Savitribai Phule: Female teacher and feminist Philosopher

 

Savitribai internalized the vision and way of life of Phule, and was a constant devotee of his work. In the philosophy of Phule the place of equality and humanity was the most important. She, to develop the qualities of justice, through education wanted equality, freedom and fearlessness. She also experiences that women have not got the self-dependence due to the lack of education. She was of the opinion that the development made in society is judged by the extent of education made available to women in society. Therefore she gave her absolute support to her husband who was in favor of giving compulsory education to women. The influence of Jyotiba’s thought on Savitribai is quite clear in her writings. She said that—

“…Let knowledge be your God, pursue it all the way.
With determination attain success, don t let your mind sway.
Knowledge is so precious; it is the greatest gift of all.
One with a treasury of knowledge, a wise person people do call”

It was the fact that women in nineteenth century India was leading the life of a subordinate-human being. She was considered an object of male-longing. In 19th century education of women and the lower castes, Phule believed, deserved priority. Hence at home he began educating his wife Savitribai & opened a girl’s school in August 1848 in Pune. The orthodox opponents of Jyotiba were furious and they started a vicious campaign against him. He refused to be unnerved by their malicious propaganda. As no teacher dared to work in a school in which untouchable were admitted as students, Phule asked his wife Savitribai to teach the girls in his school.

Though, she was previously uneducated, she was encouraged and motivated by Phule to study. Later on she became the first lady teacher of India in the school started by her husband. A building was found in Pune to house the school which started in 1848, with nine students and Savitribai as it headmistress. Phule couple faced severs oppositions from almost all sections of society. Savitribai was subject to harassment everyday as she walked to school. Stones, mud and dirt and dung were fling on her as she passed. She was often abused by groups of men with orthodox beliefs who opposed education for women. She braved this onslaught for many weeks. Her response was, “God forgive you. I am doing my duty. May God bless you?” But letter fed up with constant harassment and vicious opposition she almost gave up. But Phule gave her hope, love and encouragement. She went to school wearing an old sari, and carried an extra sari with her to change into after she reached the school. Finally, the pressure on her eased when she was compelled to slap one of her tormentors on the street, after which she was left alone. Later, a peon was employed to escort her to and from the school. Savitribai’s courage in withstanding opposition, even physical discomfort, to achieve her goals made her a true life-partner of Jyotiba Phule.

As mentioned in previous section Phule was a visionary who understood the value of education in the empowering of women. He started by sending Savitribai to school and then training her as a teacher to run schools for girls from oppressed communities. In her poem Go, Get Education, she just expresses the importance of education for women and society and also trying to motivated women in her possible way. As, she is expressing in one of her composition—

“Be self-reliant, be industrious
Work, gather wisdom and riches,
All gets lost without knowledge
We become animal without wisdom,
Sit idle no more, go, get education
End misery of the oppressed and forsaken,
You ve got a golden chance to learn
So learn and break the chains of caste.
Throw away the Brahman’s scriptures fast.”

One of her composition she described the good human being. According to her, “one who looks after his family with care and responsibility, one who is always industrious and inquisitive, who has quest for knowledge, one who is worship of freedom, one who is compassionate towards family, one who is caring, sacrificing and dedicated is truly a good man”. In Savitribai s thought Phule was good human and husband and he precisely passed the mission of humanism.

“To attain self-reliance let us pledge
And accumulate a wealth of knowledge
Without learning, life is an animal existence, a waste
Don’t rest, get an education, make haste
The outcasts can wipe away their woes if they wish
Here s a golden chance to learn English
Learn English and do away with caste discrimination
Cast away the tiresome tales of the Brahmins to damnation”

She also tries to explain the reason of sufferings of Indian women and underprivileged class that is ignorance. She said “Work hard, study well, and do well”. She constantly underscored the importance of education and physical work for knowledge and prosperity. She felt that women must receive an education as they were in no way inferior to men; they were not slaves of men. She said in one of her composition—

“Just one enemy do we have today
Let s thrash him and drive him away ……
…Ignorance!”

She also offered one composition where she is giving the message of social peace and also provides the possible way for social harmony. Moral teaching is important as she said in her poem ‘Offerings’. Her poem has emotional values like love, care and sharing, sacrifice etc but it also has cognitive values, which helps to provide peace in society.

Her writings were an independent expression. Her poetic zeal and literary merits are also beyond any doubt and debate. Her writings demonstrate the influence of folk songs, Bhakti poetry (devotional poetry) and the Shairi (ballad literature) form. Though she selected traditional forms of writing, she constantly propagated modern values such as humanism, liberty, equality, brotherhood and rationalism through her writings. Her composition Kavya Phule reveals moral teaching where she is offering ethical values emotional as well as cognitive values listed as follows:

•    Love
•    Care
•    Respect (Father-Mother)
•    Worship
•    Knowledge
•    Freedom
•    Equality
•    Oneness
•    Courage
•    Self-reliance
•    Opportunity
•    Compassion / kindness
•    Non-Violence
•    Simplicity
•    Humanity
•    Social Harmony

Here I would like to compare moral philosophy Savitribai with moral philosophy of Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle has discussed virtue ethics in his literature on ethics. Virtue ethics as discussed by Aristotle focus on three essential concepts; they are virtue, moral wisdom and happiness. Aristotle has talked about the practical virtues of social life, List of virtues given by Aristotle as follows:

•    Courage
•    Temperance
•    Liberty
•    Magnificence
•    Magnanimity
•    Proper ambition
•    Good temper
•    Truthfulness
•    Wittiness
•    Friendliness
•    Modesty
•    Righteous indignation

In Aristotle’s ethics, where he describes a virtue unknown to us, but which he regarded as one of the highest. As Aristotle Savitribai also accept courage, liberty, friendliness, modesty, wisdom in her list. If life is to be worth living, he argues, it must surely be for the sake of something that is an end in itself i.e., desirable for its own sake, is Happiness. If we study moral values given by Aristotle and Savitribai Phule we can see similarities. Moral values of human life given by both Savitribai and Aristotle have only one final goal of life that is social peace, harmony in society. Their moral philosophy is human centric and their vision of ethical philosophy is humanism. So we can see Savitribai was also influenced by western ideas of ethics and morality.