Mahatma Jyotiba Phule was a prominent social reformer and thinker of the nineteenth century India. He led the movement against the prevailing caste-restrictions in India. Jyotiba Govindrao Phule revolted against the domination of the Brahmins and struggled for the rights of peasants and other low-caste people. Mahatma Jyotiba Phule was also a pioneer for women education in India and fought for education of girls throughout his life. Jyotiba Phule is believed to be the first Hindu to start an orphanage for the unfortunate children.
In the 19th century India no one would have dreamt of educating their girls. But Mahatma Jyotiba Phule was a visionary much ahead of his times. A pioneer in the field of women’s education, he is the one who opened the first ever girls’ school in India. He was also much pained by the atrocities meted out on the people in the name of caste. Since he had been born into a so-called lower caste family, he had experienced the tortures and injustices rooting out of the caste system first hand.
An intelligent and idealistic man, he refused to tolerate any unjustified behavior from others and set his mind on reforming the society for the better. He realized the importance of education; married at a young age, he began teaching his wife how to read and write. Fortunately, his wife Savitribai, was a like-minded soul who supported and helped her husband whole-heartedly in his social endeavors. Highly distressed by the malpractices prevalent due to the caste system, he formed the Satya Shodhak Samaj with the aim of protecting the so-called lower castes from exploitation and injustices. His unrelenting efforts to eradicate social inequalities earned him the title of “Father of Indian Social Revolution”.
He was born on the 11th of April, 1827, in Pune, Maharashtra, into a family that belonged to the Mali caste, which was classified as Shudra within the varna system. Their occupation was that of gardening, and fruit and vegetable cultivation. At that time, the head of state, Peshwa Baji Rao II, commissioned his family to work as florists for them, which was also how they got the name Phule (flower-man). Jyotirao grew up without his mother, as she passed away when he was only a toddler. Like the others in his family, he went to work alongside them after completing his basic studies. However, a teacher noticed how smart the young child was and convinced Jyotirao’s father to let him continue his schooling. Thus, he was able to finish his education at the Scottish Mission High School, an English medium school. At school, he met two of his friends, Sadashiv Ballav Govande and Moro Viththal Valavekar, both Brahmins, who would go on to work with him. He was married as a teenager to Savitribai, who, along with him, would go on to fight for various causes throughout their lives.
In 1848, Phule was insulted at the wedding of a Brahmin friend for being a member of the Mali caste, an incident which made him acutely aware of caste prejudice in the Hindu society. Influenced by Thomas Paine’s 1791 book Rights of Man, he realised that education of women and lower castes was an important measure to address social inequalities. He started teaching his wife Savitribai at home, and opened a girls’ school in 1848, which had to be shut down but was subsequently reopened in 1851. He followed this with establishing more schools, including ones for lower castes like Mahars and Mangs. This angered the orthodox upper-caste Hindus, who unleashed a campaign against Phule’s activities. But such opposition did not deter him. Against all prevailing norms of that era, he asked his wife to teach at the girls’ school, one of the many progressive steps he took.
After tracing the history of the Brahmin domination in India, Jyotiba Phule blamed the Brahmins for framing the weird and inhuman laws. He concluded that the laws were made to suppress the “shudras” and rule over them.
In year 1873, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule formed the Satya Shodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth). The purpose of the organization was to liberate the people of lower-castes from the suppression of the Brahmins.
The membership was the open to all and the available evidence proves that some Jews were admitted as members. In 1876 there were 316 members of the ‘Satya Shodhak Samaj’. In 1868, in order to give the lower-caste people more powers Jyotirao decided to construct a common bathing tank outside his house. He also wished to dine with all, regardless of their caste.
Jyotiba Phule allowed the lower castes to visit his home and use his well openly. Phule began a movement to end the caste system and the idolatry that was rife in Hinduism. The movement was called Satya shodhak Samaj, Seekers of the Truth. Phule often put his views across in poetry and was openly critical of the holy text the Vedas and the priestly caste in India.
After educating his wife, Jyotiba Phule opened a school for girls in India in August 1948. This was actually the second school for girls in India. Mahatma Jyotiba Phule supported widow remarriage and started a home for upper caste widows in 1854. In the same year, he also started a home for new-born infants to prevent female infanticide.
Jyotiba Phule had devoted his 40 years of life to social service fighting for the rights of the ‘bahujans’. To mark this accomplishment, the bahujans, Satyashodhak leaders and workers decided to felicitate Mahatma Jyotiba Phule . Hence on 11th May 1888, he was honoured with the title of ‘Mahatma’ by another social reformer from Mumbai, Rao Bahadur Vithalrao Krishnaji Vandekar.
Jyotirao wrote extensively on a wide variety of social issues; he was one of the first people to articulate and call out the stronghold that the Brahmin community. He wrote about caste-based slavery in one of his books, dedicating it to the African American movement in the US against slavery. Phule was a staunch opponent of child marriage and also encouraged widow remarriage as he recognised that these were ways of subordinating women. He ran a campaign for widow remarriage and opened up an infanticide prevention centre in 1863, which acted as a safe space where pregnant widows could give birth and stay to take care of their babies. It was also from here that a decade later, he and his wife adopted their son.
In 1873, on the 24th of September, he established the Satyashodak Samaj, with the foundational principles being that all human beings are equal. Membership was open to all regardless of their background, and the society set out with various social reform movements, with the main aim being the upliftment of those most backward in society and spreading rational thinking. One of the many examples of the reforms the society introduced was the Satyashodak marriage system, which consisted of alternative marriage rituals and lines which were more progressive and equal.
Phule engaged in social work alongside his profession – a merchant who supplied metal-casting gear to construction sites. He was also a part of the Poona municipal council for many years, and also stood in front of the Hunter Commission for Education in 1882 and demanded universal compulsory primary education for all and incentives for those who came from socioeconomically backward backgrounds. He published about 16 books in his lifetime, with some of his most famous works being Gulamgiri (slavery), also mentioned above and Shetkaryaca Asud (Cultivator’s Whipcord), where he critiqued the exploitation of peasants.
Jyotiba Phule devoted his entire life for the liberation of untouchables from the exploitation of Brahmins. He revolted against the tyranny of the upper castes. On 28 November, 1890, the great reformer of India, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule , passed away.
