Opinion: Remembering Jyotiba Phule in a conflicted time

When Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, the pioneer social reformer from Bengal, was opening up the Bethune School for girls in Kolkata, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule was pioneering another revolution on the west coast of India. Born into a Dalit family and a firm believer in the cause for women's education, Phule opened up the first school for untouchable girls in his hometown of Pune.

In many ways, Phule's struggle surpassed that of Vidyasagar. While the latter, famous for his role in opening up educational opportunities for women and in picking up the cudgel to legalise widow remarriage, depended mainly on educated high-caste Bengali families to send their girls to his schools, Phule concentrated on uplifting the most marginal members of the Indian society.

Moreover, while Vidyasagar because of his government job as the school inspector was very close to the colonial bureaucracy, Phule had none to back up his cause. Shunned by the upper castes of the Hindu society for his daring effort, isolated by his own family members who feared reprisal, Phule traveled the treacherous road assisted only by his wife Savitri Phule. Incidentally, Phule married an illiterate Savitri, as was usual during the age, but taught the young girl himself. Even here Phule's life stands in contrast to that of Vidyasagar who kept his wife uneducated because his mother was against it.

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Phule is remembered, along with BR Ambedkar, for the extraordinary role they played in the upliftment of Dalits. But this homogenising narrative of Dalit upliftment often obscures the exceptional role he played in making gender equality an integral component of the larger empowerment discourse.

Such deep-seated was Phule's conviction about the need for education as a tool for upliftment that the 3 guidelines of the Satyasodhak Samaj, which he founded in 1873, contained the precepts: 'I shall educate my sons and daughters.'

It is through educating the women, Phule thought, that he will be able to undermine Brahmanical culture system most effectively. The Hindu higher castes, particularly, the Brahmins were most singularly opposed to educating their girls. Uneducated and disempowered, the girls unwittingly served the patriarchal values of the Hindu society.

Deeply influenced by Thomas Paine's book Rights of Man, the idea of social justice, truth and humanity were cardinal principles for Phule. It is social inequality that sits at the heart of the Hindu caste that Phule found so abhorring. Phule argued that education of women and the lower castes were a vital priority in addressing social inequality.

Some of the foremost feminists of western India, such as Pandita Ramabai and Tarabhai Shinde were deeply influenced by Phule. It is following Phule's footsteps that Pandita Ramabai, a widow herself, protested against the early marriage of girls. She strongly believed that early marriage of girls denied proper education as it is the best age to acquire knowledge. We have to remind ourselves here, another religious reformer from Bengal Swami Vivekananda sharply criticised Ramabai for distorting the religious teachings of Hinduism regarding women. But Phule stood by Ramabai and even published an interview in support of her conversion to Christianity.

Today is Jyotiba Phule's death anniversary. It is not a mere historical reminiscing that I want to do today of this very brave man. Heaven knows we need brave people. More the better. People who will fight for justice, truth and equality so that these words do not turn into mere rhetoric.

India is increasingly doing better in the field of female education but gender equality is still a distant dream. The Dalits have definitely become more vocal and conscious of their rights but their assimilation and acceptance in the mainstream of the society is still a far-fetched dream. The more we spread and imbibe the spirit of Jyotiba Phule's words, the chances are that we will do better as a nation.