question_answer 1)

 What social ideas did the following people support: Rammohan Roy, Dayanand Saraswati, Veerasalingam Pantulu, Jyotirao Phule, Panditu Ramapai, Periyar, Mumtaz Ali, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar.  

Answer:

 Rammohan Roy (1772-1833): He founded a reform association known as the Brahma Sabha (Brahma Samaj) in Calcutta. He supported the ideas to spread the knowledge of western education in the country and bring about greater freedom and equality for women. He wrote about the way women were forced to bear the burden of domestic work, confined to the home and the kitchen, and not allowed to move out and became educated. As a result of his efforts, the practice of Sati was banned in 1829. Dayanand Saraswtai: He founded the Arya Samaj in 1875, an organisation that attempted to reform Hinduism. He also supported widow remarriage. He published many pamphlets to spread his ideas. He stressed an spread of learning and education of all. Veerasalingam Pantulu: He formed an association for widow remarriage in the Telugu-speaking areas of the Madras Presidency. Jyotirao Phule: He supported education for girls. He established schools for girls in Maharashtra. He also advocated for caste equality. He opposed any type of slavery (giilamgiri) not only in India but also in USA. Pandita Ramabai: She criticised the social differences between men and women. She felt that Hinduism was oppressive towards women and wrote a book about the miserable lives of upper caste Hindu women. She founded a widow's home at Poona to provide shelter to widows who had been treated badly by their husbands’ relatives. Here women were trained so that they could support themselves economically. . Periyar: E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker or Periyar, as he was called, came from a middle-class family. Interestingly, he had been an ascetic in his early life and had studied Sanskrit scriptures carefully. 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 Brahman's. He felt that all religious authorities saw social divisions and in equality as God given. He was an outspoken critic of Hindu scriptures, especially the codes of Manu, the ancient lawgiver, and the Bhagavad Gifa and the Ramayan. He said that these texts had been used to establish the authority of Brahman's over lower castes and the domination of men over women. Mumtaz Ali: Some reformers such as Mumtaz Ali reinterpreted verses from the Koran to argue for women's education. The first Urdu novels began to be written from the late nineteenth century. She supported women's education. Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar: He supported widow remarriage, education for girls and set up schools for girls. His suggestion was adopted by British officials, and a law was passed in 1856 permitting widow remarriage. Those who were against the remarriage of widows opposed Vidyasagar and even boycotted him.