30 Topics.
0 of 6 Concepts Done
What to Study: Why is the 19th-century reawakening called a 'Renaissance' only with reservations? Understand how British conquest differed from earlier invasions, and what state Indian society was in compared with 18th-century Europe.
What to Study: Be clear about the religious evils that reformers attacked: superstition, the influence of priests, idolatry, polytheism and the priests' monopoly over scriptural knowledge.
What to Study: Know the customs that degraded women at the start of the 19th century: infanticide, child marriage, polygamy, Kulinism in Bengal and sati. What did Raja Rammohan Roy say about sati? The legal disabilities of women are covered separately.
What to Study: Understand how caste worked as a hierarchy of ritual status and why it blocked national unity and democracy. Was caste consciousness found only among Hindus? Be able to explain its effects on social mobility, individual initiative and human dignity.
What to Study: How did the spread of colonial culture and ideology lead to an attempt to revive traditional institutions and culture? Remember Gandhi's well-known remark about the culture of all lands and his own house.
What to Study: Understand how modern Western ideas and the sense of defeat led educated Indians to blame weaknesses within their own society. Remember the extreme reaction of some English-educated Bengali youth, and the factors that strengthened the resolve to reform in the late 19th century. In what sense was this regeneration occasioned by colonial rule but not created by it?