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social that the social basis of Hinduism, the saw the incompatibility of particular
move- caste system, came to be questioned. practices with the total progress of
ments of the nineteenth century pre- Various social service institutions took society, Furthermore, in their attempt
sent a fascinating subject for study. up the cause of the less fortunate to 'rationalise' the Hindu religion,
Never before in India's chequered past groups in society and sought to lift these reformers sought to distinguish
had there occurred a social and politi- India from the morass of caste tyranny. the essential aspects of Hinduism from
cal transformation of the magnitude
the nonessential ones, to separate the
What was unique about the social
such as was initiated as a result of the
pristine religion from the subsequent
impact of Western ideas. Uptil now, reform movement initiated in the nine- accretions.
Hinduism had responded to efforts at teenth century? Heimsath notes that
Throughout the period surveyed,
cultural penetration by wrapping itself even prior to the nineteenth century, one notices that the movement for
more closely in its own Ivory Tower. there were movements aimed at reform social and religious reform and the
Muslim domination, like earlier influ- ^especially in the field of religion. The political movement, though interacting,
ences, left the general basis of Hindu entire Bhakti cult was in a way a re- constituted separate and clearly disbeliefs undisturbed. The presence of volt against orthodox Hinduism. How- tinguishable traditions and were
the British in India, however, brought ever, this was more a negative or together to lay the intellectual
about a radical change in the entire sannyasin-renunciative type of move- foundations for
the
emergence of
social perspective. Apart from the ment than one of positive social ac- nationalism. Heimsath, discussing the
introduction of the idea of equality tion. For all its spiritual egalitarian- course of the Social Reform Movement
based on a conception of the individual ism, the Bhakti movement failed to till the First World War, sees i t as a
as a repository of values and rights, cure the diseased condition of the three stage development.
The first
this contact with the West gave to Indian social system. Its appeal was stage was marked by efforts on the
India, for the first time, a doctrine of more emotional than rational and part of individuals to order their
social progress the belief that man individual salvation rather than social personal lives in accordance with
can himself, through collective action, salvation was stressed. Even in the standards adopted from the West. The
nineteenth century, one finds Bhaktichange the structure of society.
archtype of such individual
revolt
type movements, as in the Swami
and
reform
was
Raja
Rammohan
Roy.
Professor Heimsath's purpose in this Narayana Sect and the Sanmargha
book is to attempt a historical analysis Sangha of Mahatnia Ramalingam and. The onset of the second stage was
of this intellectual movement, more Heimsath maintains, in the immediate marked by the formation of subnationparticularly as it related to organised effects of Shri Ramakrishna's mystrical al groups and the growth of a new
desire for unity between the scattered
efforts at social reform. Not content preachings.
and culturally diverse social groups.
with providing a purely chronological
Politically this was the period when
account:, he tries to see the social reThe Motivating Force
the first glimmer of nationalism
form movement in the broad perspecThe approach of the modern social appeared on the subcontinent. With
tive of Hindu India's intellectual response to the West. The interaction of reform movement was not one nxelu- the turn of the century, social reform
social, religious and political forces sively of religious dedication. Con- came to mean a regeneration of the
and the gradual weaving of the com- ceived under the influence of Western traditional spirit of the nation a
plex motif of Indian nationalism are methods of organisation, propagating regeneration founded on religious
studied with an insight as sharply and recruiting support mainly from revival and cultural xenophopia.
the English educated, and maintaining
This review will concentrate not so
penetrating as it is coldly impartial.
as its basic premises western concepts much with the actual reforms effected
Social Reform in India did not
of individualism, natural rights and as on the close interaction of practical
ordinarily mean, as it did in the West,
social efficiency, the principal motivat- and social movements over the last
a reorganisation of the entire structure
ing force was sober rationalism and century and a half.
of society with a view to the alleviapositive social ethics. Heimsath traces
The modern social reform movetion of the conditions of the underthe stimulation of modern social reform ment properly begins with Raja Ramprivileged; rather, it meant the infusion
to two main sources : the introduc- mohan Roy. More than any other
into the existing social structure of
tion of English education and with it Indian of his generation, Roy saw
newer ways of life and modes of bethe transmission of Western knowledge the need for a rational social basis
haviour. Generally such change was
and experiences and secondly the acti- for Hinduism. Combining deep erudigradual and was initiated only by the
vities of the Christian missionaries.
tion with uncommon wisdom, Roy
upper classes. Social change in India
was, for a very long time, based on
Broadly considered, the uniqueness tried to synthesise the age old Hindu
the 'filtration theory' the filtration of the Social Reform Movement in values with the rational elements of
of attitudes and modes of behaviour India lay in the inspiration, the ideas the Christian and Islamic traditions.
from the upper layers of society to and the motivations of the reformers
In his effort to attract the educated
the lower ones. It was only at the themselves. While earlier reformers Bengalis of his time, Roy founded the
beginning of this century with the were prompted by a love for the Brahmo
Samaj -- a
monotheistic
growth of organised reform groups underdog, these modern reformers religious body that drew much from
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Different Patterns
An important characteristic of the
activities of the reformers of Western
India was their
conscious effort to
imbue public opinion with their
rationalism. As against the dramatic
unconventionality of )the Bengali Reformers, in Bombay there was no complete break with traditional society;
rather what was sought was a practical adjustment of religious convictions
and social behaviour toward a more
open and egalitarian basis.
"Totally different was the impact of
Swami Dayanand and the early Arya
Samaj on Northern India. Dayanand
combined in himself several parodoxical dements. Extremely conservative
in his thought and beliefs, sometimes
to the point of
obscurantism, yet
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Parochial Nationalism
However, almost alongside this there
had emerged another distinct effort at
stimulating "national feeling." Hist
initialed by Rnjnarain Bosc in the
1860's, later taken up by N abagopaI
Mitra, that zealous organiser of the
Hindu. Mela, this movement sought to
develop ties on the basis of religion.
"The Hindus are destined to become a
religious nation" (P 137). The most
brilliant advocate of this type of
nationalist-parochial
sentiment
was
Bankim Chandra Chatterji. Though
Bankim thought in terms of a parochial nationalism - - his evocation in
'Bande Mataram' was to Bengal not to
India - - no one realised more clearly
than him how this solidarity was to be
evoked. To Bankim. social solidarity
could be achieved primarily by stirring religious and cultural loyalties and
by working out a close identification
of the individual with a particular
community. What this ultimately
amounted to was that the basis of nationalism was to be religious revivalism. No longer was nationalism viewed as a theoretical concept; it became
a vibrant collective consciousness. A n other important noticeable feature was
the stress on the vernacular as the
vehicle of this nationalism.
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