Introduction
Shashi Tharoor in his book 'An Era of Darkness', tells us about the White Man's burden theory of conquering India to civilise it.
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Main Body
Historian Ferguson says - "They were perplexed when they saw serpents and humans with thousand hands and many legs."
But, it is to an extent true that Indian society had accumulated some social evils like
-> Untouchability -> Sati tradition
-> Child marriage -> Caste discrimination
-> Inward looking -> Superstitions etc.
Thus many social Reformers got up to reform India to make sure that India would not be humiliated by the Britishers in name of backward culture.
Reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Mr. Jyotiba Phule, Ramabai Saraswati, Annie Besant, Vivekananda etc. fought against evils (social) as a response to its opposition rise to colonial rule.
[BUT] There were others like Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Madan Mohan Malviya, who wanted political freedom first and social reform next.
But social and political reform cannot be divorced as it is an intertwined process reinforcing each other.
Conclusion
Even today, we are on the path of social reform towards true swarajya.
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- Good use of author reference and historian's quote
- Balanced perspective acknowledging both colonial narrative and genuine social evils
Anshul Bhatt
Modern Indian History
Social Reform Movements
Social Evils and Reformers
184
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analytical
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