Social Reform Movements of Maharashtra — Practice

Question 1

Who started Darpan, and why is it significant?

Accepted Answer

Balshastri Jambhekar started Darpan on 6 January 1832. It was the first Marathi newspaper, and the date is marked as Marathi Journalism Day.

Question 2

When and where did the Phules open their first school for girls?

Accepted Answer

In 1848, at Bhide Wada in Pune, with Savitribai Phule as a teacher.

Question 3

What was the Mahad Satyagraha?

Accepted Answer

A satyagraha led by Dr Ambedkar on 20 March 1927 at the Chavdar Tale in Mahad to assert the right of untouchable communities to draw water from a public tank.

Question 4

Match: Sharada Sadan, Stri Purush Tulana, Indian Women's University.

Accepted Answer

Sharada Sadan: Pandita Ramabai (1889). Stri Purush Tulana: Tarabai Shinde (1882). Indian Women's University: Maharshi Karve (1916), later SNDT Women's University.

Question 5

Assess the social reforms of Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur. (~150 words)

Accepted Answer

Shahu Maharaj, who ruled Kolhapur from 1894 to 1922, used a ruler's powers for reform. His order of 26 July 1902 reserved half of the posts in his administration for the backward classes, one of the earliest reservation measures in India. In 1917 he made primary education free and compulsory, and he opened hostels for students of every caste. The Vedokta controversy, in which priests refused him Vedic rites, drew him to the Satyashodhak Samaj, and he supported the non-Brahmin movement. At Mangaon in 1920 he presented Dr Ambedkar as a leader of the depressed classes. His reforms were limited to one princely state, but they gave the principle of reservation a working model that later informed constitutional provisions.

Question 6

Explain the Tilak-Agarkar debate. (~150 words)

Accepted Answer

Tilak and Agarkar founded Kesari together in 1881 and helped start the Deccan Education Society in 1884, but they split over whether social reform should precede political freedom. Agarkar, a rationalist, argued that a society that denied rights to women and the lower castes could not be free, and he started Sudharak in 1888 to argue for widow remarriage, a later age of marriage and reason over custom. Tilak argued that freedom came first and that a foreign government should not legislate on Indian social custom. The Age of Consent Act of 1891 brought the dispute into the open, with Agarkar supporting it and Tilak opposing it. The debate shaped Indian nationalism's long argument over the relation between social and political change.

Question 7

Match the organisation to its founder: Depressed Classes Mission, Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha, Rayat Shikshan Sanstha.

Accepted Answer

Vitthal Ramji Shinde (1906); Dr Ambedkar (1924); Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil (1919).

Question 8

Compare the approaches of Jyotirao Phule and M. G. Ranade to social reform. (~250 words)

Accepted Answer

Phule and Ranade both sought a just society in 19th-century Maharashtra, but they began from opposite ends. Ranade, a judge, worked within the existing order. Through the Prarthana Samaj, the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha of 1870 and the Indian National Social Conference of 1887, he pressed for widow remarriage, women's education and legal reform, by petition, argument and example. His method was gradual and his audience was the educated upper castes. Phule questioned the order itself. He saw caste as a system of domination and wrote Gulamgiri in 1873 comparing the condition of the lower castes with slavery. He opened schools for girls in 1848 and for the lower castes, founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873, conducted marriages without priests, and wrote on the exploitation of peasants in Shetkaryacha Asud. His audience was the peasant, the Shudra and the Atishudra. The two traditions were complementary. Ranade gave reform institutions and respectability; Phule gave it a social base and a moral critique. Phule's line ran through Shahu Maharaj and the non-Brahmin movement to Dr Ambedkar, and Ranade's through Gokhale to constitutional liberalism.

Question 9

Trace Dr Ambedkar's movement in Maharashtra from 1920 to 1956. (~250 words)

Accepted Answer

Dr Ambedkar began with the press, launching Mooknayak in 1920, and with organisation, founding the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha on 20 July 1924 to promote education and welfare among untouchable communities. In 1927 he moved to direct action: the Mahad Satyagraha of 20 March asserted the right to water from a public tank, and on 25 December the Manusmriti was burned as a symbol of caste law. The Kalaram temple satyagraha at Nashik in 1930 sought temple entry. At the national level, the Poona Pact of 24 September 1932 with Gandhi replaced separate electorates with reserved seats in joint electorates. The Yeola declaration of 1935 announced that he would leave Hinduism, and the Independent Labour Party of 1936 took the movement into electoral politics. The People's Education Society of 1945 built colleges. The arc ended at Nagpur on 14 October 1956, when he and his followers embraced Buddhism, weeks before his death. The movement moved from reform within Hinduism to rights under law and, finally, to exit.

Practice — Social Reform Movements of Maharashtra

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