Mahatma Jotirao Phule's writings and efforts of social reforms touched issues of almost all subaltern…

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Mahatma Jotirao Phule's writings and efforts of social reforms touched issues of almost all subaltern classes. Discuss.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Phule's writings and reforms reached almost every subaltern group, from untouchables and widows to Shudra peasants and mill workers, though Adivasis, minorities and regions beyond western India got little attention. His Gulamgiri (1873) compared caste to slavery, and the Satyashodhak Samaj (1873) organised the lower castes.

**Introduction**

As the bicentenary of Jotirao Phule (born 11 April 1827) approaches, historians like Gail Omvedt read him as the first thinker to unite Shudras, Atishudras, women and toilers against Brahmanical and colonial domination.

**Subaltern Classes in Phule's Writings and Reforms**

SKETCH: mindmap | Phule's Subaltern Classes
- Women and widows
- Atishudras (untouchables)
- Shudra peasants
- Mill workers

1. **Atishudras**: Gulamgiri (1873) compared caste to slavery, and Phule opened schools for Mahar and Mang children and his water tank to untouchables in 1868.
2. **Women and widows**: With Savitribai he opened a girls' school in Pune in 1848 and founded the Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha (1863) for pregnant widows.
3. **Shudra peasants**: Shetkaryacha Asud (1883) exposed how priests, moneylenders, revenue officials and forest rules together fleeced the kunbi cultivator.
4. **Education**: Before the Hunter Commission in 1882 he demanded free, compulsory primary education and teachers from the lower castes.

**Why "Almost All": Reach and Limits**

1. **Organised assertion**: The Satyashodhak Samaj (1873) ran priestless marriages, and his associate Narayan Meghaji Lokhande organised Bombay mill hands.
2. **Gaps**: Adivasis, religious minorities and regions beyond western India received little attention, and his Aryan-invasion framing is contested.

**Way Forward**

1. **Unfinished agenda**: Article 21A and Ambedkar's dedication of Who Were the Shudras? (1946) to Phule show his agenda of education and equality living on.

**Conclusion**

Few reformers spoke at once for the untouchable, the widow, the peasant and the worker, which is why he was hailed as Mahatma in 1888. The "almost" lies only in the regional and ideological limits of his time.

Mahatma Jotirao Phule's writings and efforts of social reforms touched issues of almost all subaltern classes. Discuss.

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