Both Gokhale and Srinivasa Sastri, who succeeded him as President of the Society on his death in 1915, devoted themselves mainly to politics and attained unique distinction in that line. Some other members devoted themselves to work of other kinds and developed independent organisations. We will refer to the activities of three of them.
(i) One such member, Narayan Malhar Joshi, founded in 1911 the Social Service League in Bombay, its aim being ” to secure for the masses of the people better and reasonable conditions of life and work “. ” Within fifteen years they had come to run 17 night-schools for 760 adults, 3 free day schools for half-timers in the mills, libraries and reading rooms with a daily average of 200 readers, and 2 day nurseries. They had organised over a hundred co-operative societies; they did Police Court Agents’ work; gave legal advice and wrote petitions for the illiterate; they arranged fresh-air excursions for slum children and provided six gymnasia and three theatrical stages for the recreation of the working classes; they did sanitary work, gave medical relief in three dispensaries to nearly 20,000 outdoor patients per annum and had started Boys’ Clubs and Scout corps.”
In 1920 Mr. Joshi founded the All-India Trade Union Congress and became recognised as the foremost representative of the Labour Movement in India. He served the Labour Movement ably until 1929 when a resolution was passed at the annual meeting of the Trade Union Congress to affiliate the All-Indian Federation (founded by Mr. Joshi) to Moscow, and this leaning towards Communism forced Joshi and his adherents to leave the meeting.
(ii) Hriday Nath Kunzru, another member of the Servants of India Society, founded in 1914 the Seva Samiti at Allahabad. In addition to the promotion of education, sanitation, physical culture, etc., it organises social service during fairs, famines, floods, epidemics, and especially on the occasion of religious festivals like the Kumbha Mela.
(iii) Shri Ram Bajpai organised the Seva Samithi Boy Scouts Association. It was founded in 1914 on the line of the world-wide Baden-Powell organization, which at that time refused to allow Indians to join it. Although Lord Baden-Powell, as a result of his personal visit to India, raised the colour bar, Bajpai’s organisation decided to preserve its separate existence, as its aim was the complete Indianisation of the Boy Scout Movement in India.
The activities of the five illustrious members of the Servants of India Society (Gokhale, Sastri, Joshi, Kunzru and Bajpai) will suffice to indicate clearly its role in moulding the national life of India.
The Servants of India Society conducted three papers–The Servant of India, an English weekly edited by Mr. S. G. Vaze; the Dnyan Prakash, the oldest Marathi daily, edited by Mr. Limaye; and the Hitawad, a weekly.
The minority communities in India, like the Parsis and the Sikhs, were also profoundly influenced by the wave of reformation. The Parsi community owes a great deal to its famous reformer, Behramji M. Malabari, for his brilliant services in the cause of Indian women, children, education, and journalism. The Zoroastrian Conference, inaugurated in 1910 at the instance of a Parsi priest named Dhala who had visited America and studied in Columbia University under the renowned Zoroastrian scholar, Professor Jackson, has rendered beneficial services to the community. The Chief Khalsa Diwan, with its headquarters at Amritsar and branches in different parts of the country, advocating liberal reforms in society and culture, and the Khalsa College at Amritsar, gave eloquent proofs of Sikh awakening.
Larely through the Aligarh Movement, the history of which has been already traced, Islam in India was roused to a new life. The chief exponents of this ” New Islam ” were Maulavi Chiragh ‘Ali, the Rt. Hon. Syed Amir ‘Ali, Sir Shaikh Muhammad lqbal Prof. S. Khudabakhsh and Prof. A. M. Maulavi. A number of anjumans or societies, and a powerful Muslim press, sprang up for the service of the Muslim community. The Ahmadiya Movement, started by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian in the Gurudaspur district of the Punjab for the restoration of the ” true and unpolluted faith of Islam to the followers of the Prophet “, also gained a number of followers in different parts of the world.
Under the influence of the general awakening of the country, a spirit of reform permeated various classes of Indian society and profoundly modified their ideas, habits and customs. The most striking change in Indian social life of today is in the position of women. Women are not only coming out of their purdah and receiving education, but are also taking active interest in social and political matters and are claiming their rights as citizens. As a matter of fact, the women’s movement in India, which started largely under the inspiration of Ramabai Ranade, has ” succeeded with a swiftness and to a degree that would have seemed fantastic even a few years earlier “.
Attempts have been made by the State and reformers to do away by legislation with the evil of early marriage. In 1901 the Gaikwar of Baroda passed the Infant Marriage Prevention Act, which fixed the minimum marriageable age in the State, for girls at twelve and for boys at sixteen. The Age of Consent Committee met at Simla in June, 1928, to enquire into the question of marriage reforms. After its report appeared, Rai Saheb Harbilas Sarda’s Child Marriage Bill was passed in 1930. The Act evoked much opposition among the conservative sections of the people and did not prove very effectual in actual working. The Widow-Remarriage Movement, which had many notable Indian social reformers as its advocates, has also made some progress, though widow-remarriage is still so uncommon as to attract attention in the papers whenever it takes place. Laudable attempts to improve the lot of the widows have been made by the Maharani’s School at Mysore, the Arya Samaj and the Purity Society in the Punjab, and the Hindu Widow- Reform League of Lucknow.
The women themselves have been zealous in making attempts to improve their lot in all possible ways. In 1923 a Women’s Indian Association, with many branches, was started and opened a Children’s Home in Madras. In 1924 a Birth Control League was founded in Bombay, and the journal Navayuga (The New Age) offered its services to the cause of this movement. Of the 6,000 members of the Indian National Conference, held at Belgaum in December, 1924, 1,000 were women. In December, 1925, the talented Indian poetess, Sarojini Naidu (nee Chatterjee), became the President of the annual meeting of the Indian National Congress. The Women’s Indian Association, started in Madras, has rendered valuable services to the cause of the uplift of women in a variety of ways. It opened, on 21st March, 1934, a Rescue Home to facilitate the working of the Rescue section of the Immoral Traffic Act, enforced by the Government. Muslim ladies also were affected by the spirit of reform, as is clear from the sessions of the All India Muslim Ladies Conference since 1914. In 1919 the All-India Muslim Ladies Conference, at its Lahore session, pronounced against polygamy. Her Highness the Dowager Begam of Bhopal presided over the annual session of the All-India Women’s Conference in 1928 and she introduced many social and educational reforms for women in her State. Since 1926, the All-India Women’s Conference has expressed, in its annual sessions, the legitimate demands of the women for better facilities regarding education, and abolition of social abuses.
