Mahatma Jyotiba Phule

MAHATMA JYOTIBA PHULE

JyotiraoGovindraoPhule (11 April 1827 – 28 November 1890) was an Indian activist, thinker, social reformer and writer fromMaharashtra.

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 SatyashodhakSamaj (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, SavitribaiPhule, 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

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, SavitribaiPhule, started the first school for girls in India in 1848, for which he was forced to leave his parental home. 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

Among Phule’s notable published works are:

  • TritiyaRatna, 1855
  • Brahmananche Kasab,1869
  • Powada : ChatrapatiShivajirajeBhosleYancha, [English: Life Of Shivaji, In Poetical Metre],June 1869
  • Powada: Vidyakhatyatil Brahman Pantoji, June 1869
  • ManavMahammand (Muhammad) (Abhang)
  • Gulamgiri, 1873
  • ShetkarayachaAasud (Cultivator’s Whipcord), July 1881
  • Satsar Ank 1, June 1885
  • Satsar Ank 2, October 1885
  • Ishara, October 1885
  • Gramjoshyasambhandijahirkabhar, (1886)
  • SatyashodhakSamajoktMangalashtakasahSarva Puja-vidhi, 1887
  • SarvajanikSatya Dharma Poostak, April 1889
  • SarvajanicSatyaDharmapustak, 1891
  • AkhandadiKavyarachana
  • AsprashyanchiKaifiyat