It Gives information About Women's In 19th Ceuntury India

3. Socio-Religious Reform Movements in India were part of
eighteenth century and twentieth-century India. During this
time, on one side, India was suffering from stagnating
traditional culture and society at very low ebb; while on the
other hand, India possessed a still traditional society in the
throes and the creative excitement of modernising and of
emerging as a new nation. The nineteenth century initiated
this process of transformation in the religious, social,
economic, political, and cultural spheres. The impact of the
British Empire influenced administration, legislation, trade,
network of communications, industrialisation and urbanisation
in India, affecting not only society as a whole, but also the
traditional patterns of life. British scholars, educators and
missionaries also impacted the cultural field. The reformers
consciously reacted to the new situation and advocated
deliberate changes in social and religious attitudes and
customs....

4. In the 19th century the Industrial Revolution transformed life in Britain. It
changed from a country where most people lived in the countryside and
worked in farming to one where most people lived in towns and worked in
industry. In that century women did gain more rights and some women
became famous novelists.In the 19th century at least 80% of the population
was working class. In order to be considered middle class you had to have
at least one servant. Most servants were female. (Male servants were more
expensive because men were paid higher wages). Throughout the century
'service' was a major employer of women. For working class women life was
an endless round of hard work and drudgery. As soon as they were old
enough they worked on farms and in factories. Even when they married and
had children housework was very hard without electricity or modern
cleaning agents. On the other hand in the 19th century working class girls
began to get some education. In the early and mid 19th century the
churches provided some schools. After 1870 the state provided them.

5. In the 19th century wealthy women were kept busy running the
household and organising the servants. Well to do women often also
did charitable work. In 1874 the first successful typewriter went on
sale (It was invented in the USA by Christopher Sholes) and the
telephone was invented in 1876. These two new inventions meant
more job opportunities for women. At the end of the 19th century
new technology created more jobs for women. meanwhile in the
late 19th century contraception became easier. In 1877 Annie Besant
and Charles Bradlaugh published a book on the subject called Fruits
of Philosophy. They were both prosecuted by their sentences were
quashed on appeal. Life became more comfortable for most women
in the 19th century. James Simpson (1811-1870), who was Professor
of Midwifery at Edinburgh University, began using chloroform for
operations in 1847.

6. Hindu society in the 19th century suffered from religious illusions
that Hindu scriptures did not sanction female education of girls
wrought wrath of gods leading to their widowhood. The Christian
missionaries, whatever their motive, were the first to set up o
Calcutta Female Juvenile Society in 1819. However, the celebrated
name 0f J.E.D. Bethune, President of the council of Education, will
always be remembered with respect. In 1849 he founded a Girl's
School in Calcutta. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar also did a lot in
popularising the cause of education and was associated with no less
than thirty-five girl's schools in Bengal. In Bombay the students of
Elphinstone Institute became the spearhead of the movement for
women education and founded the Students Literary Society.
Charles Wood's dispatch on Education laid great stress on the need
for female education. In the broad perspective, women education
became a part of the general campaign for amelioration of the
plight of women in society.

7. Traditions such as sati, jauhar, and devadasi
among some communities have been banned
and are largely defunct in modern India.
However, some instances of these practices
are still found in remote parts of India. The
purdah is still practised by Indian women in
some communities, and child marriage
remains prevalent despite it being illegal
undeR current Indian law.

8. Sati was an ancient Hindu custom, according to
which a wife immolated herself at the funeral pyre
of her husband. In 1811, Roy witnessed his brother's
widow being burned alive on her husband's funeral
pyre. Three years later, he retired and
concentrated on campaigning against the practice
of women dying as Satis. Raja Rammohan Roy was
the first Indian to protest against this custom. In
spite of protests from orthodox Hindus, he carried
on his propoganda against the custom

9. Jauhar refers to the practice of voluntary
immolation by wives and daughters of
defeated warriors, in order to avoid
capture and consequent molestation by
the enemy. The practice was followed by
the wives of defeated Rajput rulers, who
are known to place a high premium on
honour. Evidently such practice took
place, during the the Islamic invasions of
India.

11. Devadasi is a religious practice
in some parts of southern
India, in which women are
"married" to a deity or temple.
The ritual was well-established
by the 10th century A.D

13. Contrary to common perception, a large percentage of women in
India work National data collection agencies accept that statistics
seriously understate women's contribution as workers. However,
there are far fewer women than men in the paid workforce. In
urban India, women participate in the workforce in impressive
numbers. For example, in the software industry 30% of the
workforce is female. In the workplace women enjoy parity with
their male counterparts in terms of wages and roles. In rural India
in the agriculture and allied industrial sectors, females account for
as much as 89.5% of the labour force.In overall farm production,
women's average contribution is estimated at 55% to 66% of the
total labour. According to a 1991 World Bank report, women
accounted for 94% of total employment in dairy production in India.
Women constitute 51% of the total employed in forest-based smallscale enterprises.

14. In 1961, the Government of India passed the Dowry Prohibition Act,
making dowry demands in wedding arrangements illegal. However,
many cases of dowry-related domestic violence, suicides and
murders have been reported. In the 1980s, numerous such cases
were reported. In 1985, the Dowry Prohibition (maintenance of lists
of presents to the bride and bridegroom) Rules were framed.
According to these rules, a signed list should be maintained of
presents given at the time of the marriage to the bride and the
bridegroom. The list should contain a brief description of each
present, its approximate value, the name of who has given the
present, and relationship to the recipient. However, such rules are
rarely enforced. A 1997 report claimed that each year at least 5,000
women in India die dowry-related deaths, and at least a dozen die
each day in 'kitchen fires' thought to be intentional. The term for
this is "bride burning" and is criticized within India itself. Amongst
the urban educated, such dowry abuse has reduced considerably.

15. There is one such striking example from India: Ishwar
Chandra Vidyasagar and the campaign for Hindu widow remarriage during
the great Indian social reform movements of the 19th century. Ishwar
Chandra Bandyopadhyay, known as Vidyasagar ["Ocean of learning"], is an
iconic figure in the history of Indian social reform. He was a Bengali
Brahmin Sanskrit scholar. His image is that of a quintessential pandit,
traditionally dressed in dhuti-chador. This was no Anglicised "brown sahib".
Yet this Sanskrit scholar battled to end child marriage and high-caste
polygamy, and to enable Hindu widows to re-marry. He succeeded in getting
legislation passed to permit Hindu widow remarriage, despite fierce
opposition from many within his own community - and married his own son
to a widow as an example. In our times, this might be the equivalent of a
Quranic scholar leading a feminist revolution in an Islamic country. Was this
just an exceptional individual and a fortunate turn of events? Or are there
relevant political lessons that we might draw in terms of motivation,
timing, negotiation and external intervention, that culminated in the Hindu
Widow's Re-marriage Act in 1856?

16. The plight of Hindu widows in India gained international
notoriety recently when Indian film-maker Deepa Mehta tried to
shoot her film Water in Varanasi, one of the "holy" cities to which
widows were traditionally packed off to live out their lives in
penury, often preyed upon by the hypocritical lechery of
patriarchal societies. Even though Mehta had been given
permission to shoot her film there by the Indian government,
which had first inspected the script, she and her crew faced
angry mobs accusing her film of being "anti-Hindu". She had to
abandon filming in India, and eventually, shot the film several
years later in Sri Lanka. Mehta's film was set in the 1930s, nearly
80 years after Vidyasagar's successful campaign to change the
law. But stories about the ill-treatment and marginalisation of
widows in India appear in the media even today. As we all know,
legislation does not change society; the real revolution is that
one within people’s minds.

17. Decades come and go but what remain are the impression and
great acts of the social reformers. India is privileged to have
number of great souls like Dayanand Saraswati and Raja Ram Mohan
Roy They managed to bring revolutions by making radical changes in
the society. Some of the reformers took up the challenges of
breaking the jinx of prevailing caste-system while some fought for
the introduction of girls'-education and widow remarriage. The
contributions, made by these, simple yet eminent souls towards
humanity are really extraordinary. Their activities and thoughts
guided the nation to a new beginning.

21. Acharya Vinoba Bhave
Acharya Vinoba Bhave was a freedom fighter and a spiritual
teacher. He is best known as the founder of the 'Bhoodan
Movement' (Gift of the Land). The reformer had an intense
concern for the deprived masses. Vinoba Bhave had once
said, "All revolutions are spiritual at the source.
Baba Amte
From a child born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Baba
Amte later transformed his life into a social activist. He
devoted his entire life to serve the downtrodden people of
the society. He left his lucrative profession to join India's
struggle for independence.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Biography
Dr B R Ambedkar, popularly known as Babasaheb Ambedkar,
was one of the architects of the Indian Constitution. He was
a well-known politician and an eminent jurist. Ambedkar's
efforts to eradicate the social evils like untouchablity and
caste restrictions were remarkable.

22. 
Mother Teresa was a true
follower of humanity.
Many people considered
Mother as the
"reincarnated form of Lord
Jesus". Mother Teresa
devoted her entire life in
serving the needy and
abandoned people of the
society. Although her
mission started in India,
she succeeded in bringing
the people of all societies
under one roof, i.e.
humanity.

23. Dayanand Saraswati was a reformer and
believed in pragmatism. He preached
against many rituals of the Hindu religion
such as idol-worship, caste by birth,
animal sacrifices and restrictions of
women from reading Vedas. He was not
only a great scholar and philosopher but
also a social reformer and a political
thinker.

24. 
Swami Vivekananda is known
for his inspiring speech at the
Parliament of the World's
Religions at Chicago on 11
September, 1893, where he
introduced Hindu philosophy
to the west. But this was not
the only contribution of the
saint. He revealed the true
foundations of India's unity as
a nation. He taught how a
nation with such a vast
diversity can be bound
together by a feeling of
humanity and brother-hood.

25. As a result of reform movements significant advances were made in the
field of emancipation of women. Legal measures were introduced to
elevate their status. The practice of sati and infanticide were made illegal.
In 1856 a law was passed permitting widow remarriage .Another law passed
in 1860 raised the marriageable age of girls to ten which was a significant
advance in those days. Many superstitions also began to disappear. The
reform movements that grew differed from each other in many parts but
they all helped in awakening the people to the need for change. The
reform movements contributed a great deal to the birth of Indian
nationalism. These were country-wide movements influencing people
everywhere and not just in isolation.
The reform activities united people and the attack on
institutions like caste which hampered social unity created a sense of
oneness in the people. But most of these reform movements had certain
limitations. The questions to which they gave primacy concerned only small
sections of Indian society. Some of them failed to emphasize or even
recognize that colonial rule was inimical to the interests of the Indian
people.

26. Most of them worked within the framework
of their respective communities in a way
tended to promote identities based on
religion or caste. Many of these limitations
were sought to be overcome during the
course of the national movement with
which many social and religious reformers
were closely associated. Indian nationalism
aimed at the regeneration of the entire
Indian society irrespective of caste and
community. It was no longer necessary to
confine the movement of social reform to
one’s own community.

27. Social evils against which the Reform Movement was directed :
There were several evil customs and practices which had become
a part of Hindu social system. They were :
(i) Casteism, (ii) Sati, (iii) Infanticide, (iv) Child marriages and (v)
Belief in superstitions. Muslims were also divided by castes, sectarian
and tribal differences.
Social and religious reform movements arose among all
communities of the Indian people. In religion, they attacked bigotry,
superstitions and the hold of the priestly class. In social life, they
aimed at the abolitions of castes, child marriage and other legal and
social inequalities.
These social evils were fought with firm determination by
numerous reformers like Raja Rammohan Roy, Rama Krishna Paramhans,
Swami Dayanand, Swami Vivekananda, Sir Sayed Ahmed Khan and
others.
As a result of these movements, sig-nificant advances were
made in the field of emanci-pation of women. With their efforts, the
practice of Sati and infanticide had been made illegal. Law was passed
for widow-remarriages. Many superstitions began to disappear.
The Reform Movement contributed a great deal to the birth of
Indian nationalism. It influenced people everywhere.