Social and Religious Reform Movements – NDA History Notes

Introduction

In the early 19th century, a young Bengali intellectual sat in his home in Calcutta and read the sacred texts of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and the European Enlightenment, sometimes in the original Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and English. What he found troubled him deeply. The religion he had grown up with, Hinduism as it was actually practised around him, seemed to him to have drifted far from its best teachings. Women were burned alive on their husbands’ funeral pyres. Children were married before they could understand what marriage meant. Millions of people were told from birth that they were unclean, that they could not enter temples, that their very shadow polluted the higher castes.

His name was Raja Ram Mohan Roy, and in 1828 CE he founded the Brahmo Samaj — the first of the great modern reform movements in Indian history. He was the first but far from the last. Over the next century, India produced a remarkable generation of reformers who looked at their own society with honest eyes, identified what was wrong, and took personal and institutional action to change it. They challenged sati, child marriage, caste discrimination, untouchability, the exclusion of women from education, and the denial of basic rights to millions of the poorest Indians.

They disagreed with each other as often as they agreed. Ram Mohan Roy believed Hindu reform meant returning to the rational core of the Upanishads. Swami Dayananda believed it meant returning to the Vedas. B.R. Ambedkar believed that Hinduism itself was structurally oppressive and that Dalits needed legal rights and political power, not just the goodwill of upper-caste reformers. Mahatma Gandhi believed in reform from within. These debates were not merely academic. They shaped the course of Indian history.

NDA has tested this chapter on 16 separate facts, the most in the Modern India series. The abolition of sati under Bentinck, Ram Mohan Roy’s three campaigns, the Tattvabodhini Patrika and Debendranath Tagore, utilitarianism’s three features, Charles Wood’s Education Despatch, the Calcutta Madrassa and the Sanskrit College at Varanasi, Kandukuri Viresalingam, the British Indian Association, Gandhi’s Harijan Campaign and the All India Harijan Sevak Sangh, the Mahad Satyagraha and Ambedkar, Periyar’s Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam, the Women’s Indian Association, and the first cotton mill have all appeared in past papers.

Master Timeline

1781 CE  →  Calcutta Madrassa — Warren Hastings — Muslim law [NDA 2016-I]
1792 CE  →  Sanskrit College, Varanasi — Jonathan Duncan — Hindu law [NDA 2016-I]
1828 CE  →  Brahmo Samaj — Raja Ram Mohan Roy
1829 CE  →  Sati abolished — Regulation XVII — Lord William Bentinck [NDA 2009-I]
1833 CE  →  Ram Mohan Roy dies. Debendranath Tagore leads Brahmo Samaj.
1851 CE  →  British Indian Association — Calcutta — Indian landlord interests [NDA 2018-I]
1854 CE  →  Charles Wood’s Education Despatch — real beginning of Western education [NDA 2022-I]
1856 CE  →  First cotton mill — Cowasji Nanabhai Davar — Bombay [NDA 2024-II]
1867 CE  →  Dar-ul-Uloom, Deoband
1873 CE  →  Satya Shodhak Samaj — Jyotirao Phule — Maharashtra
1875 CE  →  Arya Samaj — Swami Dayananda Saraswati — Bombay
1875 CE  →  MAO College, Aligarh — Sir Syed Ahmad Khan
1893 CE  →  Vivekananda at Parliament of World’s Religions — Chicago
1897 CE  →  Ramakrishna Mission — Swami Vivekananda
1917 CE  →  Women’s Indian Association founded [NDA 2024-I]
1927 CE  →  Mahad Satyagraha — B.R. Ambedkar — public water sources [NDA 2022-I]

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1. Why Reform Movements Emerged

The 19th century was a time of extraordinary intellectual ferment in India. The British colonial encounter had brought a sustained challenge to Indian social and religious practices from a Western Christian civilisation that was simultaneously more powerful militarily and carrying ideas about individual rights, rational inquiry, and social equality that some educated Indians found compelling.

Several forces combined to produce the reform movements. Western education — particularly the English-medium schools and colleges established in the early 19th century, gave a generation of educated Indians access to European philosophy, science, and political thought. Christian missionary activity posed a direct challenge, criticising Hindu practices like sati, caste discrimination, and idol worship from the outside. And the printing press allowed reformers to reach audiences far beyond their immediate circle, through newspapers, pamphlets, and books in Indian vernacular languages as well as English.

The reformers faced a central dilemma. They were using the tools of Western modernity, English education, rational argument, print media, legal petition, to defend and reform Indian traditions. They had to find a way to be both modern and Indian. Different reformers answered this dilemma differently, and those differences produced the variety and richness of the reform movement.

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2. Utilitarianism — The Philosophy Behind British Reforms

Utilitarianism was the dominant philosophy guiding British administrative reform in the first half of the 19th century. It was associated primarily with Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832 CE) and James Mill (1773–1836 CE) — two British thinkers whose ideas had a direct influence on British India policy.

Utilitarianism taught three core things. [NDA 2016-II]

First, that the greatest good for the greatest number should guide all policy decisions. Tradition, custom, and religious authority were irrelevant. What mattered was whether a policy produced more happiness than suffering for the largest number of people.

Second, that traditional and religious authority should be rejected as a basis for policy. If a practice caused suffering, like sati, it did not matter that it was traditional or religiously sanctioned. It should be abolished.

Third, that rational, evidence-based reform was the correct approach. Policy should be based on careful analysis of evidence rather than on sentiment, custom, or inherited authority. [NDA 2016-II]

Utilitarian ideas gave British administrators like Lord William Bentinck the intellectual confidence to intervene in Indian social practices. Utilitarianism did not argue that tradition and religion should guide policy. It argued for the greatest good for the greatest number and the rejection of traditional and religious authority in favour of rational evidence-based reform. [NDA 2016-II]

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3. William Bentinck’s Reforms

Lord William Bentinck served as Governor-General of India from 1828 to 1835 CE. He was the most reform-minded Governor-General of the early British period, and his reforms addressed some of the most serious social evils of the time.

The Abolition of Sati — 1829 CE

Sati was the practice of a widow being burned alive on her husband’s funeral pyre, either voluntarily or under social and family pressure. It was most prevalent in Bengal and Rajputana among certain upper-caste communities.

In 1829 CE, Lord William Bentinck issued Regulation XVII — which declared the practice of sati illegal and punishable. [NDA 2009-I] This was one of the most significant acts of social reform legislation in Indian history. Raja Ram Mohan Roy had been campaigning for the abolition of sati for years before Bentinck acted. His persistent public advocacy was one of the key factors that gave Bentinck the confidence to legislate.

Sati was declared illegal and punishable by Regulation XVII during the Governor Generalship of Lord William Bentinck in 1829 CE. [NDA 2009-I] Not by Warren Hastings. Not by Lord Dalhousie. Not by any other Governor-General.

All Three Bentinck Reforms

William Bentinck’s reforms to suppress social evils included three major measures. [NDA 2012-I]

Reform	Year	Detail
Abolition of sati	1829 CE	Regulation XVII declared sati illegal and punishable. [NDA 2009-I]
Suppression of thuggee	1830s CE	The organised criminal cult of Thugs — who worshipped Kali and murdered travellers — was systematically broken up by Colonel William Sleeman.
Ending female infanticide	1830s CE	The practice of killing female infants at birth — prevalent in certain Rajput communities — was suppressed through legislation and administrative action.

Bentinck’s reforms were not limited to the abolition of sati alone. His reforms included all three — abolition of sati, suppression of thuggee, and ending female infanticide. [NDA 2012-I]

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4. Educational Policy — Hastings, Duncan, and Charles Wood

Warren Hastings and Jonathan Duncan

The British role in Indian education began in the early colonial period, even before the reform era. Two specific institutions are directly tested by NDA.

Warren Hastings set up the Calcutta Madrassa in 1781 CE for Muslim law studies. [NDA 2016-I] Jonathan Duncan started a Sanskrit College at Varanasi in 1792 CE for Hindu law and philosophy studies. [NDA 2016-I]

Both institutions reflected an early British policy of supporting traditional Indian learning, before the later shift to English-medium education. Hastings started the Madrassa. Duncan started the Sanskrit College. Not the other way around. [NDA 2016-I]

Charles Wood’s Education Despatch — 1854 CE

The real turning point in British educational policy came with Charles Wood’s Education Despatch of 1854 CE. The real beginning of Western education in India is dated from this Despatch. [NDA 2022-I]

The Despatch recommended a university system based on the English model, English as the medium of higher education, a network of schools from primary to university level, and government grants-in-aid to private schools. It led directly to the founding of universities at Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras in 1857 CE.

Charles Wood’s Despatch did not have exclusive emphasis on higher education. The Despatch emphasised education at all levels — from primary schools to universities. [NDA 2011-I] The Carlyle Circular was issued separately to check revolutionary activities in educational institutions. [NDA 2011-I]

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5. Raja Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj

Raja Ram Mohan Roy is called the Father of the Indian Renaissance, and the title is deserved. Born in Bengal in 1772 CE, he was a man of extraordinary learning who read Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, English, and Greek. From his study of Hindu scriptures, the Quran, the Bible, and European philosophy, he drew a vision of rational, monotheistic religion combined with radical social reform.

In 1828 CE, Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj — the Society of God. It was not a new religion but a reformed religious community that worshipped one God without idols, rituals, or priestly intermediaries. The Brahmo Samaj became the first institutional vehicle of the Indian reform movement.

Roy campaigned against three specific social evils throughout his life. [NDA 2010-II]

First, he campaigned for the abolition of sati — arguing from within Hindu scripture that the practice had no genuine Vedic sanction. His newspaper articles, pamphlets, and personal petitions to the British government were a major factor in Lord Bentinck’s decision to abolish sati in 1829 CE.

Second, he advocated for widow remarriage — arguing that Hindu women who had lost their husbands should have the right to remarry rather than being condemned to social death.

Third, he promoted women’s education — arguing that educated women were essential for the progress of Indian society. [NDA 2010-II]

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was associated with the Brahmo Samaj — not the Arya Samaj. And he campaigned for all three: abolition of sati, widow remarriage, and women’s education. [NDA 2010-II]

The Tattvabodhini Patrika

After Ram Mohan Roy’s death, the Brahmo Samaj was reorganised and expanded by Debendranath Tagore (father of Rabindranath Tagore). Debendranath Tagore founded the Tattvabodhini Patrika — a journal associated with the Brahmo Samaj that became an important vehicle for propagating Brahmo ideas and rational religious thought. [NDA 2021-II]

The Tattvabodhini Patrika was a journal associated with the Brahmo Samaj, founded by Debendranath Tagore — not by Ram Mohan Roy. [NDA 2021-II] Ram Mohan Roy died in 1833 CE — before the journal was established.

[Image Suggestion: A portrait of Raja Ram Mohan Roy alongside an image of the early Brahmo Samaj building in Calcutta — representing the beginning of the Indian social reform tradition]

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6. Henry Louis Vivian Derozio and the Young Bengal Movement

Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809–1831 CE) was a young Eurasian teacher at Hindu College, Calcutta who died at just 22 years old but left a profound mark on Bengali intellectual life. He inspired a group of young students, known as the Young Bengal movement, to question all traditional authority without exception.

Derozio’s students challenged caste hierarchy, the authority of priests, idol worship, and the social subordination of women. They ate beef publicly to challenge Hindu caste taboos. They organised debates and read European philosophy, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, and the French rationalists. The Young Bengal movement did not have the practical social reform orientation of the Brahmo Samaj, but it established a tradition of radical free inquiry that influenced later reformers.

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7. Swami Dayananda Saraswati and the Arya Samaj

Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1824–1883 CE) came from a very different tradition from Ram Mohan Roy. Where Roy had absorbed Western rationalism and found a way to combine it with Indian thought, Dayananda was a Sanskrit scholar and ascetic who believed the answer to India’s problems lay not in Western ideas but in the original Vedas.

In 1875 CE, Dayananda founded the Arya Samaj in Bombay — with the famous slogan Back to the Vedas. His argument was that the Vedas were the revealed word of God, that everything in the Vedas was scientifically valid, and that all the social evils of his time, idol worship, caste discrimination, untouchability, child marriage, the subordination of women, were post-Vedic corruptions that had no sanction in the original scriptures.

The Arya Samaj was the most socially activist Hindu reform organisation of the 19th century. It established schools (Dayanand Anglo-Vedic or DAV schools) across Punjab and northern India. It promoted widow remarriage and women’s education. It organised the Shuddhi movement — a programme of reconverting to Hinduism those who had converted to Islam or Christianity.

Feature	Brahmo Samaj	Arya Samaj
Founder	Raja Ram Mohan Roy	Swami Dayananda Saraswati
Founded	1828 CE	1875 CE
Base	Bengal (Calcutta)	Bombay (spread to Punjab)
Approach	Monotheism. Western rationalism influence.	Back to the Vedas. Vedas as infallible.
Idol worship	Rejected	Rejected
Women’s education	Supported	Strongly supported — DAV schools
Shuddhi	Not organised	Actively organised
Key journal	Tattvabodhini Patrika	—

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8. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886 CE) was a priest at the Kali temple at Dakshineswar near Calcutta who experienced intense mystical states and claimed direct experience of God through different religious paths, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. From these experiences he concluded that all religions lead to the same God.

His disciple and intellectual heir was Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902 CE). Vivekananda took Ramakrishna’s mystical insight and combined it with a call for social service and national regeneration. In 1893 CE, he represented India at the Parliament of World’s Religions in Chicago — where his famous opening words “Sisters and Brothers of America” received a standing ovation and made him internationally famous overnight.

In 1897 CE, Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission — an organisation that combined the teaching of Vedanta philosophy with direct social service in education and healthcare. The Ramakrishna Mission remains one of the most active social service organisations in India today.

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9. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Aligarh Movement

The 19th century reform movement among Indian Muslims was shaped above all by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898 CE). After the revolt of 1857, he became convinced that Indian Muslims needed to adapt to the new realities of British power rather than resist or reject them.

Sir Syed argued that the backwardness of Indian Muslims in the 19th century was due largely to their rejection of modern scientific education. He saw no contradiction between Islam and modern science. He argued that the Quran itself encouraged rational inquiry.

In 1875 CE, Sir Syed founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College at Aligarh — which later became the Aligarh Muslim University (1920 CE). The MAO College was modelled partly on the residential colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. It produced generations of educated Muslim professionals who participated in modern Indian public life.

The Deoband Movement

The Muslim educational reform that stood in direct contrast to Sir Syed’s vision was the Deoband movement. The Dar-ul-Uloom at Deoband in Uttar Pradesh was founded in 1867 CE — eight years before Sir Syed’s MAO College. It emphasised the study of the Quran and Hadith and rejected Western education and religious syncretism.

Feature	Aligarh Movement	Deoband Movement
Founded	1875 CE	1867 CE
Founder	Sir Syed Ahmad Khan	Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi; Rashid Ahmad Gangohi
Location	Aligarh	Deoband (Uttar Pradesh)
Education model	Western scientific + Islamic moral teaching	Traditional Islamic education — Quran, Hadith
Attitude to British	Cooperative — sought Muslim advancement	Resistant — opposed Western cultural influence
Legacy	Aligarh Muslim University	Major centre of South Asian Islamic scholarship

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10. Kandukuri Viresalingam

Kandukuri Viresalingam (1848–1919 CE) was the most important social reformer of 19th century Andhra (present-day Andhra Pradesh and Telangana). He is called the Father of Telugu Renaissance. He was a teacher, journalist, and author who was deeply influenced by the Bengal reform movement, particularly Ram Mohan Roy’s work.

His most important campaign was for widow remarriage in Telugu society. [NDA 2017-I] Viresalingam personally organised widow remarriage ceremonies, at enormous social cost, facing severe social ostracism and even violence from conservative communities. He also established schools for girls and worked to improve women’s education across Andhra.

Viresalingam was a pioneering social reformer of 19th-century Andhra who advocated widow remarriage in Telugu society. [NDA 2017-I] Not from Maharashtra. Not from Bengal. From Andhra. Telugu society. Widow remarriage.

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11. Jyotirao Phule and the Satya Shodhak Samaj

Jyotirao Phule (1827–1890 CE) was the most radical social reformer of 19th century Maharashtra and one of the most important figures in the history of the Indian anti-caste movement. He came from the Mali (gardener) caste, a lower caste, and from his own experience of caste humiliation he developed a comprehensive critique of the Brahmin-dominated social order.

Phule challenged the religious foundations of caste, arguing that the Brahminic tradition was a system of deliberate social domination disguised as religious law. He organised schools for lower-caste children and — more radically for his time — for girls from lower-caste families. His wife Savitribai Phule was herself a pioneering educator who ran these schools and faced physical abuse from caste conservatives.

In 1873 CE, Phule founded the Satya Shodhak Samaj (Truth Seekers’ Society) in Maharashtra. Its goal was to liberate the lower castes from the social and religious domination of the upper castes, through education, self-respect, and social organisation.

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12. B.R. Ambedkar and the Mahad Satyagraha

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956 CE) was born into an untouchable family from the Mahar caste of Maharashtra. From childhood, he experienced the systematic humiliation and exclusion that the caste system imposed on untouchables, being made to sit separately in school, being denied water from the same well as caste Hindus, being refused entry to public spaces. He went on to earn doctorates from Columbia University and the London School of Economics and became the most important Dalit leader in Indian history and the chief architect of the Indian Constitution.

Ambedkar believed that untouchability was not an aberration within Hinduism. It was built into Hinduism’s fundamental structure. For him, the solution was not charitable reform by upper-caste Hindus but the assertion of equal rights by Dalits themselves through organised political and legal action.

The Mahad Satyagraha — 1927 CE

In 1927 CE, Ambedkar organised the Mahad Satyagraha in Maharashtra — one of the most important acts of civil disobedience in Indian history before Gandhi’s major campaigns. [NDA 2022-I] The immediate issue was access to the Chavdar tank at Mahad — a public water source from which untouchables were barred by the caste community, even though the Bombay Legislative Council had passed a resolution permitting all people to use public sources of water.

Ambedkar led a group of untouchables to the tank and drank water from it publicly, asserting their legal right to use a public resource. [NDA 2022-I] The action provoked a violent backlash from caste Hindus who symbolically “purified” the tank after Ambedkar’s followers drank from it.

The Mahad Satyagraha of 1927 CE was organised by B.R. Ambedkar — not Gandhi — to assert untouchables’ right to use public water sources. [NDA 2022-I]

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13. E.V. Ramaswami Naicker — Periyar

E.V. Ramaswami Naicker — known universally as Periyar (meaning The Great Man in Tamil) — (1879–1973 CE) was the most important social reformer in the history of Tamil Nadu and one of the most radical anti-caste thinkers in Indian history.

Periyar began his career within the Indian National Congress but resigned when he found that the Congress was dominated by upper-caste Hindus who were unwilling to challenge caste privilege. He devoted himself to building a mass movement against caste discrimination and the cultural and social dominance of Brahmins in Tamil society.

He founded and led the Self-Respect Movement in Tamil Nadu — a mass social movement that organised weddings without Brahmin priests, challenged the authority of religious texts that sanctioned caste hierarchy, and asserted the equal dignity of all human beings regardless of caste or birth. [NDA 2014-I] He later founded the Dravidar Kazhagam — a political party that became the foundation of Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu and from which the modern parties DMK and AIADMK trace their origins. [NDA 2014-I]

Periyar was not associated with a Hindu reform movement working within Hinduism. He rejected Hinduism as a system of oppression. He was associated with the Self-Respect Movement in Tamil Nadu and the Dravidar Kazhagam — both. [NDA 2014-I]

[Image Suggestion: A portrait of E.V. Ramaswami Naicker (Periyar) — one of the most important social reformers in the history of Tamil Nadu and South India]

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14. Gandhi’s Harijan Campaign

Mahatma Gandhi approached untouchability very differently from Ambedkar. Gandhi believed that untouchability was a sin within Hinduism that Hindu society had to cleanse from within, through moral self-examination and active work to uplift untouchables. He called untouchables Harijans — children of God — a term meant to assert their full humanity and dignity within the Hindu community.

Gandhi’s Harijan Campaign sought to secure both political and social rights for untouchables and to end untouchability as a social practice. [NDA 2014-I] He campaigned for the right of untouchables to enter Hindu temples, to use public wells and roads, and to participate fully in social life. He fasted against what he saw as the British policy of separate electorates for untouchables, which he feared would permanently divide Hindu society.

For the practical work of his anti-untouchability campaign, Gandhi founded the All India Harijan Sevak Sangh — an organisation dedicated to social and economic upliftment of untouchables. [NDA 2021-II]

Gandhi’s Harijan Campaign sought both political AND social rights — not just social rights. [NDA 2014-I] The All India Harijan Sevak Sangh was founded by Gandhi — not Ambedkar and not the Indian National Congress. [NDA 2021-II]

Feature	Gandhi’s Approach	Ambedkar’s Approach
Term for untouchables	Harijans (children of God)	Dalit — rejected “Harijan” as paternalistic
Strategy	Reform from within Hinduism through conscience and moral persuasion	Legal, constitutional, and political rights — Dalit self-empowerment
Organisation	All India Harijan Sevak Sangh [NDA 2021-II]	Independent Labour Party; later conversion to Buddhism
Key campaign	Harijan Campaign [NDA 2014-I]	Mahad Satyagraha 1927 CE [NDA 2022-I]
View of Hinduism	Reform was possible from within — Hinduism could be cleansed	Hinduism was structurally oppressive — advocated conversion out of Hinduism

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15. Women’s Organisations

The social and religious reform movements of the 19th century began largely as movements of educated men on behalf of women. By the early 20th century, women were organising themselves.

The Women’s Indian Association was founded in 1917 CE — one of the first major women’s organisations in India. [NDA 2024-I]

The National Council of Women in India was another important organisation that worked for women’s rights and social welfare. [NDA 2024-I]

These organisations advocated for women’s suffrage, education, legal rights, and social welfare — and their work connected the social reform tradition to the broader nationalist and constitutional movements.

The Women’s Indian Association was founded in 1917 CE — before the non-cooperation movement of 1920. [NDA 2024-I] It was not a product of the 1920s nationalist phase.

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16. The British Indian Association and the First Cotton Mill

The British Indian Association (1851 CE)

The first major voluntary association representing Indian landlord interests set up in Calcutta in 1851 CE was the British Indian Association. [NDA 2018-I] It was an organisation of Indian landowners and professionals that sought to represent Indian interests to the British government, one of the early predecessors of the organised political associations that would eventually become the Indian National Congress.

The British Indian Association (1851 CE, Calcutta) was the first major voluntary association representing Indian landlord interests — not a political party, not a nationalist organisation. [NDA 2018-I]

The First Cotton Mill (1856 CE)

The first cotton mill in British India which began production in 1856 CE was set up by Cowasji Nanabhai Davar in Bombay. [NDA 2024-II] This marked the beginning of Indian industrial capitalism, the first step in building a modern Indian textile industry.

Cowasji Nanabhai Davar + 1856 CE + Bombay. [NDA 2024-II] Not Calcutta. Not Madras. Not any other person. Not any other year.

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