Role of 19th Century Social-Religious Movement in the Empowerment of Women
The socio-religious movement of the 19th century touched many aspects of traditional Indian society, although its contribution was very important in some areas, the improvement of the status of women being a major area among them In fact, the condition of women in Indian society was very pathetic and social mal practices had a religious backing, which made the situation even more complicated. The evil practices of Sati, child marriage etc. and the pathetic condition of blocked the development of women as well as the society. Many social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Devendra Nath Tagore, Vidyasagar, Jyotiba Phule etc. raised their voice against these evil practices and encouraged the British administrators to make laws. Although the abolition of sati by the law of 1829, widow remarriage by the law of 1856, the Civil Marriage Act of 1872, etc.did bring some reforms, but they had their own limitations so that they could not be fully realised Apart from the Sati Abolition Act, none of the other laws got the expected success at the implementation stage and widow remarriage and child marriage etc. remained mere shamlaws. Since the practice of Sati was also prevalent mostly among the upper class Hindus, a large section of the society was not affected much by it. Then women had negligible economic rights. This also obstructed the way of their empowerment.Only limited attention was paid to women's education.Thus we see that the socio-economic movements of the 19 th century certainly gave a direction to women's empowerment but it could achieve only limited effect.
