Who suggested the law that the British Government passed in 1856 to support widow remarriage?
- (a)Keshub Chandra Sen
- (b)Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
- (c)Atmaram Pandurang
- (d)Raja Ram Mohan Roy
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The law is the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856, and the man who argued it into existence was Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.
From 1855 he published tracts holding that the ancient Sanskrit texts themselves allowed a widow to remarry, so the reform could be demanded from inside the tradition rather than against it.
He then petitioned the government, and the Act was passed in July 1856. The reformer behind the 1856 law is Vidyasagar, option (b).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Keshub Chandra Sen — Keshub Chandra Sen was born in 1838 and was still a teenager in 1856. His own reform work is Brahmo and later, running to the Native Marriage Act of 1872.
- (c)Atmaram Pandurang — Atmaram Pandurang founded the Prarthana Samaj in Bombay in 1867, eleven years after this Act. He belongs to the next generation of reform, and in western India rather than Bengal.
- (d)Raja Ram Mohan Roy — Raja Ram Mohan Roy died in 1833, twenty-three years before this Act. His legislative victory was the abolition of sati under Lord William Bentinck in 1829.
Concept
Nineteenth-century reform in India ran on one strategy: argue from inside the tradition, not against it.
Ram Mohan Roy attacked sati by citing scripture. Vidyasagar defended widow remarriage by citing the Sanskrit texts. Each then turned the scholarship into a petition and asked the colonial government for a statute.
That is why SSC pairs a reformer with an Act: Roy with the sati regulation of 1829, Vidyasagar with the widow remarriage Act of 1856. Learn the pairs and the years follow.
The Act legalised remarriage, but it also provided that a widow who remarried gave up the rights she held in her first husband's property, and social acceptance lagged far behind the statute.
Note the split the stem preserves. Vidyasagar suggested the law; the colonial legislature passed it.
Key facts
- The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act was passed in 1856.
- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar campaigned for it and petitioned the government in its support.
- Sati had been abolished earlier, by the Bengal Sati Regulation of 1829 under Lord William Bentinck.
- Atmaram Pandurang founded the Prarthana Samaj in Bombay in 1867.
Study next
Common traps
- Answering Raja Ram Mohan Roy because he is the best-known reformer, when he died in 1833.
- Crediting the Governor-General who signed the Act rather than the reformer who suggested it.
- Confusing the 1856 widow remarriage Act with the 1829 abolition of sati.
SSC asks Vidyasagar from the other end too. At 24 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.21 one of the statements to be judged is that the Hindu Widow Remarriage Act, 1856, came about through his efforts, and the key accepts it.
The reformer-and-institution form runs beside it: Prarthana Samaj at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.22, Brahmo Samaj at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.3, and Ram Mohan Roy with Bentinck on sati at 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.7.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.