International Indian School, Al Jubail
Class 8 History Women Caste and Reform
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1. What social ideas did the following people support?
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 Women’s Education
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: Supported Widow remarriage, Women Education.
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 practices.
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
3. How did the knowledge of ancient texts help the reformers promote new laws?
Answer
Whenever the reformers 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 19th century, Christian missionaries started setting up schools for tribal groups and
lower-caste 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 as they wanted to eradicate these
social evils.
6. In the British period, what new opportunities opened up for people who came
from castes that were regarded as “low”?
Answer:
During the British Period, as the cities were growing, there was a great demand for work–
in constructions, factories, municipalities, army, etc. There was also demand of labour in
plantations within the country and abroad.
This demand for labour was met by the population migrating from the villages and towns.
For the migrating lower castes, the cities and the plantations represented the opportunity
to get away from the daily humiliation they suffered from the upper caste-land owners.
7. 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: in reality,
the land belonged to indigenous people, the so-called low castes.
8. Why did Phule dedicate his book Gulamgiri to the American movement to free
slaves?
Answer.
By dedicating his book Gulamgiri to the American movement to free slaves, he linked
the conditions of the black slaves in America with those of the lower castes in India. This
comparison also contains an expression of hope, that one day, with the end of slavery in
America, there would be an end to all sorts of caste discriminations in Indian society.
9. What did Ambedkar want to achieve through the temple entry movement?
Answer
Dr B. R. Ambedkar started the 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 society.
10. Why were Jyotirao Phule and Ramaswamy Naicker critical of the national
movement? Did their criticism help the national struggle in any way?
Answer
Both Jyotirao Phule and Ramaswamy Naicker were critical of the national movement as
they could barely see any difference between the preachers of ‘anti-colonialism’ and the
‘colonial masters’.
Phule believed once the Britishers had left, the oppressive caste policies would still
continue, thereby causing divisions amongst the very people they were trying to unite.
Naicker’s experience in the Congress feast, where the lower castes were made to sit at a
distance from the upper castes convinced him that the lower castes had to fight their
battle themselves.
Their criticism did lead to rethinking and some self-criticism among the upper-caste
nationalist leaders. This in turn helped strengthen the national struggle, free from
prejudices of caste, religion and gender.
Prepared by Zaira Nosheen
