Social Work Profession unit 3

UNIT III


INDIAN HISTORY OF IDEOLOGIES
FOR SOCIAL CHANGE


SOCIAL REFORM MOVEMENTS:

Reform Movements:
Reform movements are organized to carry out reforms in some specific areas. The reformers endeavor to change elements of the system for better. For example: Civil Rights Movement, Women's Liberation Movement, Arya Samaj Movement, Brahmo Samaj Movement etc.

Revolutionary Movements:
The revolutionary movements deny that the system will even work. These movements are deeply dissatisfied with the social order and work for radical change. They advocate replacing the entire existing structure. Their objective is the reorganization of society in accordance with their own ideological blueprint. Revolutionary movements generally become violent as they progress. Example: The Protestant Reformation Movement, the Socialist Movement, the Communist Revolution of China.
Reactionary or Revivalist Movement:
Some movements are known as reactionary or regressive movements. These aims to reverse the social change .They highlight the importance and greatness of traditional values, ideologies and institutional arrangements. They strongly criticize the fast moving changes of the present.

Resistance Movement:
These movements are formed to resist a change that is already taking place in society. These can be directed against social and cultural changes which are already happening in the country.







The Brahmo Samaj – 1828 :
The Brahmo Samaj was established by Raja Rammohan Roy in 1828. He was born in a Brahmin family of Bengal. He learnt many languages like Arabic, Sanskrit, Persian, English,
French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He also studied several religious philosophies like Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Sufism. His primary aim was to reform the Hindu society and religion. He wrote a number of books in Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, Persian and English. Precepts of
Jesus Christ, the Guide to Peace and Happiness are some of them. He started newspapers one in Bengali, and the other in Persian. He was given the title of Raja and sent to England by the Mughal Emperor Akbar II as his envoy. The Brahmo Samaj was an assembly of all those who believed in a universal religion based on the principle of one Supreme God. Raja Rammohan Roy condemned idol worship, rites and rituals. But he never lost his faith in Hinduism and the Vedas. The Brahmo Samaj condemned caste, untouchability, the practice of Sati and image worship.
In order to improve the position of women Raja Rammohan Roy and Lord William Bentinck tried to abolish Sati. Bentinck declared in 1829 that the practice of Sati as an offence, punishable with death sentence.
The Brahmo Samaj also opposed child marriage and polygamy. It supported widow remarriage.

Muslim Movements :
For a long time, the Muslims remained outside the influence of western education and the British rule. Reform movements among the Muslim community began in the later half of the 19th century. They aimed at the spread of modern education and removal of social abuses like the Purdha System and polygamy. In the beginning Mohammeden Literary Society of Kolkata was founded in 1863 by Nawab Abdul Latif. It played an important role in the spread of education among the Muslims and started a number of schools in Bengal.
Syed Ahmed Khan and Aligarh Movement :
The most important movement for the spread of modern education and social reforms among the Muslims was started by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. He had been in the service of British Government as a judicial officer. He remained loyal to them during the revolt of 1857. He
insisted on the co-operation of the Muslims with the British Government. So he opposed the Indian National Congress. He believed that the Muslims would be affected if they started taking
part in political agitation. Though Syed Ahmed Khan opposed the Indian National Congress, he
insisted the unity between the Hindus and Muslims. He viewed that both the Hindus and the Muslims belong to the same country and the progress of the country depend on their unity.
In 1864 Sir Syed Ahmed Khan started a school at Ghazipur. It was later called as the Scientific Society.

Dalit Movement:
Dalits are the suppressed people at the lost rung of the cast-based hierarchy. Their inferior occupations and low levels of ascriptive status make them vulnerable for attacks at the hands of upper-caste people. The organizational efforts made by Dalit leadership for uplifting their status are known as Dalit movement. It is a protest against untouchability ,casteism and discrimination faced by the dalits.Dalit movement indicates some trends of protest ideologies which entail the following -withdrawal and self organization, high varna status and extolling of non-Aryan culture's virtues, abandoning of Hinduism and embracing other religions like Buddhism and Islam. Mahatma Gandhi in 1923 founded the All India Harijan Sevak Sangh to start education and schools for the dalits.Another most important dalit leader Dr.Ambedkar struggled to secure the basic human dignity to the dalits.The Mahad Satyagarh for the right of water led by him was one of the outstanding movements of the dalits to win equal social rights. The role of All India Depressed Classes Association and All India Depressed Classes Federation were the principal organizations which initiated a movement to improve the conditions of the dalits.These organizations aimed at improving their miserable conditions and to spread education among them. They worked to secure rights of admission to school, drawing water from the public wells, entering the temples and to use the roads.

The Dalit Movement Today
The term “Dalit” has different meanings for different people. The most common use of the term is to define people who were once known as “untouchables”, seperated from the rest of society by the caste system. Navsarjan redefines the ideological context of the word to mean three things.
Someone who believes in equality, practices equality in his or her life, and protests inequality wherever he or she sees it.
This redefinition challenges Dalits to be more egalitarian in their own lives, both in terms of inter sub-caste discrimination and sexism; allows for the inclusion of Dalits from different religious backgrounds (Dalits who have converted to a different religion, but still suffer discrimination); and allows for the inclusion of people who are not from the "untouchable" castes, but still believe in values of equality.
A past passive participle of the Sanskrit root dal that means to crack or split, the word Dalit is today common across most Indian languages, meaning poor and oppressed people. As it refers to those who have been broken, ground down by those above them in a deliberate way, there is also clearly an inherent denial of pollution, karma and justified caste hierarchy to the word itself. Though use of the term Dalit in public discourse is of relatively recent origin – the 1960s – it is supposed to have been used first by Jotirao Phule (1827-1890) in his attempt to work for dalituthan, that is, the uplifting of the exploited sections of society. While Dr. Ambedkar did not popularize the word Dalit, his philosophy has remained a key source in its emergence and popularity. Marathi literary figures and neo-Buddhists began to use the word in their writings and contributed to the literary initiatives in replacing Harijan (man of God) and achchuta (untouchable) with Dalit, in the 1970s. They expressed their anger, protest and aspiration through this new word, rejecting the Hindu caste system and objecting to Gandhi’s belief that caste Hindus’ “charitable spirit” would be enough to overcome Untouchability.
While the word “Dalit” stems from opposition to terms bestowed upon Dalits by the non-Dalits—terms that legitimised their discrimination and deprivation—it has today essentially emerged as a political category. Dalits in legal parlance are called Scheduled Castes (SCs), and are identified as such by the President of India under Article 341 of the Constitution.
This constitutional identity, however, is exclusive and fails to capture the true picture. Dalits who have converted from Hinduism to another religion no longer qualify as SCs, although their status in society often remains the same. Moreover, Dalit movements in contemporary India are not uniform and each articulates a particular identity, be they Christian Dalits, Neo-Buddhists or Muslim Dalits. Hence, Dalit should not be seen as a term just describing a caste community. Rather, it should be viewed as a symbol of change and liberation, as a progressive ideology, helping the Dalit movement to achieve its end results. Increasingly used as a suffix, Dalit is a part of the identity of a person that holds certain values—those pertaining to equality and humanism.
Dalit is one who believes in equality, who practices equality and who combats inequality.
Effects of The Reform Movements :
1. The reform movements brought about remarkable changes in the society and religion. Initially
the great changes affected a small group of people, but gradually these ideas spread among many sections of the people.
2. The reform movements strengthened the Hindu and Muslim religions and made
efforts to remove social evils among them.
3. The educated Indians started to think reasonably.
4. The reform movements helped in the revival of the past glory. They also helped in making up of a modern India.
5. It led to the progress of literature in different regional Languages.
6. The caste system began to lose its hold on the society.
7. There was a significant achievement in the field of emancipation of women. Some legal measures were introduced to raise their status,
8. To travel abroad, which was considered as a sin before, was Accepted.
9. The reform movements created the rise of a middle class which consisted of the teachers, the doctors, the lawyers, the scientists, and the journalists who helped in the progress of India in
different fields.
10. The reform movements also contributed for the growth of Indian Nationalism as the reform activities united the people all over India and created a feeling of oneness.

GANDHIAN IDEOLOGIES:

Gandhi's philosophy and his ideologies of satya (truth) and ahimsa (non-violence) were influenced by the Bhagavad Gita and Hindu beliefs, the Jain religion and the pacifist Christian teachings of Leo Tolstoy. The concept of ‘ahimsa’ (non-violence) has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography ‘The Story of my Experiments with Truth’.
In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most logical extremes. In 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by the armed forces of Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people:
“I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.” (Non-Violence in Peace and War)

Although he experimented with eating meat upon first leaving India, he later became a strict vegetarian. He wrote books on the subject while in London, having met vegetarian campaigner Henry Salt at gatherings of the Vegetarian Society. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and Jain traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, most Hindus were vegetarian. He experimented with various diets and concluded that a vegetarian diet should be enough to satisfy the minimum requirements of the body. He abstained from eating for long periods, using fasting as a political weapon.

Gandhi gave up sexual intercourse at the age of 36, becoming totally celibate while still married. This decision was deeply influenced by the Hindu idea of brahmacharya—spiritual and practical purity—largely associated with celibacy. He announced this to his wife, rather than discussing it with her.
Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace. This influence was drawn from the Hindu principles of mouna (silence) and shanti (peace). On such days he communicated with others by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37, Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of world affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.
Returning to India from South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal practice, he gave up wearing Western-style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. He dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India. He advocated the use of homespun cloth (khadi). Gandhi and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun, and encouraged others to do so. This was a threat to the British establishment. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had always bought their clothing from English industrial manufacturers. If Indians made their own clothes, it would deal a harsh blow to British industry. The spinning wheel was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress.

SARVODAYA MOVEMENT:

Sarvodaya is an Indian term which means 'everybody’s welfare,' Sarvodaya is the essence of Gandhian thought. The Sarvodaya movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi in the 1950s. The philosophy of Sarvodaya is aimed at world fraternity. The Gandhian social philosophy of non-violent means of social transformation was the central philosophy of the Indian concept of Sarvodaya. Sarvodaya advocates true self-realization of the individual through dedicated service to the community, especially its weaker sections.
{Sarvodaya is a term meaning 'universal uplift' or 'progress of all'. The term was first coined by Mohandas Gandhi as the title of his 1908 translation of John Ruskin's tract on political economy, Unto This Last, and Gandhi came to use the term for the ideal of his own political philosophy.[1] Later Gandhians, like the Indian nonviolence activist Vinoba Bhave, embraced the term as a name for the social movement in post-independence India which strove to ensure that self-determination and equality reached all strata of India society.}
As early as 1934 Gandhi had withdrawn from the Congress Party out of discontent with its leadership, which regarded nonviolence as no more than a political instrument and not as a fundamental philosophy of life, in order to devote himself to a constructive program of uplift for the Indian rural population. This program of sharing resources, education, rural industry, in particular spinning, and improvement of
the position of the untouchables stems from his philosophy of Sarvodaya.
In the Sarvodaya Movement after Gandhi's death, Vinoba Bhave (1895-1982) occupied the most
important position. Not only was he Gandhi's most faithful follower, but also a charismatic leader in his own right with far-reaching influence. His achievements ranged from improving the organization of the Sarvodaya movement to his struggle for the legal prohibition of slaughtering cattle. His best nown contribution, however, is the concept of Bhoodan ("gift of land") and the movement it generated.



SARVODAYA
NATIONALISM:
Nationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation. While there is significant debate over the historical origins of nations, nearly all specialists accept that nationalism, at least as an ideology and social movement, is a modern phenomenon originating in Europe.
The term was coined by Johann Gottfried Herder (nationalismus) during the late 1700s. Precisely where and when it emerged is difficult to determine, but its development is closely related to that of the modern state and the push for popular sovereignty that came to a head with the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Since that time, nationalism has become one of the most significant political and social forces in history, perhaps most notably as a major influence or cause of World War I and especially World War II with the rise of fascism, a radical and authoritarian nationalist ideology.
As an ideology, nationalism holds that 'the people' in the doctrine of popular sovereignty is the nation, and that as a result only nation-states founded on the principle of national self-determination are legitimate. Since most states are multinational, or at least home to more than one group claiming national status, in many cases nationalist pursuit of self-determination has caused conflict between people and states including war (both external and domestic), secession; and in extreme cases, genocide.
Nationalism is a strong social phenomenon in the world as national flags, national anthems and national divisions are examples of 'banal' nationalism that is often mentally unconscious Moreover, some scholars argue that nationalism as a sentiment or form of culture, sometimes described as 'nationality' to avoid the ideology's tarnished reputation, is the social foundation of modern society. Industrialization, democratization, and support for economic redistribution have all been at least partly attributed to the shared social context and solidarity that nationalism provides.
Even though nationalism ultimately is based on supporting one's own nation, nationalists of different states may perfectly well cooperate among each other as to support the ultimate worldwide belief that all groups of nationalities have the right to have their own states.
Nevertheless, nationalism remains a hotly contested subject on which there is little general consensus. The clearest example of opposition to nationalism is cosmopolitanism, with adherents as diverse as liberals, Marxists, anarchists, and some groups oppose nationalism based on religious beliefs. Even nationalism's defenders often disagree on its virtues, and it is common for nationalists of one persuasion to disparage the aspirations of others for both principled and strategic reasons.


INDIAN CONSTITUTION:
The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishing the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of the government and spells out the fundamental rights, directive principles and duties of citizens. Passed by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949, it came into effect on January 26, 1950. The date 26 January was chosen to commemorate the declaration of independence of 1930. It declares the Union of India to be a sovereign, democratic republic, assuring its citizens of justice, equality, and liberty; the words "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" were added to the definition in 1976 by constitutional amendment. India celebrates the adoption of the constitution on January 26 each year as Republic Day. It is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 448 articles, 12 schedules and 94 amendments for a total of 117,369 words in the English language version. Besides the English version, there is an official Hindi translation. After coming into effect, the Constitution replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the governing document of India. Being the supreme law of the country, every law enacted by the government must conform to the constitution.
Parts are the individual chapters in the Constitution, focused in single broad field of laws, containing articles that addresses the issues in question.
• Part I - Union and its Territory
• Part II - Citizenship.
• Part III - Fundamental Rights.
• Part IV - Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties.
• Part V - The Union.
• Part VI - The States.
• Part VII - States in the B part of the First schedule (Repealed).
• Part VIII - The Union Territories
• Part IX - Panchayat system and Municipalities.
• Part X - The scheduled and Tribal Areas
• Part XI - Relations between the Union and the States. • Part XII - Finance, Property, Contracts and Suits
• Part XIII - Trade and Commerce within the territory of India
• Part XIV - Services Under the Union, the States and Tribunals
• Part XV - Elections
• Part XVI - Special Provisions Relating to certain Classes.
• Part XVII - Languages
• Part XVIII - Emergency Provisions
• Part XIX - Miscellaneous
• Part XX - Amendment of the Constitution
• Part XXI - Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions
• Part XXII Short title, date of commencement, Authoritative text in Hindi and Repeals.
• Part XXIII - Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions
• Part XXIV - Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions
VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS:
A voluntary association or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, unincorporated association, or just an association) is a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to form a body (or organization) to accomplish a purpose.
Many Voluntary Organisations are working in this district for socio economic development of rural people and for promotion and dissemination of art, culture & sports. Some of the cultural organizations like Kalakar, Angul Sahitya Sansad, Natyam, Baishnabi Kalaniketan, Sangeet Sangeet, Sanskruti strive to promote performing arts, foster & coordinate literary activities .The Rotary International, the Lions have their branches in this district. The details on these organizations are narrated in the chapter entitled Culture. The ASS, Angul, YARR, Boinda, Biswa Yuba Kendra etc. are working in the fields of socio economic development of rural people, afforestation, child care, health related activities etc.