As a result of the Western contact there was soon the birth of a new awakening in India. Coming in contact with the modern Western knowledge thoughtful Indians began to look towards own selves.
They realized the defects of their society and started thinking about the ways how the defects may be removed.
In a word, the thoughtful Indians influenced by the rational outlook of the West now began to examine the Indian socio-religious institutions.
Also they tried to find a justification of those institutions on the basis of reason. This spirit of enquiry gave birth to resistible forces of socio-cultural and religious reforms in the first half of the nineteenth century he persons who contributed to the movement for reforms were Raja Rammohan Roy, Debendranath Tagore, Derozio and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar of Bengal, Jotiba Phule and Gopal Hari Desmukh of Maharashtra.