CASTE SYSTEM: Gulamgiri

 

CASTE SYSTEM: Gulamgiri

One of the most vocal amongst the “low-caste” leaders was Jyotirao Phule. Born in 1827, he studied in schools set up by Christian missionaries. On growing up, he developed his own ideas about the injustices of caste society. He set out to attack the Brahmans’ claim that they were superior to others, since they were Aryans. 

Phule argued that the Aryans were foreigners, who came from outside the subcontinent, and defeated and subjugated the true children of the country – those who had lived here from before the coming of the Aryans. As the Aryans established their dominance, they began looking at the defeated population as inferior, as low-caste people. According to Phule, the “upper” castes had no right to their land and power: in reality, the land belonged to indigenous people, the so-called low castes.

Phule claimed that before Aryan rule, there existed a golden age when warrior-peasants tilled the land and ruled the Maratha countryside in just and fair ways. 

He proposed that Shudras (labouring castes) and Ati Shudras (untouchables) should unite to challenge caste discrimination. The Satyashodhak Samaj, an association Phule founded, propagated caste equality.

In 1873, Phule wrote a book named Gulamgiri, meaning slavery. Some ten years before this, the American Civil War had been fought, leading to the end of slavery in America. Phule dedicated his book to all those Americans who had fought to free slaves, thus establishing a link between the conditions of the “lower” castes in India and the black slaves in America.

As this example shows, Phule extended his criticism of the caste system to argue against all forms of inequality. He was concerned about the plight of “upper”-caste women, the miseries of the labourer, and the humiliation of the “low” castes. This movement for caste reform was continued in the twentieth century by other great dalit leaders like Dr B.R. Ambedkar in western India and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker in the south.