Mahatma Jyotiba Phule

Father of Indian Social Revolution

• Jyotiba Phule was one of the prominent social
reformers of the nineteenth century India.
• He led the movement against the prevailing
caste-restrictions in India.
• He revolted against the domination of the
Brahmins and for the rights of peasants and other
low-caste fellow.
• Jyotiba Phule was believed to be the first Hindu
to start an orphanage for the unfortunate
children.
• Jyotirao Phule was born in Satara district of
Maharastra in 1827. His father, Govindrao was
a vegetable-vendor at Poona. Originally
Jyotirao's family belonged to 'mali' caste,
considered as inferior by the Brahmins.
• Since, Jyotirao's father and uncles served as
florists, the family came to be known as
`Phule'. Jyotirao's mother passed away when
he was nine months old.

Jyotirao was an intelligent boy but due to the

poor financial condition at home, he had to
stop his studies at an early age.
• He started helping his father by working on the
family's farm. Recognising the talent of the child
prodigy, few months later, a neighbor persuaded
his father to send him to school. In 1841, Jyotirao
got admission in the Scottish Mission's High
School, Poona.
• There, he met Sadashiv Ballal Govande, a
Brahmin, who remained his close friend
throughout his life. Jyotirao was married to
Savitribai, when he was thirteen years old.
 Movement
• In 1848, an incident took place in his life that later
sparked off the dalit-revolution in the Indian society.
Jyotirao was invited to attend a wedding of one of his
Brahmin friends.
• Knowing that he belonged to inferior caste, the
relatives of the bridegroom insulted and abused him.
Jyotirao left the procession and made up his mind to
defy the prevailing caste-system and social restrictions.
• He then started his campaign of serving the people of
lower caste who were deprived of all their rights as
human beings.
• After reading Thomas Paine's famous book
'The Rights of Man', Jyotirao was greatly
influenced by his ideas. He believed that
enlightenment of the women and lower caste
people was the only solution to combat the
social evils. Therefore, in 1848, he along with
his wife started a school for the girls.
• The orthodox opponents of Jotiba were
furious and they started a vicious campaign
against him. He refused to be unnerved by
their malicious propaganda. As no teacher
dared to work in a school in which
untouchables were admitted as students.
Jotiba asked his wife to teach the girls in his
school.
• Stones and brickbats were thrown at her
when she was on her way to school. The
reactionaries threatened Jotiba's father with
dire consequences if he did not dissociate
from his son's activities. Yielding to the
pressure, Jotiba's father asked his son and
daughter-in-law to leave his house as both of
them refused to give up their noble endeavor.
• The orthodox Brahmins of the society were
furious at the activities of Jyotirao. They blamed
him for vitiating the norms and regulations of the
society. Many accused him of acting on behalf of
the Christian Missionaries.
• But Jyotirao was firm and decided to continue
the movement. Interestingly, Jyotirao had some
Brahmin friends who extended their support to
make the movement successful.
• Jyotirao attacked the orthodox Brahmins and
other upper castes and termed them as
"hypocrites". He campaigned against the
authoritarianism of the upper caste people.
He urged the "peasants" and "proletariat" to
defy the restrictions imposed upon them.
• But Mahatama Jyotiba Phule continued with his
mission. On the 3rd July, 1851, he founded a girls'
school in which eight girls were admitted on the first
day. Steadily the number of students increased.
• Savitribai taught in this school also and had to suffer a
lot because of the hostility of the orthodox people.
Jotiba opened two more girls' school during 1851-52.
• In a memorial addressed to the Education commission
(popularly known as Hunter Commission) in 1882, he
described his activities in the field of education.
• Jotiba was aware that primary education among the
masses in the Bombay Presidency was very much
neglected. He blamed the British government for
spending profusely a large portion of revenue on the
education of the higher classes.
• According to him, this policy resulted in the virtual
monoply of all the higher offices under the
Government by the Brahmins. Jotiba boldly attacked
the stranglehold of the Brahmins, who prevented
others from having access to all the avenues of
knowledge and influence.
• Widow Remarriages were banned and child
marriage was very common among Brahmins
and other upper castes in the Hindu society.
Many widows were young and not all of them
could live in a manner in which the orthodox
people expected them to live. Some of the
delinquent widows resorted to abortion or left
their illegitimate children to their fate by
leaving them on the streets.
• Viewing the pathetic condition of widows and
unfortunate children Jyotirao decided the
open an orphanage. In order to protect those
widows and their children, Jyotiba Phule
established an orphanage in 1854. Many
young widows, from the upper-caste spent
their days in the orphanage.
• Jotiba gave protection to pregnant widows and assured
them that the orphanage would take care of their
children.
• It was in this orphanage run by Jotiba that a Brahmin
widow gave birth to a boy in 1873 and Jotiba adopted
him as his son and he was named as Yashwant Phule.
• On September 24, 1873, Jotiba convened a meeting of
his followers and admirers and it was decided to form
the Satya Shodhak Samaj (society of seekers of truth)
with Jotiba as its first president and treasurer.
 Satya Shodhak Samaj
• After tracing the history of the Brahmin
domination in India, Jyotirao blamed the
Brahmins for framing the weird and inhuman
laws.
• He concluded that the laws were made to
suppress the "shudras" and rule over them. In
1873, Jyotiba Phule formed the Satya Shodhak
Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth).
• The purpose of the organization was to liberate
the people of lower-castes from the suppression
of the Brahmins.
• The membership was open to all and the
available evidence proves that some Jews
were admitted as members.
• In 1868, in order to give the lower-caste
people more powers Jyotirao decided to
construct a common bathing tank outside his
house. He also wished to dine with all,
regardless of their caste.
• The main objectives of organization were to liberate
the shudras and atishudras and to prevent their
exploitation by the Brahmins. The membership was
open to all.
• In 1876 there were 316 members of the Satya
Shodhak Samaj. Jotiba refused to regard the Vedas as
sacrosanct. He opposed idolatry and denounced the
chaturvarnya.
• In 1876, Jotiba was nominated as a member of
the Poona Municipality. He tried to help the
people in the famine-stricken areas of
Maharashtra when a severe famine in 1877
forced people in rural area to leave their villages.
• Throughout his life, Jotiba Phule fought for the
emancipation of the downtrodden people and
the struggle which he launched at a young age
ended only when he died on November 28, 1890.
• Jyotiba Phule devoted his entire life for the
liberation of untouchables from the
exploitation of Brahmins. He revolted against
the tyranny of the upper castes.
• He had very revolutionary ideas and he expressed his ideas through
his books. He had written many books namely
• Tritya Ratna(1855)
• Brahmanache Kasab(1869)
• Gulamgiri(1873)
• Shetkaryancha Asud(1883)
• Satsar Vol.1(1885)
• Satsar Vol. 2(1885)
• shara(October 1,1885)
• Saravajanik Satyadharma Pustak( this book was published
posthumously).
• So in all, he worked for whole the life for achieving his motives i.e.
compulsory universal education, women education and uplifting of
lower caste people.
 Salient features of educational
philosophy of Mahatma Jobiba Phule
• 1. Individuals being equal, it is necessary to provide
facilities to more and more individuals and the
monopoly in education should be stopped.
2. While educating individuals, religion, race, caste
and sex should not be considered. Education should
develop values for humanism.
3. The Principle of universalization of education
should be followed and to same extent education
should be made compulsory.
4. Women, the neglected and those who are
deprived of education for long should be given top
priority in educational facilities and thus social justice
should be established
• 5. Education should be based on equality
because such education binds the society
together. It does not destruct the society hence it
is beneficial for the welfare of the country.
6. Mahatma Jotiba Phule expressed great
concern for primary education and primary
teacher, He was of the view that primary teacher
should be a trained person and sufficient salary
should be paid to primary teacher.
• 7. He argued that curriculum should be
utilitarian and practical so as to cover the needs
of the society. Preliminary knowledge about
agriculture and health should be included in the
curriculum. He said that there should be
demarcation between the curriculum of rural and
urban area.
8. Permanent values like freedom, equality and
fraternity should be developed through
education. Personality should be developed and
social equality should be established.
• 9. Along with advancement in knowledge,
the values of inculcation of devotion to nation,
self respect, internationalism, universal
fraternity and kind heartedness should be
developed.
10. Professional ability and efficiency should
be developed so that knowledge may be
properly linked.
• 11. The down trodden filtration theory
advocated by Lord Macaulay is not
philosophically sound as it ignores the
common masses and non established
individuals for their progress.
12. Practical knowledge is superior to bookish
knowledge hence primary knowledge in Modi
(a special marathi script) accounts, history,
grammar, agriculture ethics and health should
be imparted.
• 13. Jotiba Phule said that quantitative growth
in primary school is important but it should
not be at the cost of qualitative growth.
14. He was of the view that government
should formulate the scheme of scholarships
and rewards for the needy and deserving
students.