Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and the Satyashodhak Samaj

In 1848, a young man in Pune was asked to leave a wedding procession because of his caste. The humiliation — so the story is usually told — set Jyotirao Phule on a path that would make him one of the most radical social thinkers of nineteenth-century India. That same year, he and his wife Savitribai started a school for girls. Over the next four decades, he wrote, organised and campaigned against caste, against the oppression of women and against the exploitation of peasants.

For MPSC, Phule is essential. Questions appear on his organisations, books, dates and ideas in Prelims, and his thought is valuable material for Mains answers on social justice, education and ethics.

Early life

• Born: 1827 in Pune, into a family of the Mali (gardener) community. The family's surname came from their work as florists (phul = flower).
• Education: he studied at a Marathi school and then at the Scottish Mission school in Pune, where he encountered ideas of human rights and equality — he was deeply influenced by Thomas Paine's Rights of Man.
• Marriage: he married Savitribai in 1840, when both were children. He taught her to read and write.

Education: schools for girls and for the excluded

• In 1848, Jyotirao and Savitribai started a school for girls at Bhide Wada in Pune — among the first such schools run by Indians.
• Over the following years, they opened more schools, including schools for children of the untouched castes (today's Scheduled Castes).
• Their work met fierce opposition. Savitribai was abused in the streets on her way to school; Jyotirao's father, under social pressure, asked the couple to leave the family home.
• In 1852, the British government recognised the Phules' contribution to education.

Social reform

Phule's reform work went well beyond schools:

• Home for the prevention of infanticide (1863): a refuge where widows who had become pregnant could give birth safely — a response to the infanticide and suicides driven by the stigma on widows.
• Widow remarriage: he supported it, and opposed the shaving of widows' heads (the Phules supported a strike by barbers who refused to tonsure widows).
• Water for all: he opened the water tank at his house to people of the untouched castes.

The Satyashodhak Samaj (1873)

On 24 September 1873, Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj ("Society of Seekers of Truth") in Pune.

Its aims included:

• liberating the Shudras and Ati-Shudras from the domination of priestly authority;
• promoting education among all castes and women;
• opposing caste discrimination and ritualism;
• conducting ceremonies — such as weddings — without priests.

The Samaj spread in rural Maharashtra and later became associated with the non-Brahmin movement, which Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur supported in the early twentieth century. The newspaper Deenbandhu, started in 1877, gave voice to Satyashodhak ideas.

His writings

He also wrote a ballad (powada) on Shivaji Maharaj, presenting him as a hero of the peasants.

Views on peasants and the economy

In Shetkaryacha Asud, Phule described how cultivators were squeezed by moneylenders, by priests who demanded fees for ceremonies, by officials, and by high land revenue. He proposed:

• education for peasants' children;
• better irrigation and agricultural methods;
• honest administration and reduced revenue burdens.

His analysis anticipates many later debates on rural indebtedness and agrarian distress — useful for Mains answers on agriculture in Maharashtra.

Testimony to the Hunter Commission (1882)

When the Hunter Commission on education visited in 1882, Phule submitted a memorandum arguing that:

• the government spent too much on higher education for a few, and too little on primary education for the masses;
• primary education should be free and compulsory up to a certain age;
• teachers should be trained, and drawn from the cultivating classes;
• girls' education should be expanded.

Recognition

In 1888, at a public gathering in Bombay, he was given the title "Mahatma". He died in Pune on 28 November 1890.

Why Phule matters today

• He was among the first Indians to argue that caste was a system of oppression rather than a divinely ordained order.
• He linked caste, gender and class — seeing the exploitation of Shudras, women and peasants as connected.
• He influenced Shahu Maharaj and Dr B. R. Ambedkar, who regarded Phule as one of his three gurus (with the Buddha and Kabir).

Questions to practise

Prelims-style:

1. When and where was the Satyashodhak Samaj founded?
2. To whom did Phule dedicate Gulamgiri?
3. What is the subject of Shetkaryacha Asud?
4. What did Phule recommend to the Hunter Commission?
5. When was he given the title "Mahatma"?

Mains-style:

• "Jyotirao Phule saw caste, gender and class as linked systems of oppression." Discuss.
• Examine the relevance of Phule's ideas on education for present-day India.

Read Phule with his partner in the work, Savitribai Phule, whose story is the subject of our next guide.