Why Social Reform is Necessary for Political Reform

• The path of social reform, like the path to heaven, is strewn with many difficulties. Social reform in India has few friends and many critics.
• It was at one time recognized that without social efficiency - no permanent progress in the other fields of activity was possible.
• Social Efficiency

<aside> 💡 For Dewey and Ambedkar - social efficiency lies in the individual being able to choose and develop his/her competencies to the fullest and thus mindfully contribute to the functioning of society.

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• For a system that predetermines a person's occupation on the basis of caste or class affiliations cannot BUT result in social inefficiency.
• Therefore Caste/Class affiliations result in social inefficiency i.e Hindu society - a society wrought by evil customs was not in a state of social efficiency.
• It was due to the recognition of this fact that the birth of the National Congress was accompanied by the foundation of the Social Conference.
• Congress - defined weak points in the political organization of the country Social Conference - removed the weak points in the social organization of Hindu Society
• Soon, the two wings developed into 2 parties - a political reform party and a social reform party
• The point at issue was should social reform should precede political reform? No substantial political reform can come about if there is no social reform, no amount of political reform can do any good without social reform. Had a discussion with @Swati about this

<aside> 💡 Social inequality makes formal political equality relatively meaningless

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• Lokmanya Tilak (1865-1920) was a Chitpavan Brahmin and social conservative who sought to imbue Congress nationalism with a distinct right wing hue. Jaffrelot calls him "the Congress leader from Poona who tended not to put into practice the social reforms he articulated" Tilak saw even the education of women and non Bramhins as "a loss of nationality" He was against Phule and consistently opposed the establishment of girls' schools
• Anyway, over time, the Social Conference political party died out and the party in favor of political reform won.
• ...it is necessary to make a distinction between social reform in the sense of the reform of the Hindu Family (widow remarriage, child marriage etc) and the social reform in the sense of reorganization of Hindu Society (abolition of caste system).
• The problem with the Social Conference was that it was a body which was mainly concerned with the reform of the high caste, because thats who was part of the social conference. They felt quite naturally to remove evils such as enforced widowhood, child marriages etc. - evils which prevailed among them and were personally felt by them. They did not stand for reform of the Hindu Society; they stood for the reform of the Hindu Family. This is the reason this party was lost to time.

I for one have no patience with those who say we shall not be fit for political reform until we reform our social system. Are we not fit, (for political reform) because our widows remain unmarried and our girls are given in marriage earlier than in other countries? ... because our wives and daughters do not drive about with us visiting friends? ... because we do not send our daughters to Oxford and Cambridge? W.C Bonnerjee

what an idiot

• Treatment of Untouchables by Peshwas in Poona