Question

What social ideas did the following people support?

a. Rammohun Roy

b. Dayanand Saraswati

c. Veerasalingam Pantulu

d. Jyotirao Phule

e. Pandita Ramabai

f. Periyar

g. Mumtaz Ali

h. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

Answer 1

a)Rammohun Roy

• Rammohun Roy was against the practice of the Sati System.
• Rammohun Roy fought equality and freedom for women.
• Rammohun Roy wanted to spread Western education in India.
• Rammohun Roy began a campaign against the practice of the Sati system.
• The problems faced by widows in their lives particularly moved Rammohun Roy.
• Through his writings, Rammohun Roy showed that there was no sanction for widow burning in ancient texts.

b)Dayanand Saraswati

• Dayanand Saraswati advocated for widow remarriage.
• In 1875, Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj.
• It was an organisation that aimed to reform Hinduism.

c)Veerasalingam Pantulu

• Veerasalingam Pantulu supported Widow remarriage.
• He formed associations for widow remarriage in the Telugu speaking areas of the Madras Presidency.

d) Jyotirao Phule

• Jyotirao Phule fought for caste equality.
• Jyotirao Phule had established schools for girls in Maharashtra.
• Jyotirao Phule was concerned about humiliation of the low castes, the miseries of the labourers, and plight of upper-caste women.
• He developed his own ideas, as he grew up, about the injustices meted out through the caste system in the society.
• To challenge caste discrimination, he proposed unity among untouchables (Ati Shudras) and (labouring castes) Shudras.
• Caste equality was propagated by Satyashodhak Samaj, an association Phule founded.
• Jyotirao Phule also supported the causes of Black slaves in America.

e) Pandita Ramabai

• Pandita Ramabai worked for the cause of women’s equality, worked for the cause of widows.
• She wrote a book on the miserable lives of upper caste Hindu women.
• To provide shelter for widows, Ramabai founded widows’ homes at Poona.

f) Periyar

• Periyar fought against caste inequality.
• Periyar founded the Self Respect Movement after getting convinced that untouchables had to fight for their own dignity.
• He was offended because of the discriminatory caste based seating arrangements made in the feast that was organised by the nationalists.
• Subsequently he was disgusted with the Congress and left the organization.
• Periyar said Hindu scriptures were used for domination of men over women and he was of the opinion that Hindu scriptures were used to establish domination of Upper castes over people of lower castes.

g) Mumtaz Ali

• Mumtaz Ali supported Women’s education.

h) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar

• He fought for widow remarriage.
• Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, one of the most popular social reformers used ancient texts to suggest that widows were permitted to remarry.
• Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar was boycotted by people who were against widow remarriage.