GS Paper I — Q2
Trace the rise and growth of socio-religious reform movements with special reference to Young Bengal and Brahmo Samaj. (Answer in…
Trace the rise and growth of socio-religious reform movements with special reference to Young Bengal and Brahmo Samaj. (Answer in 150 words) 10 marks
हिंदी में प्रश्न पढ़ें
यंग बंगाल एवं ब्रह्मो समाज के विशेष संदर्भ में सामाजिक-धार्मिक सुधार आंदोलनों के उत्थान तथा विकास को रेखांकित कीजिए । (150 शब्दों में उत्तर दीजिए)
Model answer
Drafted with AI by UPSC Answer Check against this question's marking rubric, to the 150-word length. UPSC does not publish answers for Mains — this is one way to score well, not an official key. How we build rubrics and answers.
The rise of socio-religious reform in colonial Bengal was rooted in the Bengal Renaissance, which awakened educated youth to rational critique. Young Bengal, inspired by Henry Derozio, used the Academic Association (1828) to spread radical rationalism, meat-eating and breaking caste norms; yet it remained urban, elite and short-lived. Brahmo Samaj, begun by Ram Mohan Roy as the Brahmo Sabha (1828; named Brahmo Samaj in 1830), rejected idolatry and satī; after the 1843 Tattvabodhini Sabha merger, Debendranath Tagore shaped Brahmo Dharma (1848). Keshub Chandra Sen’s radicalism produced schisms: the 1866 Adi Brahmo Samaj versus his Brahmo Samaj of India, and the 1878 Cooch Behar marriage controversy created Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. Unlike Young Bengal’s atheistic, radical individualism, Brahmo reform was theistic, institutional and gradualist, though both were class-bound. Its legacy—rational critique, women's education and the Native Marriage Act, 1872 (civil marriage, Keshub's campaign)—shaped the educated middle class that later led the national movement.
How this answer will be evaluated
Framework: GS1 History: Socio-Religious Reform Movements
What earns full marks: Clear chronological rise and growth of Young Bengal and Brahmo Samaj with socio-religious reform
Evaluation rubric
Each sub-part is marked on its own, against the marks and word limit printed on the paper.
- The answer Trace the rise and growth of socio-religious reform, with special reference to Young Bengal and Brahmo Samaj. 10 marks · 150 words
trace— start point → the stages in sequence → end point → what changed
Must cover
- Young Bengal: Derozio, Hindu College, Academic Association (1828), radical rationalism and its limits
- Brahmo Samaj: Ram Mohan Roy (Brahmo Sabha, 1828), monotheism, campaign against sati
- Growth and schisms: Debendranath Tagore, Keshub Chandra Sen, Adi Brahmo Samaj (1866), Sadharan Brahmo Samaj (1878)
- Comparative assessment of impact and limits (urban, elite base)
Loses marks
- Narrating chronology without analysis
- Emotive words on social issues
- Where without why
Earns more
- Role of English education and the Bengal Renaissance
- Tattvabodhini Sabha and Patrika
- Native Marriage Act, 1872 (civil marriage)
- Links to women's education and widow remarriage
Extra mark
- Timeline of the Brahmo schisms
- Link to the later nationalist middle class
What "Trace" is asking you to do
Follow a development through in sequence, showing what carried each stage into the next. The sequence may be historical, or in the science papers an anatomical or physiological pathway followed from origin to destination.
Structure that answers it
Point of origin → stage, with what moved it on → next stage → the turning point → where it ends and what it had become
Where marks are lost
Dates or stations listed in order with nothing joining them; the marks are on the connecting steps, not on the sequence itself.
Practice this exact question
Write your answer and it is marked point by point against the model answer above — what you covered, what you missed, what you got wrong.
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