Anatomy of Caste System

Book Review

Title: Savitribhai Phule: Her Life, Here Relationships, Her Legacy

Author: Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta

Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2023

Pages: 271

 

Shastri, a Brahmin, is very unhappy with the reforms that the British Raj has introduced in Hindu traditions like banning the Sati system and introducing education to the low castes. So he engineers a way to reintroduce the Sati. When he sees a low caste man named Tambe on his way, he curses him and his entire family for the offence of not moving away from a Brahmin’s path. Tambe apologises and explains that since he was working he hadn’t noticed Shastri coming. Shastri offers a solution: go and get a live poisonous snake. Tambe doesn’t want his entire family to live under a Brahmin’s curse. So he goes to the forest to catch a venomous snake. And he is killed by the snake.

Then Shastri spreads a message in the village that they’re going to be blessed with a Sati goddess. Tambe’s wife is going to be a Sati, according to the divine plan that has been revealed to Shastri. Ignorant and superstitious villagers make the arrangements to burn Tambe’s wife alive on the funeral pyre.

The hapless woman escapes that gruesome death when Khandoji, the village headman, arrives and saves her pitting the British law against the Brahminical tradition. This Khandoji’s daughter grew up to become a revolutionary champion of the rights of the low caste people and their girl children. She was Savitribhai Phule.

Illustration by GeminiAI

Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta’s book tells the story of this Savitribhai Phule who brought education to the low caste people of her neighbourhood, especially the girls, with the help of her husband Jyotirao Phule. Both Jyotirao and Savitri belonged to a low caste and hence had to confront tremendous opposition from people like Shastri in order to run their schools for the children of the downtrodden.

They lived in the 19^th century Maharashtra which had extremely rigid social hierarchy enforced during the Peshwa rule and perpetuated through heartless Brahminical traditions. The Dalit communities, primarily the Mahars and Mangs whose stories unfold in this book, endured severe socioeconomic deprivation and institutionalised untouchability.

Shastri was just one of the many ruthless Brahmins who exploited the helpless majority to the hilt. You will meet one Purohit who got a little girl poisoned to death merely to teach her father the lesson that he should never dare to question a Brahmin. Shastri, Purohit and other upper caste men maintained a system that made the low caste people do all the work while the upper castes received all the benefits. If they didn’t permit widows to remarry, it was because they wanted to sexually exploit those women. Savitri Phule opened a home for pregnant widows too in addition to numerous schools for children. You can easily guess who made the widows pregnant.

At the beginning of this book, we are told about some shocking practices of those days. The low caste people had to carry a broom and a pot along with them all the time. They had to sweep off their footprints from the path lest they pollute the soil. If they wanted to spit, they had to do it into the pot they carried on their neck. These people were not even allowed to wear clean clothes or footwear. Even the time when they could walk outside was fixed by the Brahmins. They were given just enough food to survive.

The British Raj brought about some changes by enacting certain laws and banning inhuman practices like Sati. The British missionaries did more by way of education and cultivating hygiene. The book mentions a few of those missionaries who were associated with the Phules.

On the occasion of the inauguration of a school for the Dalits in 1846, Jyotirao Phule told the people: “What Brahmins teach and what Hinduism is all about are two different things. They are scared that if the Mahars and other Shudras get educated, they cannot be ruled through fear.”

Today, nearly two centuries later, we hear a similar argument. Hinduism and Hindutva are two different things, we are told. What difference does that make, I wonder. What is in actual practice is what the religion is for ordinary people. What Hinduism meant to Dalits in the days of the Phules is what it means today to certain other sections of citizens though the name may have changed to Hindutva.

The book also mentions the conversions to Christianity under the influence of the European missionaries. The God of the missionaries appeared compassionate to the Dalits. The conversions were not about paltry material benefits like a few bags of rice or atta, as today’s Sangh Parivar makes it out to be. The conversions were about compassion and human dignity. The Phules didn’t get converted to Christianity though they worked along with some British missionaries for a while and appreciated the dignity that seemed to come naturally to them. The Phules earned their dignity on their own. And they helped other people of their villages to earn their dignity too through education. That can be done even now – and the conversions won’t take place.

Even today, in 21^st century, there are huge areas of India where Dalits are treated without any dignity. And there are also Christian missionaries trying to bring dignity to them. But Shastris and Purohits still dominate. Even today!

In thousands of Indian villages, the spatial division remains virtually unchanged from the ancient days. Main village areas are occupied by the upper castes, while Dalits reside in separate colonies or hamlets on the periphery. The Dalits are even deprived of access to dinking water even today in many places. Violence against the Dalits by the upper caste men is common too. In many places, Dalits are not even allowed to enter temples.

India is busy rewriting history and textbooks. According to the new history, an avatar of God Vishnu is governing us today. We are blessed.

PS. This book, gifted by someone, was on bookshelf unnoticed for two years. When I started rereading some books, this caught my attention. What I want to say is that this review was not planned or timed with all the various charges that the Modi government is facing now in many places.