Explanation:

Explanation:

Socio-Cultural Reform Movement:

• The Indian society in the first half of the 19th century was caste ridden, decadent and rigid.
  • It followed certain practices which are not in keeping with humanitarian feelings or values but were still being followed in the name of religion.
• Some enlightened Indians like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chand Vidyasagar, Dayanand Saraswati, Jyotirao Phule, Keshab Chandra Sen and many others started to bring in reforms in society so that it could face the challenges of the West.
• The reform movements could broadly be classified into two categories:
  • Reformist movements like the Brahmo Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj, the Aligarh Movement.
  • Revivalist movements like Arya Samaj and the Deoband movement.
• The reformist as well as the revivalist movement depended, to varying degrees, on an appeal to the lost purity of the religion they sought to reform.
• The only difference between one reform movement and the other lay in the degree to which it relied on tradition or on reason and conscience.

Factors leading to such movement:

• Women's Depressing Situation: The position of women was the most disturbing.
• Female newborns were often killed upon birth.
• In society, child marriage was common.
• Polygamy was common in various sections of the country.
• Widow remarriage was not permitted and sati pratha was often practiced.
• Education and Global Awareness: Beginning in the late nineteenth century, a number of European and Indian researchers began studying ancient India's history, philosophy, science, religions, and literature.

Impact of the Socio-Religious Reform Movements:

• The British intended to satisfy the top crust of society. As a result, just two significant pieces of legislation were enacted.
• Some legal measures were enacted to improve women's standing. Sati, for example, was banned (1829). Infanticide has been made illegal.
• Legislation approved in 1856 allowed widow remarriage. A law passed in 1860 elevated the marriageable age of females to 10.
• Inter-caste and inter-communal marriages were legalized in 1872 by legislation.
• The other regulation, enacted in 1891, was intended to discourage underage marriage.
• The Sharda Act was enacted in 1929 to discourage child marriage. It said that a girl under the age of 14 and a boy under the age of 18 could not marry.
• As a result of all of these efforts, Indian women played an active and essential part in the country's war for independence.
• As a consequence, many superstitions vanished, and many more were on their way out. Traveling to other nations was no longer a sin.