Question

Identify the Indian social reformer of the nineteenth century with the help of the following information and choose the correct option :
• He was from Maharashtra.
• He pointed to the suffering of the depressed classes.
• He demanded economic and social justice.

• A. Sri Narayana Guru
• B. Jyotiba Phule
• C. Raja Ram Mohan Roy
• D. Swami Vivekanand

Hint:

• Jyotiba Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule were pioneers of women's education in India.
• He was given the title 'Mahatma' in 1888 for his selfless service to society.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Concept:

• The 19th-century Indian Renaissance saw several reformers who fought against the caste system and for the rights of marginalized communities.
• These reformers often founded organizations to propagate their ideas and utilized literature to spread awareness.

Step 1: Filtering candidates by region and focus
Sri Narayana Guru (A) was a great reformer who fought against the caste system, but he was from Kerala, not Maharashtra.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy (C) and Swami Vivekanand (D) were both from Bengal. While they worked on social issues (like Sati and religious reform), their primary regional base was not Maharashtra.

Step 2: Identifying the specific contributions of Jyotiba Phule
Jyotiba Phule was a 19th-century reformer based in Pune, Maharashtra.
He dedicated his life to the upliftment of the "depressed classes" (Dalits) and women. In 1873, he founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth) to demand social and economic justice.
He wrote 'Gulamgiri' (Slavery), dedicated to the American movement to free slaves, linking the local caste struggle with global movements for human rights. This matches all the criteria in the question perfectly.