Jyotirao Phule

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Jyotirao Govindrao Phule (Marathi:ज्योतिराव गोविंदराव फुले) (April 11, 1827 — November 28, 1890), also known as Mahatma Jyotiba Phule was an activist, thinker, social reformer and revolutionary from Maharashtra in the nineteenth century. His remarkable influence was apparent in fields like education, agriculture, caste system, women and widow upliftment and removal of untouchability. He is most known for his efforts to educate women and the lower castes. He, after educating his wife, opened the first school for girls in India in August 1848.

In September, 1873, Jyotirao, along with this followers, formed the Satya Shodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth) with Jyotirao as its first president and treasurer. The main objective of the organisation was to liberate the Shudras and Ati-Shudras and to prevent their 'exploitation' by the Brahmins. For his fight to attain equal rights for peasants and the lower caste and his contribution to the field of education he is regarded as one of the most important figure in Social Reform Movement in Maharashtra.

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[edit] Early life

Jyotirao Govindrao Phule was born in Satara district of Maharastra in a family belonging to Mali caste, an inferior caste. His father, Govindrao, was a vegetable vendor, and his mother died when he was 9 months old. After completing his primary education, Jyotirao had to leave the school and help his father by working on the family's farm. He was married at the age of 12. His intelligence was recognised by a Muslim and a Christian neighbor, who persuaded his father to allow Jyotirao to attend the local Scottish Mission's High School, which he completed in 1847. The turning point in Jyotiba's life was in year 1848, when he was insulted by family members of his friend, a bridegroom for his participation in the marriage procession, an auspicious occasion. Jyotiba was suddenly facing the divide created by the caste system.[1] Influenced by Thomas Paine books Rights of, Phule developed a keen sense of social justice, becoming passionately critical of the Indian caste system. He argued that education of women and the lower castes was a vital priority in addressing social inequalities.

[edit] Satyashodhak Samaj

On 24 September 1874, Jyotirao formed 'Satya Shodhak Samaj' (Society of Seekers of Truth) with himself as its first president and treasurer. The main objectives of the organisation were to liberate the Shudras and Ati Shudras and to prevent their 'exploitation' by the Brahmins. Through this SatyaShodhak Samaj, Jyotirao refused to regard the Vedas as sacrosanct. He opposed idolatry and denounced the chaturvarnya system (the caste system). SatyaShodhak Samaj propounded the spread of rational thinking and rejected the need for a Brahman priestly class as educational and religious leaders.

[edit] Pillars

When Phule established the SatyaShodhak Samaj, Savitribai became the head of the women's section which included ninety female members. Moreover, she worked tirelessly as a school teacher for lower-caste girls. Deenbandhu publication, the mouthpiece of the Satya Shodhak Samaj, played an important role in SatyaShodhak Samaj’s movement. After Jyotiba's death in 1890 his spirited followers went on spreading the movement to the remotest parts of Maharashtra. Shahu Maharaj, the ruler of Kolhapur princely state, gave a lot of financial and moral support to Satya Shodhak Samaj. In its new incarnation as non-brahmin party carried on the work of superstition removal vigorously.

[edit] Beliefs

Jyotiba firmly believed that if you want to create a new social system based on freedom, equality, brotherhood, human dignity, economic justice and value devoid of exploitation, you will have to overthrow the old, unequal and exploitative social system and the values on which it is based. Knowing this well, Jotiba attacked blind faith and faith in what is given in religious books and the so-called god's words. He tore to pieces the misleading myths that were ruling over the minds of women, shudras and ati-shudras. Yielding to god or fate, astrology and other such rubbish rituals, sacredness, god-men, etc. was deemed irrational and absurd.

He also led campaigns to remove the economic and social handicaps that breed blind faith among women, shudras and ati-shudras. Jyotiba subjected religious texts and religious behavior to the tests of rationalism. He characterised this faith as outwardly religious but in essence politically motivated movements. He accused them of upholding the teachings of religion and refusing to rationally analyse religious teachings. He maintained that at the root of all calamities was the blind faith that religious books were created or inspired by god. Therefore, Phule wanted to abolish this blind faith in the first instance. All established religious and priestly classes find this blind faith useful for their purposes and they try their best to defend it. He questions " if there is only one God, who created the whole mankind, why did he write the Vedas only in Sanskrit language despite his anxiety for the welfare of the whole mankind? What about the welfare of those who do not understand this language?" Phule concludes that it is untenable to say that religious texts were God-created. To believe so is only ignorance and prejudice. All religions and their religious texts are man-made and they represent the selfish interest of the classes, which are trying to pursue and protect their selfish ends by constructing such books. Phule was the only sociologist and humanist in his time that could put forth such bold ideas. In his view, every religious book is a product of its time and the truths it contains have no permanent and universal validity. Again these texts can never be free from the prejudices and the selfishness of the authors of such books.

Phule believed in overthrowing the social system in which man has been deliberately made dependent on others, illiterate, ignorant and poor, with a view to exploiting him. To him blind faith eradication formed part of a broad socioeconomic transformation. This was his strategy for ending exploitation of human beings. Mere advice, education and alternative ways of living are not enough, unless the economic framework of exploitation comes to an end.

[edit] Merger into Congress party

After Jotiba's death in 1890, there was a period of lull, when the flame lit by Jyotiba waned. The SatyaShodhak Samaj movement was totally a social movement and nothing to do with the politics, but the members of SatyaShodhak Samaj dissolved SatyaShodhak Samaj and merged it with Congress party in 1930.


Mahatma Phule had a favourable opinion about the British Rule in India at least from the point of view of introducing modern notions of justice and equality in Indian society and taking India into the future. He was however a Hindu. His akhandas were based on the abhangs of Hindu saint Tukaram.[2] He believed that his teachings were the same of the Bhakti (without the racism) [3] His own hero was Chhatrapati Shivaji, whom he connected to backward-caste heritage.

He called Shivaji a "...destroyer of the Muslims".[4] He believed that they were a degenerative force like the Brahmins.[5] He was a subscriber to Maharishi Vithal Shinde's magazine, Dnyanodaya.[6] Maharishi Shinde was a Harijan or "untouchable."

He believed that the true inhabitants of Bharat are the Astik.[7] He also believed that the Brahmins were outsiders to Hinduism. This was also the view spoken by Keshavarao Jehde.[8]

He did not like the castists of Tamil Nadu using Rama as a symbol of oppression of Aryan conquest.[9]

[edit] Social activism

He was assisted in his work by his wife, Savitribai Phule, and together they started the first school for girls in India in 1848, for which he was forced to leave his home. He initiated widow-remarriage and started a home for upper caste widows in 1854, as well as a home for new-born infants to prevent female infanticide. Phule tried to eliminate the stigma of social Untouchability surrounding the lower castes by opening his house and the use of his water-well to the members of the lower castes.

He formed Satya Shodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth) on September 24, 1873, a group whose main aim was to liberate the social Shudra and Untouchables castes from exploitation and oppression.

Phule was a member of Pune municipality from 1876 to 1882.

[edit] Connection with women activists

Some of India's first modern feminists were closely associated with Phule, including his wife Savitribai Phule; Pandita Ramabai, a Brahmin woman who made waves in the atmosphere of liberal reformism; Tarabai Shinde, the non-brahmin author of a fiery tract on gender inequality which was largely ignored at the time but has recently become well-known; and Muktabai, a fourteen-year-old pupil in Phule’s school, whose essay on the social oppression of the Mang and Mahar castes is also now justly famous.

[edit] Legacy

[edit] Published works

His famous published works are

  • Shetkarayacha Aasud (Cultivator's Whipcord), July 1883
  • Ishara, October 1885
  • Sarvajanik Satya Dharma Poostak, April 1889
  • Brahmananche Kasab

[edit] References

  1. ^ Savitri Bai Phule
  2. ^ Culture And The Making Of Identity In Contemporary India By Kamala Ganesh, Usha Thakkar
  3. ^ MALI / SAINI COMMUNITY AND BHAKTI(DEVOTION) MOVEMENT IN INDIA
  4. ^ Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in By Rosalind O'Hanlon
  5. ^ P. 113 Political Ideas in Modern India: Thematic Explorations By Vrajendra Raj Mehta, Thomas Pantham
  6. ^ P. 113 Political Ideas in Modern India: Thematic Explorations By Vrajendra Raj Mehta, Thomas Pantham
  7. ^ P. 13 "Positive discrimination and the transformation of caste in India" By Christophe Jaffrelot
  8. ^ P. 16 "Positive discrimination and the transformation of caste in India" By Christophe Jaffrelot
  9. ^ Sharad Pawar, the Making of a Modern Maratha By P. K. Ravindranath