DINBANDU SEVASADAN NAGPUR

1 JUNE 2014
▪▪ v ▪▪
A plenary lecture originally delivered in
the History Session of
The Maharashtra Development and Promotion Centre’s
National Conference April 16-17, 2010
Maharashtra at 50: Ideas for India
India International Centre New Delhi

Manish Dabhade, PhD

Founder-President, Maharashtra Development and Promotion Centre
Associate Professor, School of International Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University

History Session Chair:

Prof Surendra Jondhale
Head, Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai, Mumbai
Other lecturers:
Prof S.K. Thorat, Chairman, University Grants Commission, New Delhi
Prof Gopal Guru, Chairperson, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Mahatma Jotirao Phule

on Indian History:
Ideas for 21st Century India
By Thom Wolf, PhD
Professor of Global Studies, University Institute, New Delhi

M
ahatma Phule (1827-1890) had a heart for history and an
aversion to mythology. For while Phule had a strong attraction to
history, he also demonstrated a vivid aversion to mythology, a
strong allergic aversion. So then, in Phule's thinking, the spiritual
teachings about caste of the Manushamhita and the tales of Krishna in the Bhagavad-
gita were not for considerate reflection, but for clear rejection.

For example, Mahatma Phule has one of his shocked characters remind us that the
Bhagawata contains “atrocious fictions.” In comparison, he says, the tales of Aesop’s
Fables are “a thousand times better. At least they do not contain anything which
would corrupt the minds of young children.”

1
All in all, Phule categorized such “atrocious fictions” as “hollow books”: all the
writings about Vedic incantations, about the power of magic and killing with black
magic, about use of rosary beads, about the confusion of the Brahma, about the reign
of Narad, and about the prohibitions against ever educating Shudras.

But just because Phule considered such writings atrocious and hollow, does not mean
that he did not take them seriously. He did, in fact, take them seriously, utterly
seriously. That is the enduring strength of Phule.

Phule knew, with laser insight, that ideas have consequences. Phule saw what I call
the worldvoice | worldview | worldvenue connection: that who you adore (worldvoice)
sources how you analyze (worldview), and how you analyze drives how you act
(worldvenue) – the worldvoice | worldview | worldvenue connection.

Phule was convinced that the “atrocious fictions” (worldvoice) of those “hollow
books” (worldview) “allowed their selfish Brahman brothers to continue robbing the
shudras” (worldvenue).1 In that, Phule anticipated the 20th century work of Max
Weber on political and economic systems and their webbed relationship with
worldview and religious systems; and the 21st century work of Lawrence Harrison and
the “culture matters” school of thinking.2

Thus Phule regarded the history of India to largely be one of persistent spiritual
misdirection, borne out of pundits’ religious deceptions. In Phule’s opinion, such a
worldview drove the purposes of an unwavering political dominance, an oppressive
social caste-hierarchy, and for the bahujan/majority masses, a grinding economic
poverty.

For public conversation, Phule explained India’s history with four or five eras –
sometimes using six eras. He was not obscure in his reasoning or preferences.
Instead, he stated openly and intensely his reasons for emphasising history over myth.
Phule’s interest in history paralleled four themes that dominated all his writings: (1) to
call out those who have been enslaved “for generations”, (2) to further equality and

1
See J. Phule, Selected Writings of Jotirao Phule (G. P. Deshpande, editor). New Delhi: LeftWord 2002, pp. 71-
2
See R. O’Hanlon, Caste, Conflict, and Ideology: Mahatma Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century
Western India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002; L. Harrison, Culture Matters: How Values Shape
Human Progress. New York: Basic Books 2000; L. Harrison and R. Kagan (eds.), Developing Cultures: Essays on
Cultural Change. New York: Routledge 2006; L. Harrison, The Central Liberal Truth. Oxford: Oxford University
Press 2006; and T. Wolf, “Progress-Prone and Progress-Resistant Societies: Mariano Grondoña and a Cultural
Typology of Humane Development” Oikos Worldviews Bulletin Volume 10 Issue 2 Spring 2010: 1-9.

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human rights, (3) to gain dignity and moral freedom for India, and (4) to create a new
period of transformation.

While the headings for the periods are mine, the thoughts and words are Phule’s.3

1. The Aryans: Invaders and enslavers

“This, in short, is the history of Brahmin domination in India. The original [Iranian]
ancestors of the Brahmins waged a war against the original inhabitants in this land
long ago and after defeating them, turned them into their slaves. Anyone who will
consider well the whole history of Brahmin domination in India, and the thraldom
under which it has retained the people even up to the present day, will agree with us in
thinking that no language could be too harsh by which to characterize the selfish
heartlessness and the consummate cunning of the Brahmin tyranny by which India has
been so long governed.

How far the Brahmins have succeeded in their endeavours to enslave the minds of the
shudras and atishudras, those of them who have come to know the true state of
matters know well. For generations past they have borne these chains of slavery and
bondage. The world-hater brahmanical fraud has spread all over India: a scheme of
mystery and magic, thereby deceiving all the shudra and atishudras people, who have
been excessively cheated by the cunning Aryans for thousands of years.

Innumerable Brahmin writers, with the same objectives as those of Manu and others
of his class, added from time to time to the existing mass of legends, the idle fantasies
of their own brains, and palmed them off upon the ignorant masses as of divine
inspiration, or as the acts of the Deity himself.

The most immoral, inhuman, unjust actions and deeds have been attributed to that
Being who is our Creator, Governor and Protector, and who is all Holiness himself.
These blasphemous writings, the products of the distempered brains of these
interlopers, were received as gospel truths, for to doubt them was considered as the
most unpardonable sins.”4

3
See Phule, Slavery in Selected Writings 2002, pp. 97-99; and Sarvajanik Satya Dharma Pustak/The Book of the
Truth in Selected Writings 2002, pp. 235-236.
4
Phule, Slavery in Selected Writings 2002, pp. 29, 98, and 31; and Satsar in Selected Writings 2002, pp. 205 and
210-211.

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2. The Brahmans: Intoxicated and exploiters

“Later on, intoxicated with their power, they exploited every opportunity to produce
crafty and cunning books and built, as it were, a strong fortress of these books in
which they imprisoned all the slaves for generations. There, they have been torturing
them in various ways and enjoying themselves at the cost of the slaves.

This system of slavery, to which the Brahmins reduced the lower classes is in no
respects inferior to that which obtained a few years ago in America. In the days of
rigid Brahmin dominance, so lately as that of the time of the Peshwa, my shudra
brethren had even greater hardships and oppression practised upon them than what
even the slaves in America had to suffer.

To this system of selfish superstition and bigotry, we are to attribute the stagnation
and all the evils under which India has been groaning for many centuries.

It will, indeed, be difficult to name a single advantage which accrued to the aborigines
from the advent of this intensely selfish and tyrannical sect – the Brahmins.

The Indian ryot, [peasant, tenant farmer] – the shudra and atishudras – the Indian ryot
has been in fact a proverbial milch cow. He has passed from hand to hand.

And those who successively held sway over him cared only to fatten themselves on
the sweat of his brow, without caring for his welfare or condition. It was sufficient for
their purposes, that they held him safe in their clutches for squeezing out of him as
much as they possibly could.

The Brahmin had as last so contrived to entwine himself round the shudra in every
large or little undertaking, in every domestic or public business, that the shudra is, by
custom, quite unable to transact any activity of significance without the Brahmin’s
aid.

Under the guise of religion, the Brahmin has is finger in every thing, big or small,
which the shudra undertakes. Go to his house, to his field or to the court: the Brahmin
is there, under some specious pretext or other, trying to squeeze out of him as much as
hs cunning and wily brain can manage. The Brahmin despoils the shudra not only in
his capacity of a priest, but does so in a variety of other ways.

Having by his superior education and cunning monopolize al the higher places of
employment, the ingenuity of his ways is past finding out. In the most insignificant

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village as in the largest town, the Brahmin is the all in all, the be all and the end all of
the ryot. He is the master, the ruler.

Even the educated Brahmin who knows his exact position and how he has come by it,
will not condescend to acknowledge the errors of his forefathers and willingly forego
the long cherished false notions of his own superiority. At present, no one has the
moral courage to do what only duty demands. And as long as this continues, one sect
distrusting and degrading another sect, the condition of the shudras will remain
unaltered. And India will never advance in greatness or prosperity.”5

3. The Muslims: Dispatched, but disloyal

“The Lord, the Merciful, precisely because of his mercy and his desire to rescue the
shudras and the atishudras from slavery, sent the monotheistic Muslims – who do no
believe in the caste-system – to this land.”

It will be recalled that young Joti’s father removed him from schooling on the counsel
of a Brahmin clerk who argued that education for a Shudra would make him
vocationally unfit, spiritually irreligious, and socially a rebel. It was only after a three
year gap that his father reversed that decision because of the counter-arguments and
advice of the foreigner Legit and the Indian Muslim leader, Gaffvhar Baig Munshi, a
teacher of Urdu and Persian. Thus, the education of and literary voice of the Father of
Indian reformation is rooted in the muslim voice in the history of Maharashtra and
India itself.6

“Thus it was that greedy conquistadors from the French, the Portuguese and the
Muslim rulers invaded this country and took away inordinate amounts of wealth from
the Brahmins. Many of them defaced the selfish religion of the Brahmans. And
finally, several Muslim warriors carried thousands of Brahmans by their ears,
converted them to their own human religion, and performed circumcisions. But right
up to this time, the prohibition on teaching the shudra farmers’ children in the
Brahmin Sanskrit schools continues.

5
Phule, Slavery in Selected Writings 2002, pp. 98, 31-33.
6
See the discussion by D. Keer, Mathatma Jotirao Phooley: Father of Indian Social Revolution. Bombay: Popular
Prakashan 1974, pp. 8-14.

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When the unselfish followers of Hazrat Muhammad Paigambar stepped into this
country, on the strength of their holy monotheist religion, they began to decimate the
selfish religion of the Aryas and bhats. So some shudras very enthusiastically started
embracing the Mohammedan religion.

But then, the Muslims also betrayed God. They spent their time in banquets, luxurious
living and musical concerts. They were busy enjoying the luxuries as if they had
almost gained paradise right here on earth.

The Creator got annoyed with the Muslims. He deprived them of their power and
glory.”7

4. The British: Established, aggrieved, and ignorant

“And then…He – the Creator – did not keep quiet. He civilized the English
primitives,8 granted them qualities like extraordinary valour. Now He has sent them to
our land to rescue the Shudras and the Atishudras from the slavery of the Arya bhats.

When the valiant British established their rule in this land, the kindhearted Europeans
and Americans were deeply aggrieved by our misery. Several American and Scottish
followers of Baliraja in the West came to this country without the least regard for
what their governments would say. They preached the true teachings of Jesus among
the shudras and freed them from the deceit and slavery of the Brahmins.

By now, most of the Brahmins have realised that these missionaries will certainly not
allow them to dominate the shudras. Therefore, the wily Brahmins intend to drive the
British government and the missionaries away from this country – before the
friendship between the faithful followers of the Baliraja and the ignorant shudras
matures further.

So now, they are using their hereditary deceit once again and have started to incite the
shudras against the British. The rest of them have acquired various jobs as clerks etc.
in government. And they have infested the places so thickly that it is impossible to
find any office, either government or otherwise, without a Brahmin in it.

7
“Muslims” in this section is my substitution; it is translated “Mussalmans” by M. Pandit (1873). See Jotirao
Phule, ‘Caste Discrimination’ The Book of Truth, 1873, in Deshpande 2002, p. 235.
8
Atiranati, which means extreme primitives.

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But those followers of Baliraja from the West pulled the rope of slavery from around
shudras’ and atishudras’ necks – tied there by the Brahmins – and threw it in the
oppressors’ face.

And some English gentlemen among them, following the teaching of a sage of their
religion are in all sincerity making every effort to rescue the shudras and atishudras
from their unnaturally slavery. And who does this sage happened to be? Their great
sage is called Yashwant and his great teaching is: ‘You must love your enemy and do
him a good turn’.”9

G. P. Deshpande, Professor of Chinese Studies, School of International Studies,

Jawaharlal Nehru University, is clear about Phule's reference to “Yashwant”. “Phule,”
Deshpande explains, “has turned Yeshu [“Jesus”] into Yashwant, a Marathi name
which means the Successful One.”10 From the standpoint of understanding Phule's
view of history, this is hugh.

5. The Jotibas: Informed and transformed

“You know, I have written a play – Tritya Ratna/The Third Jewel – about how the
bhat joshis deceive the shudras with the rigmarole of their self-serving religion, and
how the Christian missionaries disseminate true knowledge of their impartial religion
among them to lead them onto the path of Truth.

And I had submitted this play to the Dakshina Prize Committee. This was way back in
1855. But even there, the opinions of the Brahmin members held sway, so my play

was straight away rejected.

I wrote another book called The Cunning Craft of the Brahmans, and published it at
my own cost. One of my friends in Pune suggested I send letters to some high ranking
officers in the Education Department. I sent those letters accordingly, but not one of
them dared to blacken his name by buying a single copy for fear of offending the
Brahmins.

9
Phule, Sarvajanik Satya Dharma Pustak/The Book of the Truth in Selected Writings 2002, pp. 235-236; and
Slavery in Selected Writings 2002, pp. 75-76.
10
Selected Writings of Jotirao Phule 2002, p. 236. Omvedt and Wolf also document this Baliraja-Yashwant-
Jesus connection.
See footnote 26 below: Omvedt 2008, pp. 164-169, 176-178 , 182-184; and Wolf 2007, 4-10, 39-47; and
throughout Wolf 2010 and Wolf 2012.

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But I learned a valuable lesson. I never cringed before those people and learned to
rely on the great God, our Father, who created us. I am very grateful to Him for that.

So, as I have said, those American and Scottish followers of Baliraja in the West,
came to this country without the least regard for what their governments would say.
They preached the true teachings of Jesus among the shudras and freed them from the
deceit and slavery of the Brahmins.

They entered our prisons and asked us, ‘Folks, you are human beings just like us. Our
Creator and Sustainer are one and the same. You are entitled to have all the rights that
we have. Then why do you obey the dictates of these crafty bhats?’

All these sacred ideas awakened me to my real rights. Then I kicked the crafty
Brahman prison gates open and fervently thanked the Creator for this deliverance.

I regard all those shudras who follow the path of righteousness, who believe only in
God, their Creator, and who have vowed to behave in a clean and straight manner, as
my brothers. I will treat them as members of my family and will eat food with them
without any inhibitions whatsoever.

I appeal to my illiterate, suffering shudra brethren: if any one of them desires to free
himself from the slavery of the bhats, I will be extremely grateful.”11

6. Phule’s Future: “Some Time in the Future”

“Some time in the future”12: that was what Phule waited for; “Some time in the
future”: that was what Phule dreamed of: “Some time in the future”: that was what
Phule prayed for. Phule concluded from his study of history and cross cultural compa-
rison of societies, that until a certain kind of India emerged “some time in the future”,
India would remain the same. In other words, to Phule, no matter what kind of the
surface changes, politicians’ promises, or outward paint, India would remain the same
– until “some time in the future” when five things would converge all across India.

11
Phule, The Book of Truth in Selected Writings 2002, 236; and Slavery in Selected Writings 2002, pp. 93, and 98-
9.
12
J. Phule, Cultivator’s Whipcord. Collected Works of Mahatma Phule Volume 3. Maharashtra: Mahatma Phule
Source Material Publication Committee, Government of Maharashtra 2002, p. 129.

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According to Mahatma Phule, that sixth era, that period “some time in the future”
would bring five fresh things into the experience of majority India.13 It’s as though the
Pune gardener looked for five fresh flowers in India’s future, a time which would be
(1) Shudra initiated, (2) education driven, (3) system collapsing, (4) Shudra
prosperity, and (5) lived by a creation-standard ethic.

First, according to Phule, the sixth era of India’s history will be Shudra initiated.

In Phule’s words, “until the time comes when Shudra” leaders “come to their senses”
and initiate the changes needed. Without new initiatives by Shudra leadership, the
dominating “Brahmin administrators will not cease to act” as they have so far for
centuries unending.14 Specifically, that “time in the future” will be a time that breaks
the spell of servile absorption into the Brahmin mindset.

On this point Phule was clear; very clear. As an activist, Phule sounds like this
morning’s newspaper. As an analyst, Phule refused to shy away from the deep
grammar of the worldview mindset unique to India. His logic was blunt. His
descriptions were, by today’s standards, almost brutal.

Phule said it like this: “It would be very hard to find a parallel example anywhere in
the world” to compare with the cultural system set in place by “the ancient and
cunning Arya brahman scripture-writers [who] have so smoothly machinated to tie up
the farmer in their selfish religion.”15 Notice that Phule sees religious worldvoice,
intellectual worldview, and social worldvenue as an integrated whole. In India, Phule
saw that cultural system as a comprehensive and crushing way of life. It was what he
called a Brahmin generated “rule of fear”, a way of life manufactured and maintained
by what he called “their selfish texts like the Manusamhita...along with the magic of
the Vedic mantras” therefore, they are absorbed into their won increased status.”16

Phule illustrates his argument by pointing out the behaviour of newly elected Shudra
leaders. The problem is, according to Phule, that “even though they received so much
help from the English government...they do not desire to be free from Brahmin
domination. On the contrary, they are scared that their newly acquired hollow
grandeur may be in danger. Therefore, they are subservient and flatter their Brahmin

13
See S. Sardar and T. Wolf, Phule in His Own Words. New Delhi: University Institute 2008, pp. 43-48.
14
Phule, Cultivator’s Whipcord 2002, pp. 128-129.
15
Cultivator’s Whipcord 1883, p. 120.
16
Cultivator’s Whipcord 1883, p. 128.

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colleagues. And being complacent in this, they are absorbed into their own increased
status.”17

Second, the sixth period of Indian history will be education driven. Its arrival will not
be signalled by forward caste children educated as the privileged, but as the time
when Shudra children will be educated as equals.

To Phule, Law of Manu was a “one-sided and heartless book”. By Manu, a Shudra
was morally equivalent to a dog or a crow, for the religious ceremony of expiation for
a Brahmin killing a dog, a cat, a crow or an owl, was the same as if he had killed a
Shudra. Socially, shudras were specifically forbidden education. “Some time in the
future” a new period of Indian history would be marked by the phenomenon that
shudras would “educate their own children” as equals to all other castes in India and
all other people in the world – “trained on par with brahmin children.”

Specifically, for their children’s freedom in the global world, Phule foresaw a time in
the future when shudra parents would see that their own children were “studying....in
English.” For only thus would they be freed from ignorant yapping, superstitions,
magic mantras and incantations, and bigotry to, in Phule’s words, “acquire real
knowledge”18

That was radical. In Phule’s lifetime, only Brahmin children had access to education.
It is not just that Shudra children and outcaste children failed to be educated. The
Laws of Manu forbide shudras and outcastes to be educated. Thus, Phule linked two
things: education and English. 150 years ago Phule saw what some still cannot see
today: that an education in English is not just a nice thing. Instead, in a global world,
education in English is a necessary thing – Ramdev notwithstanding.

Ignorance and isolation were the keys that locked the masses inside the prison built by
Manu. Phule saw that education and English are the double keys that unlock the
prison cells of crippling ignorance and crushing poverty. “Studying in English” –
Phule said that is the avenue out of isolation and poverty.

Third, Phule said the reigning system will collapse “some time in the future”: it
“will…cease” to function.

17
Cultivator’s Whipcord 1883, p. 128.
18
Ibid, p 128; Selected Writings 2002, p. 33-34, 209, 217-218.

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That “time in the future” would be the time when the Brahmins “will certainly reap
the consequences of their deeds.”19 Therefore, Phule called on all – Brahmins
included, and especially – to assist, not oppose, the Shudras and Atishudras in gaining
their equal rights. In this Phule stood also in total opposition to Marx. Marx advocated
the program of liquidation of enemies from the new future. Phule held open the
possibility of the transformation of his opponents to join in creating a new future.

Fourth, that “time in the future” will be signalled by Shudra prosperity: Shudra
people will awaken and become wise and prosperous.

Phule looked beyond the backward conditions of his own days. He predicted that the
Shudra peoples of India, people with a long history, will become wise and fortunate.
In Phule’s day, he was grieved that Shudras were unwise: they did not know their
history. He considered that not just unfortunate. Phule said that not knowing their own
history was harmful, for the backward castes were ignorant of what he called their
“original status” as people of freedom, equality, and dignity.

Therefore, in Phule’s day, they were “unfortunate.” Shudras were largely

“impoverished… very poor” and for “thousands of years, Shudras and Atishudras
were living under the dominion of Brahmins.”20 But he prayed for a “time in the
future” when that would change.

Fifth, the sixth period of Indian history “some time in the future” would be lived by
what I call a creation-standard ethic. Phule, alone among the 19th century thinkers
visioned a time when the masses of India would join hands with what he called the
“truthseekers” of all nations. And this fifth feature would be the final interlocking
indicator of a new India. The sixth era of Indian history, Phule said, would be a time
when India lives by the universal standard of truth.

Phule said you would know that day had come because the masses of India would rise
up and be truthseekers. Truth suppressors will be pushed back. Truth seekers will
come forward; and they will be truthseekers with all those who, around the world,
who are also truthseekers.

Phule called others “those foreign” truth-seekers. Phule named some of those truth-
seekers from a nation far away. He called them the “followers of the Baliraja in the West.”

19
Cultivator’s Whipcord 1883, p. 129.
20
Cultivator’s Whipcord 1883, p. 127.

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Phule was himself a follower of Yashwant – the “one, great champion of the
downtrodden, the holiest of the holy, the great sage and lover of Truth, Baliraja.” And,
Phule said, the historical vanguard were the Scottish, English, and American
missionaries, those “Baliraja’s followers [who] came to this country, without the least
regard for what their own governments would say. They preached the true teachings
of Yashwant among the Shudras and freed them from the deceit and slavery of the
Brahmins.”21

Just like G. P. Deshpande, Jawaharlal Nehru University, I was surprised – almost

shocked – to discover that Phule called Jesus, Baliraja. And I was totally amazed that
Mahatma Phule saw the future of a beautiful India directly connected to the adoration
of Yashwant, with the associated public standards of dignity and reason for all people,
and the rule of justice according the universal laws of the Creator of us all, the laws of
nature that the Almighty has written in our hearts.22

Phule on Indian History: Ideas for 21st Century India

For Phule then, the five periods described the history to his times; the sixth period
describes the history of India in some future time. It is quite striking that this father of
social transformation in India had such a powerful grasp of history and the drivers of
history. In this, Phule was akin to the father of the American nation whom he admired
so much: George Washington.23

Interestingly, Mahatma Phule and President Washington were like intellectual and
spiritual soul-brothers when it came to their view of history. In short, they lived out
their lives around five historical convictions:

1. The Creator is the maker of all humans, endowing every woman and man with
equal dignity and honour.

2. This benevolent Creator, the all-powerful and all-merciful God, guides and
intervenes in the events of humanity’s history.

21
Slavery 1873, Part 10.
22
See J. Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1994; and Public
Religions Revisited University of Fordham University Press 2008 PDF
http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/religionseminar_jcasanova.pdf
23
Phule, Slavery in Selected Writings 2002, Part XIV, pp. 86-89 on “George Washington, the American follower
of that Baliraja”; and Cultivator’s Whipcord in Selected Writings 2002, Chapter 3, pp. 141-156 for Phule’s view of
history, with George Washington( and others) as proof that “bravery or cowardice are not hereditary, but
depend on the qualities of each individual’s nature and context.”

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 3. Providence, the working of God in history, is not impersonal fate. Moreover, it
was not the view of Washington or Phule that Providence is always being on
their side. The Almighty is on the side of truth, regardless of the immediate
circumstances or appearances of history or the oppositions of men. And truth
will always and ultimately bring all things to a good end.

4. Phule often describes Providence as benevolent and God as merciful.

Washington’s favourite description of Providence is “inscrutable.”

5. In their own lifetimes, Mahatma Phule and President Washington were

recognized as history-making persons. Therefore, it is even more impressive
that, in the face of Providence, both Phule and Washington display such a life-
long sense of awe, gratefulness, and courage in the workings of their Creator.24

Karl Marx wrote of colonial imperialism and economic necessity. Jotirao Phule
experienced the British colonial bruisings and blunders firsthand. But Phule perceived
even more; for according to Phule, even the British times of oppression in India were
still providentially guided. And for the masses dominated for thousands of years by
Brahmin deceptions, Phule concluded that even those British rulers were under the
special providential hand of the Creator. ▪

Karl Marx in 1853 wrote: “England has to fulfill a double mission in India: one
destructive, the other regenerating – the annihilation of old Asiatic society, and lay the
material foundations of Western society in India.”25

As far as Marx goes, Phule would have agreed. But Phule saw more than Marx. If you
add the concept of “spiritual” to the thinking of Marx, Phule would likely have agreed
with Karl Marx’s estimation of the historical role of the British Empire in South Asia.

Phule, going beyond Marx, would say: “England has to fulfill a double mission in
India: one destructive, the other regenerating – the annihilation of old Asiatic society,
and lay the spiritual and material foundations of Western society in India.”

For to Phule, it was true that the benevolent hand of Providence was destroying the
old brahmanical-mindset society. But for Phule, the Creator was also laying the

24
On the Creator and providential history, see the views of George Washington, whom Phule referenced
often, in M. Novak and J. Novak, Washington’s God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of Our Country. New York:
Basic Books 2006, pp. 95-142 and 175-195.
See also G. Graham, The Shape of the Past: A Philosophical Approach to History. Oxford: Oxford University
Press 1997, pp. 1-43, 166-200.
25
Karl Marx, cited in Deshpande 2002, p. 18.

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spiritual and material foundations for Baliraja in India. Because, Phule “does see
history as being providentially driven”, as Aparna Devare at Hydrabad University
point out. That is, “the Creator or Nirmik is the one who directs social changes, and
events always have a purpose.”26

Drawing on Kumar (1968,), Keer (1974), Sardar (1981), Raykar (1981), O’Hanlon
(1985), and Despande (2002), Devare provides a comprehensive, accurate, and useful
account of Phule’s own view of history and its significance for today. In discussing
Phule’s approach to history to those of Ranade and Savarkar, she also provides a most
helpful framing of “the limits of history”: “Phule, Ranade and Savarkar each represent
three distinctive visions of a modern Indian-Hindu self.”27

Even more important, Devare notes, “In many ways, Phule’s, Ranade's and Savarkar’s
ideas are as ‘alive’ today, if not more, than when they were first articulated in their
respective contexts.”28 Thus is projected for India in the global world what Devare
calls three distinct “voices”, propelling three different “visions” – leaving Indians
with three different “choices” for India’s future.

Therefore, Mahatma Phule still calls us, more than ever before, to ponder with him the
history and the future of India:

• What must be annihilated?

• What must not be eliminated?
• What might be incorporated?
• And even, what must be innovated?

26
A. Devare, History and the Making of a Modern Hindu Self. London: Routledge 2011, p. 82. In my estimation,
Devare’s exposition of Phule’s view of history is the best critical, sympathetic, and integrative account to
date.
Devare’s references her indebtedness to the work of R. Kumar, Western India in the Nineteenth Century: A
Study in the Social History of Maharashtra. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1968; D. Keer, Mahatma Jotirao
Phooley: Father of Indian Social Revolution. Bombay: Popular Prakashan 1974; G. Sardar, Mahatma Phule:
Vyktitva Ani Vichar. Mumbai: Abhinav Vachjak Chalval 1981; S. Raykar, Amhi Pahilele Phule. Pune: Mahatma
Jotirava Phule Samata Pratishthana 1981; R. O’Hanlon, Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and
Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century Western India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1985; and G.
Despande, ‘Introduction: Of Hope and Melancholy, Reading Jotirao Phule in Our Times’, in G. Despande (ed.),
Selected Writings of Jotirao Phule. New Delhi: Leftword 2002, pp. 1-21.
See also T. Wolf, ‘Progress-Prone and Progress-Resistant Cultures: Worldview Issues and the Baliraja Proposal
of Mahatma Phule’ Journal of Contemporary Social Work (University of Lucknow) Volume 1 April 2007: 1-51; G.
Omvedt, Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anticaste Intellectuals. New Delhi: Navayana 2008; G.
Despande, The World of Ideas in Modern Marathi: Phule, Vinoba, Savarkar. New Delhi: 2009; T. Wolf, Phule:
Apne Hi Shabdon Mein. New Delhi: Aspire Prakash 2010; and T. Wolf, ‘Changing Education: The “Original and
Unusual” Worldvoice, Worldview, and Worldvenue of Jan Comenius and Savitribai Phule’ Journal of AC
Leadership 5 (2) 2011, pp. 78-104.
27
Devare, History and the Making of a Modern Hindu Self 2011, p. 211.
28
Ibid., pp. 211-212.

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In short, just as did Phule in the past, so too we must now decide – for the building,
for the benefit, for the blessing of India:

▪ To whose voice should we deeply listen?

▪ How shall we view the aam aadmi’s lot?

▪ Which societal venue should India choose in today’s global world? §

2014 University Institute educational edition 15

 Thom Wolf, Ph.D.

Thom Wolf, D.Lit., Ph.D. (Andrews University), is president and professor of global studies,
UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE, New Delhi, India. He also lectures as visiting professor, global leadership,
Andrews University; and adjunct professor, sociology, Charleston Southern University.
Dr. Thom is a life member of the Indian Sociological Society; a contributing editor of Forward Press,
India’s first fully Hindi-and--English news magazine; an affiliate member of the Society for the
Teaching of Psychology (American Psychological Association, Division II); and was an international
consultant for The Oxford Encyclopaedia of South Asian Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2012).
UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE is focused around the crucial question of the 21st century’s global conversation:
what is the best way to live life on this planet?
To further the global conversation and to promote sustainable environments for life flourishing
worldwide, UI convenes, connects, and collaborates educational experiences throughout South Asia,
Southeast and East Asia, the Pacific Rim, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. With a research
library of 10,000 volumes, UI partners for-credit education for USA universities and adult learning
experiences for participants.
A social entrepreneur and leadership educator, Dr. Thom has designed Master of Arts programs for
four USA universities. His campus lectures and speaking engagements include Indiana University,
University of California Berkeley, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Stanford University,
and Harvard University.
In Europe, the Middle East and Gulf States, and Asia, his lecture presentations include Beijing
Language & Culture University, Kunming University, American University in Dubai, Kabul
University, Kateb University Kabul, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Iqra University Islamabad,
Kashmir University, Lucknow University, Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Ministry
of Finance & Budget Academy Moscow, Russian Federation.
With a sustained interest in the ethical dimensions of comparative worldviews, his ideas have been
published by Far Eastern Economic Review, Journal of Contemporary Social Work Lucknow
University, Journal of Applied Christian Leadership Andrews University, Lumina Journal Holy Name
University Philippines, Ministry of Culture Government of India, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara
University, and Journal of Social Work Kashmir University.
Articles and books include “Social Change and Development: A Research Template” (2010); Phule:
Apne Hi Shabdon Mein|Phule in His Own Words (2010) in Hindi; India Progress-Prone: The Baliraja
Proposal of Mahatma Phule (2008), translated into Hindi and Marathi; “The Mahayana Moment:
Tipping Point Buddhism” (2009), also in Tibetan (2010). Dr. Wolf’s writings include:
Ÿ Phule: Apne Hi Shabdon Mein|Phule: In His Own Words (Hindi, 2011)
Ÿ ‘The Mahayana Moment: Tipping Point Buddhism’ in Bhalchandra Mungekar (ed.),
Buddhism in the 21st Century (2009; Tibetan, 2010)
Ÿ India Progress Prone: The Baliraja Proposal of Mahatma Phule (2008; Hindi & Marathi)
Ÿ Savitribai: India’s Conversation on Education, with Suzana Andrade (2008)
Ÿ ‘Three Challenges of 21st Century Buddhism’ in Bhalchandra Mungekar & Aakash Rathore
(eds.) Buddhism and the Contemporary World (2007)
Dr. Wolf’s public lectures and engagements up to 2014 include:
2013
Ÿ Indian Institute of Public Administration, Estate Campus, New Delhi
Lecturer, “Addressing the Roots of Our Social Problems: The WV3 Culture Tree of India –
Worldvoice, Worldview, Worldvenue”

2012
Ÿ Batala UC College, Guru Nanak Dev University, Punjab
“Social Change: Development, Education, and Gender”
The College President’s Annual Lectures, with the Sociology Department

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Ÿ University Professors Global Education Group, Center for South Asian Studies (CASA), University Institute
‘Cultures of Cultivation and Cultures of Constraint’ Professors Seminar
Ÿ Andrews International Center of Educational Research (AICER)
Research Symposium: Graduate Students and Faculty

2011
Ÿ Kashmir University, School of Business
Plenary Session Lectures: Cross-Cultural Challenges of International Marketing and Leadership, with
Lalita Manarai and Ajay Manarai, Business and Economics, University of Delaware; and Agha Ali,
Insberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts

2010
Ÿ Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad and Iqra University Islamabad
Anthropology Department Lecture: ‘Social Change and Development: A Research Template’
Ÿ Finance & Budget Academy Moscow, Russian Federation
Invited Lecture: ‘Progress Proneness, Progress Resistance: Grondoña’s Development Typology’
Ÿ India International Centre, New Delhi
Paper: ‘Phule in Contemporary India’ Other panel members: V Sirpurkur, Judge, Supreme Court of
India; G Omvedt, IGNO University; Y Alone, Jawaharlal Nehru University

2009
Ÿ University of Kashmir, School of Business
School of Business Lecture: ‘India and Progress: A Case Study’
Ÿ Arizona State University, Canyon Institute of Advanced Studies
CIAS Aslan Lecture: ‘Future India: Brahma, Buddha or Baliraja – Phule’s Baliraja Proposal’

2008
Ÿ Azusa Pacific University
Current Issues Leadership Guest Lectureship: ‘Leaders, Ideas, and Social Change: India Case Study’
Ÿ American University in Dubai
Campus Lecture: ‘Progress-Prone and Progress-Resistant Cultures: A Template for Research’

2007
Ÿ 2550th Anniversary of Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha at birthplace of Buddhism, Bodhgaya, India
Chair, ‘International Practices of Buddhism’ Plenary Session
International Commemoration Conference, Government of India, Ministry of Culture

2006
Ÿ University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, School of Business
Distinguished Speaker Series: ‘GlobalShift: The New History Vectors’, with Dr Ken Blanchard
and 41st USA President, the Honorable George H W Bush
Ÿ Lucknow University, Department of Sociology and Social Work
Invited Lecture: ‘Progress-Prone and Progress-Resistant Cultures: Worldview Issues’ §

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