{"id":14764,"date":"2021-04-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/12-04-2021\/mahatma-jyotiba-phule-2\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T17:26:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T11:56:43","slug":"mahatma-jyotiba-phule-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/12-04-2021\/mahatma-jyotiba-phule-2","title":{"rendered":"Mahatma Jyotiba Phule"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>April 11 every year is celebrated as Jyotiba Phule Jayanti.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About Mahatma Jyotiba Phule <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jyotirao Govindrao Phule was an <strong>Indian writer, social activist, thinker<\/strong> and <strong>anti-caste social <\/strong>reformer from <strong>Maharashtra<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Personal Life <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He was born in the <strong>Satara district of Maharashtra <\/strong>in 1827.<\/li>\n<li>His father, Govindrao was a vegetable vendor at Poona. Jyotirao&#8217;s family belonged to the <strong>&#8216;mali&#8217; caste <\/strong>and their <strong>original title was \u2018Gorhay\u2019.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Malis<\/strong> were considered as an<strong> inferior caste<\/strong> by the<strong> Brahmins <\/strong>and were <strong>shunned socially.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>He was influenced by Thomas Paine\u2019s book titled <strong>The Rights of Man<\/strong> and believed that the only solution to combat the social evils was the<strong> enlightenment of women<\/strong> and members of the <strong>lower caste<\/strong>s.<\/li>\n<li>Phule was also a merchant, author as well as a municipal council member.\n<ul>\n<li>In 1863, one of his businesses was to supply metal-casting equipment to construction sites. He was appointed commissioner to the Poona municipality and served in the position until 1883.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/109105936382956510_image.png\" style=\"height:263px; margin-left:100px; margin-right:100px; width:352px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Social reforms and key contributions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He led the movement against the <strong>prevailing caste restrictions<\/strong> in India.<\/li>\n<li>He revolted against the <strong>domination of the Brahmins<\/strong> and struggled for the rights of <strong>peasants and other low-caste people<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>He is believed to be the first Hindu to start an <strong>orphanage for unfortunate children<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>He and his wife, Savitribai Phule, were pioneers of <strong>women&#8217;s education in India<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>He started his first school for girls in 1848 in Pune at Tatyasaheb Bhide&#8217;s residence (Bhidewada).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0He, along with his followers, formed the <strong>Satyashodhak Samaj <\/strong>(Society of Truth Seekers) to attain equal rights for people from <strong>exploited castes<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>People from all <strong>religions and castes<\/strong> could become a part of this association which worked for the upliftment of the oppressed classes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>He is regarded as an important figure in the social reform movement in Maharashtra. He was bestowed with the <strong>honorific Mahatma title by Maharashtrian<\/strong> social activist <strong>Vithalrao Krishnaji Vandekar in 1888.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Famous Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He was also a reputed author. His well-known books include <strong>Gulamgiri (Slavery)<\/strong> and <strong>Shetkarayacha Aasud (Cultivator\u2019s Whipcord).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pib.gov.in\/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1710956\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source:PIB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News April 11 every year is celebrated as Jyotiba Phule Jayanti. About Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jyotirao Govindrao Phule was an Indian writer, social activist, thinker and anti-caste social reformer from Maharashtra. Personal Life He was born in the Satara district of Maharashtra in 1827. His father, Govindrao was a vegetable vendor at Poona. Jyotirao&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[25,87],"class_list":["post-14764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs1","tag-personalities"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/824658current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49754,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14764\/revisions\/49754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}