Reform movements emerged, challenging traditional caste hierarchies and advocating for social equality and justice. Figures like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Jyotirao Phule played crucial roles, laying the foundation for future social reforms and the fight against caste discrimination.

Reforms Against Caste System

Caste inequalities: Some social reformers also criticised caste inequalities. 

• Examples: Rammohun Roy translated an old Buddhist text that was critical of caste.
• Prarthana Samaj: Adhered to the tradition of Bhakti that believed in spiritual equality of all castes; 
• Paramhans Mandali: In Bombay, the Paramhans Mandali was founded (1840) to work for the abolition of caste. 
• Inclusive Efforts: Many of these reformers and members of reform associations were people of upper castes who would violate caste taboos on food and touch, in an effort to get rid of the hold of caste prejudice in their lives. 
• Against Injustice: They also questioned the injustices of the caste social order. 

Varied Dimensions of Caste Reforms

Missionary Schools: During the 19th century, Christian missionaries began setting up schools for tribal groups and “lower” caste children. 

• Migration and Urbanization: On the one hand these children were equipped with some resources to make their way into a changing world but on the other, the poor began leaving their villages to look for jobs in the factories and in municipalities. 
  • Some also went to work in plantations in Assam, Mauritius, Trinidad and Indonesia. 
• Labor Opportunities: The poor from the villages and small towns, many of them from low castes, began moving to the cities where there was a new demand for labour.
  • Example: Demand for Labour in areas like  coolies, diggers, carriers, bricklayers, sewage cleaners, sweepers, palanquin bearers, rickshaw pullers etc. 
• Escape from Oppression: The army also offered opportunities as a number of Mahar people (regarded as untouchable), found jobs in the Mahar Regiment.
• Military Employment: The father of B.R. Ambedkar, the leader of the Dalit movement, taught at an army school. 
• Social Mobility: Work in the new locations was hard but the poor, the people from low castes, saw this as an opportunity to get away from the oppressive hold that upper-caste landowners exercised over their lives and the daily humiliation they suffered.  

 Demands for Equality and Justice

Movements for Social Equality: By the second half of the 19th century, people from within the Non-Brahman castes began organising movements against caste discrimination, and demanded social equality and justice. 

• Satnami Movement: Ghasidas founded the Satnami Movement in Central India, worked among the leatherworkers to improve their social status. 
• Challenging Caste in Eastern Bengal: In eastern Bengal, Haridas Thakur’s Matua sect worked among Chandala cultivators. 
  • Haridas questioned the caste system of Brahmanical texts. 
• Advocate of Unity and Equality: A guru from Ezhava caste, Shri Narayana Guru, proclaimed the ideals of unity for his people. 
• Towards Equality: He argued against treating people unequally on the basis of caste differences. 
  • According to him, all humankind belonged to the same caste. 
  • He stated: “oru jati, oru matam, oru daivam manushyanu” (one caste, one religion, one god for humankind).
• Promotion of Self-Esteem and Dignity: All these leaders from Non-Brahman castes tried to change those habits and practices which provoked the contempt of dominant castes and tried to create a sense of self-esteem among the subordinate castes. 

Jyotirao Phule and his Work

Birth: A “Non-Brahmin caste” leader Jyotirao Phule, born in 1827, studied in schools set up by Christian missionaries.

• Challenging Brahmanical Superiority: On growing up he developed his own ideas about the injustices of caste society and set out to attack the Brahmans’ claim that they were superior to others, since they were Aryans. 
• Critique of Aryan Dominance: He argued that the Aryans were foreigners and defeated and subjugated the true children of the country who had lived here from before the coming of the Aryans. 
  • Subjugation: As the Aryans established their dominance, they began looking at the defeated population as inferior, as low caste people. 
• Assertion of Indigenous Rights: According to him, the “upper” castes had no right to their land and power. In reality, the land belonged to indigenous people, the so-called low castes. 
• Vision of a Golden Age: He claimed that before Aryan rule there existed a golden age when warrior-peasants tilled the land and ruled the Maratha countryside in just and fair ways. 
• Call for Unity: He proposed that Shudras (laboring castes) and Ati Shudras (untouchables) should unite to challenge caste discrimination. 
• Satyashodhak Samaj: He founded the Satyashodhak Samaj to propagate caste equality. 
• Link to the American Civil War: In 1873, he wrote a book named Gulamgiri, meaning slavery and dedicated to all those Americans who had fought to free slaves during the American Civil War, thus establishing a link between the conditions of the “lower” castes in India and the black slaves in America. 
• Criticism of Inequality Beyond Caste: He extended his criticism of the caste system to argue against all forms of inequality such as the condition of “upper”-caste women, the miseries of the laborer, and the humiliation of the “low” castes. 
• Continuation of Caste Reform Movements: The movement for caste reform continued in the 20th century by other great dalit leaders like Dr B.R. Ambedkar in western India and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker in the south.

Temples Entry and Ambedkar

Birth: Ambedkar was born into a Mahar family. 

• Faced Discrimination: As a child he experienced caste prejudice. In school he was forced to sit outside the classroom on the ground, and was not allowed to drink water from taps that upper caste children used. 
• Fellowship: After finishing school, he got a fellowship to go to the US for higher studies. 
• Return: On his return to India in 1919, he wrote about “upper” caste power in contemporary society. 
• Discrimination: Brahman priests were outraged when the Dalits used water from the temple tank. 
• Temple Entry: In 1927, he started a temple entry movement and led three such movements between 1927 and 1935. 

• Aim: His aim was to make everyone see the power of caste prejudices within society. 

The Non-Brahman Movement

Origins of the Non-Brahman Movement: The non-Brahman movement was initiated in the early 20th century by those who had acquired access to education, wealth and influence.

• Challenge to Brahmanical Domination: They argued that Brahmans were heirs of Aryan invaders from the north who had conquered southern lands from the indigenous Dravidian races. 
  • They challenged Brahmanical claims to power. 

Periyar and the Self Respect Movement

Periyar’s Early Life and Awakening: E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, or Periyar, had been an ascetic in his early life and had studied Sanskrit scriptures. 

• Join Congress: Later, he became a member of the Congress, only to leave it in disgust when he found that at a feast organised by nationalists, the lower castes were made to sit at a distance from the upper castes. 
• Formation of the Self Respect Movement: Periyar founded the Self Respect Movement to fight for the dignity of untouchables. 
• Assertion of Tamil and Dravidian Identity: He argued that untouchables were the true upholders of an original Tamil and Dravidian culture which had been subjugated by Brahmans. 
• Critique of Religious Authorities: According to him, all religious authorities saw social divisions and inequality as God-given. 
  • Equality: Therefore, untouchables had to free themselves in order to achieve social equality. 
• Criticise Scriptures:He was an outspoken critic of Hindu scriptures, specially the Codes of Manu (the ancient lawgiver), the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana by saying that these texts had been used to establish the authority of Brahmans over lower castes and the domination of men over women.
• Impact on Nationalist Leaders: The movements of lower caste leaders did lead to rethinking and some self criticism among upper-caste nationalist leaders. 
• Reaction from Orthodox Hindu Society: But orthodox Hindu society reacted by founding Sanatan Dharma Sabhas and the Bharat Dharma Mahamandal in the north, and the Brahman Sabha in Bengal with the objective to uphold caste distinctions as a cornerstone of Hinduism, and show how this was sanctified by scriptures.

Conclusion

Despite resistance, the 19th century saw the rise of caste reform movements. Jyotirao Phule challenged Brahminical dominance, while B.R. Ambedkar fought for temple entry. The 20th century saw the Non-Brahman movement led by Periyar, advocating for social equality and Dravidian identity.

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