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===Satyashodhak Samaj=== |
===Satyashodhak Samaj=== |
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On 24 September 1873, Phule formed [[Satyashodhak Samaj]] (Society of the seekers of truth) |
On 24 September 1873, Phule formed [[Satyashodhak Samaj]] (Society of the seekers of truth), to focus on rights of depressed classes.<ref name="isbn=9780521523080"/> As the first president and treasurer, he opposed [[idolatry]] and denounced the [[varna (Hinduism)|caste]]. 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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2015}}. [[Shahu Maharaj]], the ruler of Kolhapur, lent moral support to Satyashodhak Samaj. In its new incarnation, it continued efforts to remove what it considered to be superstition.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}}. Savitribai became the head of the women's section which included ninety female members.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} She worked as a school teacher for girls. |
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==Occupation== |
==Occupation== |
Revision as of 21:21, 15 April 2017
Jyotirao Govindrao Phule (ज्योतिराव गोविंदराव फुले) | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 28 November 1890 Pune, British India (present-day Maharashtra,India) | (aged 63)
Other names | Mahatma Phule/Jyotiba Phule/ Jotiba Phule / Jotirao Phule |
Spouse | Savitribai Phule |
Era | 19th century philosophy |
Main interests | Ethics, religion, humanism |
Jyotirao Govindrao Phule[a] (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(गोऱ्हे), and their family originally hailed from Katgun, a village in Khatav taluka of Satara District (now in Maharashtra state). Phule's great grandfather was worked as chaugula, a village servent. Family of his great grand father belongs to Kshatriya Mali caste. One day his great grand father had fight with Bramhmin Kulkarni who was a Village officer. This Bhrahmin Kulkarni harrased and forced great grandfather to leave Katgun his ancestral village. Mahatma Jyotiba's great granddfather had settled in Khanwadi near Pune. There a son was born, Shetiba, a grandfather of Jyotiba Phule and his grandfather prospered after starting a business of selling flowers, garlands and flower arrangements for religious and social events like weddings.[2] 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).[3][need quotation to verify]
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.[4] 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.[5]
By the age of 22, Jotirao Phule had taught his wife and started schools for the untouchables by that time.[6]
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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[citation needed] His akhandas were based on the abhangs of Indian saint Tukaram[9] (a Moray Shudra.) He did not like caste-based discrimination. He saw using Rama as a symbol of oppression stemming from the Aryan conquest.[10]
Phule's critique of the caste system began with his attack on the Vedas, the most fundamental texts of upper caste Hindus.[11] He considered them to be a form of false consciousness.[12]
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.[13]
Satyashodhak Samaj
On 24 September 1873, Phule formed Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of the seekers of truth), to focus on rights of depressed classes.[8] As the first president and treasurer, he opposed idolatry and denounced the caste. 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.[citation needed]. Shahu Maharaj, the ruler of Kolhapur, lent moral support to Satyashodhak Samaj. In its new incarnation, it continued efforts to remove what it considered to be superstition.[citation needed]. Savitribai became the head of the women's section which included ninety female members.[citation needed] 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.[14]
Jyotirao owned 60 acres of farmland at Manjri near Pune.[15] 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[16] near Pune in the 1870s.[citation needed] One of Phule's businesses, established in 1863, was to supply metal-casting equipment.[17]
Phule was appointed Commissioner (Municipal Council Member) to the then Poona municipality in 1876 and served in this unelected position until 1883.[18]
Recognition
According to Keer,[19] Phule was bestowed with the title of Mahatma on 11 May 1888 by another social reformer from Bombay, Vithalrao Krishnaji Vandekar.
Phule has been commemorated numerous times in Maharashtra as well as other parts of India. Universities (such as in Jaipur), museums (Pune), vegetable markets (Pune, Mumbai) have been named after him.
Court of Directors, London had acknowledged his work among so-called lower castes.[20]
Published works
Among Phule's notable published works are:[21]
- Tritiya Ratna, 1855
- Brahmananche Kasab,1869
- Powada : Chatrapati Shivajiraje Bhosle Yancha, [English: Life Of Shivaji, In Poetical Metre],June 1869
- Powada: Vidyakhatyatil Brahman Pantoji, June 1869
- Manav Mahammand (Muhammad) (Abhang)
- Gulamgiri, 1873
- Shetkarayacha Aasud (Cultivator's Whipcord), July 1881
- Satsar Ank 1, June 1885
- Satsar Ank 2, October 1885
- Ishara, October 1885
- Gramjoshya sambhandi jahir kabhar, (1886)
- Satyashodhak Samajokt Mangalashtakasah Sarva Puja-vidhi, 1887
- Sarvajanik Satya Dharma Poostak, April 1889
- Sarvajanic Satya Dharmapustak, 1891
- Akhandadi Kavyarachana
- Asprashyanchi Kaifiyat
Commemoration
An early biography of Phule was the Marathi-language Mahatma Jotirao Phule yanche charitra (P. S. Patil, Chikali: 1927).[22] Two others are Mahatma Phule. Caritra Va Kriya (Mahatma Phule. Life and Work) (A. K. Ghorpade, Poona: 1953), which is also in Marathi, and Mahatma Jyotibha Phule: Father of Our Social Revolution (Dhananjay Keer, Bombay: 1974). Unpublished material relating to him is held by the Bombay State Committee on the History of the Freedom Movement.[23]
There are many structures and places commemorating Phule. These include:
- The full-length statue inaugurated at the premises of Vidhan Bhavan (Assembly Building of Maharashtra State)
- Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Mandai, also known as Crawford Market, in Mumbai
- Mahatma Phule Museum in Pune
- Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (Agricultural University) in Rahuri, Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra.
- Mahathma Phule Mandai, the biggest vegetable market in Pune
- M. J. P. Rohilkhand University
- Subharti College of Physiotherapy was formerly named after him
- G. P. Deshpande's biographical play Satyashodhak (The Truth Seeker) was first performed by Jan Natya Manch in 1992.[24]
Mahatma Phule inspired Babasaheb Ambedkar, the first minister of law of Republic India and the architect of Indian Constitution.
See also
References
Notes
- ^ There are numerous variant spellings of Phule's name. These include Jotirao, Jotibha, and Phooley.
Citations
- ^ Garge, S. M., Editor, Bhartiya Samajvigyan Kosh, Vol. III, Page. No. 321, published by Samajvigyan Mandal, Pune
- ^ Keer, Dhananjay (1974). Mahatma Jotirao Phooley: Father of the Indian Social Revolution (1. publ. ed.). Mumbai [Mumbai]: Popular Prakashan Pvt. Ltd. p. 295. ISBN 81-7154-066-X.
- ^ P.G. Patil, Collected Works of Mahatma Jotirao Phule, Vol. II, published by Education department, Govt. of Maharashtra
- ^ O'Hanlon, Rosalind (1985). Caste, conflict, and ideology : Mahatma Jotirao Phule and low caste protest in nineteenth-century western India (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]: Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN 0521266157.
- ^ O'Hanlon, Rosalind (1985). Caste, conflict, and ideology : Mahatma Jotirao Phule and low caste protest in nineteenth-century western India (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]: Cambridge University Press. pp. 110–113. ISBN 0521266157. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
- ^ What 22 Years Old Jotiba Phule Was Doing? http://velivada.com/2017/04/02/what-22-years-old-jotiba-phule-was-doing/
- ^ Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi; Zelliot, Eleanor (author) (2002). Education and the disprivileged : nineteenth and twentieth century India (1. publ. ed.). Hyderabad: Orient Longman. pp. 35–37. ISBN 9788125021926. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
{{cite book}}
:|first2=
has generic name (help) - ^ a b O'Hanlon, Rosalind (2002). Caste, conflict, and ideology : Mahatma Jotirao Phule and low caste protest in nineteenth-century western India (New e. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 135. ISBN 9780521523080. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- ^ Culture and the Making of Identity in Contemporary India By Kamala Ganesh, Usha Thakkar
- ^ Sharad Pawar, the Making of a Modern Maratha By P. K. Ravindranath
- ^ Hanlon, Rosilind (1985). Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and low caste protest in nineteenth-century Western India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 147–149. ISBN 0 521 52308 7. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ Figueira (2002), p. 149
- ^ Nisar, M.; Kandasamy, Meena (2007). Ayyankali — Dalit Leader of Organic Protest. Other Books. p. 8. ISBN 978-8-19038-876-4.
- ^ Keer (1974), p. 172 sfnp error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFKeer1974 (help)
- ^ Michael, S.M. (Editor); Gavaskar, Mahesh (Author) (1999). Untouchable : dalits in modern India. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner. p. 45. ISBN 9781555876975. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
{{cite book}}
:|first1=
has generic name (help) - ^ Chrimes, Mike (December 2009). "Ahead of the game – masonry dam design in the British colonies 1800–1900, part 2: 1872–1900". Dams and Reservoirs. 19 (4): 171–183. doi:10.1680/dare.2009.19.4.171. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
- ^ O'Hanlon, Rosalind (1985). Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in nineteenth century Western Maharashtra. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 135. ISBN 0521 266157.
- ^ Keer (1974), p. 143 sfnp error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFKeer1974 (help)
- ^ Keer (1974), p. 247 sfnp error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFKeer1974 (help)
- ^ What 22 Years Old Jotiba Phule Was Doing? http://velivada.com/2017/04/02/what-22-years-old-jotiba-phule-was-doing/
- ^ Mahatma Phule
- ^ O'Hanlon (1992), p. 107
- ^ Sarkar (1975), pp. 32–33, 40
- ^ "Life As Message". Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 24. 16 June 2012.
Bibliography
- Figueira, Dorothy Matilda (2002), Aryans, Jews, Brahmins: Theorizing Authority Through Myths of Identity, SUNY Press
- Keer, Dhananjay (1974), Mahatma Jotirao Phooley: Father of the Indian Social Revolution, Mumbai, India: Popular Prakashan, ISBN 81-7154-066-X
- O'Hanlon, Rosalind (1992), "Issues of Widowhood in Colonial Western India", in Haynes, Douglas E.; Prakash, Gyan (eds.), Contesting Power: Resistance and Everyday Social Relations in South Asia, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-52007-585-6
- Sarkar, Sumit (1975), Bibliographical Survey of Social Reform Movements in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Motilal Banarsidass/Indian Council of Historical Research
Further reading
- Gavaskar, Mahesh (1999). "Phule's Critique of Brahmin Power". In Michael, S. M. (ed.). Untouchable, Dalits in Modern India. Lynne Rienner Publishers. pp. 43–56. ISBN 978-1-55587-697-5.
- Guha, Ramachandra, ed. (2011). Makers of Modern India. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-67405-246-8.
- O'Hanlon, Rosalind (2002) [1985]. Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century Western India (Revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52152-308-0.
- Wayne, Tiffany K., ed. (2011). Feminist Writings from Ancient Times to the Modern World: A Global Sourcebook and History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-31334-581-4.