Jyotirao Phule

Background and evolution

Phule grew up in a family of flower growers in Pune and studied at a Scottish mission school, where he read about human rights, including Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. A personal humiliation at the wedding procession of a Brahmin friend, where he was insulted because of his caste, is often described as the moment he resolved to fight caste hierarchy.

He saw education as the key to freedom for those kept at the bottom of society. In 1848, he and Savitribai opened a school for girls in Pune, one of the first run by Indians; schools for children of untouchable communities followed. The couple faced social boycott and abuse, and Savitribai was often pelted with mud on her way to teach. In 1863 they set up a home to prevent infanticide and support widows and their children, and they opened their household water tank to untouchables.

Key features and provisions

• Anti-caste ideology: Phule argued that the caste system was imposed by Aryan Brahmins on the original inhabitants and used religious texts to justify exploitation; he used the term shudra-atishudra for the oppressed majority.
• Satyashodhak Samaj: it rejected the need for priests in rituals, conducted marriages without Brahmin priests, and promoted rational thought, education and equality.
• Gulamgiri: dedicated to people in the United States fighting slavery, it compared the condition of lower castes to that of slaves.
• Peasant concerns: Shetkaryacha Asud described how moneylenders, officials and priests exploited cultivators, and called for practical agricultural education and irrigation.
• Women's rights: he supported widow remarriage, opposed child marriage and campaigned against the shaving of widows' heads, including organising a barbers' strike.
• Public role: he served on the Pune municipality and gave evidence to the Hunter Commission on education in 1882, arguing for compulsory primary education.