"Hard Times is a passionate attack on contemporary Victorian society." Justify your statement with references to the novel.

I would say that the statement is true.  There is much in
Dickens' work that moves past literature and into the realm of social criticism. 
Gradgrind, himself, is a product of the Enlightenment and Industrialization Era.  His
emphasis on "fact, not fancy" is revealed to have left an emotional quotient lacking in
his children, something that is not missed by his daughter, Louisa.  When she criticizes
her father for failing to teach her how to feel, something that Gradgrind would have
viewed as "fancy," he, and the reader, fully understand the pitfalls of a world solely
driven by utilitarianism and industrialization.  Characters such as Bounderby were shown
to represent how industrialists cling to free market principles in order to perpetuate
abuses upon workers that enable owners to become more wealthy at the cost of others. 
The world of Coketown is depicted as one where the values and practices of capitalism
and industrialization produce a realm where questions have to be raised about the
direction of society and its impact on those who are the most
vulnerable.