Reform Movements and the Hindu Renaissance

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, under British rule, Hindu society experienced a period of intense debate and renewal, often called the Hindu Renaissance. Faced with Western education, Christian missionary criticism and new ideas of science and reason, Hindu thinkers set out to reform social practices they considered unjust, return to what they saw as the pure sources of their tradition and present Hinduism confidently to India and the world.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj

Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833), a Bengali scholar fluent in Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and English, is often called the “father of modern India”. Drawing on the Upanishads, he argued that the original Hinduism worshipped one formless God, and he rejected image worship and many rituals. In 1828 he founded the Brahmo Sabha, later the Brahmo Samaj, a community dedicated to worship of the one God.

Roy campaigned against sati, the practice of widows burning themselves on their husbands' funeral pyres, which was banned in Bengal in 1829. He also promoted women's education and modern schooling. He died in Bristol in 1833. Later Brahmo leaders included Debendranath Tagore, father of the poet Rabindranath Tagore, and Keshab Chandra Sen.

Social reformers

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820–1891), a Sanskrit scholar, campaigned for the remarriage of widows, legalised by the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856, and for girls' education.
The Prarthana Samaj (founded 1867), led by figures such as M. G. Ranade, promoted similar reforms in Maharashtra.
Jyotirao Phule (1827–1890) and his wife Savitribai Phule opened schools for girls and for low-caste children, and in 1873 founded the Satyashodhak Samaj to challenge caste and Brahmin dominance.
Narayana Guru (1856–1928) of Kerala, from a community regarded as low-caste, consecrated temples open to all and taught “one caste, one religion, one God for humanity”.

Dayananda Saraswati and the Arya Samaj

Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1824–1883) founded the Arya Samaj in Bombay in 1875. His message was “back to the Vedas”: he taught that the Vedas alone were authoritative and that later practices such as image worship, hereditary caste, child marriage and many rituals were corruptions. The Arya Samaj promoted education through its network of DAV (Dayanand Anglo-Vedic) schools and colleges, supported widow remarriage, and introduced a ceremony of shuddhi (“purification”) to welcome converts and returnees to Hinduism. Dayananda's main work is the Satyarth Prakash (“Light of Truth”).

Ramakrishna and Vivekananda

A different kind of renewal came from the mystic Ramakrishna (1836–1886), a priest of the goddess Kali near Calcutta, who taught that all religions are paths to the same God. His disciple Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) electrified the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 and founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897, combining spiritual practice with social service. Vivekananda presented Hinduism, especially Advaita Vedanta, as a universal and tolerant religion, and inspired a new pride in Hindu tradition.

Other influences

The Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875 and based in Adyar, near Madras, from 1882, promoted Hindu and Buddhist ideas in the West and in India. Its leader Annie Besant became an important figure in Indian politics. Thinkers such as Sri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi drew on Hindu tradition in their spiritual and political work. Gandhi made the Bhagavad Gita and ahimsa central to the independence movement.

Hindu nationalism

The same period also saw the emergence of Hindu nationalism, which sought to define Indian national identity in terms of Hindu culture. In 1923 V. D. Savarkar's book Hindutva set out the idea of a Hindu nation, and in 1925 the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded. These ideas remain influential, and much debated, in Indian politics today. See Hinduism today.

Legacy

The reform movements changed Hinduism profoundly. They challenged practices such as sati, child marriage and untouchability; promoted education for women and lower castes; and produced the confident, philosophically framed Hinduism that spread around the world in the twentieth century.

Sources and further reading

Kenneth W. Jones, Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India (Cambridge University Press, 1989).
Wilhelm Halbfass, India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding (SUNY Press, 1988).
Christophe Jaffrelot (ed.), Hindu Nationalism: A Reader (Princeton University Press, 2007).