Top Social Reformers of India
LIST OF REFORMERS
2. Robindronath Thakur, 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), also known by his pen name Bhanu Singha Thakur (Bhonita), and also known by his sobriquets Gurudev, Kabiguru, and Biswakabi, was a polymath, poet, musician, artist and ayurveda-researcher[4] from the Indian subcontinent.[ He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse" of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal".
3. Gopal Hari Deshmukh:-
(18 February 1823 – 9 October 1892) was an Indian activist, thinker, social reformer and writer from Maharashtra. His original surname was Shidhaye. Because of 'Vatan' (right of Tax collection) that the family had received,the family was later called Deshmukh. Deshmukh is regarded as an important figure of the Social Reform Movement in Maharashtra.
4. Vinoba Bhave. Vinoba Bhave, byname of Vinayak Narahari Bhave, (born September 11, 1895, Gagode, Bombay Presidency [now in Maharashtra], India—died November 15, 1982, Wardha, Maharashtra), one of India's best-known social reformers and a widely venerated disciple of MK GANDHI.
The Sarvodaya Movement was started by Vinoba Bhave on 18 April 1951 at Pochampally village in Nalgonda district who was directly influenced by Gandhi.
Sarvodaya is a term meaning 'Universal Uplift' or 'Progress of All'. The term was first coined by Mohandas Gandhi as the title of his 1908 translation of John Ruskin's tract on political economy, "Unto This Last", and Gandhi came to use the term for the ideal of his own political philosophy.
5. Raja Ram Mohan Roy – A Social reformer. Popularly known as the “Maker of Modern India” and “Father of Modern India”, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, a social and educational reformer, was an idealist who contributed immensely in eradicating social evils prevalent in the society during the 18th century.
Mughal Emperor Akbar II
Ram Mohan Roy was conferred with the title “Raja” by the Mughal Emperor Akbar II in 1831. After his death due to meningitis in England in 1833, Roy was buried in the grounds of Stapleton Grounds.
It condemned social evils such as casteism, untouchability, child marriage and the Sati system. It was due to the efforts of Raja Ram mohan Roy that Lord William Bentick abolished Sati system in 1829 by declaring it an offence.
6. One of the well-known reformists and freedom fighter of India, Mahadev Govind Ranade was born in 1842 at Biphad in Nasik, Maharashtra. Known to be the mentor and political guru of famous freedom fighters Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak,he himself was deeply involved in the freedom struggle of India.
The Pune Sarvajanik Sabha provided many of the prominent leaders of national stature to the Indian freedom struggle including Bal Gangadhar Tilak. It was formed in 1870 by S. H. Chiplunkar, Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi, Mahadev Govind Ranade.
7. Savitribai Phule (3 January 1831 – 10 March 1897) was an Indian social reformer, educationalist, and poet from Maharashtra. She is regarded as the first female teacher of India. Along with her husband, Jyotirao Phule, she played an important role in improving women's rights in India.
Savitribai Phule died on 10-03-1897 in Pune in the state of Maharashtra, India at age of 66. Savitribai and her son opened a clinic and treat the people who affected by the worldwide Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague. While serving the patients, she engaged the disease herself and died.
8. Dayanand Saraswati
pronunciation (help·info) (12 February 1824 – 30 October 1883) was an Indian philosopher, social leader and founder of the Arya Samaj, a reform movement of the Vedic dharma. He was the first to give the call for Swaraj as "India for Indians" in 1876, a call later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak.
Dayanand Saraswati, a prominent Hindu religious leader and a Vedic scholar was the first Indian to voice his right for freedom of India from British rule in 1876. ... He was deeply devoted to God and translated the Vedas from Vedic Sanskrit to Sanskrit and Hindi so that the common man could also read them.
11. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891), born Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay (Ishshor Chôndro Bôndopaddhae), was a Bengali polymath from the Indian subcontinent, and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. His efforts to simplify and modernise Bengali prose were significant. Born: 26 September 1820 Parents: Thakurdas Bandyopadhyay, Bhagavati Namesakes: Vidyasagar Setu
1. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British Rule, and in turn inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (Sanskrit: "great-souled", "venerable"), first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world.
Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, western India, Gandhi was trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, and called to the bar at age 22 in June 1891. After two uncertain years in India, where he was unable to start a successful law practice, he moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He went on to stay for 21 years. It was in South Africa that Gandhi raised a family, and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India. He set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, and above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.
2. Robindronath Thakur, 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), also known by his pen name Bhanu Singha Thakur (Bhonita), and also known by his sobriquets Gurudev, Kabiguru, and Biswakabi, was a polymath, poet, musician, artist and ayurveda-researcher[4] from the Indian subcontinent.[ He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse" of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal".
3. Gopal Hari Deshmukh:-
(18 February 1823 – 9 October 1892) was an Indian activist, thinker, social reformer and writer from Maharashtra. His original surname was Shidhaye. Because of 'Vatan' (right of Tax collection) that the family had received,the family was later called Deshmukh. Deshmukh is regarded as an important figure of the Social Reform Movement in Maharashtra.
4. Vinoba Bhave. Vinoba Bhave, byname of Vinayak Narahari Bhave, (born September 11, 1895, Gagode, Bombay Presidency [now in Maharashtra], India—died November 15, 1982, Wardha, Maharashtra), one of India's best-known social reformers and a widely venerated disciple of MK GANDHI.
The Sarvodaya Movement was started by Vinoba Bhave on 18 April 1951 at Pochampally village in Nalgonda district who was directly influenced by Gandhi.
Sarvodaya is a term meaning 'Universal Uplift' or 'Progress of All'. The term was first coined by Mohandas Gandhi as the title of his 1908 translation of John Ruskin's tract on political economy, "Unto This Last", and Gandhi came to use the term for the ideal of his own political philosophy.
5. Raja Ram Mohan Roy – A Social reformer. Popularly known as the “Maker of Modern India” and “Father of Modern India”, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, a social and educational reformer, was an idealist who contributed immensely in eradicating social evils prevalent in the society during the 18th century.
Mughal Emperor Akbar II
Ram Mohan Roy was conferred with the title “Raja” by the Mughal Emperor Akbar II in 1831. After his death due to meningitis in England in 1833, Roy was buried in the grounds of Stapleton Grounds.
It condemned social evils such as casteism, untouchability, child marriage and the Sati system. It was due to the efforts of Raja Ram mohan Roy that Lord William Bentick abolished Sati system in 1829 by declaring it an offence.
6. One of the well-known reformists and freedom fighter of India, Mahadev Govind Ranade was born in 1842 at Biphad in Nasik, Maharashtra. Known to be the mentor and political guru of famous freedom fighters Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak,he himself was deeply involved in the freedom struggle of India.
The Pune Sarvajanik Sabha provided many of the prominent leaders of national stature to the Indian freedom struggle including Bal Gangadhar Tilak. It was formed in 1870 by S. H. Chiplunkar, Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi, Mahadev Govind Ranade.
7. Savitribai Phule (3 January 1831 – 10 March 1897) was an Indian social reformer, educationalist, and poet from Maharashtra. She is regarded as the first female teacher of India. Along with her husband, Jyotirao Phule, she played an important role in improving women's rights in India.
Savitribai Phule died on 10-03-1897 in Pune in the state of Maharashtra, India at age of 66. Savitribai and her son opened a clinic and treat the people who affected by the worldwide Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague. While serving the patients, she engaged the disease herself and died.
8. Dayanand Saraswati
pronunciation (help·info) (12 February 1824 – 30 October 1883) was an Indian philosopher, social leader and founder of the Arya Samaj, a reform movement of the Vedic dharma. He was the first to give the call for Swaraj as "India for Indians" in 1876, a call later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak.
Dayanand Saraswati, a prominent Hindu religious leader and a Vedic scholar was the first Indian to voice his right for freedom of India from British rule in 1876. ... He was deeply devoted to God and translated the Vedas from Vedic Sanskrit to Sanskrit and Hindi so that the common man could also read them.
Swamy Dayananda is one of the greatest thinkers of modern India. He was the founder of Aryasamaj - a movement which wanted to reform Indian Society on the basis of Vedas and their precepts. He was not only a social, cultural reformer, but also a great educationist.
9. Keshab Chunder Sen, also spelled Keshub Chandra Sen, (born November 19, 1838, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—died January 8, 1884, Calcutta), Hindu philosopher and social reformer who attempted to incorporate Christian theology within the framework of Hindu thought.Born: November 19, 1838, Kolkata Founded: Brahmo Samaj Died: January 8, 1884, Kolkata.
Keshab Chandra Sen (1838–84) was a prominent social and religious reformer in Kol- kata. In 1857, he joined the Brahmo Samaj, which was known for its emphasis on the scriptural texts, the Upanis ̣ads, and the concomitant rejection of popular expressions of Hinduism, such as image worship.
Sen, Keshab Chandra. Sen, Keshab Chandra (1838-1884) a great intellectual and a famous Brahma leader of the 19th century Bengal, who founded in 1880 a new 'universal' religion - Naba Bidhan (New Dispensation).
10. Mother Teresa (1910–1997) was a Roman Catholic nun who devoted her life to serving the poor and destitute around the world. She spent many years in Calcutta, India where she founded the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation devoted to helping those in great need.
It was there that she took the name Sister Mary Teresa after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. As was the custom for Loreto nuns, she took on the title of "Mother" upon making her final vows and thus became known as Mother Teresa.
Pope Paul VI gave her the inaugural Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971, commending her work with the poor, display of Christian charity and efforts for peace, and she received the Pacem in Terris Award in 1976. After her death, Teresa progressed rapidly on the road to sainthood.
11. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891), born Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay (Ishshor Chôndro Bôndopaddhae), was a Bengali polymath from the Indian subcontinent, and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. His efforts to simplify and modernise Bengali prose were significant. Born: 26 September 1820 Parents: Thakurdas Bandyopadhyay, Bhagavati Namesakes: Vidyasagar Setu
Vidyasagar championed the upliftment of the status of women in India, particularly in his native Bengal. Unlike some other reformers who sought to set up alternative societies or systems, he sought to transform society from within.
It was in 1854 that Vidyasagar began his campaign for widow remarriage. The 19th century was a particularly terrible time for women, especially for pre-pubescent girls from poor families, who were forced into marriages with older men.
12. Swami Vivekananda was a great social reformer and a very inspiring personality of India. Vivekananda was called by the name Narendranath Datta.. He was born in Kolkata on 12 January 1863 to Vishwanath Datta and Bhuvaneshwari Devi. ... Wherever he went, his magnetic personality created a great impression.
Swami Vivekananda. ... Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is perhaps best known for his speech which began with the words - "Sisters and brothers of America," in which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.
Vivekananda was called by the name Narendranath Datta.. He was born in Kolkata on 12 January 1863 to Vishwanath Datta and Bhuvaneshwari Devi. His father was a successful attorney. He used to practice meditation even from his boyhood, and was associated with Brahmo Movement for some time.
“Do you believe now that God exists?” asked Vivekananda. “God no longer exists, for He just died,” the doctor replied, referring to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa himself as God! Thus, the atheist had seen God in the saint, and had been converted against his will