Jyotiba Phule

About Jyotiba Phule

Who is it?: Social Reformer
Birth Day: April 11, 1827
Birth Place: Satara, Maharashtra, India, Indian
Other names: Mahatma Phule / Jyotiba Phule/ Jotiba Phule / Jotirao Phule
Spouse(s): Savitribai Phule
Era: 19th century
Main interests: Ethics, religion, humanism

Jyotiba Phule

Jyotiba Phule was born on April 11, 1827 in Satara, Maharashtra, India, Indian, is Social Reformer. In the 19th century India no one would have dreamt of educating their girls. But Mahatma Jyotiba Phule was a visionary much ahead of his times. A pioneer in the field of women’s education, he is the one who opened the first ever girls’ school in India. He was also much pained by the atrocities meted out on the people in the name of caste. Since he had been born into a so-called lower caste family, he had experienced the tortures and injustices rooting out of the caste system first hand. An intelligent and idealistic man, he refused to tolerate any unjustified behavior from others and set his mind on reforming the society for the better. He realized the importance of education; married at a young age, he began teaching his wife how to read and write. Fortunately, his wife Savitribai, was a like-minded soul who supported and helped her husband whole-heartedly in his social endeavors. Highly distressed by the malpractices prevalent due to the caste system, he formed the Satya Shodhak Samaj with the aim of protecting the so-called lower castes from exploitation and injustices. His unrelenting efforts to eradicate social inequalities earned him the title of “Father of Indian Social Revolution”.
Jyotiba Phule is a member of Social Reformers

Does Jyotiba Phule Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Jyotiba Phule has been died on 28 November 1890(1890-11-28) (aged 63)\nPune, British India (present-day Maharashtra, India).

🎂 Jyotiba Phule - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

When Jyotiba Phule die, Jyotiba Phule was 63 years old.

Popular As Jyotiba Phule
Occupation Social Reformers
Age 63 years old
Zodiac Sign Taurus
Born April 11, 1827 (Satara, Maharashtra, India, Indian)
Birthday April 11
Town/City Satara, Maharashtra, India, Indian
Nationality Indian

🌙 Zodiac

Jyotiba Phule’s zodiac sign is Taurus. According to astrologers, Taurus is practical and well-grounded, the sign harvests the fruits of labor. They feel the need to always be surrounded by love and beauty, turned to the material world, hedonism, and physical pleasures. People born with their Sun in Taurus are sensual and tactile, considering touch and taste the most important of all senses. Stable and conservative, this is one of the most reliable signs of the zodiac, ready to endure and stick to their choices until they reach the point of personal satisfaction.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Jyotiba Phule was born in the Year of the Pig. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Pig are extremely nice, good-mannered and tasteful. They’re perfectionists who enjoy finer things but are not perceived as snobs. They enjoy helping others and are good companions until someone close crosses them, then look out! They’re intelligent, always seeking more knowledge, and exclusive. Compatible with Rabbit or Goat.

Some Jyotiba Phule images

Biography/Timeline

1827

Jyothirao Govindrao Phule was born in 1827 into a family that belonged to the Mali caste, traditionally occupied as gardeners and considered to be of the shudra varna in the ritual ranking system of Hinduism. The original surname of the family had been Gorhe and had its origins in the village of Katgun, in present day Satara District, Maharashtra. Phule's great-grandfather worked as a chaugula, a lowly type of village servant, in that village but had to move to Khanwadi in Poona district after murdering a Brahmin with whom he had a dispute. He prospered there but his only son, Shetiba, who was of poor intelligence, subsequently squandered what had been gained. Shetiba moved himself and his family, including three boys, to Poona in search of some form of income. The boys were taken under the wing of a florist, who taught them his trade. Their proficiency in growing and arranging became well known and they adopted the name of Phule (flower-man) in place of Gorhe. Their fulfilment of commissions from the Peshwa, Baji Rao II, for flower mattresses and other goods for the rituals and ceremonies of the royal court so impressed him that he granted them 35 acres (14 ha) of land on the basis of the inam system, whereby no tax would be payable upon it. The oldest brother machinated to take sole control of the property, leaving the younger two siblings, including Jyotirao Phule's father, Govindrao, to continue farming and flower-selling.

1847

Govindrao married Chimnabai and had two sons, of whom Jyotirao was the younger. Chimnabai died before he was aged one. The Mali community did not set much store by education, and after attending primary school to learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, Jyotirao was withdrawn from school. He joined the menfolk of his family at work, both in the shop and the farm. However, a Christian convert from the same Mali caste as Phule recognised his intelligence and persuaded Phule's father to allow Phule to attend the local Scottish Mission High School. Phule completed his English schooling in 1847. As was customary, he was married young, at the age of 13, to a girl of his own community, chosen by his father.

1848

In 1848, aged 23, Phule visited the first girls' school in Ahmadnagar, run by Christian missionaries. It was also in 1848 that he read Thomas Paine's book Rights of Man and developed a keen sense of social justice. He realised that lower castes and women were at a disadvantage in Indian society, and also that education of these sections was vital to their emancipation.

1852

To this end and in the same year, Phule first taught reading and writing to his wife, Savitribai, and then the couple started the first indigenously-run school for girls in Pune. Ostracised for this by their family and community, their friend Usman Sheikh and his sister Fatima Sheikh provided them their home to stay. They also helped to start the school in their premises. Later, the Phules started schools for children from the Mahar and Mang castes, which were both considered to be untouchable. In 1852, there were three Phule schools in operation but by 1858 they had all ended. Eleanor Zelliot blames the closure on private European donations drying up due to the Mutiny of 1857, withdrawal of government support, and Jyotirao resigning from the school management committee because of disagreement regarding the curriculum. He championed widow remarriage and started a home for pregnant Brahmin widows to give birth in a safe and secure place in 1863. His orphanage was established in an attempt to reduce the rate of infanticide. Phule tried to eliminate the stigma of social untouchability surrounding the lower castes by opening his house and the use of his water-well to the members of the lower castes.

1873

On 24 September 1873, Phule formed Satyashodhak Samaj to focus on rights of depressed classes. Through this he opposed idolatry and denounced the caste system. Satyashodhak Samaj campaigned for the spread of rational thinking and rejected the need for Priests. Savitribai became the head of the women's section, which included ninety female members. After Phule's death in 1890 his followers continued the Samaj campaign in the remote parts of Maharashtra.

1876

Phule was appointed commissioner (municipal council member) to the then Poona municipality in 1876 and served in this unelected position until 1883.

1882

Apart from his role as a social Activist, Phule was a businessman too. In 1882 he styled himself as a merchant, cultivator and municipal contractor. He owned 60 acres (24 ha) of farmland at Manjri, near Pune.. For period of time, he worked as a contractor for the government and supplied building materials required for the construction of a dam on the Mula-Mutha river near Pune in the 1870s. He also received contracts to provide labour for the construction of the Katraj Tunnel and the Yerawda Jail near Pune. One of Phule's businesses, established in 1863, was to supply metal-casting equipment.

1884

At an education commission hearing in 1884, Phule called for help in providing education for lower castes. To implement it, he advocated making primary education compulsory in villages. He also asked for special incentives to get more lower-caste people in high schools and colleges.

1888

According to Dhananjay Keer, Phule was bestowed with the title of Mahatma on 11 May 1888 by another social reformer from Bombay, Vithalrao Krishnaji Vandekar.

1927

An early biography of Phule was the Marathi-language Mahatma Jotirao Phule yanche charitra (P. S. Patil, Chikali: 1927), which has to be treated with caution because its author was an Activist. Two others are Mahatma Phule. Caritra Va Kriya (Mahatma Phule. Life and Work) (A. K. Ghorpade, Poona: 1953), which is also in Marathi, and Mahatma Jyotibha Phule: Father of Our Social Revolution (Dhananjay Keer, Bombay: 1974). Unpublished material relating to him is held by the Bombay State Committee on the History of the Freedom Movement.

1970

He is credited with introducing the Marathi word dalit (broken, crushed) as a descriptor for those people who were outside the traditional varna system. The terminology was later popularised in the 1970s by the Dalit Panthers.

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