9. Women Caste and Reform
Que: What social ideas did the following people support?
Rammohun Roy
Dayanand Saraswati
Veerasalingam Pantulu
Jyotirao Phule
Pandita Ramabai
Periyar
Mumtaz Ali
Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar
Ans: These people supported the following ideas:-
(I) spread of education among women.
(II) Widow Remarriage
(III) Caste equality and justice
(IV) Abolition of child marriage
(v) Social equality for untouchable.
Que: State whether true or false:
(a) When the British captured Bengal they framed many new laws to regulate the rules regarding marriage, adoption, inheritance of property, etc.
Ans: True
(b) Social reformers had to discard the ancient texts in order to argue for reform in social practices.
Ans: False
(c) Reformers got full support from all sections of the people of the country.
Ans: False
(d) The Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed in 1829.
Ans: False
Que: How did the knowledge of ancient texts help the reformers promote new laws?
Ans: The reformers tried to convince people that Widow burning, caste distinction child marriage etc. had no section in ancient texts. Their knowledge ancient texts. Their knowledge of ancient text give them immense confidence and moral support which they utilised in promoting new law. They did not get feared when people raised voice against the reforms they had brought
Que: What were the different reasons people had for not sending school to the girl to school?
Ans: In fact people afraid of the school that were opened in mid 19th century. They had their own reason.
(i) They feared that school would take girl away from home and prevent from doing their domestic works.
(ii) As girl had to travel from public places in order to reach school, many people began to feel that this would have a corrupting influence them.
(iii) Several people were of the opinion that girl should be stay away from public spaces.
Que: Why were Christian missionaries attacked by many people in the country? Would some people have supported them too? If so, for what reasons.
Ans: People suspected that Christian missionaries were involved in forced conversion of the poor and tribal people from Hindustan to Christianity. If some people have supported them, it must be due to the reason that the poor and the tribal people, converted to Christianity, would get a opportunity to going to school. The school would equip them with resources to make their way into a changing world.
Que: In the British period, what new opportunities opened up for people who came from castes that were regarded as “low”?
Ans: With the expansion of cities new demand the labour created Drains had to be dug, roads laid, building constructed and cities cleaned. This required coolies, diggers, carriers, bricklayers, sweepers, rickshaw pullers, etc. This labour came from people belong to ‘low’ castes. They left their villages and small towns and shifted to the cities to gate work.
Some went to work in plantations in Assam, Mauritius , Trinidad and Indonesia. Although it was not easy to work in the new locations, poor people saw this an opportunity to get away from the exploitations of the upper –caste.
Que: How did Jyotirao ,the reformer, justify their criticism of caste inequality in society ?
Ans: Jyotirao attacked the Brahmans, clam that they were superior to others because they were Aryans. Phule argued that the Aryans were outsiders. They came from outside the sub-continent, and defeated and subjugated the true children of the country- those who had leaved here from before the coming of the Aryans. This Aryans established their dominance and begin looking at the defeated population as low-caste people Phule opened that the ‘upper’ castes had no right to their land and power. The land, In fact, belonged to the native, who were considered as low-castes people.
Que: Why did Phule dedicate his book Gulamgiri to the American movement to free slaves?
Ans: Jyotirao Phule wrote a book in 1873. He named the book Gulamgiri meaning slavery. Some ten year before this, the American civil war had been fought, leading to the end of slavery in America. Phule dedicated his book to all those Americans who had fought to free slaves. he did this in order to establish a link between the considered fought as low-caste people .
Que: What did Phule dedicate his book Gulamgiri to the American movement to free slave ?
Ans: Ambebkar led three temple entry movement between 1927and 1935 .his sole purpose behind these movement was to make people see the power of caste prejudices within society .
