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Phule belonged to the mali (gardener)
caste, one of the shudra castes in Maharashtra. He
established the first school in India for shudra girls in
1948, followed by another school for girls of all castes in
1851. He was moved by the plight of babies discarded by the high
caste widows and set up an orphanage for them. He was the first
thinker and crusader to systematically raise the gender question
and campaigned for widow remarriage. He stood for equal rights
for women.
Phule was the
first Dalit intellectual who stood for total rejection
and destruction of Brahmanism. He rejects Brahmanical history
and his approach has been fashioned as an alternate
historiography to understand Indian history from the shudra angle
by subsequent Dalit intellectuals.
In his seminal
work Gulamgiri (Slavery), Phule describes Aryans as
conquerors that subjugated the aborigines with force. Then the
Brahmins perpetuated their hegemony by composing several texts,
which they claimed to be ordained by the divine power. In this
text and several others, Phule follows the Socratarian method of
dialogue. He rejects the origin of four varnas as
depicted in the Rig Veda and the Manusmriti. He
finds the formulation totally unscientific, irrational and
illogical. He finds Brahma extremely untrustworthy, obstinate,
shrewd, audacious and ruthless. He characterises Parashuram, a
cult figure in Brahmanical mythology, as a bully and a barbarous
villain. He dismisses Shankaracharya, another idol in
Brahmanical thought, as a treacherous scholar with a twisted and
distorted intellect. Phule is an iconoclast par excellence. He
describes the Brahmins as "pen-wielding butchers." In
his Memorial addressed to the Hunter Education Commission, Phule
pleaded for making primary education till the age of 12
compulsory for all. His suggestion was not accepted and he
charged Hunter Commission with total ignorance of the state of shudras
and atishudras.
Phule’s text
"Cultivator’s Whipcord" is a powerful indictment of
Brahmins for befooling and fleecing numerous castes engaged in
farming. He is pained at the spectacle of government departments
being dominated by Brahmins and White officers engrossed in
luxury. Dalits suffer on account of their ignorance and Brahmins
flourish because of their access to education. He finds Buddhism
as the only religion that can liberate the abject farmer from
the artificial religion of Arya Brahmins. Phule is convinced
that the contradiction between the Dalits and the Brahmins can
never be resolved and the only way to salvation for the
oppressed lies in total rejection of the Brahmanical ideology.
He is not against Brahmins per se and makes a distinction
between Brahmins and Brahmanism.
Sarvajanik
Satya Dharma Pustak (The
Book of True Faith) is Phule’s last testament. He expects
people to treat religion as a thought process to argue in terms
of right and wrong and places causality at the centre of man’s
actions. Man’s predicament is to be understood in terms of
cause and effect and here he comes very near to Buddhism. He
attacks idol-worship and pleads for monotheism.
Jotirao Phule is one of the
giants to attack the inhuman and irrational core of Brahmanical
ideology. He is often acidic and acerbic in tone but his
arguments are persuasive and rational. The humanist core of his
personality and his worldview transcends all caste divisions. As
a charismatic figure, he is a source of inspiration for all
those who sympathise with the Dalit worldview. The selection
under review is a must read for those who are interested in
knowing the genesis and flowering of Dalit consciousness in
India.
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JOTIRAO
Phule can legitimately be called the father of the Dalit
consciousness and upsurge in India. He is the worthy
predecessor of Ramaswamy Naicker and Dr B.R. Ambedkar and a
source of inspiration for Dalit intellectuals.
