SOCIO – RELIGIOUS REFORMS Chapter – 9 A. Choose the correct answer and fill in the blanks :– 1. (a) Brahmo samaj 2. (c) Dayanand Saraswati 3. (b) 1813 4. (c) Vidyasagar 5. (d) Pandita Ramabai B. Fill in the blanks :- 1. Veeresalingam 2. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan 3. Polygamy 4. Ancient learning 5. 1829 C. Match the columns :- 1. Widow remarriage society — Vishnu Shastri pandit 2. Arya samaj — Dayanand Saraswati 3. The Aligarh movement – Syed Ahmed Khan 4. Sharda Sadan — Ramabai 5. Ramkrishna mission — Vivekananda D. State whether true or false. If false, correct the statement. 1. False – Women not received equal status and respect in colonial India. 2. True 3. False – Keshab Chandra Sen carried on The legacy of Rammohan Roy by taking up the leadership of Brahmo Samaj after his death. 4. True 5. True E. Answer the following questions in 10 - 20 words:- 1. Name a few social practices prevailing in 19th century India. Ans: Social practices and customs related to women like sati, infanticide, child marriage polygamy and purdah were prevalent during the nineteenth century India. 2. Who established the Brahmo Samaj? Ans: Raja Ram Mohan Roy established The brahmo samaj. 3. When was the Widow Remarriage Act passed? Ans: The widow remarriage was passed in 1856. 4. Write the names of two women reformers in India. Ans : the names of two women reformers in India- Pandita Ramabai ,Sarojini Naidu 5. Which social reformer fought against the devadasi system? Ans: R Venkata Ratnam Naidu fought against the Devadasi system. F. Answer the following questions in 50-70 words :- 1. Explain the condition of women in the 19th century in India. Ans: The position of the women in the society was deplorable due to the prevalence of practices such as sati, infanticide, polygamy, child marriage and illiteracy. Women had to follow the customs of the husband’s household. After her husband’s death, she was forced to live in a difficult situation as a widow or become a sati, immolating herself at the funeral fire of her husband. 3. Name three reformers who spearheaded the women’s reform movement in Maharashtra. Ans: In Maharashtra , Ranade founded the National Social Conference to focus attention on social reforms. At the same time, the Parsee journalist Behramji Malabari captured the attention of the English reading public with his articles in The Times’ on the evils of child marriage and the tragedy of forced widowhood for young women. Another important reformer in Maharashtra was Jyotiba Phule. He and his wife started a girl’s school at Poona. He also actively campaigned for the remarriage of widows. 3. What was the state of education for women in 19th century ? Ans: Till nineteenth century, Indian women were denied formal education. They were perceived as home makers. It was believed that if they would be educated, they would refuse to do house work. Some people supported their education, provided, it was limited to moral education and learning of home sciences, such as cooking, sewing, etc. 4. Bring out the efforts made by Pandita Ramabai for improving the condition of the women. Ans: Pandita Ramabai was one such pioneer in the field of women’s reform. She was educated in the sacred Sanskrit texts by her father and had become a widow at a young age. Her own experience as a widow led her to work for the welfare of widows. 5. What efforts were undertaken to facilitate social reform in Muslim society ? Ans: Khwaja Altaf Hussain Hali and Shaikh Muhammad Abdullah introduced education for girls. The Aligarh Movement led by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan also did much for the education and emancipation of Muslim women. G. Answer the following questions in 80 - 100 words:- 1. What led the social reformers to work for the emancipation of women? Ans: a. many social reformers strongly supported the view that girls education was important for improving the condition of women in society. b. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar work towards providing education to women he opened and ran many schools for girls at his own expense. c. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan also promoted women’s issues specially by promoting education. He was against the purdah system and polygamy. d. Many women came forward for the cause of women’s empowerment.like Ramabai’s greatest contribution was her effort to educate the widows and she left behind her pupils to carry her work forward. Sarojini Naidu was another well-known social reformer. She fought for women’s right 2. What were the main achievements of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar ? Ans: Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar championed the cause of female education. He set up as many as 35 schools for girls,many of which were run at his own expense. Efforts made by him in the field of female education were remarkable because in those days people were prejudiced against women’s education. Vidyasagar personified the best of 19th century reformers and demonstrated an untiring will for positive social action. 3. Compare the present status of women with of the 19th and early 20th century. Ans: The nineteenth century had witnessed the pitiable conditions through which the women of India were going. Several evils had affected the girls right from their birth. Some of the social evils are: 1. Female infanticide- it included killing of girl infants just to get rid of the so called burden of a middle class family who would be unable to pay the dowry or in the depression for not having the successor or the boy child in the family. 2. Child marriage-girls were married at very tender age to elder men. The girl’s family had to go through great hardships to arrange for the dowry to marry off their daughter. 3. Polygamy- this system created a sense of insecurity among the married girls where the men could trifle with any women they felt like. 4. Sati- this was a ritual which burned the widows live with the dead bodies of their husbands. This was regarded holy not even considering the pain of the women. The status of Indian women has radically changed since independence. Both the structural and cultural changes provided equality of opportunities to women in education, employment and political participation. 4. How did personal experiences lead rammohan and Vidyasagar to take up the cause of social reform ? Ans: In 1811, Raja Ram Mohan Roy witnessed his brother’s widow being burnt alive on her husband’s funeral pyre He was shocked and became the first Indian to protest against this custom of women dying as Satish. In spite of protests from orthodox Hindus, he carried on his struggle against the custom.education for women as a social reform. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a great educator and philosopher work endlessly to transform the society. His contribution towards education and changing the status of women in India was remarkable. He used the ancient texts to suggest that windows could remarry. This led the British government to pass a widow remarriage act in 1856. 5. What were the efforts made in North and South India to improve the condition of women? Ans: North India:- In north India, Swami Dayanand, the founder of the Arya Samaj, carried the work of women’s reform further.Dayanand Saraswati combined rationalism with a heartfelt appeal to revive the golden age of India where women were valued and respected and they occupied positions of high status. South India:- In south India, R Venkata Ratnam Naidu fought against the devadasi system while Veeresalingam Pantulu worked for widow remarriage. Veeresalingam opened his first girls' school in 1874 and in 1878 organised a society for social reform.