ABSTRACT
The influence of the press in the rise of nationalist consciousness was accentuated by the fillip given by the socio-religious reform movements. The effect of the socio-religious movements per se had an indelible effect on the early nationalist movement. In fact, both socio-religious reform movements and nationalism owed their origin to the English-educated elite. During the nineteenth century, socioreligious reform movements sprang up in various parts of India. They were primarily a reaction to the threat of Western domination. As Romila Thapar has put it, the socio-religious reform movements ‘attempted to defend, re-define and create “Hinduism” on the model of the Christian religion’.1 The reformers looked to the `glorious’ past of the Hindus and hoped for its revival. This process also contributed to the formation of Indian nationalism. Indian nationalism, as part of its agenda, aimed at the social, economic as well as political regeneration of India. In the words of A.R. Desai:
The leaders who founded the Congress and dominated its working were either social reformers or those who were anglicized in their life-styles.3 The nationalist leaders viewed social evils and superstition in Hinduism as obstacles in the way of national regeneration and unity. The revivalists declared nationalism as a religion of which the civic, the economic and the political ideas were merely differ-
ent manifestations. Thus, there existed a very close connection between nationalism and socio-religious reform movements-the one influencing the other. This chapter deals with the socio-religious reform movements in Tamil Nadu and its contribution to the growth of national consciousness.
