How freedom movement is related to social and religious reform movement in pre independence India: An Analysis

the freedom struggle, in spite of thier limited rationality.

It is true that nationalist movement headed by Gandhi had a programme for nationalist democratic transformation of India and not the establishment of any Hindu raj. It is true that that Indian National congress was a national organisation, a mustering centre for all conscious nationalist forces, but Gandhi declared conception that politics should be spiritualised, be in line with religio-ethnic principle, alienated those who wanted the freedom movement to be secular. Further, it introduced a mystical element in political calculations, often distorting the strategy of movement.[12]

Chapter: 6

Social and religious reforms movements and the expression of National Democratic

Awakening

The various socio reform and religious reform movements which took place in India during british rule were the expression of the rising national consciousness and spread of the liberal ideas of the west among the Indian people. These movements increasingly tended to have the national scope and programme for reconstruction in the social and religious spheres.

In the social spheres there were movements of caste reform and caste abolition, equal rights for women, a campaign against child marriage, and a ban on widow remarriage, a crusade against social and legal inequalities.

In the religious spheres, there sprang up movement which combated religious superstitions and attacked idolatry, polytheism and hereditary priesthood.

These movements, in varying degrees, emphasized and fought for the principles of individual liberty and social equality and stood for nationalism. So, in a sense, these movements provide a backbone for the mass awakening as far as

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