10 min readConcept sheetSection A MCQ (1 mark) and objective (2 marks, two parts); Section B short answer (3 marks) or long answer (6 marks), often with a choice; Section B map work (4 marks)

Laws for social reform, girls' education and the impact of the reform movements

Reform movements won laws for women, spread modern and girls' education, and built self-respect that fed the national movement, though they reached mostly the educated few.

1829Sati banned by Lord William Bentinck

1856Hindu Widow Remarriage Act

1872Law allowing inter-caste and inter-communal marriages

Sharda Act, 1929No marriage of girls under 14 or boys under 18

Laws for social reform: a timeline

Each law came after long campaigns by reformers. Female infanticide was also declared illegal.

1829
Sati made illegal and punishable (Lord William Bentinck).
1856
Hindu Widow Remarriage Act: widows may marry again.
1860
A law raises the marriageable age of girls to ten, as your lesson puts it.
Strictly, the Indian Penal Code of 1860 made 10 the age of consent for girls. A minimum age for marriage came only with the Sharda Act of 1929.
1872
A law allows inter-caste and inter-communal marriages.
1929★
Sharda Act against child marriage: girls under 14 and boys under 18 may not marry.

★ key step

Spread of modern and girls' education

Every reform group, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Parsi, treated modern education as the main tool of change.
Girls' schools spread. Vidyasagar helped open about 35 in Bengal, and the Phules opened one in Pune in 1848. Parsi reformers spread girls' education in Bombay.
New colleges taught science and English: the Hindu College (Calcutta), the M.A.O. College (Aligarh), D.A.V. colleges, Khalsa College (Amritsar) and the Central Hindu College (Banaras).
Pandita Ramabai educated and trained widows, and Sir Syed argued for the education of Muslim girls.
Educated women began to take up jobs and public work outside the home.

Impact of the reform movements

They created socio-religious awareness and a rational, scientific outlook.
They showed that modern ideas could be blended with Indian culture, not set against it.
They criticised caste, especially untouchability, and worked for liberty, equality and fraternity.
They improved women's status through laws and education, and women came out of purdah.
They built self-respect, self-confidence and pride in India, and a sense of being Indian.
They fed the national movement. Women such as Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant, Aruna Asaf Ali and Captain Lakshmi Sehgal of the INA played key roles.
After 1919 the national movement itself became the main carrier of reform. It used Indian languages, novels, plays, poetry, the press and, from the 1930s, cinema.

Achievements and limitations

What they achievedLaws against sati and child marriage, widow remarriage, girls' schools, a rational outlook and national pride.

Where they fell shortThey touched only a small, mostly educated section. The vast masses of peasants and urban poor went on living as before.

In a 6-mark answer, end with one limitation. It shows a balanced view.

On the map

Calcutta (Kolkata): on the Hooghly in West Bengal; Brahmo Samaj (1828), Hindu College, Mohammedan Literary Society (1863).
Bombay (Mumbai): on the west coast of Maharashtra; Prarthana Samaj (1867) and Parsi reform (1851). The Arya Samaj was also founded here, in 1875.
Pune: inland in western Maharashtra, south-east of Mumbai; Phule's girls' school (1848), Satya Shodhak Samaj (1873), Arya Mahila Samaj (1882).
Aligarh: in western Uttar Pradesh, between the Ganga and the Yamuna, south-east of Delhi; M.A.O. College (1875).
Ghazipur: in eastern Uttar Pradesh on the Ganga; Sir Syed's English school (1864).
Banaras (Varanasi): on the Ganga in eastern Uttar Pradesh; Sanskrit College and Central Hindu College.
Amritsar: in Punjab, near the border with Pakistan; Singh Sabha, Khalsa College (1892) and the Akali movement.

Activity: practices that still survive

1
Pick two practices that survive despite the laws, such as dowry, child marriage, killing of girls before birth, or caste discrimination.
2
Note one news report or local example of each, without naming the people involved.
3
Write what you can do: set an example in your own family, discuss it in a group, write to a newspaper, or help someone in distress.
4
Find out which official or helpline in your district handles a complaint about child marriage or dowry.
5
Share your plan in about 50 words.

In real life

The Sharda Act's aim lives on in the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, which sets the minimum marriage age at 18 for women and 21 for men. Inter-caste marriages, first made legal in 1872, are now registered under the Special Marriage Act, 1954.

Exam angle

2 marks: “Name two laws passed in British India to improve the status of women, with their years.” The ban on sati (1829) and the Hindu Widow Remarriage Act (1856). The Sharda Act (1929) is another.

6 marks: “How did the 19th century reform movements change Indian society? Give five changes and one limitation.” Opening line, then: socio-religious awareness and a rational outlook; modern ideas blended with Indian culture; attack on caste and untouchability; laws of 1829, 1856, 1872 and 1929 and girls' schools; self-respect and national pride feeding the freedom struggle; limitation: reached mainly the educated few.

4 marks: “On an outline map of India, mark Calcutta, Pune, Aligarh and Amritsar, and name one reform linked with each.” Calcutta (Hooghly, West Bengal): Brahmo Samaj. Pune (western Maharashtra): Satya Shodhak Samaj. Aligarh (western Uttar Pradesh): M.A.O. College. Amritsar (Punjab): Khalsa College and the Akali movement.

Remember it

Reform laws 29, 56, 72, 29: sati out (1829), widows remarry (1856), any caste may marry (1872), child marriage barred (1929).