NCERT Chapter Summary: Women, Caste, and Reform

NCERT Chapter Summary: Women, Caste, and Reform

1. Describe the Child Marriage Restraint Act.

According to the Child Marriage Restraint Act passed in 1929, no man below the age of 18 and woman below the age of 16 could marry.

2. Why were social reformers felt important?

The social reformers were important because they felt that some changes were necessary in our society and unjust practices needed to be abolished from the society.

3. What is Sati Pratha?

Sati pratha refers to the widows who chose death by burning themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands. Women who died in this manner were called sati meaning virtuous women.

4. Who was Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar?

Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar was a reformer in Bengal who took forward the cause of remarriage of widows and educations of women.

5. Who was Sawami Dayanand Saraswati?

Swami Dayanand Saraswati was the founder the Arya Samaj. He raised his voice in favour of widow remarriage.

6. Write about the Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya?

Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya was one of the first institutions to provide girls with the kind of learning that was usual for boys at that time.

7. Who was Pandita Ramabai?

Pandita Ramabai was a scholar of Sanskrit who felt that Hindu religion was oppressive towards women. She founded the ‘Sharda Sadan’ a school for the widows in Bombay and a shelter for widows at Poona.

8. Who was Mumtaz Ali?

Mumtaz Ali was a social reformer. Ali reinterpreted verses from Koran in favour of educating women.

9. Name the leaders who lent their support to demand for greater equality and freedom for women.

Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose lent their support to demands for greater equality and freedom for women.

10. Explain the Aligarh Movement.

In 1875, the Mohanmmedan Anglo-Oriental College was founded by Sayyid Ahmed Khan at Aligarh. The Aligarh Movement had an enormous impact in the area of educational reform.

11. Who was Raja Raammohan Roy?

Raja Rammohan Roy was the Indian reformer who founded Brahmo Samaj in Calcutta and worked for the emanicipation of Women. He banned the practice of ‘sati’.