Free Sample essay on Social Reforms in India

Swadharma meant the pursuit on individual occupation, assigned to ones caste, with devotion. In the post-Vedic age, the Brahmins conducted the rituals and the Kshatriyas defended the territory.

The Vaishays were entrusted with business transaction, while the Shudras toiled in the field and remained in servitude to the other three. The land belonged to the villagers and the chieftains collected one-sixth of the agricultural produce as revenue as per the Dharma Shastras. The panchayats looked into the working of the villages and mediated between the ruler and the subjects. Sir Henry Maine described the Indian villages as “little republics”.

Castes in India were governed by normative conduct. They being a scripture, caste was conferred on individual at the time of his birth. It remained unchanged through his lifetime. Violation of the caste rules could lead to lowering of the status of the individual. The practice of hyper gamy led to upward mobility of a girl from a lower caste, within the caste structure, through marriage.

The society was basically patrichal with traces of matriarchy in some regions of the south. In the 4-tier social structure, only the upper three castes were allowed to participate in the affairs of the State. The caste unity and village self- rule declined in due course due to internal and external factors.

The Jajmani system, under which the landowner retained a few Individuals of different castes to render services to him, also declined. This system was based on barter system, where the services were paid in kind like grain, cloth or animals, soon, the landowners began to exploit the lower caste people in service.

In the medieval period, the rise of Islam and the series of Muslim invasions or India canged the course of the Indian history. This led to a religious upheaval because the invasions were carried out to plunder India and propagate Islam. A number of socio-religious reformers emerged to put social and religious spirit into the Indians through the Bhakti Movement.

The forerunner of the Hindu revivalist movement was Shankaracharya who was great thinker and philosopher. The Bhakti Movement emerged in the south in the 6th- 8th century AD and in the north in the 14th- 17th century AD. The movement played an important part in reducing the rigidities of the caste system. Among the chief exponents of the movement were Ramananda, Chaitanya, Kabir and Guru Nayak.

They preached the ideology of Bhaki (Devotion) to God. Ramananda eliminated the caste barriers among his followers and used Hindi to preach his gospel of love and devotion. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu preached universal love and brotherhood and disregarded ritualism and casteism. Kabir, one of the disciples of Ramananda, preached to foster a spirit of unity between the Hindus and the Muslims.

Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, was opposed to all distinctions between people on the basis of caste or religion. The Bhakti Movement helped in rejuvenating the society and reduced the distinctions of caste system among the Hindus. In the 12th century, Sufism extended its influence over the society.

The Sufi saints worked for the humanity at large, transcending all religious and communal distinctions. The movement had a social, political and cultural influence on the people. Sufism helped to end the Hindu-Muslim rivalry and infused the ideals of solidarity and brotherhood between two religions.

With the decadence of the Mughal Empire, the English took over India. Their main objectives were to monopolies trade with India and to gain direct access to revenues by getting control over the state coffers. India trade and handicrafts were suppressed and the artisans were forced to work for the colonists.

Indian economic condition worsened due to the British monopolistic rights over Indian trade and exploitation of Indian craftsmen. Policies like the Permanent Settlement and the Ryotwari system were introduced with the intention of exploiting the agrarian structure on colonial lines. Revenue, to maintain and expand the infrastructure, for the maintenance of the military and administrative structure, came from the peasants.

The zamindars resorted to demands for illegal dues from the peasants to maximize their share in the produce. The peasants, in an attempt to pay off their debts, approached the money lender, who had the power to manipulate the judiciary and law in his favour. By introducing different policies for the exploitation of the agrarian structure, the British legalized the class structure rather than transforming it.

The result was evident in the stagnation of agricultural produce, mass poverty and frequent outbreaks of famines. Famines were not due to the scarcity of food grains but due to the lack of purchasing capacity of the peasants. Social reforms were introduced but these were basically to keep the society divided.

Personal laws, pertaining to the social structure of the society divided. Personal laws, pertaining to the social structure of the society, were left untouched. The caste system got reinforced during this period.

The colonial rule in India also had its infinitive impact on the people. The colonial rule established when India was in the period of decade and degeneration. It was marked infuse colonial culture and ideology. Modern English education was imparted to the Indians to educate them to occupy the lower ranks in the administrative structure.

This led to the emergence intellectual Indians, who worked towards social and religious reforms for the regeneration of the society. They realized that the colonial rule was a result of the splintered society which was unable to emerge as a collective force against external aggression. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was the harbinger of the social reforms movement in India.

He worked for the abolition of the Sati system. He established the Brahmo Samaj in 1828 which worked for the evolution of a casteless society. The need to alleviate the status of women was felt by Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Vidyasagar. The Arya Samaj, the Paramahansa Mandali and the Prarthana Samaj were the prominent Hindu movements.

The Satya Sodhak Samaj in Maharashtra and the Shri Narayana Dharma Pariplana Sabha in Kerala worked for toe emancipation of the backward classes. The caste system was criticized by many conscious people like Jyotiba Phule and Narayana Guru. The cultural and ideological struggle of the Indias against the colonial rule resulted in the socio-economic reform movements in India leading to the evolution of nationalism among the masses.

The growth of nationalism in India led to the revolt of 1857. The British realized that the Hindu-Muslim unity was a threat to their colonial rule. Hence, they propounded the divide and rule policy, which resulted in the partition of India. Independent India inherited an archaic social structure, which had not mitigated through the centuries.

Economic back wardens and widespread illiteracy prevented the people from developing a modern and secular outlook. Religious prejudices and cultural barriers posed a problem to the nation builders. Along with the caste system emerged in modern India. The upper class constituted the aristocracy and the landowners, traders and others who were patronized by the British.

These elites also included the highly educated and western- though oriented Indian professionals. The lower class comprised the landless peasants, small cultivators, displaced artisans and unskilled workers. The middle class comprised small businessmen, semi-skilled workers and clerks.

The Movement was an endeavour to overt throws the foreign rule and borate the conditions of the masses with the establishment of a new social order. With the establishment of a new social order. With independence, fulfilling the ideologies of the freedom movement seemed an uphill task.

Granville Austin observed thatrevolutions, the national and the social had been running parallel in India since the end the First World War. With independence, the national revolution would be completed, but the social revolution must go on.” Social revolution in India meant the integration of the fragmented society, based on caste, class, religion, into the national mainstream.

It also meant the protection of the interests of the minorities. Pt. Nehru observed, “Our economy and social structure have outlived therial their day, and it has become a matter of urgent necessity for us to refashion them so that they may promote happiness of all our people in their material and spiritual life.

We have to aim deliberately at a social philosophy in which there is a fair distribution of political and economic power.” India became a Sovereign Democratic Republic in 1950 with the framing and adoption of the Constitution contains the Preamble, the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy.

Democracy was chosen for India because it would help in furthering the cause of social revolution. It promotes the liberal democratic ideals of ideas of adult suffrage, liberties for individuals and groups, a competing party, an independent judiciary and elected representatives.

While speaking in the Constituent Assembly, Pt. Nehuru said, “the first task of this Assembly is to free India through a new Constitution, to feed the starving people, and to clothe the naked masses, and to give every Indian the fullest opportunity to develop himself according to his capacity.”

The Fundamental Rights provide for Right to Equality (Arts 14- 17). Article 14 deals with equality before the law, Art. 15 prohibit discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Equality of opportunity relating to public employment for all citizens is guaranteed under Art. 16. Art. 17 abolish untouchability.

Land reforms were carried out to break the old feudal socio-economic structure of rural India. These reforms were intended for the modernization of agriculture and promotion of agricultural productivity and for bringing the largest possible number of small and marginal peasants to the mainstream. To ameliorate the conditions of the under-privileged, schemes like the community.

Development Projects, Small Farmers Development Agency, Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labour and others were launched. The Green Revolution helped in the mainfold increase of agricultural yield especially of the major cereal crops, making India self-sufficient in food grains.

India is a welfare State, committed to the welfare and development of its citizens at large and of the vulnerable sections in particular. Though, some of the social reforms have failed to percolate among the masses, India has come a long way since 1947.

Land reforms have not been fully carried out in a couple of states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. But that does not eclipse the pace of development in other parts of the country. Social reforms helped to evolve ad regenerate our regenerate our country.