Correct answer: (c) An anti-caste movement in Maharashtra
Explanation
- A
A movement for upliftment of tribals in Bihar
A movement for upliftment of tribals in Bihar points to other streams such as the Tana Bhagat or later Jharkhand tribal politics, not to Satya Shodhak Samaj. This option is therefore not the key.
- B
A temple-entry movement in Gujarat
A temple-entry movement in Gujarat recalls campaigns such as those associated with Gandhi in later decades or regional temple-entry satyagrahas, not Jyotirao Phule’s Samaj. This option is wrong.
- C
An anti-caste movement in Maharashtra
Satya Shodhak Samaj was founded by Jyotirao Phule in Pune in 1873 as an anti-caste movement in Maharashtra. It attacked Brahmanical dominance, promoted education of Shudras and Ati-Shudras, and conducted non-Brahmin marriages and social reform. That is why (c) is the official key.
- D
A peasant movement in Punjab
A peasant movement in Punjab would fit the Unionist or later kisan streams, not Satya Shodhak Samaj. This option is not the key.
Summary. Official key is (c) an anti-caste movement in Maharashtra. Phule’s Satya Shodhak Samaj (Truth-Seekers’ Society) organised lower-caste assertion, schooling and a critique of priestly monopoly in the Bombay Presidency. It is not a Bihar tribal, Gujarat temple-entry, or Punjab peasant body. Savitribai Phule’s work on girls’ education sits in the same Maharashtra reform milieu. Only (c) locates the Samaj correctly.