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Women, Caste and Reform
1. How was the condition of women 200 years ago?
• Most girls were married off at an early age.
• Both Hindu and Muslim men could marry more than one wife but the right of
remarrying was not given to a widow.
• Widows were praised if they chose death by burning themselves on the funeral pyre of
their husbands. Women that died in this manner, whether willingly or otherwise, were
called “Sati”, meaning Virtuous women.
• Women's rights to property were also restricted.
• Most women had virtually no access to education.
• In many parts of the country people believed that if a woman was educated, she would
become a widow.
2. How were the Indian people divided along the lines of caste?
• Brahmins and Kshatriyas considered themselves as “upper castes”.
• Vaishyas who were traders and moneylenders were placed after Brahmins.
• Shudras who were peasants and artisans (weavers and potters) were next in line.
• At the lowest rung were those who laboured to keep cities and villages clean or worked
at jobs that upper castes considered “polluting”, that is, it could lead to the loss of caste
status. They were considered as “untouchables”.
3. How was the condition of people who were considered as untouchable?
• They were not allowed to enter temples, draw water from the wells used by the upper
castes, or bathe in ponds where upper caste bathed.
• They were seen as inferior human beings.
4. What social ideas did the following people support?
a. Raja Ram Mohan Roy
• He founded a reform association known as the Brahma Sabha (Brahma Samaj) in
Calcutta.
• He supported the ideas to spread the knowledge of western education in the country
and bring about greater freedom and equality for women.
• He wrote about the way women were forced to bear the burden of domestic work,
confined to the home and the kitchen, and not allowed to move out and become
educated.
• As a result of his efforts, the practice of Sati was banned in 1829.
b. Dayanand Saraswati
• He founded the Arya Samaj in 1875, an organisation that attempted to reform
Hinduism.
• He also supported widow remarriage.
c. Veerasalingam Pantulu
• He formed an association for widow remarriage in the Telugu-speaking areas of the
Madras Presidency.
d. Mahatma Jyotirao Phule
• He supported education for girls.
• He established schools for girls in Maharashtra.
• He founded the association named ‘Satyashodhak Samaj’ that propagated the idea of
caste equality.
• He opposed any type of slavery (gulamgiri) not only in India but also in USA.
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e. Pandita Ramabai
• She criticised the social differences between men and women.
• She felt that Hinduism was oppressive towards women and wrote a book about the
miserable lives of upper caste Hindu women.
• She founded a widow's home at Poona to provide shelter to widows who had been
treated badly by their husbands’ relatives. Here women were trained so that they could
support themselves economically.
f. Periyar (E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker)
• Periyar founded the self-respect movement.
• He argued that untouchables were the true upholders of an original Tamil and
Dravidian culture which had been subjugated by Brahman's.
• He felt that all religious authorities saw social divisions and inequality as God given.
• He was an outspoken critic of Hindu scriptures as he felt that these texts had been used
to establish the authority of Brahman's over lower castes and the domination of men
over women.
g. Mumtaz Ali
• Mumtaz Ali reinterpreted verses from the Koran to argue for women's education.
• She supported women's education.
h. Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar
• He supported widow remarriage, education for girls and set up schools for girls.
• His suggestion was adopted by British officials, and a law was passed in 1856
permitting widow remarriage.
• Those who were against the remarriage of widows opposed Vidyasagar and even
boycotted him.
i. Begums of Bhopal
• They played a notable role in promoting education among women.
• They founded a primary school for girls at Aligarh.
j. Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
• She started schools for Muslim girls in Patna and Calcutta.
• She was a fearless critic of conservative ideas, arguing that religious leaders of every
faith accorded an inferior place to women.
k. Tarabai Shinde
• She was a woman educated at home at Patna.
• She published a book Stripurushtulna ( a comparison between women and men)
criticising the social differences between men and women.
l. Ghasidas
• He founded the Satnami Movement in Central India.
• He was from a low caste and worked among the leatherworkers and organised a
movement to improve their social status.
m. Haridas Thakur
• In Eastern Bengal, Haridas Thakur’s Matua sect worked among “low” caste Chandala
cultivators.
• He questioned the Brahmanical texts that supported the caste system.
n. Shri Narayan Guru
• In what is present-day Kerala, a Guru from among “low” caste Ezhavas, Shri
Narayan Guru, proclaimed the ideals of unity of all people within one sect, a single
caste and one Guru.
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o. Dr B. R. Ambedkar
• He started a temple entry movement, in which his Mahar caste followers participated.
• He 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.
• He wrote extensively about upper caste power in contemporary society.
5. How did the knowledge of ancient texts help the reformers promote new
laws?
• Whenever reformers 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.
6. What were the different reasons people had for not sending girls to
School?
• They feared that schools would take girls away from home.
• Schools will prevent them from doing their domestic duties.
• Girls had to travel through public places in order to reach school and they felt that girls
should stay away from public spaces.
• Travelling to schools would have a corrupting influence on them.
7. When was the Paramahans Mandali founded?
• The Paramahans mandali was founded in 1840.
8. How did the reformers who belonged to upper castes violate the caste
taboos?
• In secret meetings they would eat food together and shake hands with each other in an
effort to get rid of the hold of caste prejudice in their lives.
9. Who was the leader of the Dalit movement?
• Dr B R Ambedkar was the leader of the Dalit movement.
10. Who wrote a book named Gulamgiri? To whom did he dedicate this
book?
• Mahatma Jyotiba Phule wrote a book named Gulamgiri. He dedicated this book to all
those Americans who had fought to free slaves during the American Civil War.
11. How did Dr BR Ambedkar live his childhood?
• He was born into a Mahar family and 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 class children used.
• After finishing school, he got a fellowship to go to the US for higher studies.
12. Why did Periyar leave Congress?
• Periyar left Congress when he found that at a feast organised by a nationalist, seating
arrangements followed caste distinctions- that is, the lower castes were made to sit at
a distance from the upper castes.
13. Name the associations started by orthodox Hindu people. Why did they
start such associations?
• Sanatan Dharma Sabha, Bharat Dharma Mahamandal in the north and associations like
the Brahman Sabha in Bengal.
• The object of these associations was to uphold caste distinctions as a cornerstone of
Hinduism and show how this was sanctified by scriptures.