Previous Year Question

Jyotiba Phule was primarily associated with the nineteenth-century anti-caste social reform movement.

Jyotirao Govindrao Phule opposed caste discrimination, untouchability and the system of social superiority based on birth prevalent in Indian society. He particularly emphasised education and social equality for Shudras, Ati-Shudras, women and other disadvantaged sections.

He founded the Satyashodhak Samaj at Pune on 24 September 1873. ‘Satyashodhak’ means seeker of truth. The organisation aimed to challenge caste-based social inequality and liberate disadvantaged sections from religious and social exploitation.

Phule also opposed the monopoly of the priestly class over religious and social ceremonies. The Satyashodhak Samaj encouraged marriages and other ceremonies in which the compulsory participation of a Brahmin priest was not required.

Women's education was also a major part of his reform programme. Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule started a school for girls at Pune in 1848 and subsequently worked to expand education among disadvantaged communities.

His famous work Gulamgiri was published in 1873. In it, he criticised caste-based oppression and compared social inequality with slavery.

Phule also wrote on the problems of peasants, so he certainly had a connection with agrarian issues; however, among the movements given in the question, his clearest and principal historical association is with the anti-caste movement.

He had died in 1890, whereas the Civil Disobedience Movement began in 1930. Similarly, his principal work was not connected with the organisation of the modern Trade Union Movement.