The Contribution of Indian Renaissance to the Growth of Modern India | History Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

Indian Renaissance Movement

• The Indian Renaissance was a response from the educated Indian elite to the challenges posed by colonial rule.
• Western ideas sparked a new awakening, emphasizing the need for internal reform based on post-Enlightenment rationalism.

Response to Civilizational Critiques:

• The educated Indian elite aimed to reform Hinduism from within, influenced by post-Enlightenment rationalism.

Bengal Renaissance:

• This movement, often referred to as the "Bengal Renaissance" or the "Nineteenth Century Indian Renaissance," involved efforts to rediscover rationalism in India's past.
• Despite the problematic use of the term "renaissance," the movement sought to reposition India's religious and philosophical traditions within the framework of reason.

Impact on Modern India:

• The effects of the Indian Renaissance were felt in nearly every aspect of life, contributing significantly to the growth of Modern India.

Religious Reforms:

• Social and religious movements instilled faith among Indians in their own religions while emphasizing the need for reform.
• All religious communities in India, including Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs, Christians, sought to modernize and simplify their practices.

Hindu Reformers and Institutions:

• Prominent Hindu reformers and institutions, such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahma Samaj, Swami Dayanand Saraswati and the Arya Samaj, Swami Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna Mission, played crucial roles in reforming and revitalizing Hinduism.

Contributions of Foreign Scholars:

• Foreign scholars like Max Muller, Sir William Jones, Charles Wilkins contributed to the revival of India's past glory by translating and promoting Hindu religious texts.

Rejection of Superstitions:

• Many Hindus abandoned superstitions, useless religious rituals, idol worship.

Strengthening of Hinduism:

• Various socio-religious reforms strengthened Hinduism, with the Arya Samaj emphasizing the Vedas as the sole source of Hindu doctrine.
• Swami Vivekananda elevated Hinduism, emphasizing its spiritual aspects.

Muslim Reforms:

• Similar reform movements, such as the Aligarh Movement, aimed at strengthening Islam and Muslim society.

 Social Reforms:

• Social reformers worked to eliminate social evils such as the caste system, untouchability, child marriage, the Sati system, the Purdah system, polygamy.
• They advocated for the upliftment of women, supporting widow remarriage and the spread of modern education for both men and women. Many schools and colleges were established through these reform movements.
• The movements significantly contributed to female education, leading to women participating more in public life and coming out of seclusion.
• Legal measures were introduced to improve the status of women, including making the practices of Sati and infanticide illegal.
• In 1866, a law was passed allowing widow remarriage, another law in 1860 raised the minimum marriage age for girls to 10 years.
• Efforts by these movements promoted inter-caste marriages and inter-dining, institutions like hospitals, dispensaries, orphanages, libraries were established.

Political Contributions:

• The social and religious reform movements of the 19th century indirectly contributed to Indian nationalism.
• Figures like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Swami Vivekanand, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Annie Besant were notable patriots who played a role in this regard.
• These reformers revived the glory of ancient India, instilled faith in religion and culture, promoted messages of self-respect, self-confidence, love for the motherland.
• Dayanand Saraswati had a strong nationalizing influence, being the first to use the term Swaraj and to declare Hindi as the national language of India.
• Many leaders of the Arya Samaj were at the forefront of the national movement and contributed to the rise of extremism within the Indian National Congress.
• Annie Besant noted Dayanand Saraswati's call for “India for the Indians”, highlighting his impact on nationalism.
• Overall, these social and religious reformers made significant contributions to the development of the national movement in India.

Economic Awakening during the Renaissance

• The Renaissance period made Indians aware of their poor economic conditions.
• Many reformers believed that the main aim of British rule was to exploit India economically to benefit England at India's expense.
• They felt that India could not progress economically unless British imperialism was replaced by a government run by the Indian people.
• Reformers argued that the key to improving the economy was industrialization. They believed that Indian industries could only thrive under an Indian government that would protect and promote them.

The Growth of the Attitude of Reason and Humanism:

• The rise of the attitude of reason was both a cause and an effect of the Indian Renaissance. Prior to the social and religious movements, Indians were predominantly traditionalists, relying on blind faith.
• The religious reform movements of modern times shared a common foundation, primarily based on the principles of Reason (Rationalism) and Humanism. However, they occasionally appealed to faith and ancient authority to strengthen their arguments.
• Nineteenth-century reformers opposed ritualistic, superstitious, irrational, obscurantist aspects of Indian religions.

Extent to which the Indian Renaissance movement contributed towards the rise of nationalist consciousness:

• The Indian Renaissance Movement of the 19th century was a social and religious reform movement that significantly influenced various aspects of Indian life, including socio-religious practices.
• While primarily focused on social and religious reforms, the movement also had an impact on the political sphere, contributing indirectly to the rise of national consciousness.
• The contributions of the Renaissance Movement to national consciousness can be understood through the following points:
• Prominent figures such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar were not only reformers but also patriots. They played a crucial role in reviving the glory of ancient India, instilling faith in Indian religion and culture, fostering a sense of self-respect and self-confidence among the people.
• These reformers provided a cultural defense against colonial influences, which later became instrumental in national movements.
• They emphasized love for the motherland and instilled a sense of national pride among their followers.
• Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, had a profound nationalizing influence. He was the first to use the term 'Swaraj' and advocated for Hindi as the national language. His vision of 'India for the Indians' resonated with the emerging nationalist sentiments.
• According to Sister Nivedita, Swami Vivekananda was also a great patriot, with a deep reverence for his motherland.
• The reform movements were widespread, addressing social evils on a national scale, which fostered a sense of national unity among Indians. By tackling issues like caste, these movements promoted social cohesion and a shared identity.
• The Renaissance Movement also helped Indians adapt to the modern world, encouraging a secular and national outlook over narrow considerations of caste and religion.
• These movements were interconnected with the process of nation-building and laid the groundwork for national consciousness.
• As Jawaharlal Nehru noted, the rising middle class sought cultural roots and a sense of worth amidst the humiliation of foreign rule. The religious reform movement played a crucial role in transforming India into a nation in the making.

Limitations of Socio-Religious Movements

• These movements were limited to a small social group, mainly the elite who benefited from colonial rule.
• In Bengal, the reform movement included a small number of Western-educated people called bhadralok(gentlefolk).
• The bhadralok were mostly Hindus from higher castes, including Brahman, Kayastha, Baidya.
• The Brahmo movement was supported mainly by these groups and did not connect with the wider population.
• The reformers used complex language that was not understood by uneducated peasants and artisans.
• In western India, the Prarthana Samaj had very few members and sympathizers in its early days.
• In the Madras Presidency, reform ideas took longer to emerge due to slower progress in English education and strong caste dominance.
• The early reform movements were largely focused on caste issues, which did not gain attention until the 20th century.
• These movements could not create a mass consciousness and were limited to individual or organizational efforts.
• The activities of reformers were primarily confined to urban areas, with little impact on rural communities.
• Reformers aimed to integrate reason and science within Indian tradition, seeking to change certain aspects without rejecting tradition altogether.
• Social reforms were often imposed from above by the government and remained largely on paper.
• Associating some movements with religious revivalism had negative consequences, linking them with orthodoxy and fundamentalism.
• Reformers focused too much on religious and philosophical aspects of cultural heritage, neglecting contributions from art, literature, science, technology.
• Lacking a broad social base, early reformers relied on colonial rule for reform and legislation, with little grassroots effort.
• The colonial character of reforms mirrored the colonial mindset, assuming religion as the basis of Indian society.
• The debate over social evils, such as sati, was often based on scriptures rather than the plight of women.
• Women’s agency in their own emancipation was overlooked, with reforms legitimized through ancient texts.

Opposite views:

• This brings us to the inner tensions of colonial modernity, as it is not proper to say that the Indian reformist discourses just reflected some colonial formulations.
• The early writings of Rammohun Roy are indeed full of “humanistic pleas” to ameliorate the conditions of Indian womanhood.
• He talked of scriptures when advocating the abolition of sati, as that was how he could sell his reform to a cautious colonial government and to a reticent Hindu society reluctant to accept change.
• But this traditionalism notwithstanding, his “clinching arguments” anticipated the idiom and stances of contemporary feminism.
• Roy’s rationalism was indeed pre-colonial. In his early writings in Persian he had taken a totally rational approach to religion that nearly amounted to a negation of religion itself.
• However, after his contact with Christianity and Western free-trade thinking in Calcutta, he became more moderate or perhaps more ambivalent.
• Although Indian modernisers looked towards the colonial state for support and direction and post Enlightenment rationality shaped their visions, they could neither leave their tradition, nor forget their Indian identity.
• The Indian modernisation project therefore always felt a compulsion to construct a modernity that would be located within Indian cultural space.
• To summarise their position in Christophe jaffrelot’s words, they “undertook to reform their society and its religious practices in order to adapt them to Western modernity while preserving the core of Hindu tradition.”
• It was through this project that the cultural essence of Indian nationhood, its difference from the colonising West, were gradually imagined by the Indian intelligentsia.
• However, the inherent ambivalence or tensions within this cultural enterprise later made it appear weak and rendered it vulnerable to the more aggressive assertion of tradition in the late nineteenth century. This later cultural movements too were involved in a complex intellectual project of interrogating and adjusting at the same time to the colonial constructs of Indian tradition.