The religious reforms in Bombay were started by whom?
- (a)Prarthna Samaj
- (b)Deoband School
- (c)Brahmo Samaj
- (d)Paramhans Mandali
Correct — D, Paramhans Mandali.
The Paramhans Mandali, founded in Bombay in 1849, is where organised religious reform in the city begins. It worked as a secret society: members professed faith in one God, rejected caste, and quietly ate food prepared by low-caste hands to prove the point.
The stem asks who started the work in Bombay, so priority in time is the test. Prarthana Samaj, the other Bombay body in this option set, was founded in 1867 — nearly two decades later.
Carry away the order: Mandali in 1849, Prarthana Samaj in 1867.
- (a)Prarthna Samaj — Prarthana Samaj really is a Bombay religious reform body, so the option is not off-topic. But it was founded in 1867, and the stem asks who began the work in the city.
It is the right answer to the Bombay theistic reform society founded in 1867 by Atmaram Pandurang, later carried by Mahadev Govind Ranade and R. G. Bhandarkar.
Atmaram Pandurang was Dadoba Pandurang's brother, and the two brothers' bodies stand eighteen years apart.
- (b)Deoband School — Deoband names a seminary in the upper Ganga plain, not a Bombay reform circle. Darul Uloom Deoband was established in 1866 at Deoband, in Saharanpur district of the then North-Western Provinces (today's Uttar Pradesh).
It is the right answer to the orthodox Islamic revivalist school founded at Deoband in 1866, associated with Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, which taught a return to the Quran and Hadith and trained ulama outside state patronage.
- (c)Brahmo Samaj — Brahmo Samaj belongs to Calcutta: Raja Rammohan Roy founded it there in 1828. Its theism did travel west — Keshab Chandra Sen's visit to Bombay in the mid-1860s stirred the circle that formed Prarthana Samaj — but influencing a city is not starting reform in it.
It is the right answer to the Bengal reform association founded at Calcutta in 1828 by Raja Rammohan Roy.
Nineteenth-century India produced organised associations that argued about religion instead of only practising it. They attacked idol worship, priestly authority and caste restrictions, and put a rational, one-God reading of scripture in their place.
Bengal moved first with the Brahmo Samaj in 1828. Western India developed its own line, in which the Paramhans Mandali of 1849 comes before the Prarthana Samaj of 1867.
Bombay in the 1840s had a small English-educated professional class, printing presses and colleges, but orthodox opinion still policed caste and commensality. Reform therefore began behind closed doors.
The Mandali met secretly precisely because eating food cooked by a low-caste person could cost a member his household standing. Prarthana Samaj, arriving eighteen years later, could work in the open, and its meetings and leaders left the fuller public record.
- The Paramhans Mandali was founded in Bombay in 1849 and functioned as a secret society for religious and social reform.
- Its members professed belief in one God and broke caste rules in private, including by taking food prepared by low-caste hands.
- Dadoba Pandurang Tarkhadkar was among its leading figures; the Mandali declined once its membership became publicly known.
- The Manav Dharma Sabha, founded at Surat in 1844, belongs to the same western-India reform current as the Mandali.
- Prarthana Samaj was founded in Bombay in 1867 by Atmaram Pandurang; Mahadev Govind Ranade and R. G. Bhandarkar later gave it its public face.
- Brahmo Samaj was founded at Calcutta in 1828 by Raja Rammohan Roy.
- Darul Uloom Deoband was established in 1866 at Deoband, in Saharanpur district of the then North-Western Provinces (today's Uttar Pradesh).
Two of the four sit in Bombay, so place alone cannot decide it; the earlier date does.
- Reading 'started' as 'did the most'. The stem rewards priority in time, and the Mandali of 1849 precedes the Prarthana Samaj of 1867.
- Placing the Brahmo Samaj in Bombay because its ideas reached the city. It was founded at Calcutta in 1828, and inspiration is not foundation.
- Letting the word 'religious' pull you to Deoband. Deoband is a seminary in Saharanpur district, not a body of the Bombay Presidency.
- Mixing the two Pandurang brothers: Dadoba Pandurang Tarkhadkar goes with the Paramhans Mandali, Atmaram Pandurang with the Prarthana Samaj.
- Assuming a secret society left no trace worth asking about. The Mandali's secrecy is exactly the detail a stem hangs on.
This idea reaches you in a few recognisable shapes. A 'started by whom' or 'founded first' stem, where two bodies share a city and only the date separates them.
A pair-matching item that sets an organisation against a founder or a place. And a two-statement item that plants a wrong province or a wrong founder in one statement, the way the CAPF 2020 item put Paramahansa Mandali in Bengal under Swami Vivekananda.
CAPF_GAI_2020_Q1032020The same two organisations, tested from the other side. That item checks place and founder — its first statement wrongly moves Paramahansa Mandali to Bengal under Swami Vivekananda, while its second correctly places Prarthana Samaj in Maharashtra. Here both bodies are correctly in Bombay, so location decides nothing and the date, 1849 against 1867, does the separating.
UPSC_1995_GS1_Q1001995Same region and century, different device. That item pairs men with organisations, including Dadabhai Naoroji with the Bombay Association, and is answered by spotting that Satya Shodhak Sabha belongs to Jyotirao Phule and not to Tilak. This stem names nobody: the work is to rank two Bombay bodies by date rather than to test a name against an organisation.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Paramhans Mandali, a secret society working for religious and social reform, was founded in 1849 in which city?
- (a)Calcutta
- (b)Bombay
- (c)Surat
- (d)Poona
Answerb — Bombay. The Mandali was founded there in 1849 and met in secret, its members professing one God and breaking caste rules over shared food.Calcutta is where the Brahmo Samaj was founded in 1828. Surat is where the Manav Dharma Sabha was founded in 1844. Poona is where the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha was founded in 1870.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Arrange the following in the chronological order of their founding: 1. Brahmo Samaj 2. Paramhans Mandali 3. Prarthana Samaj 4. Darul Uloom Deoband
- (a)1 - 2 - 3 - 4
- (b)1 - 2 - 4 - 3
- (c)2 - 1 - 3 - 4
- (d)1 - 3 - 2 - 4
Answerb — 1 - 2 - 4 - 3. Brahmo Samaj 1828, Paramhans Mandali 1849, Darul Uloom Deoband 1866, Prarthana Samaj 1867.Option a and option c put Prarthana Samaj before Deoband, reversing 1866 and 1867. Option c also puts the Mandali before the Brahmo Samaj. Option d puts Prarthana Samaj ahead of the Mandali, which is the exact confusion this stem probes.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Prarthana Samaj of Bombay was founded in 1867 by
- (a)Atmaram Pandurang
- (b)Dadoba Pandurang Tarkhadkar
- (c)Mahadev Govind Ranade
- (d)Keshab Chandra Sen
Answera — Atmaram Pandurang founded the Prarthana Samaj at Bombay in 1867.Dadoba Pandurang Tarkhadkar, his brother, belongs to the earlier Paramhans Mandali of 1849. Ranade joined afterwards and became the Samaj's most visible leader, which is not the same as founding it. Keshab Chandra Sen was a Brahmo leader from Bengal whose visit stimulated the Bombay group.