Social & Religious Reform (Set 2)

The correct answer is the British Indian Army. Walangkar served in the army before retiring to devote himself to anti-caste reform, and later petitioned the government about discrimination against untouchable soldiers.

The correct answer is the organised movement against untouchability. Walangkar’s 1888 journal and his petitions to the British government predate Ambedkar’s own anti-caste activism by several decades.

The correct answer is he wrote petitions to the British government. Walangkar petitioned specifically about the discrimination faced by untouchable soldiers within the army itself.

The correct answer is cholera. Derozio died in December 1831, aged just 22, months after his dismissal from Hindu College.

The correct answer is Ramtanu Lahiri. Krishna Mohan Banerjee, another Derozian, instead converted to Christianity and led the Bengal Christian Association — a different but related act of breaking with orthodoxy.

The correct answer is Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, and David Ricardo. The Derozians drew on classical economics to argue against monopolistic trade systems.

Gopal Baba Walangkar, a retired Mahar soldier from Maharashtra, published Vital-Vidhvansak (Destroyer of Caste-Creeds) in 1888 — the first periodical written for Dalit readers — and later petitioned the British for Mahar community rights. Phule’s own paper was Deenbandhu, while Narayana Guru (Kerala) and Iyothee Thass (Madras) built their movements through other institutions.

Dr B.R. Ambedkar founded the All India Scheduled Castes Federation in 1942 to give the Depressed Classes a political voice independent of the Congress — the direct organizational heir of the 19th-century caste-consciousness movements. Phule died in 1890, Periyar worked in Madras, and Karunanidhi was a later DMK leader.

Dayananda took inspiration from the Vedas – his slogan was ‘Back to the Vedas’ (or ‘Go back to the Vedas’). He rejected the Puranas, idol worship, polytheism and priestly ritual as later corruptions, arguing the Vedas taught a single supreme God.

All three statements are correct: Sawai Jai Singh and Parshuram Bhau both supported widow remarriage, and Raja Ram Mohan Roy campaigned against the practice of Sati (which Bentinck later abolished in 1829).

The answer is Devendranath Tagore, who founded it in 1839 to spread rational, reformed religious thought in Bengal.

The answer is G.H. Deshmukh (Lokahitwadi). His ‘Shatapatre’ (Hundred Letters), published 1848-50, sparked public debate on caste, education, and social reform.

The answer is Abbe J. A. Dubois. This French missionary wrote extensively on Indian manners and customs in the early 19th century.

The answer is Radhakanta Deb. He founded the Dharma Sabha in 1830 as a conservative counter to reformist movements like the Brahmo Samaj.

The answer is village panchayat documents from Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. These local records preserve women’s petitions and complaints about family neglect and infidelity in ways formal chronicles do not.

Henry Vivian Derozio taught at Hindu College in Calcutta and inspired a group of radical young students known as Young Bengal. He encouraged them to question orthodox customs and think freely, using rational and often provocative debate. David Hare helped establish educational institutions, while the Tagores were reformers in other spheres, not founders of this specific movement.

Vishnu Shastri Pundit founded the Widow Remarriage Association. Karsondas Mulji started the Gujarati weekly Satya Prakash in 1852 to push the same cause. Debendranath Tagore founded the Tattvabodhini Sabha in 1839 in Calcutta, later merging it into the Brahmo Samaj. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the Brahmo reformer, wrote the Persian tract Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin against idol worship in the early 1800s. This gives the code A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1.

Namdharis were called Kukas because of the shrieks made in ecstasy near the end of their kirtan.

Ram Singh met Guru Balak Singh and became his disciple and successor. Namdharis count Balak Singh as the 11th guru.

He held simple marriages with four laavans in Khote village in 1863. He also cut the cost of weddings.

Mangoo Ram helped organise the Ad Dharm movement in the 1920s. It sought public recognition and an end to caste exclusion.