(a) Highlight the major contributions of the reform movements in pre-independent India. (20 marks) (b) Identify different forms…

(a) Contributions of Pre-Independence Reform Movements

• Background: 19th- and early 20th-century reform movements responded to colonial rule, Western education and missionary criticism by re-examining Indian social practices. They ranged from reformist (Brahmo Samaj) to revivalist (Arya Samaj) and anti-caste (Satyashodhak Samaj) currents.

Major movements:

• Brahmo Samaj (1828, Raja Rammohun Roy): monotheism and rational religion; the campaign that led to the abolition of sati (1829);
• Prarthana Samaj (1867, M.G. Ranade, R.G. Bhandarkar): widow remarriage, women's education and inter-caste dining;
• Arya Samaj (1875, Dayananda Saraswati): the Vedas as authority against idolatry and caste by birth; DAV schools; shuddhi (reconversion and "purification", including of low castes);
• Ramakrishna Mission (1897, Swami Vivekananda): social service and a confident Hindu identity;
• Muslim reform: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's Aligarh movement and the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (1875) for modern education; the Deoband seminary (1866) for religious renewal;
• Sikh reform: the Singh Sabha movement (1873);
• Anti-caste movements:
• Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule's Satyashodhak Samaj (1873) and girls' schools (from 1848);
• Sree Narayana Guru's SNDP Yogam (1903) for the Ezhavas: "one caste, one religion, one God";
• Periyar's Self-Respect Movement (1925): rationalism, self-respect marriages and gender equality;
• Ambedkar's movements for Dalit rights;
• Women reformers: Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856); Pandita Ramabai (Sharada Sadan, 1889); Tarabai Shinde's critique of patriarchy (Stri Purush Tulana, 1882); Behramji Malabari's campaign for the Age of Consent Act (1891); the Sarda Act (1929) against child marriage.

Major contributions:

• Rationalism and individual dignity: criticism of superstition, ritualism and priestly authority;
• Status of women: action against sati, child marriage and enforced widowhood; the spread of female education;
• Challenge to caste: from reformist inter-dining to radical anti-caste assertion;
• Education and print: schools, colleges, newspapers and vernacular publishing created a new public sphere;
• National consciousness: pride in Indian traditions and organisational experience fed the national movement;
• Constitutional values: equality, secularism and social justice in the Constitution drew on these debates.

Limitations:

• many were urban, upper-caste and elite, with limited reach to peasants and Dalits;
• revivalist strands and shuddhi or tabligh campaigns sharpened religious boundaries (Kenneth Jones);
• reforms often relied on the colonial state, and Partha Chatterjee argues that nationalists kept the "inner" domain of family and religion away from colonial reform.
• Conclusion: reform movements laid the social foundations of modern India: education, women's rights and critique of caste. Their elite limits were later challenged by the more radical movements of lower castes and women.

(b) Inequalities in the Agrarian Social Structure

• Agrarian social structure: the pattern of relations among groups based on the ownership, control and use of land. Daniel Thorner (1956) described three broad categories: maliks (owners), kisans (working peasants) and mazdoors (labourers).

Forms of inequality:

• Land ownership: Agriculture Census 2015–16 shows that marginal holdings (below 1 hectare) are about 68% of all holdings but hold only about 24% of the area, while large holdings are under 1% of holdings with about 9% of the area. Land ceiling laws were widely evaded;
• Caste: landowning dominant castes (Jats, Marathas, Reddys, Kammas, Bhumihars) control land and village power (M.N. Srinivas), while Dalits are mostly landless; Census 2011 showed nearly half of Scheduled Caste workers were agricultural labourers;
• Class: landlords, rich capitalist farmers, middle and poor peasants, tenants and landless labourers; the "mode of production" debate asked whether Indian agriculture was capitalist or semi-feudal (Amit Bhaduri on Bengal sharecropping);
• Tenancy: oral, insecure and concealed tenancy, with sharecroppers bearing risk without legal rights (only West Bengal's Operation Barga gave many of them recorded rights);
• Labour: low and unequal wages, attached and bonded labour, and seasonal migration;
• Gender: women do much of the farm work but held only about 14% of operational holdings (Agriculture Census 2015–16); "feminisation of agriculture" as men migrate, without titles, credit or recognition as farmers;
• Tribal: alienation of Adivasi land to non-tribals, and loss of forest rights;
• Credit and markets: about half of agricultural households were indebted (Situation Assessment Survey, 2019); small farmers depend on moneylenders and traders;
• Regional: Punjab and Haryana's Green Revolution capitalism versus low productivity and landlessness in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh;
• Technology and water: irrigation, machinery and inputs are captured more by larger farmers.
• Conclusion: agrarian inequality is multi-dimensional: land, caste, class, gender and region reinforce one another, which is why land reform alone has not ended it.

(c) Pressure Groups and Democratic Decision-Making

• Pressure groups: organised groups that try to influence public policy without seeking to form government. Unlike parties, which aggregate many interests to win power, they articulate specific interests.

Types:

• Almond and Powell's categories: institutional, associational, non-associational and anomic groups;
• Wyn Grant: insider groups consulted by government and outsider groups that protest;
• Indian examples:
• business: FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM;
• labour: INTUC, BMS, CITU;
• farmers: Bharatiya Kisan Union, Samyukt Kisan Morcha;
• professions: the Indian Medical Association, Bar Councils;
• caste associations, which the Rudolphs saw as democratising caste;
• students' organisations;
• civil society campaigns: MKSS, the Right to Food Campaign, the National Alliance of People's Movements.

Role in democratic decision-making:

• Interest articulation and representation between elections, including of the marginalised;
• Expertise and information for policy-making, through consultations and committees;
• Agenda-setting and public opinion through campaigns, media and protest;
• Policy change: MKSS's campaign led to the Right to Information Act (2005); the Right to Food Campaign influenced the National Food Security Act (2013); farmers' unions secured repeal of the farm laws (2021);
• Judicial route: public interest litigation by NGOs;
• Accountability: monitoring of government and social audits.

Limitations:

• unequal influence: business lobbies have more access than the poor;
• no lobbying regulation in India, so influence is opaque;
• sectionalism: narrow interests may override the public good; strikes and blockades can disrupt;
• many unions and student groups are affiliated to parties;
• foreign funding is regulated under the FCRA (2010).
• Conclusion: pressure groups deepen democracy by widening participation and voice, but their benefit depends on fair access and transparency.