<Thread on Mahatma/Rashtrapita Jotiba Phule> Today is the 193rd birth anniversary of Mahatma Jotirao Phule, born on this day in 1827 in Pune. Jotiba Phule was the father of Indian social revolution. In this thread, I will share some important aspects of his life and work. (1)
First and foremost, let me begin with the very basics. His name was Jotirao Phule, and not Jyotirao Phule. Jot (जोत) means plough, a peasant and labouring caste metaphor. The entire internet (incl Wikipedia) spells his name as Jyotirao, which is misleading. #PoliticsofLanguage
Jotiba Phule received his English education in a Missionary school and thereafter became aware of the power of modern education. Just after completing his own education in 1847, he started the first school for girls in Pune in 1848.
This school was run by the Phule couple with the help of European reformists, British government and most notably, his friends Usman Shaikh and Fatima Shaikh who provided crucial help during the time when they were ostracised by the larger Hindu society.
On 24 September 1873, he founded the Satyashodhak Samaj- an organisation dedicated to spreading the message of universal brother-and sister hood and that of rationalism in the place of Brahminical obscurantism and characterised by open membership.
Mahatma Jotiba Phule was a true internationalist and a rare pioneer in more ways than one. Let me point out at least two facts to highlight this aspect of his personality.
In the preface to his book, "Gulamgiri/Slavery", he thanked all the revolutionaries of America who fought against slavery.
Jotiba Phule was the first person, perhaps in the history of humankind, to demand education for all (mass education) in his submission to the W W Hunter Commission in 1882.
According to Prof Gail Omvedt, colonial modernity in India, especially in the second half of the 19th century, produced two distinct strands among the natives: the starting of the national movement, another was the ideology of social revolution led by Mahatam Phule.
Btw, the Brahmins welcomed the Orientalist understanding of Indian history and reconstructed their own responses. Take for example, Anand Math (1882), written in the same year when Phule was demanding mass education from the Hunter Commission!
Indian renaissance almost uncritically accepted the version of history handed down to them by the Orientalists, and in this perhaps the only exception was Jotiba Phule who tried to reconstruct in a sense the people's history of India.
