HISTORY-Ch 9 Women, Caste and Reform

 

 

 

HISTORY-Ch 9 Women, Caste and Reform

 

 

EXERCISE
Q1. What social ideas did the following people support? 

Rammohun Roy

 Dayanand Saraswati 

Veerasalingam Pantulu 

Jyotirao Phule 

Pandita Ramabai 

Periyar

 Mumtaz Ali 

Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar
 Answer

Rammohun Roy: Supported the banning of the practice of 'Sati'
Dayanand Saraswati: Supported Widow remarriage
 Veerasalingam Pantulu: Supported Widow remarriage
Jyotirao Phule: Supported equality among castes
 Pandita Ramabai: Supported women's Education
Periyar:  Supported equality for untouchables.
Mumtaz Ali: Supported Wome's Education
Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar: Supported Widow remarriage
2. State whether true or false:
(a) When the British captured Bengal they framed many new laws to regulate the rules regarding marriage, adoption, inheritance or property, etc.
 ► True
(b) Social reformers had to discard the ancient texts in order to argue for reform in social practises.
 ► False
(c) Reformers got full support from all sections of the people of the country.
► False
(d) The Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed in 1829.
► False
Q3. How did the knowledge of ancient texts help the reformers promote new laws? 
Answer -Whenever they wished to challenge a practice that seemed harmful, they tried to find a verse or sentence in the ancient sacred texts that supported their point of view.They then suggested that the practice as it existed at present was against early tradition. Thus, the knowledge of ancient texts helped the reformers promote new laws.
Q4. What were the different reasons people had for not sending girls to school?
Answer :The following were the different reasons people had for not sending girls to school.
1) They feared that schools would take girls away from home, thereby preventing them from doing their domestic duties.
2) They felt that travelling through public places in order to reach school would have a corrupting influence on girls.
3) They felt that girls should stay away from public spaces.

 

 

Q5. Why were Christian missionaries attacked by many people in the country? Would some people have supported them too? If so, for what reasons?
Answer: In the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries started setting up schools for tribal groups and lowercaste children. These children were trained to find a footing in the changing world. Soon the poor left the villages and started looking for jobs in the cities. People who looked down on the lower caste did not like the progress of this section of people. Social reformers would have supported the missionaries for their work against social evils.

6. In the British period, what new opportunities opened up for people who came from castes that were regarded as "low"?
Answer The British period saw the rise of the cities. Many of the poor living in the Indian villages and small towns at the time began leaving their villages and towns to look for jobs that were opening up in the cities.  there was a great demand for labour - labour for digging drains, laying roads, constructing buildings, working in factories and municipalities, etc. There was also the demand for labour in the various plantations. The army too offered opportunities for employment. .

Q7. How did Jyotirao and the reformers justify their criticism of caste inequality in society?

 Answer- Jyotirao Phule developed his own ideas about the injustices of caste society. He did not accept the Brahmans’ claim that they were superior to others, since they were Aryans. Phule argued that the Aryans were foreigners, who came from outside the subcontinent, and defeated and subjugated the native Indians. As the Aryans established their supremacy, they began looking at the Indians as inferior and low caste people. According to Phule, the "upper" castes had no right to their land and power: 

Q8. Why did Phule dedicate his book Gulamgiri to the American movement to free slaves?

Answer Jyotirao Phule wrote a book in 1873. He named the book Gulamgiri meaning slavery. Some ten years 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 conditions of the lower castes in India and the black slaves in America.

 

 

 

 

Q9. What did Ambedkar want to achieve through the temple entry movement? 
Answer Dr. B. R. Ambedkar started a temple entry movement in 1927 which was participated by his Mahar caste followers. Brahman priests were outraged when the lower castes used water from the temple tank Dr. Ambedkar led three such movements for temple entry between 1927 and 1935. His aim was to make everyone see the power of caste prejudices within the society.

Q10. Why were Jyotirao Phule and Ramaswamy Naicker critical of the national movement? Did their criticism help the national struggle in any way?
Answer. They were critical of the national movement because the nationalists often made seating arrangements following caste distinctions at feasts. The lower castes were made to sit at a distance from the upper castes. Their criticism helped the national struggle to a great extent. Ramaswamy Naicker inspired the untouchables to fight for their diginity by initiating the Self Respect Movement.

 

Extra question 

1. Who published the book named Stripurushtulna? What is it about?

Answer:
Tarabai Shinde published Stripuru-shtulna. It is about the social differences between men and women.

2.Who was Mumtaz Ali?

Ans:Mumtaz Ali was a social reformer who reinterpreted verses from the Koran to argue for the education of women.

3.What was the contribution of Christian missionaries in spreading education among tribal groups and lower castes?

Ans::These missionaries set up schools for tribal groups and lower caste children. Here, they were equipped with some skills to make their way into a new world

Which social reformer was popularly called as Periyar?

Ans.   E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker

5.Who was Raja Rammohun Roy?

Ans: Raja Rammohun Roy was a social reformer. He founded a reform association known as the Brahmo Sabha (later known as the Brahmo Samaj) in Calcutta

Dateline 

1829: Sati was banned.

1828:Brahmo Sabha formed later renamed as Brahmo Samaj (1830)

1830: The BrahmoSamaj formed.

1856: Permitting widow remarriage.

1864: The Veda Samaj established in Madras (Chennai).

1867: The PrarthanaSamaj established by Atmaram pandurag.

1873: Phule wrote a book named Gulamgiri.

1875: (i) Swami Dayanand founded the AryaSamaj. 

(ii) The Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College founded by Sayyid Ahmed Khan at Aligarh later be­came the Aligharh Muslim University.

1927-35: Ambedkar started a temple entry movement.

1893: World parliment of religion.

1929: A Law preventing child marriage called Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed.