scholar of Sanskrit, felt
that Hinduism was oppressive towards women.
 She wrote a book about the miserable lives of
upper caste Hindu women.
 She founded a widows home at Poona to provide
shelter to widows who had been treated badly by
the husbands relatives.
 She wanted women to be educated so that they
could support themselves economically.

PANDITA RAMABAI
DRAWBACKS
Many Hindu nationalist felt that Hindu
women were adopting western ways and
that this would corrupt Hindu culture and
erode family values .
 Orthodox Muslims were also worried about
the impact of these changes.
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WOMEN WORKING FOR REFORM
Women themselves were actively working for
reform.
 They wrote books, edited magazines, founded
schools and training centers, and set up women's
association.
 They formed political pressure groups to push
through laws for female suffrage and better health
care and education for women.
 Nationalist promised that there would be full
suffrage for all men and women after
independence.
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CASTE AND SOCIAL REFORM
The Prarthana samaj adhered to the tradition of
bhakti that believed in spirtual equality of all castes.
 In Bombay, the Paramhas Mandali was founded in
1840 to work for the abolition of caste.
 Many of these reformers and members of reform
association were people of upper castes.
 Often, in secret meeting, these reformers could violate
caste taboos on food and touch, in an effort to get rid
of the hold of caste prejudice in their lives.
 Christian missionaries began setting up schools for
tribal groups and low caste children.
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DUBLAS OF GUJRAT
THE DEMAND FOR LABOUR
The poor began leaving their villages to look for
jobs in the cities.
 Expansion of cities leaded to new demands for
labour.
 For the work coolies, diggers, cleaners, sweepers,
brick layers were required.
 This labour came from the poor from villages and
small towns who came to the cities in search of
work.
 A number of Mahar people, who were regarded as
untouchable, found jobs in the Mahar regiment.
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THE DEMAND FOR LABOUR
DEMANDS FOR EQUALITY
The Satnami moment in central India, founded
by a leader named Ghasidas who came from a
lower caste, worked among the leather workers
and organised the moment to improve their
social status.
 In eastern Bengal, Haridas Thakur’s Matua sect
worked among low caste Chandala cultivators.
 Haridas questioned brahmanical text that
supported the caste system.
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HARIDAS THUAKUR
SHRI NARAYANA GURU
 In
what is present day kerala, a guru from
among low caste ezhavas, shri narayana
guru, proclaimed the ideals of unity of all
people within one sect, a single caste and
one guru.
SHRI NARAYANA GURU
JYOTIRAO PHULE
 One
of the most vocal amongst the low caste
leaders was jyotirao phule.
 He set out to attack the Brahman's claim that
they were superior to others, since they were
aryans.
 Phule argued that aryans were foreigners, those
who came from outside the subcontinent.
 As the aryans established the dominance, they
began looking at the defeated population as
inferior and the upper caste people had no right
to their land and power.
 The
satyashodhak samaj, and association
phule founded, propagated caste equality.
 In 1873 phule wrote a book called gulamgiri
which he dedicated to all the americans
those who had fought to free slaves.
 He was concerned about the plight of the
upper caste women.
JYOTIRAO PHULE
B.R AMBEDKAR
Ambedkar was born into a Mahar family.
 As a child he experienced what caste prejudice
meant in everyday life.
 In school he was forced to sit outside the
classroom on the ground, and was not allowed to
drink water from taps that upper caste children
used.
 In 1990 ,he wrote extensively about upper caste
power in contemporary society.
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B.R AMBEDKAR
In 1927 Ambedkar started a temple entry
movement, in which his Mahar caste followers
participated.
 Ambedkar led three such movements for
temple entry between 1927 and 1935.
 His aim was to make everyone see the power of
caste prejudice within society.

TEMPLE ENTRY MOVEMENT
PERIYAR
E.V Ramasamy Naicker or Periyar as he was called
,came from middle-class family.
 He became a member of the congress only to
leave it in disgust when he found that at a feast
organised by nationalists, seating arrangements
follow caste distinction-that is the lower castes
were made to sit at a distance from the upper
castes.
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Convinced that untouchables had to fight for
their dignity , Periyar founded the self respect
movement.
 He said that Hindi scriptures had been used to
establish the authority of Brahmans over low
castes and the domination of men over
women.
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E.V.R PERIYAR
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Men should not touch each other, see each other; and
cannot enter temples, fetch water from the village pond:
in a land where such inhuman practices are ripe, it is a
wonder that the earthquakes have not destroyed us,
volcanoes not burnt us; it is a wonder that the earth has
not split at its heart and plunge this land into an abyss,
that a typhoon has not shattered us. I leave it to you to
decide if you still like to trust to a divinity that has not
punished us thus; if you still consider that God a just
God, a Merciful Being. How long do you desire a vast
section of the oppressed, the depressed classes to
remain patient, peaceful and quiet? Would you consider
it wrong if these oppressed were to choose death rather
than lead such a life as they do now? " Periyar E. V.
Ramasami
HOOK SWINGING FESTIVAL
In this popular festival, devotees underwent a
peculiar form of suffering as part of ritual
worship.
 With hooks pierced through their skin they
swung themselves on a wheel.
 This act also was banned by the british.
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HOOK SWINGING FESTIVAL
QUESTIONS
1. Who was the founder of Brahmo Samaj ?
2. In which year was the practice of sati banned ?
3. Who established a widow home in Pune ?
4. What did Raja Ramohun Roy do to end the practice of Sati ?
5. Why were changes necessary in Indian society ?
6. How did women involve themselves in their upliftment ?
7. Who were Madigas ?
8. Who published the book named Sripurushtulna ? What was it about ?
9. What was the Satyashodhak Samaj ? Who founded it ?
10. Name the hindu scripture that was criticised by periyar .