{"id":7509,"date":"2020-04-13T17:17:36","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T11:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=7509"},"modified":"2025-08-01T10:54:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:24:43","slug":"jyotirao-phule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/jyotirao-phule\/","title":{"rendered":"Jyotirao Phule"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_68 ez-toc-wrap-center counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-light-blue ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >What's Inside this Blog!<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/jyotirao-phule\/#Jyotirao_Phule\" title=\"Jyotirao Phule\">Jyotirao Phule<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/jyotirao-phule\/#INTRODUCTION_Jyotirao_Phule\" title=\"INTRODUCTION: Jyotirao Phule\">INTRODUCTION: Jyotirao Phule<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/jyotirao-phule\/#Taking_on_Brahmanical_supremacy\" title=\"Taking on\u00a0Brahmanical supremacy\">Taking on\u00a0Brahmanical supremacy<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/jyotirao-phule\/#Social_reforms\" title=\"Social reforms\">Social reforms<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/jyotirao-phule\/#Education_and_gender\" title=\"Education and gender\">Education and gender<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Jyotirao_Phule\"><\/span>Jyotirao Phule<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff; background-color: #ffff00;\"><strong>Relevance: Sociology:\u00a0Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution.Social Change in Modern Society:\u00a0Education and social change.\u00a0Rural and Agrarian Social Structure: G.S paper I: Indian History and National Leaders<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/image.slidesharecdn.com\/jyotibaphule-170921111755\/95\/jyotiba-phule-6-638.jpg?cb=1505992996\" alt=\"Jyotiba phule\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"INTRODUCTION_Jyotirao_Phule\"><\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><strong>INTRODUCTION: Jyotirao Phule<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Indian society is in a state of flux today \u2013 the way it was during the time of Phule (1827-1890). Issues surrounding caste, inferior status of women, the pathetic condition of farmers are all problems that continue to haunt India since colonial times.<\/p>\n<p>And so continues the country\u2019s quest to break from these chains of oppression, mental slavery and subjugation.<\/p>\n<p>In today\u2019s time, we must revisit the thought and ideology of an indigenous thinker like Phule. Such an attempt, it is argued, has the potential to (re)interpret our contemporary social reality.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Taking_on_Brahmanical_supremacy\"><\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Ta<\/strong><strong>king<\/strong><strong> on<\/strong><strong>\u00a0Brah<\/strong><strong>manical<\/strong><strong> supremacy<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As an iconic and revolutionary intellectual from Maharashtra, Phule\u2019s organising principles were both inclusive and dichotomous. He addressed\u00a0<strong><em>streeshudraatishudra<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(women, OBCs, Dalits and tribals in today\u2019s vocabulary) as one category which was dichotomously fighting against Brahmanical supremacy (he rarely used the word Hindu or Hinduism. He preferred Brahmanism instead).<\/p>\n<p>He called it<strong>\u00a0<em>brahmanache varchaswa<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<em>brahmanvarchaswadi<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0in Marathi. Moreover, Phule was the first intellectual to realise that Brahmanism did not necessarily mean exclusively related to the Brahman caste, but a kind of ideological, religious (<em>dharmic)<\/em>\u00a0(super)structure that perpetuates and naturalises the exploitation of the majority.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Phule sought to reform his society through revolutionary means.<\/strong> His renaissance desire for societal transformation was a break from his contemporaries. With the establishments of Prarthana Samaj, Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj in Maharashtra and elsewhere, Phule\u2019s contemporaries were trying to reform Hindu society by remaining within the sacredness of the Hindu fold \u2013 a hallmark of the first-generation Indian renaissance thinkers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Phule did not break entirely from this tradition<\/strong> but he did not believe in the sacredness of Hindu religion either. Staying within the Hindu fold, Phule\u2019s intellectual faculty first attacked the twin concepts of\u00a0<em>dharma\u00a0<\/em>and caste \u2013 the central pillars of Brahmanical supremacy. And this attack was in full \u2013 not in bits and pieces like that of his half-hearted contemporaries.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the best way to deal with this repressive structure was to oppose it completely and dilute its sacredness. He decoded that Brahmanism derives its legitimacy from its sacred texts and that, in turn, rely heavily on the\u00a0<strong><em>avatarkalpana<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(imaginative incarnation).<\/p>\n<p>In his book titled\u00a0<em>Gulamgiri<\/em>\u00a0(Slavery), Phule debunks different Brahmanical godheads. With such writings, he attempted to provide an intellectual and ideological foundation for a sustained critique of the caste system. Phule\u2019s writing is\u00a0<em>not\u00a0<\/em>history in the normative sense. For him, history writing was not truth-writing but a mere utilitarian device for the subversion, debunking and destruction of the established truth(s) perpetuated by the Brahmanical supremacy.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Social_reforms\"><\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Social reforms<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>However, devastating criticism was not the only weapon in Phule\u2019s armoury of social reform. He also attempted to reform the\u00a0<em>streeshudraatishudra\u00a0<\/em>from within. <strong>The establishment of Satyashodhak Samaj (the society of truth seekers) in 1837 was a crucial step.<\/strong> It reflected Phule\u2019s intellectual rationalism where the primary emphasis was on \u2018truth-seeking\u2019 by positioning the individual at the centre.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/slideplayer.com\/slide\/3932508\/13\/images\/8\/Satya+Shodhak+Samaj.jpg\" alt=\"Caste System in India Dr Desh Raj Sirswal, Centre for Positive ...\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The other vital mandate of the samaj was to conduct \u2018religious\u2019 ceremonies sans Brahman priests and to compulsorily educate the next generation. When the orthodox of the times charged that the samaj could not be called a religious body because it has no religious text (<em>dharmagranth)<\/em>\u00a0of its own, Phule wrote\u00a0<em>Sarvajanik Satya Dharma Pustak\u00a0<\/em>(Book of the Public Religion of Truth). As an alternative, the emphasis of\u00a0<em>Satya Dharma<\/em>\u00a0was again to outset the Brahman from his overriding position.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Phule\u2019s concept of dharma was rather simple and unambiguous. For him, it<em>\u00a0<\/em>was a platform of passionate equalitarianism minus any discrimination. Further, Phule clearly saw the role of dharma and caste in the production relations of Indian society.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Phule lays bare these production relations with his careful investigations of the peasants\u2019 questions in colonial India. He is perhaps the first Indian intellectual who made agriculture \u2013 its process and production \u2013 a major concern for his thought experiment. <strong>His book\u00a0<em>Shetkaryacha Asud<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>(The Cultivator\u2019s Whipcord) familiarises us with the graphic description of farmers\u2019 conditions \u2013 their hungry bellies, rag-wrapped bodies coupled with the continuous harassments from moneylenders.<\/p>\n<p>He recommended the active role of the state in agrarian policies; the need for soil conservation, rain harvesting and building of bunds (<em>bandhara<\/em>); usage of advanced technology for cattle breeding and specific professional education for peasants and their children etc. so as to relieve peasantry from its miserable condition. <strong>However, as a pre-industrial thinker, the glaring limitation of Phule\u2019s agrarian scheme is that he understood peasantry as a monolithic category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Education_and_gender\"><\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Education and gender<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Another area in which Phule contributed immensely is India\u2019s gender question. He invariably linked the liberation of women with education. He himself taught his young wife Savitribai. Later, with her and some liberal associates, Phule opened a string of schools from 1848-1855, including a special school for all caste girls. He was a staunch advocate of widow remarriage and a front-runner for child adoption. The Phule couple themselves adopted the son of a Brahman widow.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/velivada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/3rd-july.jpg?fit=2120%2C1192&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"3rd July (1851) in Dalit History - Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Founded a ...\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He openly defended Pandita Ramabai\u2019s decision to convert to Christianity and Tarabai Shinde\u2019s polemical monograph\u00a0<em>Stree Purush Tulana\u00a0<\/em>(A Comparison between Women and Men), amidst Brahmanical orthodoxy. Gail Omvedt makes an interesting observation that Phule does not use the common salutation of\u00a0<em>manoos<\/em>\u00a0(human being) but rather\u00a0<em>streepurush<\/em>\u00a0(women and men).<\/p>\n<p>By using such a salutation, <strong>Phule challenges the subsumed status of women within men.<\/strong> The word streepurush accentuates the gendered differentiation and pleads for the quest of equality at the same time. Further, he did not make any distinction within the category of\u00a0<em>stree<\/em>\u00a0(women) \u2013 stressing the fact that a Brahman woman is as much prone to gender discrimination as of any other caste.<\/p>\n<p>Phule\u2019s intellectual heritage \u2013 which sowed the initials seeds of India\u2019s social revolution \u2013 remains unfulfilled even today. More than a reformer, he was an architect of ideas. By building an alternative system of ideas he attempted to decode the nuances of our social reality.<\/p>\n<p>The questions that bothered Phule continue to haunt us today. Perhaps with greater intensity. There is an immediate need to engage with Phule in a way we have never before.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>For more such notes, Articles, News &amp; Views Join our Telegram Channel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Telegram Link\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/triumphias\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>https:\/\/t.me\/triumphias<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Click the link below to see the details about the UPSC \u2013Civils courses offered by Triumph IAS.<\/strong> <\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" title=\"Courses available\" href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/pages-all-courses.php\">https:\/\/triumphias.com\/pages-all-courses.php<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jyotirao Phule Relevance: Sociology:\u00a0Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution.Social Change in Modern Society:\u00a0Education and social change.\u00a0Rural and Agrarian Social<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,114,115,116],"tags":[4977,3697,1300,4978,155,1507,1696,787,4974,1869,4976,4975,392],"class_list":["post-7509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-studies-i","category-society-and-social-issues","category-sociology-optional","category-sociology-optional-paper-i","category-sociology-optional-paper-ii","tag-agrarian-policies","tag-brahmanism","tag-caste-system","tag-colonialism","tag-education","tag-gender","tag-india","tag-indian-society","tag-jyotirao-phule","tag-maharashtra","tag-satyashodhak-samaj","tag-social-reform","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7509"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32012,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7509\/revisions\/32012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}