IGNOU HISTORY NOTES : India History From Mid 18th to Mid 19th Century - Reform Movement - I

IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

History India From Mid 18th to Mid 19th Century

Reform Movement - I

Structure

26.0 Objectives
26.1 Introduction
26.2 Eastern India
26.2.1 Ideas of Rammohan Roy
26.2.2 Young Bengal
26.2.3 Debendranath and Keshab Chandra
26.2.4 Vidyasagar and Vivekananda
26.3 Wester4 India:
26.3.1 Early Phase of Nineteenth Century
26.3.2 Later Phase of Nineteenth Century
26.4 Northern India
26.5 Southern India
26.6 Let Us Sum Up
26.7 Key Words
26.8 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

26.0 OBJECTIVES

After studying this Unit you should be able to learn about:

the purpose of development of new ideas aiming at multi-dimensional change of society,
the 19th century Indian thinkers and'their ideas on various asp xts of sociocultural life, and
the overall impact of these new ideas on the existing socio-cultural-rdigious beliefs in India.

26.1 INTRODUCTION

Nineteenth century was a very significant phase in the history of modern India. It was
during this period that the country witnessed the emergence of many intellectual
currents for national regeneration in all its aspects: religious, social, cultural,
economic and political. Although the intellectual endeavours aimed at achieving allsided improvement, the main emphasis was accorded to social and religious aspects. I Despite the vision of the movement being multi-dimensional, social and cultural
problems acquired predominance over economic and political ones in thinking. In a
I word, socio-cultural reform formed the major plank of the nineteenth century Indian
I intelletual movement
I During the first decades ofqthe century, the movement, however, was a very small
affair of a limited number of individuals whose passion for fighting social
obscurantism could not pose a major challenge to the advocates of orthodoxy. The
movement, however, maintained its morhentum and reached its peak during the
second half of the nineteenth century. In this Unit we will look beyond the strict
chronological limits of this course and also consider developments in the later decades
of the 19th century in order to present a total picture.
It is proposed to study here the basic features of the intellectual, social and religious
movements oriented towards Reform in India during the nineteenth century. We
would first try to study in brief the ideas and activities of individual intellectuals (Unit
26) before making generalisations about the movement in the context of the country
as a whole (Unit 27).
The emphasis is not, however, on the biographical sketch of individual thinkers and
reformers, but on their ideas which formed the ideological backdrop of the
.movement.