JYOTIBA PHULE

April 12, 2020

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu paid homage to Jyotiba Phule on the occasion of Phule’s Jayanti.

About:

Mahatma Jyotirao Govindrao Phule (1827 – 1890), also known as Jyotiba Phule, was an Indian social activist, thinker, anti-caste social reformer and writer from Maharashtra.
He and his wife, Savitribai Phule, were pioneers of women education in India. Phule started his first school for girls in 1848 in Pune at Tatyasaheb Bhide's residence or Bhidewada.
In 1873 he formed the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth) to attain equal rights for people from lower castes. People from all religions and castes could become a part of this association which worked for the upliftment of the oppressed classes.
He is credited with introducing the Marathi word dalit (broken, crushed) as a descriptor for those people who were outside the traditional varna system. The terminology was later popularised in the 1970s by the Dalit Panthers.