CBSE Class 8 Answered

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, several movements were launched by the so-called ‘low’ caste leaders against the practice of caste discrimination. The Satnami movement in central India, founded by a leader named Ghasidas, worked among the leatherworkers and organised a movement to improve their societal status. In Eastern Bengal, the Haridas Thakur’s Matua sect worked among the ‘low’ caste Chandala cultivators. Haridas articulated his community’s objections to the Brahmanical texts which supposedly supported the caste system. Also, in the region which is presently the state of Kerala, a guru from among the ‘low’ caste of Ezhavas, Shri Narayan Guru, proclaimed the ideals of unity for his people. He advocated equality of all within a single sect or caste. He also encouraged his followers to have faith in only one guru alone, that is, he himself.