Social and cultural awakenings in India was a result of Indian renaissance that was inspired by the Western concept of reason, equality and liberty. Renaissance – meaning revival or rebirth – was the great transitional movement of Europe that swept away medieval unprogressive ideas and substituted it with individualism, material emancipation, scepticism, nationalism, a more sound economic system and self-expression.

The most important cause for the social and cultural awakening in India in the 19th century was the establishment of British rule and its deep influence on the political, economic, social and cultural life of the country which, in turn, made conditions favourable to intellectual growth.

The liberal ideas of the early socio-religious reform movements, being progressive in nature, passionately criticized and opposed all biassed social and religious privileges and tried to replace them by advocating the principles of equal rights, individual liberty and free competition. By doing this these movements tried to rationalize religion and social institutions as caste hierarchy, untouchability, sex inequality social taboos and exploitation and degradation and exploitation of women had religious sanctions.

Indian Renaissance and Civil Society

The intelligentsia played a decisive role in the history of modern Indian nationalism by integrating the Indian people into a modern nation and organising various progressive socio-religious reform movements,that created the first Indian Renaissance, in the country. They, in fact, assimilated modern Western liberal ideas with Indian’s cultural past and fully understood the problems of rudimentary India and were the makers of modern India.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy and his Brahmo Samaj

Raja Ram Mohan Roy is considered among earliest torch bearers  of Indian Renaissance. He was the greatest exponent for the liberation of women, opposed polygamy, Sati, child marriage and supported the right of inheritance of property by daughters. Through his sustained efforts, he made Governor General, Lord William Bentick pass the famous regulation no. XVII in December 1829, that declared the practice of ‘Sati’ illegal.

In December 1821, he started the first Indian newspaper- Sabad Kaumudi, literally meaning the ‘moon of intelligence’- that was edited, published and managed by Indians.
To fight against evil customs he founded Amitya Sabha in 1815.

Brahmo Samaj

As Raja Ram Mohan Roy was deeply influenced by, monotheism and anti-idolatry of Islam, he invoked mystic ideas of Sufism and ethical teaching of Christianity. He always remained firm for uncompromising rationalism in his religious beliefs. It was so he, in 1828, founded the Brahmo Samaj at Calcutta to propagate the monotheistic doctrine of Hindu scriptures. The Brahmo Samaj did not propagate any definite rites and rituals. This organisation, as the first platform of New India, proved to be the precursor of the subsequent social reform movements started by M.G. Ranade and Others and the political movement launched by the Indian National Congress.

After Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s death-on September 27, 1833- Brahmo Samaj languished for some time for it lacked dynamic leadership. It became the responsibility of Devendra Nath Tagore to infuse new life and to give the theist movement a definite form and shape.

Adi Brahmo Samaj

In 1843, Devendra Nath Tagore founded the Adi Brahmo Samaj, also known as Tattvabodhini Samaj, to promote religious enquiry and dissiminate the knowledge of the Upanishads.

Manav Dharma Sabha

Durgaram Manchharam (1809-78) founded the Manav Dharma Sabha in 1844 at Surat. He was a vociferous critic of contemporary society. At the time of the foundation of this Sabha, Dadoba Panderung, Damini Shankar, Dalpatram Bhagubhai and Damodar Das were also with Durgaram Manchharam. They criticized caste without initiating any direct action against this institution. Though the Sabha ceased to function in 1852, it made a platform for later developments in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Paramhansa Mandali

In 1849, Dadoba Panderung-previously a member of Manav Dharm Sabha- organished the Paramhansa Mandali, a radical socio-religious society at Bombay, to propagate the principles which denied polytheism of popular Hinduism and the caste system. The society met in secret because it was not willing to openly change the Hindu orthodoxy.

Prarthana Samaj

Prarthana Samaj was founded by Dr. Atmaram Pandurang in 1867 in Bombay. As a reform movement within Hinduism, it advocated for inter-dining, inter-marriage, remarriage of windows and uplift of women and depressed classes.

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Arya Samaj

Swami Dayananda Saraswati, born in 1824 in a town named Tankara in Gujarat, founded Arya Samaj at Bombay in 1875. Arya Samaj Movement was an outcome of reaction to western influences. Although the founder of the Arya Samaj rejected Western ideas and sought to revive the ancient Vedic religion, his approach was based on rationalist aspect.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati was opposed to idolatry, ritual and priesthood. Arya Samaj, under his guidance, opposed child marriage, polygamy, purdah, casteism, the ‘Sati Pratha’. Some followers of Swami Dayanand later started a network of schools and colleges to impart education on western pattern.

Arya Samaj attacked religious superstitions, supremacy of Brahmins, polytheism and adopted the programme of mass education.

Arya Samaj also contributated to the Swaraj and Swadeshi movements by contributing leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gopal Krishna Gokhle for they were deeply influenced by the principles and philosophy of Arya Samaj.

After Swami Dayanand’s death the Arya Samaj movement split in two. One section, that was led by Swami Shraddhanand, adopted the ancient system of Hindu education at Hardwar for boys. The other section, that supported the spread of English education, was led by Lala Lajpat Rai and Hans Raj. It established a number of Dayanand Anglo Vedic schools and colleges for boys and girls, at Lahore.

Also Read: Swami Dayanand Saraswathi and the Arya Samaj

Ram Krishna Mission

This mission was conceived and founded by Swami Vivekanand in 1897, eleven years after the death of Ram Krishna Paramhans.

Ram Krishna Paramhans (1834-86), a priest at Kali Temple in Dakhshineswar near calcutta, believed that there was only one god having different names. Swami Vivekanand took over himself to spread the teachings of Ram Krishna in a simple form.

Swami Vivekanand (1862-1902), well known and popular figure of Indian Renaissance in modern time, emerged as the preacher of neo- Hinduism. He condemned the social evil and proclaimed the essential oneness of all religions. He took part in the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893 and made an impact by his learned interpretations.

Also Read: Dayananda Saraswati

Theosophical Society

Theosophical Society was founded by Madan H.P. Blavatsky, a Russian Lady, and H.S. Olcott, an American Colonel, in New York in 1875. They founded the headquarters of the society at Adyar near Madras in 1879. Mrs. Annie Besant joined the society in 1888 and helped popularize it further. The society did commendable work in the field of education as it opened the Central Hindu College at Varanasi in 1898.

Young Bengal Movement

Founded by Henry Vivian Derozio (1809-31), the movement attacked decadent customs and supported women’s rights and their education. However, the movement failed to have an impact due to its radical nature.

Related Post:

• Raja Ram Mohan Roy (Indian Renaissance)
• Renaissance (in Europe)
• Major Revolutions

The Vedic Period or the Vedic Age refers to that time period when the Vedic Sanskrit texts were composed in India. The society that emerged during that time is known as the Vedic Period, or the Vedic Age, Civilization. The Vedic Civilization flourished between the 1500 BC and 500 BC on the Indo-Gangetic Plains of the Indian subcontinent. This civilization laid down the foundation of Hinduism as well as the associated Indian culture. The Vedic Age was followed by the golden age of Hinduism and classical Sanskrit literature, the Maurya Empire and the Middle Kingdoms of India.

During the early part of the Vedic period, the Indo-Aryans settled into northern India, bringing with them their specific religious traditions. The associated culture (sometimes referred to as Vedic civilization) was initially a tribal, pastoral society centred in the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent; it spread after 1200 BCE to the Ganges Plain, as it was shaped by increasing settled agriculture, a hierarchy of four social classes, and the emergence of monarchical, state-level polities.

Read Also: The Sangam Age : Early History of South India

The end of the Vedic period witnessed the rise of large, urbanized states as well as of shramana movements (including Jainism and Buddhism) which challenged the Vedic orthodoxy. Around the beginning of the Common Era, the Vedic tradition formed one of the main constituents of the so-called “Hindu-synthesis”

The reconstruction of the history of Vedic India is based on text-internal details, but can be correlated to relevant archaeological details. The Hindu Vedic Civilisation can be classified into the following five chronological branches: 

1. Rigvedic text: TheRigveda is by far the most archaic of the Vedic texts preserved, and it retains many common Indo-Iranian elements, both in language and in content, that are not present in any other Vedic texts. It’s time span likely corresponds to the Late Harappan culture,Gandhara Grave culture and Ochre Coloured Pottery culture.
2. Mantra language texts: The period of the Mantra Language includes the time of the compilation of the mantra and prose language of the Atharvaveda (Paippalada and Shaunakiya), the Rigveda Khilani, the Samaveda Samhita and the mantras of the Yajurveda. Though derived from the Rig Veda, all these texts experienced wide-scale changes, in terms of language as well as at the time of reinterpretation. This time, period coincided with the early Iron Age in northwestern India and the Black and Red Ware culture.
3. Samhita prose texts: The period of Samhita Prose represents the compilation and codification of a Vedic canon. The linguistic changes of this time include the complete loss of the injunctive, the subjunctive, and the aorist. The commentary part of the Yajurveda belongs to the Samhita Prose period. During this time, the Painted Grey Ware culture was evident.
4. Brahmana prose texts: TheBrahmanas proper of the four Vedas belong to this period, as well as the Aranyakas, the oldest of the Upanishads. In the east, Videha (N. Bihar and Nepal) is established as the third main political centre of the Vedic period.
5. Sutra language texts: The last division of the Vedic Sanskrit can be traced up to 500 BC. During this time, a major portion of the Srauta Sutras, the Grihya Sutras, and some Upanishads were composed.

Must Read: Hindu Literature

Brief Description of Vedic Tradition

• The Vedic Tradition or Hinduism is more than a religion, but a way of life, a complete philosophy.
• It is based on Universal Spiritual Truths which can be applied to anyone at anytime.
• It is called Sanatana-Dharma, the eternal nature of the soul.
• It recognizes that there is one Supreme Being with no beginning or end, the all in all, the unlimited Absolute Truth, which can expand into many forms.
• That Supreme Being is found in the spiritual realm but also lives in the heart of all living beings.
• The Vedic tradition recognizes that the individual soul is eternal, beyond the limitations of the body, and that one soul is no different than another.
• The soul undergoes it’s own karma, the law of cause and effect, by which each person creates his own destiny based on his thought, words, and deeds. The soul undergoes this karma in the rounds of reincarnation.
• The soul incarnates through different forms (called samsara or reincarnation) until it reaches liberation (moksha) from the repetition of birth and death, and attains its natural position in the spiritual domain.
• The Vedic path is based on regaining our natural spiritual identity.
•  It has a complete library of ancient texts, known as the Vedic literature, that explain these truths and the reasons for the tradition.
• This Vedic literature is considered to be non-ordinary books that are the basis of the Vedic system. Some of these have been given or spoken by God, and others were composed by sages in their deepest super conscious state in which they were able to give revelations of Universal Truths while in meditation on the Supreme.
• The Vedic path offers personal freedom for one to make his own choice of how he or she wants to pursue their spiritual approach, and what level of the Absolute Truth he or she wishes to understand. This is spiritual democracy and freedom from tyranny.
• The Vedic path consists of ten general rules of moral conduct. There are five for inner purity, called the Yamas—truthfulness, ahimsa or non-injury to others and treating all beings with respect, no cheating or stealing, celibacy, and no selfish accumulation of resources for one’s own purpose. The five rules of conduct for external purification are the niyamas–cleanliness, austerity, perseverance, study of the Vedas, and acceptance of the Supreme Being.
• There are also ten qualities that are the basis of dharmic (righteous) life. These are firmness or fortitude,forgiveness,  self-control, refraining from stealing or dishonesty, purity, control over the senses, intellect, knowledge, truth and absence of anger.

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