Jyotirao Phule (11 April 1827 – 28 November 1890), also known as Jyotiba Phule, was an Indian social activist, businessman, anti-caste social reformer, and writer from Maharashtra.
His work spanned many areas, including the abolition of untouchability and the caste system, and his efforts to educate women and the oppressed. He and his wife, Savitribai Phule, were pioneers of women's education in India. Phule started his first school for girls in 1848 at Tatyasaheb Bhide's home, or Bhidewada, in Pune. Together with his followers, he founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of Truth Seekers) to advance equal rights for the lower castes. People of all religions and castes could join this association, which worked for the welfare of the oppressed.
Phule is considered a key figure in the social reform movement in Maharashtra. The word Mahatma was first used in 1888 at a special function organised in his honour in Mumbai.
Early Life of Jyotirao Phule
Jyotirao Phule, also known as Jyotiba Phule, was born in 1827 into a Hindu gardener family in Satara district. Gardeners traditionally cultivated fruits and vegetables. Among the four varnas of the caste system, they were considered Shudras. Phule was named after the Hindu deity Jyotiba. He was born on the day of Jyotiba's annual fair. Phule's family name was originally Gorhe, and it originated in Katgun village, near Satara city. Phule's great-grandfather, who worked there as a chaugula, or minor village official, moved to Khanwadi in Pune district. There, his only son, Shetiba, plunged the family into poverty. The family, which included three sons, moved to Pune in search of employment. The boys were taken in by a florist, who taught them the secrets of the trade. Their skill in growing and arranging flowers became renowned, and they adopted the name Phule (flower-man) instead of Gorhe. He was so impressed by Peshwa Bajirao II's commission to make flower cushions and other items for royal court ceremonies that he granted him 35 acres of land tax-free under the inam system. The eldest brother plotted to gain sole control of the property, allowing the younger two siblings, Jyotirao Phule's father, Govindrao, to continue farming and selling flowers.
Govindrao married Chimnabai and had two sons, of whom Jyotirao was the youngest. Chimnabai died before he was a year old. At that time, education was not valued highly in the backward Mali community, so after attending primary school, where he learned the basics of reading, writing, and math, Jyotirao was taken out by his father. He joined other family members in both the shop and the fields. However, a man from Phule's own Mali caste recognized his intelligence and convinced his father to allow him to study at the local Scottish Mission High School. Phule completed his English schooling in 1847. As was customary, he was married at the young age of 13 to a girl from the Mali community chosen by his father.
A turning point in his life came in 1848, when he attended the wedding of a Brahmin friend. Phule joined the wedding procession as was customary, but his friend's parents later scolded and insulted him for doing so. They told him that, being from the Shudra caste, he should have stayed away from the ritual. This incident had a profound impact on him and shaped his understanding of the injustices inherent in the caste system.
Jyotirao Phule's social activism
Education
In 1848, at the age of 21, Phule attended a girls' school in Ahmednagar run by Christian missionary Cynthia Farrar. He also read Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" in 1848, which instilled in him a deep sense of social justice. He realized that oppressed castes and women were marginalized in Indian society, and that education for these communities was essential for their emancipation. To this end, that same year, Phule first taught his wife, Savitribai, to read and write, and later, the couple opened the first indigenous school for girls in Pune. He also taught his sister, Sagunabai Kshirsagar (his aunt's daughter), to write Marathi alongside Savitribai. Pune's traditional upper-caste society disapproved of his work, but many Indians and Europeans wholeheartedly supported him. The conservatives in Pune even forced him to isolate himself from his family and community. During this time, his friend Usman Sheikh and his sister Fatima Sheikh gave him shelter. They also helped him start a school at their home. Later, the Phule couple started schools for children from the then-untouchable castes, such as the Mahar and the Mang. In 1852, three Phule schools were operating, enrolling 273 girls, but by 1858, they all closed. Eleanor Zelliot attributes these closures to the decline in private European donations due to the 1857 rebellion, the withdrawal of government aid, and Jyotirao's resignation from the school management committee due to differences over the curriculum.
Women's welfare
He saw young widows with their heads shaved and no joy in life. Seeing these social evils that fueled discrimination, he decided to educate women. He started with his wife. Every afternoon, Jyotirao would sit with his wife, Savitribai Phule, and teach her while she went to the fields where he worked and brought him food. He sent his wife to receive training at a school. In 1848, the couple opened India's first girls' school in Vishrambagh Wada, Pune.
He supported the remarriage of widows and, in 1863, started a home for pregnant widows from wealthy castes to give birth in a safe place. His orphanage was established in an effort to reduce the rate of child murder.
In 1863, a horrific incident occurred in Pune. A Brahmin widow named Kashibai became pregnant, and her attempts at abortion failed. After giving birth, she killed the child and threw it into a well, but her deed was discovered. She was convicted and imprisoned. This deeply saddened Phule, and so, together with his old friend Sadashiv Ballal Govande and Savitribai, he started an infanticide prevention center. Pamphlets advertising the center were posted throughout Pune, stating: "Widows, come here and give up your child safely and secretly. It is your choice whether you want to keep the child at the center or take it with you. This orphanage will care for the children." The Phule couple ran the infanticide prevention center until the mid-1880s.
Phule tried to eradicate the stigma of social untouchability associated with oppressed castes by opening his home and the use of his water well to members of oppressed castes.
Views on religion and caste
Phule appealed for the restoration of the rule of the great Mahabali, which predated the "treacherous overthrow of the Aryans." He presented his own version of the Aryan Invasion Theory, arguing that the Aryan conquerors of India, whom the theory's proponents considered racially superior, were actually brutal oppressors of the native inhabitants. He believed that they established the caste system as a framework of slavery and social division, ensuring the dominance of their Brahmin successors. He also viewed the subsequent Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent as oppressive foreign rule, but was emboldened by the arrival of the British, whom he considered more intelligent and who did not support the varna system introduced and recreated by those previous invaders. In his book, Gulamgiri, he thanked Christian missionaries and British colonialists for making the oppressed castes realize that they deserved all human rights. The book, "Slavery," addressed women, caste, and reform, and was dedicated to those working to abolish slavery in the US.
Phule considered the incarnations of Vishnu to be symbols of oppression caused by the Aryan conquest and revered Mahabali as a hero. His criticism of the caste system began with an attack on the Vedas, the most fundamental Hindu texts. He considered them a form of false consciousness.
He is credited with coining the Marathi term "Dalit" for those outside the traditional caste system.
At an Education Commission hearing in 1882, Phule appealed for help in educating the lower castes. To achieve this, he advocated making primary education compulsory in villages. He also demanded special incentives to attract more lower castes to high schools and colleges.
Establishment of Satyashodhak Samaj
On September 24, 1873, Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj to focus on the rights of oppressed groups such as women, Shudras, and Dalits. Through this society, he opposed idol worship and criticized the caste system. The Satyashodhak Samaj campaigned to spread rational thinking and rejected the need for priests.
Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj with the ideals of human well-being, happiness, unity, equality, and simple religious principles and customs. A Pune-based newspaper, Dinabandhu, voiced the Samaj's views.
The Samaj's members included Muslims, Brahmins, and government officials. Phule's own Mali caste provided a significant number of members and financial supporters for the organization.
No comments:
Post a Comment