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g The nationalist movement required unity Phule considered that British rule in general was
between people of all classes and castes. liberating rather than a destructive force, and
Indians would never be able to govern argued that the Indian National Congress could
themselves unless they did away with their know the truly ‘national’ until it showed a more
caste prejudices. active interest in the welfare of the low castes.
g The British rulers would keep using the Phule compiled his ideas and views in his work
divisions in Indian society to continue their entitled Satya Sodh, Published in 1887.
exploitative rule. VEERESALINGAM
JYOTIBA PHULE Bengal Renaissance, the huge socio-cultural and
Many of the 19th century Indian reformers religious reform movement during the nineteenth
denounced the injustice of the caste system and and early twentieth century had great impact on
scorned its rulers of purity and popllution. Most, the reform movements in other parts of India.
however, were themselves from the highest Brahmo leaders like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and
castes. This was not the caste with Jyotiba Phule Keshav Chandra Sen’s mission was carried
whose family, though very respectable, was of further in a revolutionary manner by learned
the mali or gardener caste. scholars and versatile intellectuals like Kandukuri
Veeresalingam.
In a way, Kandukuri Veeresalingam was the ‘Raja
Ram Mohan Roy’ of Andhra Pradesh. He was a
social reformer, activist, writer, “the quintessential
Renaissance man”. “For all the efforts made in
bringing our social reformism, he was popularly
known as “Gadya Tikkana” by his well-wishers
and followers.”
He had many firsts to his
credit. “The first person
to conduct a widow
Jyotiba Phule remarriage in Andhra
His father and brothers provided garlands and Pradesh, the first to start
flowers for elite Maratha families, including those a co-educational school
of the former Peshwas; the family name was here. And as a writer, the
‘Phule’ meaning ‘flower’. Phule went to a first Telugu novelist, the
Scottish missionary school in Poona where he first autobiography in Veeresalingam
was influenced by the works of English radicals. Telugu, the first to write a history on Telugu poets
This convinced him that the caste system was and the first Telugu writer to translate scientific
unjust and that Brahmin domination should be books”.
overthrown through education and social uplift- He also waged a battle against untouchability.
ment measures. In 1873, he founded the He took up the cause of the poor and the down-
Satyasho-dhak Samaj (Truth Seekers Society) trodden and fought corruption in administration.
which was devoted to securing human rights and He strongly believed that the existence of castes
social justice for low-caste people. in the Hindu society degraded the social
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