Indian Renaissance: Social and Religious Reformers in India | ICSE Class 8 History & Civics Notes

This note covers the Indian Renaissance, campaigns against harmful social practices, women's education, widow remarriage, religious reform associations, challenges to caste inequality, leading reformers, and the achievements and limitations of social reform.

What was the background to the Indian Renaissance?

What does Renaissance mean here?

Renaissance means rebirth or renewal. The Indian Renaissance refers here to the social and religious awakening in which Indians questioned established practices and sought changes in society. Social reform means deliberate efforts to change unjust social customs and relationships.

Religious reform involves reconsidering religious beliefs and practices. Social and religious questions frequently overlapped because reformers and their opponents both discussed religious arguments about marriage, education and caste. The movements did not all follow the same methods or accept the same authorities.

What inequalities prompted reform?

About two hundred years ago, most children were married at an early age. Most women had virtually no access to education, and women's property rights were restricted. In many parts of the country, people believed that educating a woman would cause her to become a widow.

A widow is a woman whose husband has died. In some parts of India, widows were praised for dying on their husbands' funeral pyres. This practice was called sati; women who died this way, willingly or otherwise, were described as virtuous women.

Caste refers to inherited social group divisions that, in this setting, ranked people unequally. Groups regarded as “untouchable” faced exclusion from temples, wells and ponds used by upper castes. Untouchability means such exclusion based on the belief that contact with particular groups causes pollution.

These were discriminatory beliefs, not evidence that any group was inferior. Over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many such norms and perceptions slowly changed. Reform involved challenging both the practices themselves and the arguments used to defend them.

Note: The Indian Renaissance brought debates and movements for change. It did not mean that every community immediately abandoned every unequal practice.

Why did public debate grow, and how did Rammohun Roy promote change?

Why did printing matter?

New forms of communication helped discussions reach a wider public. Printed books, newspapers, magazines, leaflets and pamphlets, short publications presenting information or arguments, were cheaper and more accessible than handwritten manuscripts. Ordinary people could read them, and many of them could also write and express ideas in their own languages.

Men, and sometimes women, discussed social, political, economic and religious issues in the new cities. These discussions could become connected to movements for change. Printing gave reformers a way to present arguments beyond a single meeting or conversation.

What did Raja Rammohun Roy argue?

Raja Rammohun Roy (1772 to 1833) founded the Brahmo Sabha in Calcutta, later known as the Brahmo Samaj. A reform association is an organised group working for changes in society. He favoured Western education and greater freedom and equality for women.

He criticised the burden of domestic work placed on women and their confinement to the home and kitchen. He also questioned the denial of education to women. Persuading people to abandon unjust practices was central to his approach to reform.

Rammohun Roy knew Sanskrit, Persian and several other Indian and European languages. In his campaign against sati, he used his knowledge of ancient texts to argue that widow burning lacked their sanction. Here, sanction means approval or authorisation.

Many British officials had also begun criticising Indian customs and were willing to listen to him. Sati was banned in 1829. His campaign combined public persuasion with arguments about the meaning of religious texts.

The Brahmo Samaj, formed in 1830, prohibited all forms of idolatry and sacrifice. Idolatry means worship of images as divine; sacrifice here means a religious offering. The association drew critically on religious ideals and forbade members from criticising other religious practices.

Its belief in the Upanishads, ancient religious and philosophical texts, shows that reform could involve reinterpreting inherited traditions. Reformers did not necessarily reject all earlier religious learning when they opposed a particular social custom.

How did Vidyasagar, Veerasalingam and Dayanand support widow remarriage?

How were ancient texts used?

Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar used ancient texts to argue that widows could remarry. British officials adopted his suggestion, and a law permitting widow remarriage was passed in 1856. This addressed a different problem from the campaign against sati.

Opponents of widow remarriage resisted Vidyasagar and even boycotted him. To boycott someone means to refuse association or dealings with that person as a form of opposition. Legal permission therefore existed alongside continuing social hostility.

Vidyasagar's method resembled Rammohun Roy's: a reformer could find support in an ancient text and argue that an existing harmful practice did not represent early tradition. Such arguments challenged people who defended a custom simply because they regarded it as religious.

How did the campaign spread?

In the second half of the nineteenth century, support for widow remarriage spread to other regions. Veerasalingam Pantulu, also known as Kandukuri Veerasalingam, formed an association for widow remarriage in the Telugu-speaking areas of the Madras Presidency, a British administrative region.

Young intellectuals and reformers in Bombay also pledged to work for this cause. In northern India, Swami Dayanand Saraswati supported widow remarriage. He founded the Arya Samaj in 1875 as an organisation attempting to reform Hinduism.

The Arya Samaj also established girls' schools in Punjab in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Its activities connected religious reform with practical efforts to change women's opportunities, rather than confining reform to discussions about belief.

Note: The number of widows who actually remarried remained low. Those who remarried were not easily accepted, and conservative groups, meaning groups defending established practices, continued to oppose the new law.

The campaign therefore illustrates two different tasks: changing a legal restriction and changing social acceptance. The passage of the law was an important achievement, but it did not by itself remove the hostility faced by widows.

How did different groups participate in the expansion of education?

How did reformers establish schools?

Many reformers considered girls' education necessary for improving women's condition. Vidyasagar established girls' schools in Calcutta, while other reformers did so in Bombay. Jyotirao Phule supported girls' schooling in Maharashtra, and the Arya Samaj established girls' schools in Punjab.

Opponents feared that schooling would take girls away from domestic duties. They also feared the effects of girls travelling through public spaces. Throughout the nineteenth century, most educated women were taught at home by fathers or husbands willing to support their learning.

Sometimes women taught themselves. Rashsundari Debi secretly learnt to read and write at night. Her experience shows that the desire to learn could exist even where opportunities for open attendance at school were restricted.

How did women themselves lead reform?

Tarabai Shinde, educated at home in Poona, wrote Stripurushtulna, meaning A Comparison between Women and Men. She criticised unequal treatment of men and women. Her writing made women active critics of social arrangements, rather than merely recipients of help.

Pandita Ramabai, a Sanskrit scholar, wrote about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women. She established a widows' home at Poona. Women received shelter and training there so that they could support themselves economically.

The Begums of Bhopal founded a primary school for girls at Aligarh. Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain established schools for Muslim girls in Patna and Calcutta. She criticised conservative ideas and the inferior position assigned to women by religious leaders of every faith.

By the end of the nineteenth century, women wrote books, edited magazines, founded schools and training centres, and established associations. In the early twentieth century, they formed groups pressing for female suffrage, the right of women to vote, and better education and health care.

How did Muslim educational reform develop?

In aristocratic Muslim households in northern India, women learnt to read the Koran, Islam's sacred text, in Arabic from women teachers at home. Mumtaz Ali reinterpreted its verses to support women's education. Religious interpretation could therefore support educational change.

Sayyid Ahmed Khan, also known as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, founded the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh in 1875. It offered Muslims modern education, including Western science, and later became Aligarh Muslim University.

The educational reform associated with this institution is called the Aligarh Movement. It had an enormous impact in educational reform. It should be distinguished from the separate initiatives through which Muslim women founded schools for girls.

How did religious associations and Vivekananda connect belief with reform?

What did the Prarthana and Veda Samajs seek?

The Prarthana Samaj, established at Bombay in 1867, sought to remove caste restrictions, abolish child marriage, encourage women's education and end the ban on widow remarriage. Its religious meetings drew upon Hindu, Buddhist and Christian texts.

It followed the tradition of Bhakti, religious devotion, which upheld the spiritual equality of all castes. This connection between spiritual equality and social reform challenged the idea that inherited caste rank should determine a person's worth.

The Veda Samaj, established in Madras, now Chennai, in 1864, was inspired by the Brahmo Samaj. Its members believed in one God. It opposed caste distinctions and promoted widow remarriage and women's education.

The Veda Samaj also condemned superstitions, unfounded beliefs about supernatural influences, and rituals, prescribed religious actions, associated with orthodox Hinduism. Orthodox here describes strict adherence to established religious beliefs and practices. Its programme combined religious criticism with efforts to change social relationships.

What was Vivekananda's message?

Swami Vivekananda (1863 to 1902), originally named Narendra Nath Dutta, spread the teachings of his guru, or spiritual teacher, Ramakrishna Paramhansa. The Ramakrishna Mission, named after his teacher, emphasised salvation through social service, work to help others, and selfless action, action without seeking personal gain. Salvation means spiritual liberation.

Vivekananda addressed the World Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893. He combined Ramakrishna's teachings with a modern outlook. His work involved spreading religious ideas, but he was also deeply concerned about the poverty and misery of ordinary people.

He believed that reform could succeed only by improving the condition of the masses, meaning the broad population. He urged people to overcome narrow religious divisions and come together in service of the nation.

His understanding of nationalism, commitment to a shared national community, was not narrow. He believed that many human problems could be overcome only if nations worked together as equals. He encouraged young people to unite through a common spiritual heritage.

For Vivekananda, serving people and pursuing spiritual aims were connected. This emphasis helps explain why the Ramakrishna Mission belongs in the history of social reform as well as the history of religious thought.

How did Phule and Narayana Guru challenge caste inequality?

What was Jyotirao Phule's argument?

Jyotirao Phule, born in 1827, studied in schools established by Christian missionaries, people spreading Christianity. He challenged claims that Brahmans were superior to others. His criticism addressed the authority used to justify unequal social rank.

Phule argued that Aryans had come from outside the subcontinent and subjugated its earlier inhabitants. He maintained that the land belonged to these indigenous people. Indigenous means belonging to a region's original inhabitants. These were Phule's arguments about history and power.

He proposed unity between Shudras, labouring castes, and Ati Shudras, groups treated as untouchable, to challenge discrimination. His Satyashodhak Samaj was an association that propagated caste equality. Its purpose was to question domination and build solidarity among subordinated groups.

In 1873, Phule wrote Gulamgiri, meaning Slavery. He dedicated it to Americans who had fought to free enslaved people. This connected the condition of lower castes in India with the condition of black slaves in America.

His concern extended to upper-caste women, labourers and people humiliated by caste. He also distrusted appeals for national unity that left upper-caste power unchallenged. He feared that unity serving the powerful would be followed by renewed separation and inequality.

What did Shri Narayana Guru teach?

Shri Narayana Guru, from the Ezhava caste in present-day Kerala, opposed unequal treatment based on caste differences. He argued that all humanity belonged to the same caste. His message emphasised one caste, one religion and one God for humankind.

He belonged to a wider pattern of leaders from non-Brahman castes working among their own communities. Such leaders sought to create self-esteem, a sense of one's own worth, among people whom dominant castes treated with contempt.

How did later struggles extend these demands?

B. R. Ambedkar challenged exclusion from temples and access to water. Between 1927 and 1935, he led three temple-entry movements intended to expose the power of caste prejudice. Prejudice means an adverse judgement based on group identity rather than individual conduct.

E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker, known as Periyar, founded the Self Respect Movement. He criticised religious texts that, he argued, sustained caste domination and men's domination over women. These arguments differed from attempts to find support for reform within sacred texts.

What roles did Annie Besant and the Singh Sabhas play?

How was Annie Besant associated with reform?

Annie Besant was associated with the Theosophical Society, a movement encouraging universal brotherhood and the study of religion and philosophy. In India, she supported education and an appreciation of Indian religious and philosophical traditions.

She helped establish the Central Hindu College at Benares, now Varanasi, in 1898. Her educational work provides a concrete example of an institution associated with the wider movement of social and religious renewal.

Besant's contribution can be understood alongside other educational efforts, while keeping their identities distinct. The Central Hindu College was associated with her work at Benares; the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College was associated with Sayyid Ahmed Khan at Aligarh.

What did the Singh Sabhas seek to change?

The Singh Sabhas were Sikh reform organisations. The first were formed at Amritsar in 1873 and Lahore in 1879. They sought to remove superstitions, caste distinctions and practices that they regarded as non-Sikh.

This last qualification matters: the practices were identified as non-Sikh by the reformers themselves. Understanding their aims requires recognising their point of view rather than treating their judgement as a description accepted by everyone.

The Sabhas promoted education among Sikhs, often combining modern instruction with Sikh teachings. Leaders of the movement established Khalsa College at Amritsar in 1892. Their activities show that modern education and the study of religious traditions could be pursued together within a reform programme.

Besant's work and the Singh Sabha Movement illustrate the variety of organisations involved in renewal. Both can be studied through educational activity, but they were separate movements with distinct religious settings and institutional histories.

How did the methods of different reformers compare?

What common methods connected different campaigns?

Reformers used several methods: writing, public discussion, reinterpretation of religious texts, the creation of associations, establishment of schools and demands for laws. A campaign could combine these methods rather than depend on a single type of action.

Persuasion meant trying to change people's views through reasons and arguments. Rammohun Roy used pamphlets and ancient texts against sati. Vidyasagar used ancient texts to support widow remarriage. Both challenged practices that opponents defended as traditional.

Where did approaches differ?

Reinterpretation means explaining a text or belief in a different way. It should be distinguished from rejecting that text's authority. Periyar argued that particular religious texts had supported social domination; he did not follow Vidyasagar's approach of finding ancient support for a proposed reform.

Nor should legal reform be confused with social service. Permission for widow remarriage altered a legal position, while a widows' home offered shelter and training. These were connected responses to hardship, but they addressed different needs.

Women and members of subordinated castes also spoke for themselves. The history of reform therefore includes organised challenges by people experiencing inequality, alongside assistance offered by reformers from other social backgrounds.

What timeline helps trace the development of reform?

The timeline below places selected campaigns, institutions and writings in chronological order. It shows several kinds of reform developing across different places, rather than a single organisation directing every activity.

The Paramhans Mandali was a reform association working against caste. The Child Marriage Restraint Act was a law intended to prevent child marriage. Its place near the end of this sequence shows that campaigns over marriage continued into the twentieth century.

Some years contain more than one event. This does not imply that the organisations were connected or that one caused the other. The Aligarh institution and Arya Samaj, for example, must retain their separate identities.

How do historical sources reveal the aims and limits of reform?

What can writings and speeches tell us?

Historical sources are records or remains used to study the past. Pamphlets, books, speeches and laws provide different kinds of evidence. A reformer's writing can reveal an argument, while a law records an official change in what was permitted or prohibited.

In pamphlet dialogues about sati, Rammohun Roy challenged claims that women lacked understanding. He asked how their abilities could be judged when they had not received education. His argument exposes the connection between denying opportunity and then using its effects to justify inequality.

Phule's Gulamgiri, published in 1873, links the struggle against caste oppression with opposition to slavery. Its dedication helps explain the breadth of his concern: he saw a connection between forms of subordination in different societies.

In a statement from 1927, Ambedkar explained the demand to use a tank as a claim to equal humanity. He called for society to be reorganised around equality and the absence of casteism. Casteism means attitudes or practices that uphold caste discrimination.

What must be checked alongside a law?

The ban on sati in 1829 and the permission for widow remarriage in 1856 identify legal changes. Yet the continued opposition to remarried widows shows why a legal record cannot establish that society accepted a reform immediately.

Tarabai Shinde's criticism of restrictions on widows reveals experiences that an account of legislation alone would miss. Studying such arguments alongside institutional activities helps distinguish the aims of reformers, the measures adopted and the obstacles that remained.

What were the consequences and limitations of social and religious reform?

What achievements can be identified?

Reform movements challenged practices that had been defended through custom and religious authority. They made questions about women's education, widow remarriage and caste inequality subjects of wider public discussion. Associations and printed writings gave these arguments more organised expression.

Educational reform expanded opportunities through schools, colleges and training centres. Women also became authors, teachers and organisers. Their activity changed who could participate in debates: women increasingly expressed their own criticism of their position in society.

Legal change included the ban on sati in 1829, permission for widow remarriage in 1856, and the Child Marriage Restraint Act in 1929. These measures concerned different practices and should not be treated as a single law.

Campaigns against caste asserted the humanity and dignity of excluded groups. Leaders such as Phule and Narayana Guru challenged claims of inherited superiority. Later movements exposed exclusion from shared spaces and questioned the authority supporting unequal treatment.

Why did inequality continue?

Resistance, organised or individual opposition to change, limited the acceptance of reforms. Opponents boycotted Vidyasagar; conservative groups opposed widow remarriage; and many people feared that girls' schooling would disrupt domestic life or expose girls to harmful influences.

The number of remarried widows remained low, and most educated women in the nineteenth century were taught at home. These qualifications prevent the mistaken conclusion that a law or a new school immediately transformed everyone's life.

Challenges by lower-caste leaders led to rethinking and some self-criticism among upper-caste nationalist leaders. Orthodox organisations also defended caste distinctions. Debate and struggle over caste continued beyond the colonial period, the period of foreign imperial rule.

The reform movements' legacy, their continuing influence, lies in these arguments and organised efforts towards greater equality. Their achievements were real, but their history also records persistent opposition, uneven opportunities and unfinished struggles.

Glossary

• Indian Renaissance — Social and religious awakening involving criticism of established practices and organised efforts to bring changes to Indian society.
• Social reform — Deliberate efforts to change unjust customs, social practices and unequal relationships within a society.
• Sati — Practice in which a widow died on her husband's funeral pyre, whether willingly or otherwise.
• Widow remarriage — Marriage of a woman after her husband's death, supported by reformers despite continuing social opposition.
• Caste — Inherited social group division associated here with unequal rank, restrictions and exclusion from shared resources.
• Untouchability — Exclusion of particular caste groups on the discriminatory belief that contact with them causes pollution.
• Pamphlet — A short printed publication used to communicate information or arguments to a wider readership.
• Orthodox — Strictly adhering to established religious beliefs and practices, including those challenged by particular reformers.
• Female suffrage — The right of women to vote, demanded by women's political pressure groups.
• Social service — Action undertaken to help other people, connected by the Ramakrishna Mission with selfless spiritual effort.
• Self-esteem — A sense of one's own worth, encouraged among groups subjected to contempt and social humiliation.
• Historical source — A record or remain used as evidence for studying and interpreting the past.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: Every reformer rejected ancient religious texts. Correct: Rammohun Roy and Vidyasagar used ancient texts to support change, while Periyar criticised the authority of particular texts.
• Misconception: The ban on sati and permission for widow remarriage were the same reform. Correct: Sati was banned in 1829; a separate law permitted widow remarriage in 1856.
• Misconception: Permission for widow remarriage ensured immediate social acceptance. Correct: The number of remarried widows remained low, and those who remarried continued to face hostility.
• Misconception: Women merely received help from male reformers. Correct: Women wrote, organised, established schools and training centres, and pressed for improvements in their own rights and opportunities.
• Misconception: Vivekananda was concerned solely with religious speeches. Correct: He emphasised improving ordinary people's condition, social service and selfless action alongside spiritual teaching.
• Misconception: All religious reform associations were branches of one movement. Correct: The Arya Samaj, Aligarh Movement, Singh Sabhas and other organisations had distinct identities and programmes.
• Misconception: Reform ended caste inequality during the colonial period. Correct: Challenges produced rethinking and opposition; debates and struggles continued beyond the colonial period.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. Sati, the practice of a widow dying on her husband's funeral pyre, was banned in 1829. A law permitting a widow to marry again after her husband's death was passed in 1856. Using these facts, distinguish the two legal changes. [2 marks]

1. The 1829 change prohibited sati, the practice of a widow dying on her husband's funeral pyre.
2. The 1856 change permitted a widow to marry again after her husband's death.

Q2. Rammohun Roy argued from ancient texts against sati; Vidyasagar used ancient texts to support widow remarriage; Periyar criticised texts that he believed supported caste and gender domination. Compare their approaches in three points. [3 marks]

1. Rammohun Roy used religious learning to argue that an existing harmful practice lacked approval in ancient texts. His approach challenged sati through interpretation.
2. Vidyasagar also appealed to ancient texts, but his immediate objective was support for widow remarriage. The two reformers shared a method while addressing different practices.
3. Periyar questioned the authority of texts he believed sustained inequality. His approach differed from seeking approval for reform within those texts.

Q3. Some opponents feared that schooling would prevent girls from performing domestic duties and that travelling through public spaces would harm them. Most educated women in the nineteenth century were taught at home; some taught themselves. Explain four features of this educational situation. [4 marks]

1. Expectations about domestic duties restricted support for girls' education. Opponents treated attendance at school as a threat to work they expected girls to perform at home.
2. Many people believed that travelling through public places to reach school would have a corrupting influence on girls. This belief led them to oppose girls leaving home to attend school.
3. Home teaching remained the experience of most educated women in the nineteenth century. Educated women should not automatically be assumed to have attended schools.
4. Some women taught themselves. This shows a further route to learning alongside school attendance and instruction at home.

Q4. Phule founded an association promoting caste equality, urged Shudras and Ati Shudras to unite, wrote Gulamgiri in 1873, dedicated it to Americans who fought to free slaves, and criticised suffering affecting women and labourers as well as lower castes. Explain five features of his reform programme from this information. [5 marks]

1. Phule promoted caste equality through an organised association. His programme therefore included collective activity rather than depending solely on an individual's private rejection of discrimination.
2. He urged Shudras and Ati Shudras to unite. This placed solidarity between groups suffering under unequal caste ranks at the centre of the challenge to unequal treatment.
3. He used writing to communicate his criticism. The publication of Gulamgiri in 1873 gave his reform programme a written expression that could be read and discussed.
4. His dedication linked struggles across societies. By honouring Americans who fought to free slaves, he connected opposition to slavery with his concern about caste oppression.
5. His concern extended beyond one group. Attention to women and labourers as well as lower castes shows the breadth of the inequalities he criticised.

Q5. Vivekananda connected successful reform with improving ordinary people's condition. The Ramakrishna Mission stressed social service and selfless action. Vivekananda urged service of the nation and cooperation among nations as equals. Explain these four connected ideas. [4 marks]

1. Improving ordinary people's condition was essential to Vivekananda's understanding of successful reform. Concern for people's lives was therefore part of his programme.
2. The Mission linked spiritual aims with social service and selfless action. Helping others formed part of religious practice in this approach.
3. His call to serve the nation connected reform with a shared national responsibility. It encouraged people to act together in service.
4. Cooperation among nations as equals extended this concern beyond national boundaries. His understanding of national service was compatible with international cooperation.

Q6. The Singh Sabhas began at Amritsar in 1873 and Lahore in 1879. They opposed caste distinctions and practices they regarded as non-Sikh, and promoted education, often combining modern instruction with Sikh teachings. Identify three features of their reform work. [3 marks]

1. They sought to remove caste distinctions within Sikhism.
2. They sought to remove practices that they themselves regarded as non-Sikh.
3. They promoted education, often bringing modern instruction together with Sikh teachings. The word “often” means this combination should not be described as universal.

Q7. A law permitted widow remarriage in 1856, but few widows remarried; those who did were not easily accepted, and conservative groups opposed the law. Explain two limits to treating legislation as proof of complete social change. [2 marks]

1. Legal permission did not ensure widespread use: the number of widows who actually remarried remained low.
2. Legal permission did not ensure acceptance: remarried widows faced hostility, and conservative groups continued their opposition.

Key takeaways

• The Indian Renaissance involved varied social and religious reform movements that questioned unjust practices and sought changes in Indian society.
• Rammohun Roy campaigned against sati, while Vidyasagar used ancient texts to support the separate cause of widow remarriage.
• Girls' schooling faced opposition, and most educated women in the nineteenth century continued to receive education at home.
• Women actively shaped reform through writing, schools, training centres, associations and campaigns for greater rights and opportunities.
• Vivekananda connected spiritual aims with service, selfless action and improvement in the condition of ordinary people.
• Phule and Narayana Guru challenged caste inequality, while later movements exposed continuing exclusion and humiliation.
• Religious reform organisations had distinct identities, even when their programmes shared concerns about education and social inequality.
• Legal reforms were significant achievements, but opposition and limited social acceptance meant that inequality did not disappear immediately.

Test yourself

What made printed pamphlets useful for reform?

They were cheaper and more accessible than manuscripts and helped arguments reach a wider public.

How did Vidyasagar argue for widow remarriage?

He used ancient texts to argue that widows could remarry.

What cause did Veerasalingam Pantulu organise an association to support?

He organised an association supporting widow remarriage in Telugu-speaking areas.

What was the educational contribution of Sayyid Ahmed Khan?

He founded the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh in 1875, offering Muslims modern education including Western science.

Why did Phule dedicate Gulamgiri to Americans who fought slavery?

He linked the condition of lower castes in India with the condition of black slaves in America.

What did Narayana Guru argue about caste?

He opposed unequal treatment based on caste and argued that all humanity belonged to the same caste.

Which college was associated with Annie Besant's educational work?

She helped establish the Central Hindu College at Benares in 1898.

Why should a law and its social effects be studied separately?

A law can change what is permitted while social opposition and unequal treatment continue.