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FREEDOM MOVEMENT
Eternal India
encyclopedia
PHASE II1885-1905 DAWN OF NATIONALISM : CONGRESS ERA :
NEW AWAKENING
There was the Dawn of Nationalism
with the Western impact on the Indian
mind. The first faint glimmer appeared in
Bengal. Young literate Bengali Hindus
were beginning to learn English in order to
enter the company's employment.
Christian missionaries opened English
schools in Calcutta. David Hare inspired
the establishment of Calcutta's Hindu Col-
lege. Renowned Sanskritist Horace Wilson
established the Sanskrit College.
Many Indians began to see the vision
of a free India cherishing the Western ide-
als of justice, democracy and liberty while
preserving its own cultural inheritance.
These were the first Indian national-
ists and their most distinguished represen-
tative was Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1774-
1833). He soon established himself as a
bold reformer. The Brahmo Samaj was
founded by him in 1828, and this Samaj in-
spired many movements in other parts of
the country.
Derozio, a young poet and teacher, in-
spired the young Bengali movement which
questioned all traditions.
Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, a great
scholar and reformer, dedicated his life to
the cause of improving the lot of women,
particularly the Hindu widows. In North
India, the Arya Samaj of Swami Dayanand
Saraswati founded in 1875, played an im-
portant role in the spread of education and
reform of Hindu society. The most impor-
tant figure in the spread of education and
social and religious reforms among Mus-
lims was Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who
founded the MAO College at Aligarh in
1875.
A
Mohammedan
Literary
Society
started by Abdul Latif in 1863 in Calcutta
also promoted the cause of Muslim educa-
tion. A religious school at Deoband infused
its students with love of freedom.
In 1835, on the advice of Macaulay, the
British decided to support “the promotion
of European literature and science among
the natives of India”.
The setting up of three universities, at
Calcutta, Madras and Bombay gave impe-
tus to higher education. Non-official Bri-
tishers like David Hare and Bethune helped
Indians to spread modern education. Other
scholars like William Jones, founder of the
Asiatic Society, Prinsep and Colebrooke
also played an important part in awakening
the Indians intellectually. The writings of
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, the composer
of
“Bande Mataram ”,
and the speeches of
Swami
Vivekananda,
the
disciple
of
Ramakrishna, inspired a new patriotic spirit
in the country.
Movements for women's emancipation
and against caste rigidity and religious
orthodoxy began to take root in the middle
of the nineteenth century in western and
southern India. In 1844, Dadoba Pan-
durang and Durgaram Mahendram formed
the
Manovdharva
Sabha.
Paramhamsa
Mandali, was founded by Pandurang in
Bombay in 1849 to promote widow marriage
and education among women and “lower
castes”. It also attacked idolatry. Lokahitavadi
Gopal Hari Deshmukh and Jotika Phule also
worked for the liberation of women and lower
castes.
R.G. Bhandarkar, M.G. Ranade and
K.T. Telang founded the Prarthana Samaj in
1867. The Christian missionaries, Elphin-
stone (Governor of Madras) and Norton played
an important role in the spread of education in
Madras.
The Theosophical Society was formed
by Annie Besant with the help of Col. Olcott
and Madam Blavatsky, with its headquar-
ters at Adyar in Madras. In Madras part of
the estate of Pachaiyappa was utilized for the
purpose of education.
In 1864, the Veda Samaj, inspired by
the Brahmo Samaj, was formed in Madras
by Sridharalu Naidu. Kandukuri Veere-
satingam (1848-1919) was the leading fig-
ure in the social reform movement in
Andhra. Pandita. Ramabai and Behramji
Malabari started a campaign for women's
uplift. In 1851, Nauroji Furdonji, Dadabhai
Naoroji and others formed an organization
for religious and social reforms among the
Parsis.
In Kerala, Sri Narayana Guru with his
mantra
‘one caste, one religion and one god’
for men awakened the oppressed in Hindu
society.
In 1887, an all-India movement of so-
cial reform was launched by the National
Social Conference and a weekly paper
Indian
Social Reformer
was started in 1890. Sunda-
ram Pillai and other Tamil writers advocated
ideas of human equality.
“Among the great galaxy of remarkable
figures that will appear to the eye of
posterity at the head of the Indian
Renaissance, one stands out by himself
with
the
peculiar
and
solitary
distinctness, one unique in this type, as
he is unique in his work. It is as if one
were to walk for a long time amid a range
of hills rising to a greater or lesser
altitude, but all with sweeping contours,
green-clad, flattering the eye even in
their stands apart, piled up in sheer
strength, a mass of bare and puissant
granite, with verdure on its summit, a
solitary pine jutting out into the blue, a
great cascade of pure, vigorous and
fertilising water gushing out from its
strength as a very fountain of life and
health to the valley. Such is the
impression created on my mind by
Dayanand. He was a great soldier of
Light, a warrior in God’s world, a
sculptor of men and institutions, a bold
and rugged victory of the difficulties
which matter presents to spirit. He
brought back an old Aryan element into
the national character. He was not only
plastic to the great hand of Nature, but
asserted his own right and power to use
life and Nature as plastic material. We
can imagine his soul crying still to us
with our insufficient spring of manhood
and action, 'Be not content, O Indian,
only to be infinitely and grow vaguely,
but see what God intended these to be,
determine in the light of His inspiration
to what thou shalt grow. Seeing, how
that out of thyself; Be a thinker, but be
also a doer; be a soul, but be also a man;
be a servant of God but be also a master
of Nature. ”
- Sri Aurobindo