30 Topics.
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Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2025
What to Study: Remember Roy's well-known labels, his faith in monotheism and reason, and his Gift to Monotheists and Precepts of Jesus (with years). Understand what each work argued and why the missionaries reacted. Also understand his idea of choosing the best from different cultures.
What to Study: Remember the Atmiya Sabha and the Brahmo Sabha: year, place, aims, and how the second was renamed. What forms of worship did it allow, and what did it ban? Was it a new religion or a purified Hinduism? Know who opposed Roy, and when he died.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2012
What to Study: Read and remember the five features of the Brahmo Samaj. On which doctrinal question did it take no fixed stand, leaving each member free? Also understand why Roy's ideas are said to hint at nationalism.
What to Study: When did Roy start his campaign against sati? What two kinds of arguments did he use? Remember his methods (cremation grounds, vigilance groups, counter petitions) and the government measure of 1829 that finally dealt with sati.
What to Study: What did Roy demand for women (marriage, widows, property)? Remember his three educational links (the Hindu College, his own English school and the Vedanta college), with the years of the Hindu College and the Vedanta college. Know what his English school and the Vedanta college taught, and how he helped Bengali language.
What to Study: Know Roy's journals and his support for a free press. What did he demand on zamindari rents, the Company's trade, the services and the judiciary? Which foreign struggles did he support? Understand his remark linking religious change to political interest.
What to Study: Remember the Tattvabodhini Sabha and its Patrika (founding year, aims) and the year Debendranath joined the Samaj. Understand his two fronts: one inside Hinduism and one outside it. Know the causes the revived Samaj supported and the people it attracted.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2001UPSC 2016
What to Study: When did Keshab join, what office did he hold, and when was he removed as acharya? Remember how he spread the Samaj beyond Bengal. Which of his ideas did Debendranath find too radical? Be clear about the two bodies that came out of the 1866 split and which was whose.
What to Study: Why did the 1878 split happen? Remember the three complaints against Keshab. Remember the three founders of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj and the doctrines it repeated. Know the Brahmo centres in Madras and the Dayal Singh College at Lahore.
What to Study: You should be able to explain the Samaj's social reform record (going abroad, women's issues, caste) and the limits of its reach and lasting impact. Who called Roy and the Brahmo Samaj the starting point of all later reform movements?
What to Study: Who founded the Prarthana Samaj, in which year and city, and who helped? Which secret society came before it? Know Ranade's role (and when he joined), and the two other leaders who worked with him.
What to Study: Was the Samaj more concerned with religion or with social reform? How did it deal with Hindu orthodoxy? Remember its four-point social agenda, its monotheism and its attachment to the bhakti tradition of Maharashtra. Know the widow work of Ranade and Karve, including the two bodies they set up.
What to Study: Who was Derozio, where and when did he teach, and why was he removed in 1831? Understand what inspired him and what he urged his students to do. Also know the view of him as an early nationalist poet; this is an opinion, not a settled fact.
What to Study: You should be able to explain why the Derozians had so little lasting impact. Remember the public demands through which they carried on Roy's tradition, and how Surendranath Banerjea described them.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2007
What to Study: In which year did Vidyasagar become principal of Sanskrit College, and whom did he open it to? Why did he bring Western thought into it? Know his new method of teaching Sanskrit and his work on Bengali (primer and prose style).
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2007
What to Study: Which Act legalised widow remarriage, and in which year? Remember Vidyasagar's part in the movement for it, and his campaigns against child marriage and polygamy.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2005UPSC 2021
What to Study: Remember Vidyasagar's work for girls' schools and his role in the Bethune School (founding year, his post). Understand the movement for women's education in the 1840s and 1850s and the hostility it faced.
What to Study: Be clear about Jambhekar's two periodicals with their years, and the label he is known by. For what purposes did he use the press? Know the library and society he founded, and his links with Elphinstone College and the Colaba Observatory.
What to Study: Remember the year, founders and region of the Paramahansa Mandali, and its link to the Manav Dharma Sabha. Did it begin openly or as a secret society? Understand its beliefs and how it broke caste rules in practice. Know the other reforms it backed.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 1995UPSC 2016
What to Study: Which community did Phule come from, and what did his movement stand against? When was the Satyashodhak Samaj founded, and what does its name mean? Who led it, and what were its two main aims?
What to Study: Did Phule see social transformation as the same as social reform? Understand his view of education. Remember his works Gulamgiri and Sarvajanik Satyadharma, his use of Rajah Bali against Rama, and the Satyashodhak marriage. Who gave him the title Mahatma, and when? Some believe he introduced the word 'dalit'; this is a belief, not a settled fact.
What to Study: How did Jyotiba get his own schooling, and who helped him? Remember the girls' school in Pune and what it taught. Know Savitribai's background and training, the children she taught, and the two educational trusts.
What to Study: Remember Savitribai's institutions and campaigns for women and widows (Mahila Seva Mandal, the barbers' strike, Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha, the water storage). What role did she take after Jyotiba's death, and how did she die? Know her poetry collections and the university renamed for her in 2014.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2020
What to Study: How did Ambedkar regard Walangkar? Remember his background and Phule's influence. Understand how he used the Aryan invasion idea to explain caste. Know his society and army petition, his journal and writings from 1888 onwards. Was his method persuasion or confrontation?
What to Study: Learn about Bansod's girls' school, his press and journals, and his role at the 1920 Depressed Classes Conference. Understand his influences, and why he sought reform within Hinduism even though he accepted the Aryan invasion idea.
What to Study: How was Shinde linked with the Prarthana Samaj? Remember his night school in Pune. When and where was the Depressed Classes Mission set up, and what were its three aims? Why did he resign from its executive?
What to Study: What did Shinde tell the Southborough Franchise Committee in 1919? Why did he want a united front with caste Hindus? Remember his opposition to caste and priests, his part in Civil Disobedience, and his book Bharatiya Asprushyatecha Prashna.
What to Study: Know Deshmukh's career, his pen name and the weekly he wrote for under it. Understand the rational, secular society he wanted, and his saying about changing religion. Remember the periodicals he started or helped found.
What to Study: Understand Agarkar's stand on reason and tradition. Remember the institutions he co-founded and the college where he was principal. Know his place in the early history of Kesari, and the periodical he started himself.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 1997
What to Study: Who founded the Servants of India Society, and in which year? Understand its three aims and its stand of keeping away from political bodies such as the INC. Remember its journal (Hitavada, 1911), its leader after the founder's death, and the work it does today.
What to Study: Who founded the Social Service League, where, and with what aim? Know the range of its activities (schools, legal aid, cooperative societies and so on). Which trade union body did Joshi help found, and in which year?
What to Study: Why did bhakti appeal to the average Bengali more than the Brahmo Samaj did? Remember Ramakrishna's background, his way of teaching, and his sayings on the oneness of faiths and on service. Know the role of Sarada Devi.
What to Study: What were the movement's two objectives? Which body served which, and who founded each? When was the Mission founded, and when did the Math move to Belur? Understand how the two are related, and what is separate about them. Know where they are headquartered, and who may join the monastic order.
What to Study: What was Vivekananda's original name, and what were the sources of his message? Understand his neo-Hinduism and practical Vedanta. Explain why he said knowledge without action is useless, and what two kinds of knowledge he said the masses need. Understand his doctrine of service.
What to Study: In which year was the Chicago Parliament of Religions held, and what was the main message of his address? Where else did he lecture about before returning to India? Understand the aims of his lectures in India. How did Subhas Chandra Bose describe him?
What to Study: What form of service work does the Mission do in schools, hospitals and during disasters? Is it a sect, and does it seek converts? Understand why the Mission is successful. How does the Mission's view of image worship differ from the Arya Samaj's?
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2018
What to Study: What were Dayananda's birth name and home state, and who was his teacher? Where and when was the first Arya Samaj unit set up, and where was the later headquarters? Know his main book. Was the movement revivalist or reformist? In what sense was the movement revivalist in form but not in content?
What to Study: Did "Back to the Vedas" mean going back to Vedic times? Understand what the slogan meant. Be clear about his views on the Vedas, the Puranas, maya, God, soul and matter, and karma.
What to Study: Which practices did Dayananda attack? On what basis did he accept chaturvarna? Remember the Samaj's minimum marriage ages and his phrase for the Hindu race. Know its social ideals, including inter-caste marriage and widow remarriage.
What to Study: Read the ten principles of the Arya Samaj and remember their gist, especially those on God, the Vedas and the well-being of society.
What to Study: When and where was the D.A.V. College set up? Distinguish the College Party from the Mahatma Party: Leaders, views on curriculum, and vegetarianism. Who headed which institutions after the split? Know the founder, aims and later site of the Gurukul.
What to Study: What was the shuddhi movement, and how did it feed communalisation in the 1920s? Understand what the Arya Samaj gave Hindus in self-respect. Remember its calamity relief and education work.
What to Study: Remember who Malabari was and which social evils he campaigned against. Which Act did his efforts lead to, and in which year? Know the year and co-founder of the Seva Sadan, the women it served, and the newspaper that is associated with Behramji.
What to Study: Who founded the Dev Samaj, and what was his earlier link with the Brahmos? Remember the year and place of founding. Know its teachings, its code of conduct and its associated book.
What to Study: Who founded the Dharma Sabha, in which year, and why? Remember its stand on the abolition of sati. Yet there was one change it did favour. What was it?
What to Study: Against which movements did the Bharat Dharma Mahamandala defend orthodox Hinduism? Remember the bodies that merged to form it, the year of the merger, its headquarters and Malaviya's link.
What to Study: Who founded the Radhaswami Movement, in which city and year? Understand its core beliefs: The guru, satsang, and its attitude to renunciation and to temples.
What to Study: Who were the Ezhavas, and what was their position in society? What did Narayana Guru do at Aruvippuram in 1888, and what impact did his action have? Remember Kumaran Asan's link with the movement.
What to Study: Remember the steps from the Aruvippuram Kshetra Yogam of 1889 to the registered SNDP Yogam, and the law under which it was registered. Who were its chairman and secretary? What role did Dr. Palpu play?
What to Study: Understand Narayana Guru's message on religion, caste, animal sacrifice and liquor. Remember the four demands the Yogam took up. Understand the structural changes the movement brought to Kerala society.
What to Study: In which region and year did the Vokkaliga Sangha launch its anti-brahmin movement?
What to Study: Where did the Justice Movement arise, and who were its three founders? What did it demand for non-brahmins? Remember the 1917 association and its demand for the lower castes.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2019UPSC 2025
What to Study: Who started the Self-Respect Movement, and when? Understand what it rejected and why. How did it try to weaken the position of brahmin priests?
What to Study: Know the earlier work on this issue by Narayana Guru, Kumaran Asan and T.K. Madhavan. When did the Vaikom Satyagraha begin, who led it, and what did it demand? Remember the outside support it received and Gandhi's part.
What to Study: Remember the Guruvayur agitation of 1931 and the leaders who took part. What happened in Travancore on 12 November 1936? Which later step was taken in Madras under Rajagopalachari?
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 1996UPSC 2012
What to Study: Who founded the Indian Social Conference? Where and when was its first session, and why was it called the social reform cell of the Congress? Remember the causes it took up and the Pledge Movement.
What to Study: Understand who inspired the movement and why it is called a revivalist response. Remember Walliullah's two ideals, one about the four schools of law and one about individual conscience.
What to Study: Who popularised Walliullah's teachings and gave them a political turn? Understand the idea of changing dar-ul-Harb into dar-ul-Islam. Against whom was the movement first directed, and what changed after 1849? Know its role in 1857 and how it ended.
What to Study: What was Titu Mir's real name, and how was he linked with the Wahabis? Whom did he organise, and against whom? Was the movement as militant as British records made it appear? Know the year he died.
What to Study: Remember the founder, year, region and aim of the Faraizi Movement, and why it has this name. How did Dudu Mian make it revolutionary from 1840? Know what weakened it in 1847 and what it became after 1862.
What to Study: Who founded the Ahmadiyya Movement, and when? Understand its liberal principles, its stand on jihad and on the mosque and the State. What belief about a Messiah sets it apart? What weakness is it said to share with Baha'ism?
What to Study: How did the British view of the Muslims change after 1857, and why? Remember the milestones of Syed Ahmed Khan's loyalist career (judicial service, retirement, Council membership, knighthood) with years.
What to Study: How did he try to reconcile the Quran with science, and why must religion adapt, in his view? Remember his reforms for women and his stand on piri and muridi, his belief in the unity of religions, and his magazine.
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 1998UPSC 2002
What to Study: Remember his educational work, above all the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College (year, place, later name). Why did he oppose political activity by Muslims? Understand how his early talk of Hindu-Muslim common interests gave way to talk of divergent interests.
What to Study: Where was the Aligarh Movement based? Remember its two aims. Understand its liberal reading of the Quran and its wish to give Muslims a distinct modern identity.
What to Study: Who founded Deoband, where and when? Understand its twin objectives. How do the aims, methods and attitude to the British differ between Deoband and Aligarh?
What to Study: How did Deoband respond to the INC, and what was the 1888 fatwa? How do some critics explain its support for nationalists? Remember the roles of Mahmud-ul-Hasan, the Jamiat-ul-Ulema and Shibli Numani (with his Lucknow institution).
What to Study: Remember the year, aim and leaders of the Rahnumai Mazdayasnan Sabha and its newspaper. Understand its reforms for Parsi women, and how they fit the Parsis' position as the most westernised section of Indian society.
What to Study: Where and when was the Singh Sabha Movement founded? Remember its two objectives and how it pursued each (Khalsa schools; removing rites against the Gurus' teachings).
What to Study: Remember the Akali Movement's other name and its link to the Singh Sabha. What did it fight against? Know its 1921 satyagraha, the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925 that gave control of the gurdwaras to the SGPC, and the SGPC itself. Was the movement regional or communal?
What to Study: Be clear about the two founders, Madame H.P. Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, and the place and year of founding. When and where did the headquarters move? Understand its beliefs and aims. What was its stand on child marriage, caste and widows?
Asked in UPSC PrelimsUPSC 2005UPSC 2021
What to Study: When did Annie Besant come to India, and when did she become president of the Society? Remember the Central Hindu College (year, place), the university it led to, and her work for women's education.
What to Study: Be able to weigh the movement's gains (a common ground for sects, self-respect for Indians) against its limits (a vague philosophy, a narrow appeal, a false sense of pride).