Reactionary outlook favours restoration of a previous, and usually outmoded, political or social order. Reactionaries hanker after a society whose days are over. It is a form of nostalgia for the past. Political and social changes occur due to various forces. Once some institutions and ideas are dethroned, they cannot be restored.
Marxists use ‘reactionary’ as a term of abuse. Reactionaries are seen as fighting a rear guard action against advancing, dynamic forces propelling new classes to power. Reactionaries may be on the losing side of the battle between the old and the new social orders. They may be the beneficiaries of the old order. During the period of jagir abolition, Zamindars and jagirdars had to make way for the emerging peasant proprietors who supported Congress during the Independence movement. At the time of integration of native states into India, a few rulers held out. In a way, they were trying to protect their vested interests in the Pre-Independence dispensation. After World War I, monarchical groups, aristocracy, church and military classes lost power in Europe. They attempted hard to restore their lost social position. Their approach is reactionary.
We can look at two examples from European history. The French writer Joseph de Maistre advocated extreme conservatism in early 19th century. Maistre rejected revolution in favour of traditional authority—especially the authority of monarch and church. Maistre rejected the entire heritage of the Enlightenment, attributing the revolutionary disorders of Europe to pernicious Enlightenment ideas. Against the French Revolutionaryslogan “Liberty, equality, fraternity,” Maistre proclaimed the value of “Throne and altar.” (kings and priests) Maistre, since he stressed theauthority of the traditional elite, is not conservative but reactionary.
The peace settlement of the Congress of Vienna (1815) which ended Napoleonic wars was reactionary because it aimed at reinstating the political and social order that existed before the French Revolution. Nevertheless, the restored monarchies in France, Austria, and Spain thought it prudent to create parliamentary institutions in order to mollify liberal sentiment.