Page 103 - SST Class 04

23 India : Leaders

Leaders and I

A leader plays a very vital role. The Principal is the leader of your

school and the Prime Minister is the leader of the country. Many
people have emerged as natural leaders; for example, Swami
Vivekananda and Gandhiji emerged as natural leaders who
worked for the good of the people. A leader can work in any field
– religion, social reform, administration, science and technology,
military, business and so on. These leaders influence our life

greatly. We must feel indebted to their contribution.

From ancient times to the present times, India has been served by a large number of
leaders in diverse fields. It is not possible to study them all, so we have chosen only a
few of them.

Social Reformers

During the course of progress, some evil practices have entered our social life. These

are called social evils, such as illiteracy, child marriage, dowry, Sati custom etc. Many
social reformers have made effort to eradicate them. Some of them are as follows :
Sant Kabir lived in Varanasi about 500 years ago. He taught love, brotherhood and
cooperation among all people. He discussed how meaningless were several religious

practices in both Hinduism and Islam.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a great social

reformer from Bengal. He knew several
languages. He worked against the Sati
custom, women suffering and child
marriage. It was due to his effort that the
Sati custom was abolished. He worked for
women education. He set up the Brahmo
Samaj. Sant Kabir Raja Ram Mohan Roy

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