Class 8 Social-Science Chapter 7 HOTS Questions - Women, Caste and Reform

Q1: Why was Ramaswamy Naicker critical of the national movement and Hindu scriptures?
Ans: Ramaswamy Naicker felt proud of being a member of the Congress. But he left it in extreme disappointment when he found that at a feast organised by nationalists, seating arrangements followed caste distinctions. The lower caste people were made to sit at a distance from the upper caste people. He felt greatly hurt that even the national movement was not from caste prejudices. Naicker was highly critical of Hindu scriptures such a code of Manu, the ancient law-giver, and the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana. He said that these texts had been used to establish the authority of Brahmans over lower castes and the domination of men over women. 

Q2: Give an account of the movement that spread in different parts of the country in favour of widow remarriage. Did the movement get success?
Ans: The movement in favour of widow remarriage spread in different parts of the country by the second half of the 19th century. Veerasalingam Pantulu formed an association for widow remarriage in the Telugu- speaking areas of the Madras Presidency. Around the same time young intellectuals and reformers in Bombay pledged themselves to work for the same cause. In the north the founder of the Arya Samaj Swami Dayanand Saraswati also supported widow remarriage. However, the movement did not get much success. The number of widows who actually remarried remained low. Those who remarried were not easily accepted in the society. The conservative people never approved the new law. 

Q3: What did Raja Rammohun Roy do to end the practice of sati?
Ans: Raja Rammohun Roy was a great social reformer. He moved to see the tyranny of old practices that were deeply rooted in the Indian society. Burning of widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands was one such old practice which, Rammohun Roy felt, needed to be rooted out immediately. He began a campaign against this. As he had deep knowledge of Sanskrit, Persian and several other Indian and European languages, die tried to show through his writings that the practice of sati had no sanction in ancient texts. He got support from the British offocials who had also begun to criticise Indian traditions and customs by the early 19th century. Finally, in 1829, the practice of sati was banned.

Q4: What was Sati? How was it banned and by whose efforts?
Ans: Sati was one of the evil practices of Indian society. Sati, meaning virtuous women, chose death by burning themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands. Raja Rammohan Roy, a great social reformer, was against the practice of sati. He began a campaign against this practice. He was well-versed in Sanskrit, Persian and several other Indian and European languages. He tried to show through his  writings that the practice of widow burning had no sanction in ancient texts. By the early nineteenth century, many British officials had also begun to criticism Indian traditions and customs. They listened to Rammohan Roy and finally in 1929, sati was banned. 

Q5: What do you know about Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai? What did they do for improving the condition of women.
Ans: Tarabai Shinde was a woman who got education at home at Poona. She is better known for publishing a book named Stripurushtulna meaning a comparison between women and men. She, in this book, criticises the social differences between men and women. Pandita Ramabai was a great scholar of Sanskrit. She found Hinduism very oppressive towards women and wrote a book about the pathetic condition of Hindu women belonging to upper caste. She started a widow’s home at Poona to provide shelter to widows who had been maltreated by their husband’s relatives. Here women were given training to make them self-dependent. 

Q6: Give a brief description of movements that were organised by people from within the lower castes against caste discrimination.
Ans: By the second half of the 19th century, people from within the lower castes began to raise voice against caste discrimination. They organised movements against this practice and demanded social equality and justice. The Satnami movement became famous in Central India. It was initiated by Ghasidas, who came from a low caste, worked among the leather workers and organised a movement to improve their social status. In Eastern Bengal, Haridas Thakur’s Matua sect worked among low caste Chandala cultivators. Haridas questioned Brahmanical texts that supported the caste discrimination. Shri Narayana Guru belonged to Ezhavas, a low caste in present-day Kerala. He proclaimed the ideals unity of all people within one sect, a single caste and one god. By organising these movements the leaders coming from low-caste tried to create awareness amongst the lower castes.

Q7: Give an account of various reform associations and movements founded by Indian reformers at different places in the country.
Ans: Many reformers came forward to uproot the unjust practices that crippled Indian society. They founded reform associations at different places in the country to see their dreams come true. 

• The Brahmo Samaj: It was formed in 1830 and prohibited all forms of idolatry and sacrifice. It believed in the Upanishads and forbade its members from criticising other religious practices. 
• The Ramakrishna Mission: Named after Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda’s guru, the Ramakrishna Mission stressed the ideal of salvation through social service and selfless action. 
• The Prarthana Samaj: It was established in 1867 at Bombay. It sought to remove caste restrictions, abolish child marriage, encourage the education of women and end the ban on widow remarriage. 
• The Veda Samaj: It was established in Madras in 1864. It worked to abolish caste distinctions, promote widow remarriage and women’s education. Its members condemned the superstitions and rituals of orthodox Hinduism. 
• The Aligarh Movement: This movement was initiated by Sayyid Ahmed Khan, the founder of Aligarh Muslim University. The movement had an enormous impact in the area of educational reform.

Q8: How did women involve themselves in their upliftment?
Ans: By the end of the 19th century, Indian women themselves began to work for their upliftment. They began to get higher education in universities. Some of them trained to be doctors, some became teachers. Many women began to write and publish their critical views on the status of women in society. The name of Tarabai Shinde is worth-mentioning here. She got education at home at Poona. She published a book, Stripurushtulna, meaning a comparison between men and women. She criticised the social differences between men and women. Another woman, Pandita Ramabai, was a great scholar of Sanskrit. She criticised Hinduism which was so oppressive towards women. She wrote a book about the miserable lives of upperrcaste Hindu women. She established a widow home at Poona to provide shelter to widows who had been ill-treated in their families.
From the early 20th century, Muslim women such the Begums of Bhopal and Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain played active role in spreading education among Muslim girls. They founded schools for them. Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossairi fearlessly criticised the conservative ideas. She argued that religious leaders of every faith accorded an inferior position to women. The orthodox Hindus and Muslims got alarmed to see all this.
Several Hindu nationalists felt that Hindu women were adopting Western ways which would corrupt Hindu culture and erode family values. Orthodox Muslims were equally worried about the impact of these changes. Unaware of all these, women, from the early 20th century, began to form political associations, pressure groups to push through laws for female suffrage and better health care and education for them. Some of them even joined various kinds of nationalist and socialist movements from the 1920s.

Q9: Why were changes necessary in Indian society?
Ans: Indian society had been a prey to many evil practices for a long time.

• Men and women were treated differently. Women were subjected to many restrictions. They were not allowed to go to schools. They were not allowed to choose their husbands. Child-marriage was an established custom in the society. Most children were married off at an earl age. Both Hindu and Muslim men could many more than one wife. In some parts of the country, sati was in practice. Those widows were praised who chose death by burning themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands. Women’s rights to property were also restricted.
• One more evil practice that had crippled Indian society was that all people did not enjoy equal status. The upper-caste, consisted of Brahmans and Kshatriyas, availed all privileges. But other than these people were subjected to exploitation. The untouchables, who did menial works, were considered polluting. They were not allowed to enter temples, draw water from the well used by the upper castes. They were seen as inferior human beings. 
• These evil customs and practices had eclipsed the progress of society. Hence, debates and discussions began to take place from the early 19th century, with the development of new forms of communications. For the first time, books, newspapers, magazines, leaflets and pamphlets were printed. They spread awareness among the common mass.
• Social reformers like Raja Rammohun Roy, Ishwarchander Vidyasagar, came forward and took initiatives to bring changes in society by abolishing the evil practices one after Another.