Thread by @Paperclip_In

In a world where incessant hate propaganda such as love-jihad often hogs the spotlight, a thread on Savitribai Phule’s second letter to her husband about an intriguing love story and a vicious plot of honour-killing. (1/n)

In the era, when native women of colonial India rarely wrote letters, Savitribai Phule’s three letters to her husband Jyotirao Phule, have been preserved as precious pieces of literature. (2/n)

Going beyond the domestic orbit of mundane conversation, the letters stand out as chronicles of humanitarian conditions and social taboos of the colonial era. The remarkable letters reflect a sense of hope and liberation. (3/n)

Her first letter, written in October 1856, was on the problem of untouchability, and how her mother and brother appreciated her noble cause. The third one, written in April 1877, was about the great famine that devastated her district. (4/n)

She wrote the second letter on 29 August 1868, and it was not just a letter of affection but an intriguing account of a love affair between a Brahmin boy and an untouchable girl. She went on writing to her dear husband: (5/n)

“I received your letter. We are fine here. I will come by the fifth of next month. Do not worry about this count. Meanwhile, a strange thing happened here. The story goes like this.” (6/n)

“One Ganesh, a Brahman, would go around villages, performing religious rites and telling people their fortunes. This was his bread and butter. Ganesh and a teenage girl named Sharja who is from the Mahar (untouchable) community fell in love.” (7/n)

“She was six months pregnant when people came to know about this affair. The enraged people caught them, and paraded them through the village, threatening to bump them off.” (8/n)

“I came to know about their murderous plan. I rushed to the spot and scared them away, pointing out the grave consequences of killing the lovers under British law. They changed their mind after listening to me.” (9/n)

“Sadubhau angrily said that the wily Brahman boy and the untouchable girl should leave the village. Both the victims agreed to this. My intervention saved the couple who gratefully fell at my feet and started crying.” (10/n)

“Somehow I consoled and pacified them. Now I am sending both of them to you. What else to write?”
Yours
Savitri
(11/n)

Her selfless and courageous intervention that day saved the lives of the young couple in love. Today is her 125th death anniversary, yet she remains an abiding source of inspiration. (12/n)

Source: Translation and excerpt taken from ‘A Forgotten Liberator, The Life and Struggle of Savitrabai Phule’, translation by Sunil Sardar. Originally in Marathi and
published in MG Mali’s edition of her collected works, Savitribai Phule Samagra Wangmaya.