Jyotiba Phule

• Every year April 11 is celebrated as Jyotiba Phule Jayanti.

 Abput Jyotiba Phule

• Jyotirao ‘Jyotiba’ Govindrao Phule was an Indian writer, social activist, thinker and anti-caste social reformer born in the Satara district of Maharashtra in 1827.
• He was bestowed with the honorific Mahatma title by Maharashtrian social activist Vithalrao Krishnaji Vandekar in 1888.
• He is believed to be the first Hindu to start an orphanage for the unfortunate children.

 Major Contribution

1. Women Empowerment

• Established an ashram for young widows.
• Along with his longtime friend Sadashiv Ballal Govande and Savitribai, he started an infanticide prevention centre.
• At home he began educating his wife Savitribai and opened a girl’s school in 1848 in Pune.

2. Rights of Untouchables

• Jyotirao Phule was the first person to coin the term ‘Dalits’ to apply to all people considered lower caste and untouchables by the Brahmins.
• In 1868, Jyotirao constructed a common bathing tank outside his house to exhibit his embracing attitude towards all human beings.
• In 1873, Jyotiba Phule formed the Satya Shodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth) which undertook a systematic deconstruction of existing beliefs and history, only to reconstruct an equality promoting version.

3. Literary Works

• Major Publications: Tritiya Ratna (1855); Powada: Chatrapati Shivajiraje Bhosle Yancha (1869); Gulamgiri (1873), Shetkarayacha Aasud (1881), ‘Brahmananche Kasab’, ‘Ishara’.
• He also wrote books for the Satyashodhak Samaj that dealt with the history of Brahminism and outlined Puja protocols that the lower caste people were not allowed to learn.