women caste and reforms

Q Why in the earlier days most parents were apprehensive of sending their girls to school?

1. Ans. Most parents were apprehensive of sending their girls to school because they feared that schools would take girls away from home, prevent them from doing their domestic duties.
2. Moreover, girls had to travel through public places in order to reach school.
3. Many people felt that this would have a corrupting influence on them.
4. They felt that the girls should stay away from public spaces.

Q  How did new opportunities open up for the people of the lower caste under the British?  

1. Ans; during the course of the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries began setting up schools for tribal groups and “lower” – caste children.
2. At the same time, the poor began leaving their villages to look for jobs that were opening up in the cities.
3. There were new demands of labour –drains had to be dug, roads, laid, buildings constructed, and cities cleaned.  This required coolies, diggers, carriers, bricklayer’s sewage cleaners, sweepers, palanquin bearers, rickshaws pullers.
4. Some also went to work in plantations in Assam, Mauritius, Trinidad and Indonesia work in the new locations was often very hard.  
5. There were other jobs too. The army, for instance, offered opportunities. A number of Mahar people, who were regarded as untouchable, found jobs in the Mahar Regiment. The father of B.R. Ambedkar the leader of the Dalit Movement, taught at an army school.

Q Describe the reform movement by the people of the lower castes against caste discrimination across India.

1. The Satnami movement in Central India, founded by a leader named Ghasidas who came from a “low” caste, worked among the leather workers and organized a movement to improve their social status.
2. In eastern Bengal, Haridas Thakur’s Matua set worked among ‘low’ caste chandala cultivators. Haridas questioned Brahmanical texts that supported the caste system.
3. In 1972 Ambedkar started a temple entry movement, in which his Mahar caste followers participated. Brahman priests were outraged when the Dalits used water from the temple tank. Convinced that untouchable had to fight for their dignity,
4. Periyar founded the self Respect Movement. He argued that untouchables were the true upholders of an original Tamil and Dravidian culture which had been subjugated by Brahmans.

Q9. How did the knowledge of ancient texts help the reformers promote new laws? Whenever they 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.

Q  Why were Christian missionaries attacked by many people in the country? Would some people have supported them too? If so, for what reasons?

Ans) Christian missionaries attacked by many people in the country because they feared that the missionaries would change the religion of tribal groups. Some people may have supported them because:- • They were setting up schools for tribal groups and “lower” – caste children. • These children were thus equipped with some resources to make their way into a changing world.

Q How did Jyotiba the reformers justify their criticism of caste inequality in society?

1. Jyotiba Phule argued that the Aryans were foreigners who came from outside the subcontinent.
2. According to Phule, the “upper” caste had no right to their land and power: in reality the land belonged to indigenous people, and so –called low castes.
3. Phule claimed that before Aryan rule there existed a golden age when warrior – peasants tilled the land and ruled the Maratha countryside in just and fair ways.

 Q .Why did Phule dedicate his book Gulamgiri to the American movement to free slaves?

Phule dedicated his book to all those Americans who had fought to free slaves thus establishing a link between the conditions of the “lower” caste in India and the black slaves in America. Phule extended his criticism of the caste system to argue against all forms of inequality. He was concerned about the plight of “upper” –caste women, the miseries of the labourer, and the humiliation of the “low” caste.

Q What did Ambedkar want to achieve through the temple entry movement?

Ans. In 1972, Ambedkar started a temple entry movement, in which his Mahar caste followers participated. Brahman priests were outraged when the Dalits used water from the temple tank. 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.

 Q Why were Jyotiba Phule and Ramaswamy Naicker critical of the national movement? Did their criticism help the national struggle in any way?

They were critical of the national movement run by the upper caste leaders because they held that this would serve the purpose of the upper caste. After the movement these people again would talk of untouchability. Even Periyar left the congress in the earlier days of an incidence of untouchability.

Yes, their criticism helped the national movement struggle as unity. In forceful speeches, writings and movements of such lower caste leaders did lead to rethinking and self – criticism among upper caste nationalist leader.