Jotirao Phule was born in 1827 in Satara district of Maharastra and he died on November 28, 1890. He was one of the great architects of modern India whose founding vision of social democracy against Verna is highly relevant till today. He wanted to liberate the Indians from caste based social order. His discourses on human rights and nationalism have contributed to the deconstruction of Indian society and later inspired movements of annihilation of caste.
In order to reform Indian society, he laid emphasis on education and started opening schools for the Sudras and untouchables and he said let there be schools in every village to educate the Sudras and untouchables who are historically denied education and social respect. The main reason of historical marginalization, inequality and slavery of Sudras and Ati-sudra is lack of education which caused all disaster and distressful condition. He opened schools for Sudras, Ati-sudras and women to spread education among them and fought with British Government to allocate more funds for the education of the marginalized along with recruitment of teachers from among them.
He argued that the hard earned public money collected inform of tax by British Government should be spent on education of the children of poor farmers and other producing communities of the land. He and his wife suffered a lot in carrying this mission with paucity of funds, lack of teacher and bearing the inhuman attacks by the orthodox upper caste those who were opposing universal rights to education and a life of dignity for all human being irrespective of their social identities. In those days the condition of women, widows and their children was a matter of concern because of ban on widow remarriage and encouragement to child marriage mostly among the then upper caste Hindu society. Jotirao Phule opened orphanage for the protection of children and widows. It was a historic step in the social transformation history of India in 1848 when he opened schools for Girls and in 1868 he declared war against untouchability by allowing the Ati-sudras for education and to draw water from his tank and also had arranged common dining with people from all sections. He opposed the move of the then Government to issuing of licences for more number of liquor shops. He played a role in organizing the farmers and workers in distress and disastrous condition in drought prone areas and textile workers of Bombay along with his colleague NM lokhande (1848-1897) who was known as father of trade union movement in India.
Phule started the first Indian workers organization Bombay Mill Hands Associations.
He was advocate of universal brotherhood and considered the whole universe as one family. In his early days after educated in the Scottish mission high school at Poona, he decided not to join in any Government jobs but to dedicate his life in the mission of education of women, Sudras and Ati-sudras. He was more influenced by the English American political activist and revolutionary, Thomas Paine’s (1737-1809) idea of rights of man (1791).
Phule was also appreciating his contemporary reformer and a progressive atheist member of British parliament, Charles Bradlaugh(1833-1891), who strongly advocated for the freedom of India along with many progressive activities in those days. In order to bring reform in social life he was opposing decadent religious ideas, idolatry and denounced Verna system. In his universal religion of truth he proposed 33 rules for building a man of character with spirit of love and understanding. He was advocating to practice humility and courtesy in dealings and to become industrious day and night. He said that true ethical conduct is the ideal religion for man and women. With the objectives to liberate the Sudras and Ati-sudras he founded Satya Sodhak Samaj, society for seekers of truth and held the position of president and treasurer of the organization. He was very much critical on the role of Brahmo Samaj, Prathana Samaj and Indian National Congress in ameliorating the condition of the Sudras and Ati-sudras because of their socially non-inclusive nature of organization. He argued that in order to build nationality the people of India must not impose restriction on dining and marrying outside their castes. The farmers, artisans, cobblers, Adivasies and fishermen all should be respected with dignity for their work and they should be emotionally integrated without social discrimination and exclusion.
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