2409:4066:114:42BA:0:0:C9A:E0B0 at 09:30, 26 September 2021

2021-09-26T09:30:18Z

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'''Dharma Sabha''' was formed in 1830 in [[Calcutta]] by [[Radhakanta Deb]]. The organization was established mainly to counter the ongoing social reform movements led by protagonists such as [[Raja Ram Mohun Roy]] and [[Henry Louis Vivian Derozio|Henry Derozio]]. More specifically, the impetus of forming the organization came from a new law enacted by the colonial British rule which banned the practice of [[sati (practice)|sati]] in the country; the focus of the new association was to repel the law which was seen as an intrusion by the British into the religious affairs of the indigenous people by some sections of the [[Hindu]] community.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Social ideas and social change in Bengal, 1818-1835|last=Ahmed|first=A.S|publisher=Ṛddhi.|year=1976}}</ref> Dharma Sabha filed an appeal in the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom |Privy Council]] against the ban on Sati by [[Lord William Bentinck]] as it went against the assurance given by [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]] of non-interference in Hindu religious affairs; however, their appeal was rejected and the ban on Sati was upheld in 1832.<ref name="Muthiah2008">{{cite book|author=S. Muthiah|title=Madras, Chennai: A 400-year Record of the First City of Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbR_LLkqdI8C&pg=PA484|access-date=7 May 2020|year=2008|publisher=Palaniappa Brothers|isbn=978-81-8379-468-8|pages=484–}}</ref><ref name="Bates2013">{{cite book|author=Crispin Bates|title=Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857: Volume I: Anticipations and Experiences in the Locality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJ-HAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA48|access-date=9 May 2020|date=26 March 2013|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-81-321-1336-2|pages=48–}}</ref> It published a newspaper called [[Samachar Chandrika]].

The Dharma Sabha campaigned against the [[Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856|Hindu Widow Remarriage Act, 1856]] and submitted a petition against the proposal with nearly four times more signatures than the one submitted for it by [[Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar]]. However <ref>{{cite journal | title=THE REVOLUTION BEHIND THE REVOLT (A comparative study of the causes of the 1857 uprising) | author=H. R. Ghosal | journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress | year=1957 | volume=20 | pages=293–305|jstor = 44304480}}</ref><ref name="Asthana1974">{{cite book|author=Pratima Asthana|title=Women's Movement in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AxAqAAAAYAAJ|access-date=17 December 2018|year=1974|publisher=Vikas Publishing House|isbn=978-0-7069-0333-1|page=22}}</ref> [[James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie|Lord Dalhousie]] personally finalized the bill despite the opposition and it being considered a flagrant breach of Hindu customs as prevalent then, and it was passed by [[Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning|Lord Canning]].<ref name="Gupta2015">{{cite book|author=Amit Kumar Gupta|title=Nineteenth-Century Colonialism and the Great Indian Revolt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yt6oCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT30|access-date=17 December 2018|date=5 October 2015|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-38668-1|pages=30–}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=A Wind of Change: The New British Colonial Policy in Post-Revolt India | author=Belkacem Belmekki | journal=AEDEAN: Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-americanos | year=2008 | volume=2 |issue = 2| pages=111–124|jstor = 41055330}}</ref>

The organization soon morphed into a 'society in defense of Hindu way of life or culture' which then turns as a think tank for RSS.<ref>{{Cite book|title=British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dynamics of Indian Modernization, 1773-1835|last=Kopf|first=D|publisher=University of California Press.|year=1969|location=Berkeley|pages=271}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Political organisations based in India]]
[[Category:1829 establishments in India]]
[[Category:Hindu organizations]]
[[Category:Hindu nationalism]]
[[Category:Defunct Hindu organizations]]

{{India-org-stub}}

Dharma Sabha - Revision history

2409:4066:114:42BA:0:0:C9A:E0B0 at 09:30, 26 September 2021