Today (April 11), India celebrates the 198th birth anniversary of Mahatma Jyotirao Phule.
Jyotirao (1827-1890) and his wife Savitribai Phule (1831-1897) are considered the first “modern” Indian couple that initiated a social revolution in India. But that revolution was most despised by the upper castes, mainly the ones Jyotirao called the “Shetji-Bhatjis” — the rural colloquial Marathi names for Indian Brahmins and Baniyas.
So, it comes as a surprise that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which, for a long time was known as the “Brahmin-Bania party”, tabled a resolution in the Maharashtra Assembly — that too with a “Bhatji” as chief minister (Devendra Fadnavis) — to recommend Bharat Ratna for this 19th-century Shudra revolutionary couple.
The resolution was passed unanimously on March 24.
Reform movements
Phule’s famous book Gulamgiri (Slavery) assessed Indian history and religious institutions from the Shudra and Ati-Shudra points of view.
The couple also started a major social revolutionary organisation, Satyashodhak Samaj, as against Arya Samaj (Dayanand Saraswati), Brahma Samaj (Raja Ram Mohan Roy), and Sarvajanik Sabha (MG Ranade).
While the other organisations introduced reforms mainly among the Brahmin community, particularly for their women, the Satyashodhak Samaj (Truth-Seekers’ Society) initiated anti-caste and anti-patriarchal reform movements.
Also read: Savitribai Phule: India’s first female teacher, and a forgotten liberator
By and large, the Kshatriyas of India remained silent about such reforms. In fact, they did not produce intellectuals to engage with modern ways of life for a long time during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Vyshyas also did not engage with reform questions until Mahatma Gandhi emerged.
Opposing ideologies
The Phules were the only couple to take on the historical issue of barbaric untouchability and Shudra-peasants’ oppressed life. And one can surmise that they will be the first 19th-century reformers to get the title of Bharat Ratna, once it’s given. No other social reformer of that period has been given this highest award.
Obviously, the step did not come without the nod of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the top BJP leadership in Delhi. So, why has the BJP come up with a proposal to give Bharat Ratna to this great couple, whose lifetime work was against its ideological and political agendas?
A fundamental difference
If one just compares the narrative of Gulamgiri that Phule wrote in 1873 and Veer Savarkar’s Hindutva written in 1923, they clearly stand for two opposite ideologies.
For the Phule couple, the Muslim question was not at all central. In fact, Muslims were seen as the helping hands in their reform agenda. Fatima Shaik was a friend-in-arms of Savitribai in teaching untouchable girls.
On the other hand, Savarkar’s main enemies were Muslims. There was no discourse on how Shudras and Dalits need to be liberated from caste oppression and educational backwardness in Savarkar’s agenda.
Phule’s main fight was against the Aryan ideology of the four-fold Varna system. His fundamental thesis was that agrarian and artisanal production was the key to sustaining Indian civilization and not human hatred based on caste or religious beliefs. For Savarkar, human production relations and the exploitation of one community by the other was never an issue.
Also read: On Savitribai Phule Jayanti, know why every literate Indian woman is indebted to her
Owning legacy of reformers
Therefore, naturally, a question arises — why this sudden love and respect from a Hindutva right-wing ruling political force for the first anti-caste reformer couple? Why did the Congress, as the ruling party, and the Left liberals, as intellectuals, ignore them?
It is quite possible that with this decorative step for the great caste and education reformer couple, particularly who worked for women and Shudra/Dalits, the RSS/BJP want to own their legacy. They are already trying to own Ambedkar (the tallest Dalit icon) and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (the tallest Shudra icon) in Independent India.
Historically, the RSS ideology was against such reforms. As I said, their hero Savarkar never accepted such an anti-caste reform agenda that the Phules, in that very Maharashtra, worked for — till Dr BR Ambedkar dedicated his controversial book Who Were the Shudras—How They Came to be the Fourth Varna of the Indo Aryan Society? to Mahatma Phule.
Wooing the OBCs?
Ever since an OBC, Narendra Modi, rose from the RSS ranks to become the prime minister in 2014, the BJP has become the most obvious choice of OBC hopefuls, particularly in northern and western India. However, in the 2024 general elections, Rahul Gandhi’s focused campaign around OBC reservation and caste census shook the RSS/BJP vote bank.
The caste census in Telangana and the state government’s proposal to increase the OBC reservation to 42 per cent signalled that the OBCs might move away from the BJP in the north and west too.
In the Maharashtra state elections in 2024, the OBCs were offered more seats and a better share in the power, and the BJP alliance won. Since they are against a caste census, they must do some significant thing to retain the OBC goodwill in Maharashtra. It appears that they proposed the Bharat Ratna for the Phule couple with a long-term political agenda to retain the OBCs in the RSS/BJP camp.
Also read: Savarkar’s story: Myths, truths, and the political narrative
Congress on back foot
This step has, however, put the Congress in an irksome position. The party never gave a Bharat Ratna to an OBC leader, thinker, cultural icon, or social reformer. Though they gave the Bharat Ratna to Kamaraj Nadar, a Shudra leader from Tamil Nadu, he was never owned by OBCs in the context of the Dravidian ideological struggle against Brahminism in that state.
When it was in power, ever since the most prestigious award was instituted, the Congress gave it to many Brahmin leaders, starting from C Rajagopalachari of Tamil Nadu in 1954. It also gave the Bharat Ratna to Muslim leaders like Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad and Zakir Hussain.
In fact, the BJP has also attacked the Congress over Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi conferring the award on themselves.
Welcome move
The BJP — with the RSS’s approval — has also given the award to Brahmin icons like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lata Mangeshkar, Pranab Mukherjee, and Bania leaders like LK Advani.
It even gave the award to Karpoori Thakur, a comparatively lower-rung OBC leader, keeping the OBC votes of Bihar in mind. Thus, it became a political award, rather than being one that recognises the contributors of socio-economic change in the country in modern history.
Therefore, the BJP asking for the Bharat Ratna for the great social and educational reformers that the Phule couple was, has its significance.
Also read: Nehru implemented idea of India: Historian Aditya Mukherjee
Whatever may be the reasons, the fact that they recommended the Bharat Ratna for the 19th-century Phule couple — for the first time in the history of the award — is welcome.
(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)