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Book No. – 8 (Political Science)
Book Name – Indian Political Thought (Himanshu Roy/ M.P. Singh)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Life and Times
2. Anatomy of Slavery
3. The State of Enslavement
4. Trajectory of Liberation
5. Critiquing Colonialism
6. Education for Liberation
7. Gender Justice
8. Theology of Equality
9. Contribution: An Assessment
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Jotirao Phule Social Justice
Chapter – 15
Table of Contents
Life and Times
- The articulations of social justice, once ignored in mainstream academic circles, now have a rightful place in intellectual debates alongside political mobilizations of lower castes in India.
- Mahatma Jotirao Phule is recognized as a pioneering figure in the field of social justice and a key influence on Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.
- Phule and his colleagues viewed caste as slavery, with the Brahmin religious values at the core of this enslavement.
- The ideology they developed challenged Brahminical hegemony and contributed to the evolving Indian perception of self.
- In nineteenth-century Maharashtra, Phule led the lower-caste movement, blending theory and activism.
- Born into a low-caste family in Pune, Phule was influenced by Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Men” and went on to found a school for shudra and atishudra girls in 1848.
- He faced opposition from high-caste society, with his father fearing backlash, leading to Phule’s relocation with his wife Savitri Bai.
- Phule founded more schools, including one for girls of all castes and an evening school for working-class people.
- His actions, such as opening his drinking water tank to the untouchables in 1868, and launching a campaign for widow remarriage, were revolutionary.
- Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873 to further his reformist goals and worked on prohibition.
- His writings, including Gulamgiri (Slavery), Shetkarya Asud (Cultivator’s Whipcord), and Sarvajanik Satya Dharma Pustak (The Book of the True Faith), form a core ideological contribution against Brahminical authority and for egalitarianism.
- Phule’s ideology questioned Brahminical hegemony in both religious and secular spheres, challenging its impact on lower castes and women.
- The socio-political context of Phule’s life involved the British conquest of western India and its mixed response from the Indian population, initially welcomed by progressive sections.
- The British rule introduced modernity, rationality, and humanism, giving lower-caste Indians a sense that their conditions were alterable.
- In western India, Brahminical order dominated under the Peshwas, where Brahmins were at the top of the caste hierarchy.
- The end of Peshwa rule in 1818 removed the political support for Brahminical religious values, leading to educational opportunities for shudras.
- The rise of educational institutions and missionary schools encouraged lower-caste pupils, although they also promoted religious conversions.
- British rule created new opportunities for the lower castes, particularly through the ryotwari system, which gave individual farmers land ownership and access to a growing economy.
- Social mobility among lower castes was heightened, but it was often undermined by the Brahmin domination in literate professions, law, and journalism.
- Brahmins were the primary beneficiaries of British rule, holding positions of power in the imperial administration, political bodies, and the nationalist movement.
- The growing presence of Brahmins in both government and nationalist movements inadvertently reinforced their religious authority and social power.
- Phule and his colleagues saw Brahmins working together across religious and secular spheres to maintain their privileges over the lower castes.
- Phule advocated for Brahminical authority to be broken and believed that the British rule should continue for a time to allow lower castes to develop the skills and resources they were previously denied.