People from across Maharashtra, on Tuesday, 11 April, flocked to the Mahatma Phule Wada in Pune's Ganj Peth area to celebrate the 196th birth anniversary of 19th-century social reformer and educationist Jotirao Phule. Phule was born on 11 April 1827 in a Mali family.
With his wife Savitribai Phule, he opened schools for girls, Dalits and others and went on to engage in various social reform activities. In 1873, he founded Satyashodhak Samaj, a radical anti-caste organisation to challenge Brahmin supremacy, caste system and religious dogma. In the same year, he also wrote the treatise Gulamgiri (Slavery), which continues to be read widely even now. In his written submission to the Hunter Commission in 1882, he had advocated for free and universal education. He died on 28 November 1890 at the age of 63.
Phule has a large following among the progressive Bahujan masses. On Tuesday, hundreds of people visited the Mahatma Phule Wada, which was the residence of the Phule couple, to pay their respects. The structure was in a dilapidated state until it was declared a heritage site in 1992 by the government after a long struggle by Satyashodhak activists and organisations.
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