Ans: A

Exp:

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: The great scholar and reformer, Vidyasagar’s ideas were a happy blend of Indian and Western thought. He believed in high moral values, was a deep humanist, and was generous to the poor. Vidyasagar started a movement in support of widow remarriage which resulted in the legalisation of widow remarriage.  He was also a crusader against child marriage and polygamy.  He did much for the cause of women’s education. As government inspector of schools, he helped organise 35 girls schools, many of which he ran at his own expense. As secretary of Bethune School (established in 1849), he was one of the pioneers of higher education for women in India.

Ans: C

Exp:

Options a, b, and d are correct: The justice movement in Madras Presidency was started by C.N. Mudaliar, T.M. Nair, and P. Tyagaraja (Pitti Theagaraya Chetty) to secure jobs and representation for the non-brahmins in the legislature. In 1917, Madras Presidency Association was formed which demanded separate representation for the lower castes in the legislature

Option c is incorrect: T.K. Madhavan, a prominent social reformer and editor of Deshabhimani, took up the issue of temple entry with the Travancore administration.

Ans: B

Exp:

Statement 1 is correct: Dayanand Saraswati took inspiration from the Vedas and considered them to be ‘India’s Rock of Ages’, the infallible, and the true original seed of Hinduism. He used the slogan “Back to the Vedas”. It asserted the Hindu faith over other religions owing to its revivalist nature. During the 1920s, the Shuddhi Movement was launched as a forceful effort to defend Hinduism and win back former Hindus who had converted to Christianity and Islam.

 Statement 2 is correct: Dayanand Saraswati’s vision of India included a classless and casteless society, a united India (religiously, socially, and nationally), and an India free from foreign rule, with Aryan religion being the common religion of all. He took inspiration from the Vedas. 

Statement 3 is incorrect: Dayananda’s views were published in his famous work, Satyarth Prakash (The True Exposition). Karsandas Mulji started Satya Prakash in Gujarati in 1852 to advocate widow remarriage.

Ans: C

Exp:

Statement 1 is correct: Raja Rammohan Roy (1772–1833), often called the father of Indian Renaissance and the maker of Modern India, was a man of versatile genius. In 1814, he set up the Atmiya Sabha (or Society of Friends) in Calcutta to propagate the monotheistic ideals of the Vedanta and to campaign against idolatry, caste rigidities, meaningless rituals, and other social ills.

Statement 2 is incorrect: Rammohan Roy believed in the modern scientific approach and principles of human dignity and social equality. He put his faith in monotheism. He wrote Gift to Monotheists (1809) and translated into Bengali the Vedas and the five Upanishads to prove his conviction that ancient Hindu texts support monotheism.

Statement 3 is correct: Raja Rammohan Roy founded the Brahmo Sabha in August 1828; it was later renamed Brahmo Samaj. Prayers, meditation, and readings of the Upanishads were to be the forms of worship, and no graven image, statue or sculpture, carving, painting, picture, portrait, etc., were to be allowed in the Samaj buildings, thus underlining the Samaj’s opposition to idolatry and meaningless rituals.

Ans: B

Exp:

Pair 1 is correctly matched: The government declared the practice of sati illegal and punishable by criminal courts as culpable homicide because of frontal attacks launched by the enlightened Indian reformers led by Raja Rammohan Roy. The regulation of 1829 was applicable in the first instance to the Bengal Presidency alone, but was extended in slightly modified forms to Madras and Bombay Presidencies in 1830.

Pair 2 is incorrectly matched: In 1910, Sarla Devi Chaudhurani convened the first meeting of the Bharat Stree Mahamandal in Allahabad. It was considered as the first major Indian women’s organisation set up by a woman, its objectives included promotion of education for women, abolition of the purdah system and improvement in the socio-economic and political status of women all over India. Ramabai Ranade founded the Ladies Social Conference (Bharat Mahila Parishad), under the parent organisation National Social Conference, in 1904 in Bombay.

Pair 3 is correctly matched: The efforts of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-91), the principal of Sanskrit College, Calcutta, led to enactment of the Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, 1856. It legalised the marriage of widows and declared issues from such marriages as legitimate. Vidyasagar cited Vedic texts to prove that the Hindu religion sanctioned widow remarriage.