Prathana Samaj is a Hindu religious organization.
M. G. Ranade (1842–1901) was the most significant figure in
this Hindu reformist group based in Bombay.
The reformist purpose of the Prarthana Samaj was more
concerned with social concerns than with theological or worship-related issues.
Their main goal was to eliminate "evils" in Hindu
culture, such as child marriage and the prohibition on widow remarriage.
Educated and enlightened, its members were nevertheless
religiously conservative and ardent Hindus with strong roots in the tradition.
Rather than drastically rebuilding Hinduism from the ground
up, they regarded their job as a deliberate and methodical process of reforming
Hinduism by eradicating its most undesirable practices.
They varied from the Brahmo Samaj in this regard, which
strove to completely reinvent the tradition by imbuing it with a strong,
quasi-monotheistic focus, a trait greatly inspired by European missionaries.
When social reform organizations were integrated into the
Indian National Congress in the early 1920s, the Prarthana Samaj lost steam.
