Savitribai Phule birth anniversary: All you need to know about India’s first modern feminist
Savitribai Phule, along with her husband, Jyotirao Phule were instrumental in improving women’s rights in India during the British rule as well as starting India’s first school for girls at Bhide wada in 1848.
“Go, Get Education/ Be self-reliant, be industrious/ Work, gather wisdom and riches/ All gets lost without knowledge…” – Savitribai Phule from the poem Go, Get Education.
Hailed as one of India’s first modern feminists, Savitribai Phule was born on January 3, 1831 in Maharashtra’s Satara district. Savitribai Phule, along with her husband, Jyotirao Phule were instrumental in improving women’s rights in India during the British rule as well as starting India’s first school for girls at Bhide wada in 1848.
The eldest daughter of her family, she was married off to Jyotirao Phule at a tender age in 1827. Jyotirao encouraged his wife to get educated and even teach young girls in due course of time.
Savitribai Phule’s contribution can be best gauged by the feminist author and poet’s writings from the period. Among the works of Savitribai Phule that still survive are a collection of 41 poems called Kavyaphule, published in 1854.
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The collection has a number of poems on the nature, but what makes them significant are the verses advising children to stay away from caste system. Her writings helped mould society’s mindset, according to the book Women’s Higher Education in the 19th Century by Gouri Srivastava.
Savitribai Phule’s second work, Bavankashi Subodharatnakar, published in 1892, was a biography of her husband Jyotirao Phule in verse. She also edited four of Jyotirao’s speeches on Indian History.
Even though Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule faced a lot of resistance and opposition from contemporary society, they went on to run three different schools for girls in Pune. They also established two educational trusts -- The Native Female School, Pune and the Society for Promoting the Education of Mahars, Mangs, and Etceteras.
Savitribai along with her husband was also instrumental in the formation of the reform society Satyashodhak Samaj, which initiated the practice of marriage without dowry or overt expenses.
A memorial was created in her honour by the Pune City Corporation in 1983. India Post released a stamp in her honour on March 10, 1998 as well. In the year 2015, the University of Pune was renamed as Savitribai Phule Pune University.
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