Jagran Public School ,Noida

Class:8
Sub: Social Studies
Challenging the Caste System
Take off
• Raja Ram Mohan Roy advocated against the practice of sati.
• The Arya Samaj was founded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati.

Warm up
Only children of upper caste were allowed to sit in the front row.

Find out
Baranagar, Kolkata

Investigate
• According to Jyotiba Phule lack of education leads to lack of wisdom which is the source of
all evils in the society.
• Jyotiba Phule was an important figure among the socio-religious reformers of India. He
revolted against the unjust caste system under which millions of Indians suffered. In this regard, he
is hailed as the father of social revolution in India and is called Mahatma Phule.
Work out
A)
1. c 2. c 3. b 4. A
B)
1. Kandukuri Veereasalingam Pantulu 2. Narayan Guru 3.Mahatma Gandhi 4. social
reformers 5. abroad
C)
1. F 2. F 3. F 4. F 5. T
D)
1. Untouchability refers to the low status of particular castes who perform menial tasks.
2. There were no images of gods and goddesses in the temples established by Narayana Guru.
3. Ramakrishna Mission
4. Justice Ranade and Dr Ramakrishna G Bhandarkar
5. Swami Vivekananda was a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. He explained that no religious text
prescribed the caste system, and that, it was a social, not religious system. He stressed on humanism
and doing service to mankind. According to him, no religion spoke of untouchability.
E)
1. The caste system remains a major social evil in India. Hindus were divided into four main
castes: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. Each caste was divided into many
sub-castes. This system created great disunity among the people. The Shudras were banned from
using public places like temples, schools, wells and even rivers. They were treated as ‘untouchables’.
People belonging to higher castes could not travel overseas as they feared losing the purity of their
caste. Thus, the caste system prevented people from developing a feeling of brotherhood.
2. The social reformers made efforts in removing the evils of society such as the caste system
and untouchability. They also worked towards the upliftment of the women and stressed
on doing away with child marriages, purdah system and other evils.
3. Raja Ram Mohan Roy condemned the oppression of the lower castes by the upper castes. He
wanted people to understand the meaning of the scriptures so that they could free themselves from
meaningless rituals of religion. Therefore, he got the Vedas and Upnishads translated into Bengali.
He established the Brahmo Samaj in 1828, as an expression of his concept of universal worship.
4. Dr Ambedkar belonged to a lower caste and experienced a lot of indignities because ofthis.
He fought for the cause of removing untouchability. He organized the All India Deprived Class
Federation. He organized many campaigns for lower castes to be allowed to enter temples, and
draw water from the wells belonging to upper castes. B. R. Ambedkar involved the deprived classes
in the national movement. He published a paper known as ‘Castes in India’ and published a weekly
called Mooknayak, which attacked the Hindu orthodox legacy. The Bahishkrit Hitkarini Sabha was
formulated with the objective of promoting education and the social upliftment of the backward and
deprived classes.
5. E.V. Ramasamy was a campaigner of the right of the lower castes because he fought against
the domination by Brahmins. He also criticized Hindu scriptures openly. He encouraged lower castes
to free themselves from the clutches of religion in order to achieve social equality. He established a
self-respect movement to fight for the rights of the Dalits, especially securing government jobs
through the reservation policy.

Think
1. Mahatma Gandhiji played a memorable role in uplifting the untouchables. Gandhiji
popularized the word ‘Harijan’ meaning ‘the people of God’
— a word which was first coined and used by a Gujarati Brahmin saint by name Narasinha Mehta.
According to Gandhiji, the practice of
untouchability is “a leper wound in the whole-body of Hindu politic”. He even regarded it as “the
hate fullest expression of caste”. He made it his life’s mission to wipe out untouchability and to uplift
the depressed and the downtrodden people. As a servant of mankind, he preached that all human
beings are equal and hence the Harijans too have a right for social life along with other caste groups.
2. No, untouchability does not exist today. We still have a caste system, particularly in the
villages.

Life skills and values

*It is very sad and disheartening that still this practice of discrimination exists in our country. Unless
we get rid of this social evil all our developmental goals will remain meaningless. The caste system is
the worst evil that our society ever experienced. If a group of people is ignored and deprived of their
basic rights
on the basis of birth, they can never raise to the level of development comparing to other groups of
people. As a result the over all development of the country remain a dream.

Recap Link
You Tube Link:
https://youtu.be/dOjM4Fgwk5w