Mahatma Phule's Humanist Argument against Brahman Orthodoxy

As part of his strategy to fight Brahman domination Phule also made use of the Natural Rights argument. He was deeply influenced by Thomas Paine’s philosophy and it was thanks to Paine’s influence that Phule argued that all men enjoyed certain natural and inalienable rights which every just society must recognise. Even when a society did not recognise such rights, Phule contended, they existed as moral imperatives. In Slavery he condemns Hinduism for its violation of man’s natural rights and argues that God has given the Shudras, the Ati-Shudras and other people the freedom to enjoy equally all the things of the earth. He accuses the Brahmans of seeking advantage only for themselves, of writing ‘false books’ in God’s name, and of trampling on the rights of all other men. He thanks the English rulers and the missionaries for making the low castes aware of the fact that they are human beings just like the Brahmans and worthy of all forms of rights. But Phule does not merely stop at condemning the Brahmans for depriving the lower castes of their due rights; he proceeds further to construct a religious ethic in which God is viewed as the creator of all men equally and whose explicit command is that the benefits of the earth be equally shared by all men.

In September 1873 Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society for the Dissemination of Truth), a non-political body (the fourth rule of the Samaj forbade discussions on political issues), whose declared objective was to make amends for the neglect of Natural Rights of men, especially of the Shudras over the past centuries. It sought to restore their rights and also take remedial action for their misery. In fact, one of the vows, the members were required to take was to worship only ‘our Creator’ and honour ‘the pure rights’ that have been given by the Creator to all men by rejecting the belief that some men are born inferior and by refusing to treat any one as inferior. Each member was also required to give education to his children so that ‘they may understand their rights’.

Since the Samaj viewed education, especially English education, as vital not only for providing occupational skills but also for the intellectual emancipation of the low castes, educational activities figured prominently in its agenda of action. Phule had hoped that the Samaj would take the lead in establishing the Shudras as a new moral community worshipping a Supreme God and taking into its own hands the conduct of all ceremonies thereby dispensing with the Brahman priest. That the Samaj members did not always go along with Phule’s radicalism is a different story. Those members who actually came forward to perform marriage and other ceremonies without the involvement of a Brahman were a small minority.