Jotirao Govindrao Phule was a 19th century social reformer from Maharashtra who fought against caste discrimination and advocated for women's rights and education access for all. He started one of India's first schools for girls in 1848 which faced backlash from conservative elements. Phule also established schools for Dalits and widows' homes, promoting progressive ideas well ahead of his time. In 1873, he founded the Satya Shodhak Samaj to further spread education and raise awareness of equal rights and dignity for all.

1. WELCOMESUBTITLE

2. JYOTI BHA PULE

3. JYOTIRAO GOVINDRAO PHULE WAS BORN ON 11 APRIL 1827. HE WAS AN
INDIAN SOCIAL ACTIVIST FOR THE DALIT PEOPLE, A THINKER, ANTI-CASTE
SOCIAL REFORMER AND WRITER FROM MAHARASHTRA.
JOTIRAO GOVINDRAO PHULE WAS BORN INTO A VIRTUALLY ILLITERATE FAMILY
THAT BELONGED TO THE MALI CASTE OF GARDENERS AND VEGETABLE FARMERS.
THE ORIGINAL SURNAME OF THE FAMILY HAD BEEN GORHAY(गोऱ्हे).THE
ANCESTRAL VILLAGE OF THE FAMILY WAS KATGUN, IN PRESENT DAY KHATAV
TALUK OF SATARA DISTRICT (NOW IN MAHARASHTRA STATE).

4. • Since Phule's father and two uncles served as florists under the last of the Peshwas, whose
patronage they enjoyed.
• the family came to be known as 'Phule' (flower-man).
• Phule's father, Govindrao, carried on the family business along with his brothers.
• His mother, Chimnabai, died when he was only nine months old, and he had one elder brother.
• The Mali community did not set much store by education, and after attending primary school to
learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, Phule was withdrawn from school.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's High School run by
Murray Mitchell.
• Phule completed his English schooling in 1847. As per custom, he was married young, at the age
of 13, to a girl of his own community, chosen by his father.

5. •The turning point in his life was in 1848, when he
attended the wedding of a friend, who was a
Brahmin.
•Phule participated in the customary marriage
procession, but was later rebuked and insulted by
his friend's parents for doing that.
•They told him that he being from a lower caste
should have had the sense to keep away from that
ceremony.
•This incident profoundly affected Phule on the
injustice of the caste system.

6. • In 1848, Jyotiba visited the first girl's school in Ahmadnagar, run by Christian
missionaries.
• It was also in 1848 thatYoung Jyotiba readThomas Paine's book Rights of
Man (1791), 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.
• To this end, Jyotirao at the age of 22 first taught reading and writing to his
wife, Savitribai, and then the couple started the first indigenously run school
for girls in Pune in 1848, for which he was forced to leave his parental home.

7. • When they were ostracised by their family and community, their
friend Usman Sheikh and his sister Fatima Sheikh provided them their
home to stay and helped them to start the very first girl's school in
their premises.
• Later they started schools for children from Dalit castes of Mahar and
Mang.
• In 1852, three schools established by Jyotirao were running.
• Unfortunately, by 1858, they had all stopped.

8. • Eleanor Zelliott 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
on the school curriculum.
• He championed widow remarriage and started a home for lower and upper
caste widows in 1854, as well as a home for new-born infants to prevent
female 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.

9. A Note on SATYASHODHAKA SAMAJ
the origin ideas and membership of the
Satya Shodhak Samaj which founded by Phule and his
friends caste
fellows and business colleagues in 1873.
Phule vision was universal same as Marx's, but he was
not
satisfied with delivering ideology itself, he tried to
execute the same
in practice.

10. The aims and objectives of the Satya Shodhak
Samaj
• The Satyashodhak Samaj is founded by some wise
Shudra men to the Shudra people from long sustained
slavery executed by Brahmans such as Bhats, Joshi
priests and others.
• The Satyashodhak Samaj aimed to spread education
among the Shudras to make them aware of their rights
and to get them out of influence of the sacred books
that were made by the Brahmans for their own survival.

11. • The ideology of Satyashodhak Samaj, based on Phule's
ideological frame work which urged to unite all
Shudra, Ati-Shudra masses, Satyashodhak ideology
rejected all kinds of Brahman domination and
exploitation on the basis of religion and all religious
sources of inequality.This was the most radical
content of the Satya Shodhak ideology, which was the
heart of non-Brahman movement.

13. • Faith on one God (creator)
• Rejection of any kind of intermediary between God
and Man.
• Rejection of caste system and the basic four folded
Varna division of society and believing on that man's
supremacy is determined by his qualities and not by
his caste or.
• Faith on equality, freedom and brotherhood

14. CONCLUSION