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Savitribai Phule

Savitribai Phule was a revolutionary educator, poet, and social reformer whose efforts transformed women’s rights and public consciousness in nineteenth-century India. Celebrated as the first female teacher of modern India, she was instrumental in catalyzing movements for gender and caste equality and is rightly hailed as the “Mother of Modern Education in India”.

Early Life and Education

Born on January 3, 1831, in Naigaon, Maharashtra, into the Mali community, Savitribai faced the entrenched social barriers of caste and gender. At the age of nine, she married Jyotiba Phule, who would become her closest collaborator in the cause of social reform. Initially illiterate, she was encouraged and taught by her husband, later receiving further training in Pune and Ahmednagar, which enabled her to become India’s first professionally trained woman teacher.

Pioneering Women’s Education

In 1848, defying prevailing social customs, Savitribai and Jyotirao established the first-ever school for girls in Pune, Bhidewada with just six students. Overcoming social ostracism, she expanded her efforts, and by 1851, managed three schools with around 150 girls. Eventually, she played a role in setting up as many as eighteen schools for girls, focusing on progressive curricula in mathematics, science, and social studies, and including students from marginalized castes.

Social Reforms and Advocacy

Savitribai Phule’s activism extended well beyond education:

  • She actively fought discrimination based on caste and gender, standing as a formidable opponent of untouchability.
  • In 1852, she opened a shelter for widows and founded the Mahila Seva Mandal in the same year to raise awareness about women’s rights and social justice.
  • In 1863, she established the Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha, India’s first center to prevent female infanticide and support widows and victims of sexual violence.
  • Savitribai and Jyotirao dug a well in their backyard to provide water to those denied access due to caste.
  • She staunchly opposed child marriage and the oppressive traditions confining widows, promoting widow remarriage and campaigning for their dignity.

Founding the Satyashodhak Samaj

Along with Jyotirao, Savitribai was instrumental in founding the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873, a progressive reform society aiming to dismantle caste hierarchies and promote social equality. The Samaj welcomed people from all castes and faiths, organizing marriages without Brahmin priests and advocating education as a consequence of self-respect and resistance to oppression.

Literary Contributions

Savitribai Phule was also a trailblazing poet and author, using literature as a vehicle for reform:

  • Her poetry collections, Kavya Phule (1854) and Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar (1892), passionately address social justice, caste discrimination, and women’s emancipation.
  • The famous poem “Go, Get Education” exhorted the marginalized to educate themselves and claim their rights.

Personal Challenges and Legacy

Savitribai withstood relentless hostility, enduring abuse and social persecution, she selflessly persisted in her cause, often changing soiled saris enroute to school because of attacks by orthodox detractors. Her compassion was profound; she adopted the child of a Brahmin widow saved from abandonment and plague.

Savitribai succumbed to bubonic plague in 1897 while caring for infected patients, a final act emblematic of her boundless compassion and commitment to service. Today, she is memorialized annually on Savitribai Phule Jayanti and remembered through institutions bearing her name, literary commemorations, and movements advocating for social justice, women’s rights, and education in India.

Unique Impact and Enduring Inspiration

Savitribai Phule was more than the first teacher; she was a forerunner of feminism and a beacon for social change. Her unique contributions resonate, she challenged entrenched hierarchies, infused dignity and agency into lives oppressed by poverty, caste, and patriarchy, and left a blueprint for future generations of reformers.

Her vision of an India liberated from ignorance, discrimination, and injustice continues to inspire and guide contemporary movements dedicated to equality and human dignity.