Baba Amte dedicated his life in rehabilitating and empowering people suffering from leprosyA social reformer improves the society and rids it of the ills that prevails such as discrimination based on religion, caste, gender, race, etc. India is a land of great thinkers and reformers who changed the society, for good. To name a few…Swami Vivekananda, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, Vinoba Bhave, Dayanand Saraswati, Baba Amte and many more.
They say, the only constant in the world is change. And, rightly so, even in societies, transformation is constant. Customs and practices that were once prevalent in a community or a group, sometimes change overtime, other times they become extinct and in due course of time, new ones emerge too.
India has produced innumerable social reformers who have contributed immensely in making India a more progressive and inclusive country. They fought against social evils such as Sati, widow remarriage, child remarriage, casteism, etc.
Discriminatory and exploitative practices, if not checked in time, become social evils and are detrimental to the healthy growth of any civilised society. Here, the role of a social reformer can be explained the best. He is the one who works and stands tall to end the sufferings of the weaker sections of the society by sensitising the masses.
In India, social reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekakanda, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, Anne Besant, Vinoba Bhave, and many others worked till their last breath for the awakening of the masses and to abolish practices and customs berating of a civilised society.
Abolishing social evils
Any mention of social reform and reformers in India cannot be done without highlighting the work of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Born on 22 May 1772 in Radhanagar in the-then Bengal Presidency, Raja Ram Mohan Roy is also known as the father of modern India. He was one of the founders of Brahmo Sabha which is the precursor of socio-religious reform movement, Brahmo Samaj.
A great scholar and an independent thinker, Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s efforts led to the abolishing of Sati practice in India. He tireless worked towards eradicating the ills that surrounded Hindus at the time. He started questioning the Sati practice when his elder brother died and his sister-in-law had to perform Sati. He persuaded the British government to abolish the practice and his efforts bore fruit when in 1829 the Bengal Sati Regulation Act was passed by the-then Governor General of Bengal Lord William Bentinck.
Roy founded the Atmiya Sabha and the Unitarian Community to fight social evils and to propagate social and educational reforms in India. He crusaded against customs prevalent at the time such as sati, polygamy, child marriage, caste system and demanded property inheritance rights for women that was absent at the time.
Uplifting status of women
One of the most remarkable reformers of the 19th century, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was born 26 September 1820 in Paschim Midnapur district of Bengal. Raised in poverty, he was a brilliant student who performed exceptionally in school and college.
His biggest contribution to the society as a reformer was his unflinching support for widow remarriages. He believed in uplifting the status of women and worked to strengthen their status.
He pursued the British government of the time to make a law legalising widow remarriages and so came the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856. This law gave widows the legal sanction to marry again and legal rights to children born out of such marriages.
He was an educator and a reformer and furthered reform processes started by Roy through Brahmo Samaj activities. He also argued against polygamy and child marriage and said that there is no sanction in Hindu religious texts for these practices.
Social reformer, scholar and writer from British India’s Madras Presidency, Kandukuri Veeresalingam strongly fought for equal rights for women. He supported widow remarriage, abolishing child marriage, etc. and is known as the father of renaissance movement in Telugu.
Born in an orthodox Brahmin family in 1848 at Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, Kandukuri Veeresalingam wrote extensively for the emancipation of women. In his lifetime, he helped marry off about 40 widows.
He often used ancient scriptures to support his thoughts on how women should be treated. He wrote about how, in Ramayana, Lord Ram was always accompanied by Sita in the assembly by his side. He also said that Indian society will plunge towards destruction if the condition of women continued to deteriorate. He also set up schools for girls and women.
Thinking minds reform societies
One of the greatest thinkers of all times, Swami Vivekananda, the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, was a living example of a selfless reformer. He was born as Narendranath Datta on 12 January 1863 in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India.
He focussed heavily on removing the weakness of India’s youth, both physical and mental. According to him, for all the problems of India, whether social or political, the solution is self-respect in India’s culture and philosophy. He was against superstitions. He proclaimed that with the help of 50 women, he could transform India into a modern, forward-looking nation.
Vivekananda’s biggest contribution, however, was reviving the true meaning of Hinduism and he propagated the real philosophy and culture of India to the world at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893. He introduced Hinduism to the world as a religion not inferior to any other.
A radical social reformer, Dayanand Saraswati was the founder of Arya Samaj and propagated egalitarian approach of the Vedas at a time when widespread casteism was prevalent in the society. He was against idolatry and empty ritualism. He was the one who first gave the call for Swaraj ‘India for Indians’ in 1876, a call later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak.
Maharishi Dayanand was fully convinced that it was lack of knowledge that was responsible for the adulteration of a great religion – Hinduism. He set up a number of gurukuls to enable access to Vedas and spread knowledge.
Challenging the caste system
Born into a low caste Mahar family who were treated as untouchables, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar came a long way in life. He not only took the caste system by the horns but as the father of the Indian Constitution, ensured constitutional safeguards for the downtrodden – women, SCs, STs and OBCs – by adding special provisions for their upliftment.
Chhatrapati Rajarshi Shahu aka Rajarshi Shahu of the Bhonsle dynasty of Marathas, the first Maharaja of the Indian princely state of Kolhapur was a social reformer. During his rule, he implemented many progressive policies such as an embryonic reservation system for lower caste and non-caste groups and expanding access to education regardless of caste and creed.
Realising the importance of education, he made primary education compulsory and free in his rule. He also made schools for girls’ education and issued a royal decree to spread women’s education and legalised widow remarriage in 1917.
He worked for the Dalits and abolished the practice of setting up separate schools for upper castes and untouchables. On 26 July 1902, at the age of 28, he issued a historic document in the gazette of the Karveer (Kolhapur) state – a notification that reserved 50 per cent of government posts for backward class candidates.