Breaking down the question
This is a judgement question — "according to you" invites a reasoned personal stand, and explain asks you to defend it with evidence. You must select one reform movement, argue why it was the most effective in raising women's status, and justify the choice against alternatives.
The safest strategy is to name a defensible candidate — the Brahmo Samaj and the broader nineteenth-century reform led by Raja Ram Mohan Roy — and build a case around measurable social and legal outcomes for women, while acknowledging other contenders.
How to approach it
State your choice clearly at the outset and give criteria for effectiveness — legal change, social practice and its durability. Explain your chosen movement's specific contributions. Then briefly weigh rival movements to show balance. Close by conceding that no single movement acted alone and that effectiveness is cumulative.
Model answer
In my assessment, the Brahmo Samaj, founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1828 and carried forward by Keshab Chandra Sen and others, played the most effective role in uplifting the status of women in colonial India. Effectiveness here is judged by three tests — whether a movement changed the law, altered social practice, and left durable institutions behind it.
On all three counts the Brahmo reform scores highly. Roy's campaign against sati culminated in its legal abolition in 1829 — a decisive intervention that saved lives and struck at the ideology of the self-sacrificing widow. The movement championed widow remarriage, opposed child marriage and polygamy, and argued for women's education and property rights, grounding each claim in a rational, reformist reading of scripture that made reform culturally legitimate rather than merely imposed.
Crucially, the Brahmo Samaj built lasting institutions — schools for girls, associations and a public sphere in which women's questions could be debated. It set the template for later legislation, from the Widow Remarriage Act (1856), advanced by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, to the Age of Consent and eventually post-independence family law. Its influence radiated into the Prarthana Samaj and the wider Bengal Renaissance.
Other movements have strong claims. The Arya Samaj promoted girls' education and widow remarriage across north India. Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule opened the first schools for girls and lower-caste children, directly empowering the most marginalised women — a contribution some would rank first for reaching beyond the upper castes. Islamic and later self-respect movements also advanced women's rights. The Brahmo Samaj's edge lies in its early timing, its success in translating reform into legislation, and the breadth of its institutional legacy.
Ultimately, effectiveness was cumulative — each movement built on the last, and legal reform meant little without the slow change in attitudes these movements together set in motion. The Brahmo Samaj is best seen as the pioneering catalyst of that longer process. For fuller treatment, see the note on social reforms in colonial India.
Examiner's perspective
Examiners value a clear, defended stand — the question explicitly asks for your view, so fence-sitting is penalised. Set out criteria for effectiveness, then marshal specific evidence: named legislation, dates and reformers. The strongest scripts weigh at least one rival movement — the Phules are the sharpest counter-candidate for their reach beyond the upper castes — before defending the choice. A closing acknowledgement that reform was cumulative shows balance and rounds off a top-band answer.