Jyotiba Phule

Name - Jyotirao Govindrao Phule

Indian social reformer (1827-1890)

Birth - 11 April 1827, Satara

Death - 28 November 1890, Pune (aged 63 years)

Jyotirao Govindrao Phule (11 April 1827 – 28 November 1890) was an Indian activist, thinker, social reformer and writer from Maharashtra.

His work extended to many fields including eradication of untouchability and the caste system, women's emancipation and the reform of Hindu family life. In September 1873, Phule, along with his followers, formed the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth) to attain equal rights for peasants and people from lower castes. Phule is regarded as an important figure of the Social Reform Movement in Maharashtra. He and his wife, Savitribai Phule, were pioneers of women's education in India. He is most known for his efforts to educate women and the lower castes. He opened the first school for girls in India in August 1848.

Early Life -

Jyotirao Govindrao Phule was born into a virtually illiterate family that belonged to the Mali caste of gardeners and vegetable farmers. The original surname of the family had been Gorhay, and they hailed from Katgun, a village in Khatav taluka of Satara District (now in Maharashtra state). Phule's grandfather, Shetiba Gorhay, had settled in Pune and prospered after starting a business of selling flowers, garlands and flower arrangements for religious and social events like weddings. The family owned some farmland as well as a shop in the city. Since Phule's father and two uncles served as florists under the last of the Peshwas, whose patronage they enjoyed, the family came to be known as 'Phule' (flower-man).

Phule's father, Govindrao, carried on the family business along with his brothers. His mother, Chimnabai, died when he was only nine months old, and he had one elder brother. The Mali community did not set much store by education, and after attending primary school to learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, Phule was withdrawn from school. He joined the menfolk of his family at work, both in the shop and the farm. However, a Christian convert from the same Mali caste as Phule, recognized his intelligence and persuaded Phule's father to allow Phule to attend the local Scottish Mission's High School run by Murray Mitchell. Jyotirao completed his English schooling in 1847. As per custom, he was married young, at the age of 13, to a girl of his own community, chosen by his father.

The turning point in his life was in 1848, when he attended the wedding of a friend, who was a Brahmin. Phule participated in the customary marriage procession, but was later rebuked and insulted by his friend's parents for doing that. They told him that he being from a lower caste should have had the sense to keep away from that ceremony. This incident profoundly affected Phule on the injustice of the caste system. In the same year he also visited the first girls' school in Ahmadnagar run by Christian missionaries. It was also in 1848 that Young Jyotiba read Thomas Paine's book Rights of Man (1791), and developed a keen sense of social justice. He realized that "lower castes" and women were at a disadvantage in Indian society, and also that education of these sections was vital to their emancipation.

Social Activism -

Phule believed in overthrowing the social system in which people had been deliberately made dependent on others, illiterate, ignorant and poor, with a view to exploiting them. 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. His most famous poem reads: “Lack of education leads to lack of wisdom, / Which leads to lack of morals, / Which leads to lack of progress, / Which leads to lack of money, / Which leads to the oppression of the lower classes, / See what state of the society one lack of education can cause!”

To this end, Jyotirao and his wife, Savitribai, started the first school for girls in India in 1848, for which he was forced to leave his parental home. Later he started schools for children from Dalit castes of Mahar and Mang. In 1852, three schools established by Jyotirao were running. Unfortunately, by 1858, they had all stopped. Eleanor Zelliott blames the closure on private European donations drying up due to the Mutiny of 1857, withdrawal of government support and Jyotirao resigning from the school management committee because of disagreement on the school curriculum. He championed widow remarriage and started a home for lower and 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.

Views on religion and caste -

Maharashtrian society at Jyotiba's time was deeply segregated based on caste. His akhandas were based on the abhangs of Indian saint Tukaram (a Moray Shudra.) He did not like caste-based discrimination. He saw using Rama as a symbol of oppression stemming from the Aryan conquest.

Phule's critique of the caste system began with his attack on the Vedas, the most fundamental texts of upper caste Hindus. He considered them to be a form of false consciousness.

He is credited with introducing the Marathi word dalit (broken, crushed) as a descriptor for those people who were outside the traditional varna system. The terminology was later popularised in the 1970s by the Dalit Panthers.

Satyashodhak Samaj -

On 24 September 1873, Phule formed Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of the seekers of truth), with which he was the first president and treasurer, to focus on rights of depressed classes. He opposed idolatry and denounced the caste system. Satyashodhak Samaj campaigned for the spread of rational thinking and rejected the need for priests. After Phule's death in 1890 his followers continued the Samaj campaign in the remote parts of Maharashtra.. Shahu Maharaj, the ruler of Kolhapur lent moral support to Satyashodhak Samaj. In its new incarnation, it continued the efforts to remove what it considered to be superstition.. Savitribai became the head of the women's section which included ninety female members. She worked as a school teacher for girls.

Occupation -

Apart from his role as a social activist, Phule was a businessman too. In 1882 memorial, he styled himself as a merchant, cultivator and Municipal Contractor.

Jyotirao owned 60 acres of farmland at Manjri near Pune. For period of time, he worked as a contractor for the government and supplied building materials required for the construction of the first masonry dam in India at Khadakwasla near Pune in the 1870s. One of Phule's businesses, established in 1863, was to supply metal-casting equipment.

Phule was appointed Commissioner (Municipal Council Member) to the then Poona municipality in 1876 and served in this unelected position until 1883.