B.

True or False

1.The emergence of new forms of communication provided people greater exposure to developments
around them. True

2. Social reformers used references to ancient texts to argue for socia reformer. True

3.Pandita Ramabai lelt that the religious beliefs gre respect to women. False

4 .The Child Marriage Restraint Act prevented the marriage of a man below the age of 16 and a woman
below the age of 12. False

5. Prarthana Samaj followed the concept of Bhakti. True

C.Short Answer Questions

1. Ram Mohan Roy's main objectives were to make westem edocation sadely accessible to the people of
the country and help women attain freedom and equality.

2. The references from ancient sacred texts were taken by the other social reformers to argue for
reform.

3. Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 prevented the marriage of a man below the age of 18 and a
woman below the age of 16 These limits were later revised to 21 for men and 18 for women.

4. People were against sending girls to schools because they thought that girls attending school meant
taking girls away from their homes and domestic duties.

5. During the 19th century, when the first schools were established for girls, people felt that the school
curriculum for girls must be designed at a lower level of difficulty than that for boys.

D. Long answer questions

1. Women activists such as Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Tarabai Shinde, and Pandita Ramabai
began to create awareness about the status of women through their writings. They also began to take
many initiatives such as starting schools for girls or widows' homes to improve the status of women.

Despite protests from orthodox groups, the late 19th century witnessed an active participation of
women in reform works including writing books, editing magazines, establishing schools, forming
women's associations and training centres. By the early 20th century, women started to build political
pressure demanding laws for female suffrage, health care and women's education. By the 1920s, many
women also started to take part in nationalist and socialist movements.
2. Phule drew a comparison between the lower castes in India and the black slaves in America. He
dedicated his book Gulamgiri (meaning slavery) to Americans who fought in the American Civil War for
liberating the slaves and to end slavery. Thus, Phule took his cause beyond the caste system to fight
against every kind of inequality including that of the condition of women belonging to the upper castes,
the miserable state of labourers, and the oppression and humiliation faced by the lower castes.

3. Born into a Mahar family. Ambedkar faced discrimination since childhood. School meant sitting on the
floor outside the classroom with no access to drinking water from the taps used by upper caste children.
A fellowship grant gave Ambedkar the opportunity to pursue higher studies in the US. When he came
back to India in 1919, he produced many writings criticising the dominance of upper castes in the
society. At that time, people from marginalised groups were not allowed to enter temples. Hence,
between 1927 and 1935, he led three temple entry movements to fight for the admission of people
from marginalised groups into temples.

4. Periyar was convinced that all religious authorities saw caste inequalities as made by God, therefore
he felt that untouchables must give up religion to attain social equality. Periyar also criticised the use of
Hindu scriptures to prove the dominance of upper castes over lower castes and that of men over
women.

Phule, on the other hand, took this cause beyond the caste system to fight against every kind of
inequality including the condition of women belonging to the upper castes, the miserable state of
labourers, and the oppression and humiliation faced by the lower castes.