Caste and Social Reforms In India

There are so many person who argued that lower caste people were the true natives of India. They also urged to eradicate social taboos like untouchability. Periyar also supported equality for untouchables and stood for their rights and dignity in society.

• The Prarthana Samaj followed the Bhakti tradition. It believed in the equal importance of all spiritual paths.
• The Paramhans Mandali was established in Bombay in 1840. They started to work to end the caste system.
• In the 19th century, Christian missionaries started schools for tribal and lower caste children.
• The rural and lower caste individuals began migrating to cities due to increased demand for labor.
• Some also found work on plantations in places like Assam, Mauritius, Trinidad, and Indonesia.
• For these individuals, it offered a chance to escape the control of upper-caste landowners and the daily humiliations they faced.

Demands for Equality and Justice

• During the latter half of the 1800s, lower-caste communities began organizing movements to fight against caste discrimination. The demanded the fair treatment and equality in the society.
• Ghasidas was a leather worker who founded the Satnami movement to improve the social status of his community.
• In Bengal, Haridas Thakur questioned the texts that supported the caste system.
• Shri Narayana Guru promoted unity among his people and spoke out against unequal treatment based on caste distinctions.

Gulamgiri or Slavery

• Jyotirao Phule developed his own ideas about unfairness in the caste system.
• He believed Brahmins were outsiders who came from elsewhere and oppressed the locals.
• Phule argued that before the Aryans, there was a fair society where everyone had equal rights.
• He suggested that lower castes should come together to fight against discrimination.
• Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj to promote equality among castes.
• In 1873, he wrote a book called Gulamgiri that inspired by the end of slavery in America.
• Phule was concerned about the struggles of upper caste women, laborers, and the mistreatment faced by lower castes.

Who could enter temples?

• In 1927, Ambedkar started a movement for Dalits to enter temples, with the support of the Mahar caste.
• Brahman priests were angry when Dalits used water from the temple tank.
• Ambedkar led three similar movements for temple access between 1927 and 1935.
• His aim was to show how deeply ingrained caste biases were in society.

The Non-Brahman movement

• The movement among non-Brahman groups began when educated and influential individuals from these communities started demanding for change.
• They argued that Brahmans descended from northern invaders who conquered southern lands from the indigenous Dravidian people.
• E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, also known as Periyar, initially joined the Congress party but left after witnessing the segregation of lower castes.
• He then founded the Self Respect Movement, asserting that untouchables preserved the original Tamil and Dravidian culture oppressed by Brahmans.
• Periyar criticized Hindu scriptures, especially the ancient texts like the Codes of Manu, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Ramayana.
• He believed these texts upheld Brahman authority over lower castes and promoted male dominance over women.
• These ideas faced opposition, leading some upper-caste nationalist leaders to reflect on their beliefs.
• In response, orthodox Hindu society established groups like Sanatan Dharma Sabhas and the Bharat Dharma Mahamandal in the North, and associations like the Brahman Sabha in Bengal.
• They aimed to defend caste distinctions as integral to Hinduism and justified by sacred texts.

People Also Read:

• Social Reformers in India
• Social Reforms Movement (Part -1)
• Social Reform Movements (Part -2)
• Introduction to Women, Caste, and Reform

“Caste and Social Reform” – Class 8 Notes: The caste system in India is like a social hierarchy that has been around for thousands of years. It is all about which family you are born into. It decides everything from your job to your social circle as well as the family patterns, including sex selection also. This system became more strict under British Raj. They organized everyone into different categories and schedules during the census.