History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s2.97

v7.c96.s2.97

Let us now turn to the reform and reorganization of Hindu Society and religion. The Portuguese came to India towards the end of the 15th century and acquired some territory on the Western coast of India. But owing to religious intolerance and persecution by them not much impression was made by them on Hindu society. But the case was different with the British, who did not imitate the Portuguese in the matter of religion, but wanted trade, wealth and power. On account of the British rule established over a large part of India from 1765 A. D. Indians came in contact with modern English literature and modern science. The earliest Indian reformer in modern times was a Bengali, Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833). He founded the Brāhmo Samāja in 1828. Some of the great names in the effort to reorganize and reform Hindu society and religion are those of Devendranath Tagore (1817–1905), Keshub Chandra Sen (1838–1884), Ishvarachandra Vidyasagar, Dayānand (1824–1883) who founded the Āryasamāja in 1877 and who regarded only the Vedas as authoritative, Rāmakrishna Paramahamsa (1834–1886) and his great disciple Swami Vivekānanda (1863–1902), who founded the Ramkrishna Mission for propagating Vedānta and doing charity work among the poor and the needy, M. G. Ranade (1842-1901) who was closely connected with the Prārthanāsamāja of Bombay, Agarkar, Phule, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Gandhiji (1869-1948), Dr. Karve (who founded the Women's University in 1916). Those interested may usefully read 'A Century of Social Reform' by S. Natarajan (Asia Publishing House Bombay), G. N. Farquhar's 'Modern religious movements in India' (Macmillan, 1917), W. T. de Bary's 'Sources of Indian Tradition', New York, 1958 (pp. 604-659).