Introduction: Social & Cultural Awakening, The Lower Caste, Trade Union & Peasants Movements - Notes | Study History for UPSC CSE - UPSC

Introduction
The chief religious and social movements set afoot in the 19th cen­tury were the Brahmo Samaj, the Paramhans Sabha, the Theosophical Society, The Rama Krishna Mission, the Arya Samaj, the Rahnumai Mazdayasnan, the Ahmediya Move­ment, Gurudwara Prabandhak Commit­tee and several others. They have ex­ercised a healthy influences in reform­ing several religions.

• The Brahmo Samaj came into being in 1828 as a result of the cease­less efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy who had at first organised the Atmiya Sabha.
• It preached the unity of God and being dissatisfied with the ortho­dox creed of idol worship, denounced it.
• It accepted only rationalistic ex­planation of religious tenets and re­jected the dogmas. With the object of propagating his views the Raja started the Samavada Kaumadi.
• His death in 1833 gave a rude shock to the Sabha, but it regained strength under the guidance of Devendranath Tagore and Keshab Chandra Sen.
• The Paramhansa Sabha was founded in 1849 but its influence did not extend to a large number of people. Then Dr. Atma Ram established the Prarthana Samaj with the object of in­troducing rational worship and social reform.
• The Theosophical Society was first started in U.S.A. in 1875 by Blavatsky in conjunction with Olcott. They came to India in 1879 and set up their headquarters at Adyar (Madras). Mrs. Annie Besant enrolled herself as a member of the society in 1889.    She was its chief organiser and promoter in this country and dedicated her life to its work. The aims of the Society were to rejuvenate ancient religions and lend them sufficient strength.
• The Rama Krishna Mission. Swami Vivekanand a seer of magnetic personality and world-famed expositor of the Hindu philosophy, founded the Rama Krishna Mission in 1889 with the object of expounding the Hindu religion of rational basis.
• The Arya Samaj. Swami Dayanand who could not reconcile him­self to the dogmas in the Hindu reli­gion founded the Arya Samaj in 1875 with the object of purging it. His teach­ings are contained in the Satyarth Prakash and he has criticized almost all religions He desired to restore reli­gious view of the Rig Vedic period. He was a staunch opponent of idol wor­ship. He really did yeoman’s service to Hinduism and the wave of conversions to Christianity and Islam was checked considerably.
• The Rahnumai Mazdayasan. It was a Parsi organisation brought into existence in 1851 under the patronage of Dadabhai Naurojee. It did commend­able service to the Parsi religion and community .
• Christian Missionaries. There was a great influx of Christian Mission­aries in India after 1813. They came to this land with the object of carrying on proselytisation and in the beginning succeeded in converting some high caste Hindus to Christianity, but later on they diverted their attention to the depressed classes where they found much scope for their work. They succeeded in cre­ating a small Christian community in India but the indirect effect of their activities was that the Indians began to reform their religions to checkmate ex­ploitation of their shortcomings by the Christian Missionaries.
• The Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee. The Sikhs did not lag be­hind other communities in matters of reform. They felt that their Gurudwaras were not being managed properly and the Mahants who held their charge had given themselves up to a life of luxury. So the Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee was constituted. It was recognised by the government who transferred the control of Gurudwaras to this committee.
• The Prarthana Samaj opened night schools for the labourers. It also maintained a Depressed Classes Mis­sion, a Ladies Association and an Or­phanage and Founding Asylum at Pandharpur. Justice Ranade was one of its most active workers.
• The Deccan Education Soci­ety was started in 1884 with the pur­pose of spreading the principle of ‘simple living and high thinking’. It also aimed at spreading education. The Fergusson College was founded by it. Gokhale and Tilak were its members.
• Bhoodan Yajna. Acharya Vinoba Bhave realising the hard lot of the landless people in villages under­took to effect Agrarian revolution.
• He started his work in 1950 and since then has been touring the country on foot appealing to big land­lords to donate land to him for distri­bution among the poor landless villag­ers.
• The object of this movement is to secure economic justice in the coun­try. The Acharya has received sincere co-operation from all quarters of the country and several hundred thousand acres of land has been made available to him.

• Shri Jai Prakash Narain, the leader of the Socialist Party, has fol­lowed the suit.
• Aligarh Movement—Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the pioneer of Aligarh Movement attempted to modernize the Muslims and encouraged them to get English education. The Movement made valuable contribution to the educational, social and economic progress of the Muslims. It opposed to Indian national­ism and the All India Congress because it depended on the favour of the En­glish.
• Arhar Movement—The Move­ment was founded under the leadership of Maulana Muhammed Ali, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Hasan Imam and others. These youngmen disliked the Loyalist politics of the Aligarh school. Influenced by the modern ideas they ad­vocated active participation on the mili­tant nationalist movement.
• Ahmedia Movement—This Muslim Reform Movement was launched by Mirza Ghulam Ahmed in 1899.    It emphasised the universal and humani­tarian character of Islam and tried to promote cordial relations among mem­bers of various communities. It started a number of schools and colleges where modern education was imparted.
• Servants of India Society— Founded in 1905 by Gokhale with its headquarters at Poona. It imparted wel­fare work for the Adivasis, Harizans, Backward classes and tribals organized the work of political education and agi­tation, basing it on a careful study of public questions. Created among the people a deep and passionate love of India and seeking its highest fulfilment in service and sacrifice.
   Promoted good will and cooperation among the differ­ent communities.

• Ghadar Party— It was formed in 1913 in USA by Indian revolutionar­ies in USA and Canada. Its purpose was to wage revolutionary war against the British to India. The Ghadarists fixed 21st February, 1915 as the date for an armed revolt in the Punjab. Unfortu­nately, the authorities came to know of these plans and took immediate ac­tion. The rebellious regiments were dis­banded and their leaders were either imprisoned or hanged.
• Red Shirts Movement— In­spired by the Dandi March of Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as the “Frontier Gandhi” organised the Society of Khudai Khidmatgars, popularly known as Red Shirts. They were pledged to non-vio­lence and the freedom struggle.
• Satya Shodhak Samaj— One of the earliest movements which took up the cause of the lower castes against Brahman domination was Satya Shodak Samaj of Jyotiba Phule in Maharashtra. It insisted on the discarding of sacrodotal authority of the Brahmanas and tried to make the lower castes con­scious of their rights through educa­tion.

• Sri Narayana Dharma Pratipalana Yogam—In the South the first step in the direction of organising a movement of lower castes was taken by the Ezhavas. Sri Narayan Guru founded the SNDP Yogam with a view to break the social taboos imposed by the Brahmanas.
• Justice Movement—In 1915 T.N. Nair and P. Tyagaraja started the Jus­tice Movement to service jobs and rep­resentation for the non-Brahmanas in legislature.
• All India Depressed Classes Federation—In 1920, B.R. Ambedkar organised this federation for the pro­tection of depressed classes against higher castes.
• Vaikom Satyagraha—A satyagraha was organised in Kerala (March 1924) for the use of the temple roads by avarnas like Ezhavas and Pulayas. Many savarna organisations such as Nair ser­vice Society, Nair Samajam and Kerala Hindu Sabha supported the Satyagraha. On 30th march, the satyagrahis led by K.P. Kesava Menon, marched towards the temple. They were arrested and sentenced to imprisonment.
• Harijan Sevak Sangh—In 1932 Mahatma Gandhi founded it which worked for the upliftment of the back­ward classes and provided necessary facilities for education, medical treat­ment etc. Ambedkar was also associ­ated with their sangh. However, he was not quite happy with the activities of the Harijan Sevak Sangh and the attitude of the Indian National Con­gress towards the lower castes. There­fore, he withdrew from the sangh and started a fresh movement for the pro­tection of interests of the lower castes.