NCERT 8th Class (CBSE) Social Science: Reforms In Indian Society

Question: What was done by Raja Ram Mohan Roy for changing the lives of window?

Answer: Raja Ram Mohan Roy is a great historical figure who put laudable efforts to transform India and dared to defy the age old Hindu traditions. He undertook a lot of social reforms to change the society and worked to uplift the status of women in India. Roy fought against Sati system. He was also a great scholar who translated many books, religious and philosophical work and scriptures into Bengali and also translated Vedic scriptures into English. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian socio-educational reformer who was also known as ‘Maker of Modern India’ and ‘Father of Modern India’ and ‘Father of the Bengal Renaissance.’ He was born on May 22, 1772 into a Bengali Hindu family.

Women Education: Equally able was the Raja’s advocacy of the education of Women. Although the concept had already been put forward by missionaries, it was the Raja who helped to popularize it among the Hindus. He said that the women of India were highly educated and that the education of women was in keeping with ancient religious traditions and beliefs. The Brahma Samaj did great service in removing the popular prejudices against the education of women that were the prevalent in the Hindu society and the credit for this goes mostly to Ram Mohan (Naik, J. P and Nurullah, S., 1974, pp.131-132).

Question: Write an essay on the topic “Women wrote about women” during the social reform movement period of India.

Answer:

1. Works of Muslim women for (or about) women: From the early twentieth century, Muslim like the Begums of Bhopal played a notable role in promoting education among women. They founded a primary school for girls at Aligarh. Another remarkable women, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain started school for Muslim girls in Patna and Calcutta. She was a fearless critic of conservative ideas, arguing that religious leaders of every faith accorded an inferior place to women.
2. Work of Trabai Shinde: By the 1880s, Indian women began to enter universities. Some of them trained to be doctors, some became teachers. Many women began to write and publish their critical views on the place of women in society. Tarabai Shinde, a woman educated at home at Poona, published a book, Stripurushtulna, ( A comparison between Women and Men), criticizing the social differences between men and women.
3. Literary work of Pandita Ramabai: Pandita Ramabai, a great scholar of Sanskrit, felt that Hinduism was oppressive towards woman, and wrote a book about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women. She founded a window home at Poona to provide shelter to windows who had been treated badly by their husband’s relatives. Here women were train trained so that they could support themselves economically.