Savitribai Phule and the education of girls

The image that stays with most people who read about Savitribai Phule is a small one. On her way to teach at the girls' school in Pune, people threw mud, dung and stones at her, and shouted abuse. So she carried a second sari in her bag and changed at the school before teaching. She did this for years.

That quiet persistence is the key to her life. Savitribai is often described as India's first woman teacher — a claim that needs some care — but her real importance lies in what she did as a teacher, reformer, writer and organiser.

Early life

• Born: 3 January 1831 at Naigaon, in present-day Satara district.
• Married: to Jyotirao Phule in 1840, at the age of about nine.
• Education: she had no schooling as a child. Jyotirao taught her at home, and she later trained as a teacher, including at a teacher training institution run by the American missionary Cynthia Farrar in Ahmednagar and at a normal school in Pune.

The school at Bhide Wada (1848)

In 1848, the Phules opened a school for girls at Bhide Wada in Pune. Savitribai became its teacher — which is why she is often called the first woman teacher of a school run by Indians.

• The school followed a modern curriculum, including mathematics, science and social studies, not only religious texts.
• More schools followed; by the early 1850s, the Phules were running several schools for girls and for children of the untouched castes.
• Their work drew hostility from orthodox sections of society, who believed educating girls was against religion and would bring misfortune.

Fatima Sheikh is described in many accounts as a colleague who taught with Savitribai and who, with her brother Usman Sheikh, gave the Phules shelter when they were forced to leave their family home.

Reformer and organiser

Savitribai's work went well beyond teaching:

• Mahila Seva Mandal (1852): an organisation to create awareness among women about their rights.
• Home for the prevention of infanticide (1863): with Jyotirao, she ran a home where widows who had become pregnant could give birth safely. The Phules later adopted a son, Yashwant, born to a widow at the home.
• Against tonsuring widows: she supported a strike by barbers in Pune who refused to shave the heads of widows.
• Satyashodhak Samaj: she was active in its work, and after Jyotirao's death in 1890, she led the Samaj.
• Famine relief: during the famine of 1876–77, she worked in relief efforts.

The poet

Savitribai was also a writer. Her works include:

• Kavya Phule (1854) — a collection of poems on nature, education, caste and the importance of learning;
• Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar (1892) — a biography of Jyotirao Phule in verse;
• letters and speeches, some later published, on education and social issues.

Her poetry urged the oppressed to seek education as the path to freedom — a message that remains powerful.

Death during the plague (1897)

When the bubonic plague struck Pune in 1896–97, Savitribai and her son Yashwant, a doctor, opened a clinic to treat patients. She contracted the plague while carrying a sick child to the clinic and died on 10 March 1897.

Legacy

• 3 January, her birth anniversary, is observed in Maharashtra as Balika Din (Girls' Day), and has been widely celebrated as a day for women's education.
• The University of Pune was renamed Savitribai Phule Pune University in 2014.
• She is remembered as a pioneer of feminism, education and social justice in India.

Savitribai and Jyotirao: a partnership

It is common to see Savitribai as Jyotirao's assistant. That understates her role. She taught, organised, wrote and led the Satyashodhak Samaj in her own right. Their partnership — a married couple working as equals for social change in the mid-nineteenth century — was itself radical.

Questions to practise

Prelims-style:

1. When and where was Savitribai Phule born?
2. Where did the Phules start their school for girls in 1848?
3. Name two literary works of Savitribai Phule.
4. How did Savitribai die?
5. Which university was renamed after her, and when?

Mains-style:

• "Savitribai Phule's life shows that social reform requires personal courage as much as ideas." Discuss.
• Examine the contribution of the Phules to women's education in Maharashtra.

Ethics connection

Savitribai's story is also useful in the Ethics paper — as an example of:

• moral courage — continuing to teach despite abuse;
• compassion in action — caring for plague victims at the cost of her life;
• integrity — living by her principles in her personal life (adopting a child born to a widow).

Few figures in Maharashtra's history offer as clear an example of values carried into practice.