Author: Amiya P Sen
Editor(s): Amiya P Sen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 226
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195677021
Description
In the Indian context, the use of the term reform to indicate changes in religious belief or social practices dates to the nineteenth century, coinciding with the consolidation of British power and the advent of so-called modernity. Social and religious reform in colonial India has often been written about without an effort to highlight the wide-ranging debates that have affected it. The present volume is thus the first work to focus on reform as a disputed concept. It retraces some of the critical contestations around the phenomenon of reform as it affected the largest community of British India-the Hindus.
The essays in this volume, the fourth in the Debates in Indian History and Society series, identify major issues within the history of socio-religious reform among Hindus that grew into passionate public debates. Amiya P Sen’s insightful introduction engages with the key components of these debates, for example, the choice of issue or the pace at which reform was to be carried out. The issues themselves are primarily presented through contemporary writings and speeches now rarely obtainable. The volume includes extracts by such well-known personalities as Swami Vivekananda, Lajpat Rai, Bankim Chandra, Raja Rammohan Roy, K T Telang, Aurobindo Ghosh, Rabindranath Tagore, M G Ranade,, Mahatma Gandhi, and B R Ambedkar among many others.
A valuable entry point to understanding the present day social problems faced by the Hindu community, this volume will be a useful supplementary text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of modern Indian history, sociology, and religious studies. It will also engage informed general readers interested in the discussion that continues to surround reform among Hindus.
Contents
GENERAL EDITORS PREFACE
VOLUME EDITOR’S PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PART ONE : INTRODUCTION
Social and Religious Reform: Conceptual Nuances
The Debate over Strategies
The Typologies of Reform and Revival
Imperatives within Reform
Debates in History, Debates on History: Situating Renaissance, Reform, and Social Change in Modern India
PART TWO : THE CONCEPTUAL NUANCES OF REFORM
The Inadequacy of Reform Growth, not Reform
Social Reform or Social Revolution?
Religion as the Basis of Social Reform Social Reformation in India
Religion as a Social Mission
The Past as a Cultural Resource and Reformist Demands of the Present Reform Civil and Social
The Essentials of Hinduism
THE DEBATE OVER STRATEGIES
The Road to Reform: Individual Moral Courage vs Cautious Deference to Tradition
Social Reform with Picnics and Tea-parties!
Social Reform: The Virtues of Discretion
Reform from Within
The Problem of Social as Against Political Reform
The Line of Least Resistance
Does Social Reformation Require Political Moderation?
The State and the Question of Social Legislation
A Legislator for Hindus
Reservations on the Propriety of State Interference
A Note from Sir Steuart Bayley
A Note from A P McDonell
Sir Andrew Scoble’s Speech before the Legislative Council
Ranade on State Legislation in Social Matters
The State as Executor of Popular
Hindu Shastras and Social Reform
The Shastras as a Guide to Reform
The Inner Ambivalence of Hindu Shastras
The Tactical Unity of the Orthodox
Objections to Hindu Code Bills
THE TYPOLOGIES OF REFORM AND REVIVAL
Revival as Reform
Revival as Reaction
The Underlying Unity of Reform and Revival
IMPERATIVES WITHIN SOCIAL REFORM
The Social Agitation on the Woman Question
The Pressing Need for Emancipation
A Crusader’s Testament
Mr Malabari Finds a Radical Supporter
A Critique of Mr Malabari’s Proposals
Men Simply Have Not Done Enough
Misguided Men and the Ideals of Hindu Womanhood
The Debate on the Nature of Hindu Marriages
Tagore Answers an Orthodox Critic
The Nature of Women’s Emancipation: Historiographical Debates
The Controlled Emancipation of Wives
Nationalism Resolves the Critical Question
The Debate on Caste and Social Reconstruction in India
A Radical Critique of Caste
A Rejoinder from M K Gandhi
DEBATES IN HISTORY, DEBATES ON HISTORY SITUATING RENAISSANCE, REFORM AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN MODERN INDIA
The Alien Roots of Indian Awakening
Renascent Hinduism
The Renaissance as Understood in Modern Historiography
APPENDIX A
List of Hindu Local Associations Concerned with Social Reform in India for the Period 1891-9
APPENDIX B
Social Legislation in Representative Indian States, 1901-39
INDEX