Every year on April 11, people celebrate Mahatma Jyotirao Govindrao Phule’s birth anniversary. He was born on 11 April 1827 in a gardener family in Satara, Maharashtra. The family moved to Pune and started doing business related to flowers, hence the surname ‘Phule’ was used for them.
Jyotirao Phule is also known as ‘Jyotiba Phule’. Rao Bahadur Vitthalrao Krishnaji Vandekar, a renowned social worker of the time, bestowed the title “Mahatma” on him in 1888 during a large public gathering in Mumbai in recognition of his outstanding efforts for the underprivileged, disadvantaged, and scheduled caste sections of society. Since then Mahatma was added to his name.
Mahatma Phule is regarded highly in India as a social reformer, thinker, author, philosopher, and revolutionary activist. On September 24, 1873, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule established the “Satya Shodhak Samaj,” a group whose goal was to work for the castes who were lowest and untouchable. The ideas of Mahatma Phule also had an impact on Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambeder.
Jyotiba Phule believed that the society and the country can progress only when women are also educated. When there was no school system for the education of girls and women in the country, then in 1848 he opened the first girls’ school in Pune, Maharashtra. The school was opened but the problem was that no teacher was available to teach in it. Phule then taught his wife Savitri Bai himself and made her a teacher. After this Savitri Bai started teaching in the school for girls.
Some people of the society also obstructed his work. His family was pressured. The result was that Jyotiba Phule had to leave the family. Due to this, the work of education started for girls was interrupted for some time, but soon the Phule couple overcame all the obstacles and opened three more schools for girls.
His wife used to cooperate fully in every work of Jyotiba Phule, that’s why she was also called a social worker. Jyotiba Phule was also honored in 1883 by the then British government in view of her work done for the education of women. The thoughts of Mahatma Phule have been inspiring and agitating a large section of the society.