Famous Indian Social Reformers

Any society consists of diverse and different types of persons; persons with different religions, different castes, different colours, different gender and different faiths etc. And it is expected that they all should live in harmony and without discrimination; an ideal situation is when there is equality, freedom and brotherhood among all sections of society.

           However, human society all over the world shows that various types of exploitative practices are prevalent there; these practices originated due to human greed for power, authority and superiority; such as so-called higher caste people would exploit so-called lower caste persons; a white would exploit a black; males would like to dominate females; believer of one religion would downgrade other religions etc.

           These discriminatory and exploitative practices take the form of social evils in the long run and become a scar on the face of any civilized society. Every country, in its history, has had numerous bright individuals who would live and work for the progress and upliftment of the downtrodden persons in the society; and due to their efforts, it became possible to abolish several extreme social evils such as Sati Pratha, Parda Pratha, Jati Pratha and Bal Vivah etc.

           India is fortunate to have, in its long history, many extraordinary human beings who devoted all their lives for the betterment of society and for the upliftment of the downtrodden. A few among them are Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, , Ram Mohan Roy, Vinoba Behave, Mother Teresa and Kailash Satyarthi etc. These social reformers have fought against several social evils such as Sati Pratha ( A custom in which a woman immolates herself on her husband's funeral pyre), Pardha Pratha (Veil System), Jati Pratha (Casteism), Bal Vivah (Child Marriage), female infanticide, widow remarriage, a ban on female education, and child labour etc.

           In India, social reforms did not ordinarily mean a reorganization of the structuring of society at a large, as it did in the west, for the benefit of underprivileged social and economic classes. Instead, it means the infusion into the existing social structure of the new ways of life and thought; the society would be pre-served, while its members would be transformed. 

           In this book, We will look into the life and works of these extraordinary men and women and will appreciate their efforts in the making of today's India.

Contents

Preface 5

Acharya Vinoba Bhave 11

Baba Amte 21

Bindeshwar Pathak 31

Dhondo Keshav Karve 43

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar 53

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar 71

Jyotiba Phule 81

Kailash Satyarthi 89

Mahadev Govind Ranade 105

Mahatma Gandhi 113

Mother Teresa 129

Pandita Ramabai 145

Raja Ram Mohan Roy 155

Savitribai Phule 165

Shahu Chhatrapati 177

Swami Dayanand Saraswati 185

Swami Vivekananda 207