What does reading mean in general for our times? This question doesn’t mean to endorse that we are not reading at all. But it surely asks what we are reading. Reading comes with other elements such as understanding, knowing, feeling and embracing. In reading, we find solace. In reading, we find the meaning of life and, most importantly, the life of the mind.
But what we are missing these days is understanding the radical potential of reading. This is not only about how the knowledge is learnt, but importantly to make sense of the element of ‘pursuit’, that is, to act.
This relevance of reading with the elements of understanding, knowing, feeling and embracing to act is exactly what Mahatma Jyothiba Phule had offered us. His life and writings inform us about the significance of ‘taste for learning’, the phrase he commonly used in his writings.
In these times of intolerance, where the consumption of regressive information has become normal, reading and understanding Phule might be difficult or even impossible, as his writings might be considered an act of blasphemy.
The recent controversy surrounding the release of the film Phule is one such clear instance where the Brahmin community believes the movie shows them in a very bad light. Now, how can one reverse or whitewash what a thinker already wrote on the inhumane caste system and the agents who perpetuated it?
Also, on the other hand, the Maharashtra government has already passed a resolution demanding Bharat Ratna for Jyothiba Phule and Savitribai Phule.
Is the state and Union government unaware of what the Phules wrote and what they both fought for and against? It would be a blunder if one thinks so. Assuming that the government announces the award, keeping the caste census demand and Other Backward Classes (OBC) sub-categorisation in mind, will the Brahmin community oppose the same?
At this juncture, how the government chooses to have a dialogue with the protestors is going to be a paradoxical situation.
But a central question remains here. How does this nation want to read and understand the Phules? If both Savitribai and Jyotiba Phule were given the Bharat Ratna award – which would make them more popular – would the government take a proactive step in including their biographies in all the schools across the country?
Will the government introduce them as mere social reformers or radical educationists? Will they recognise the importance that the Phules gave towards the ‘education of the masses’ (especially primary education) against ‘overeducating the few’ (higher education)? Will they recognise the contribution of the Phules towards the welfare of Brahmin women? Will they understand the ideal of Seeking Truth that they embraced? Will they embrace their motto of Truth is Knowledge and Knowledge is Truth?
The above questions arise in light of the sheer erasure of the Phules in the academic, political and cultural fields. For example, many institutes officially celebrate the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar but not of both Jyothiba and Savitribai Phule. Even today, many such public institutions remain uninterested in knowing who they are. Thus, there has never been a more urgent need to introduce the Phule couple as an antidote to the growing irrational thinking and lack of morality.
Let us take a moment to deal with the philosophical and political questions that Jyothiba Phule raised in his various writings, which still resonate in our times. In his seminal work Gulamgiri (Slavery), published in 1873, by debunking the mythological ‘avatarakalpana’ (ten incarnations of Vishnu), Phule seeks Truth with nature and scientificity.
If we read Gulamgiri closely, we can identify a few pertinent questions he raised (that are still relevant), such as: What does the ‘politics of naming’ do to a person or group? Why is it important to recognise the differences in several customs practised by Brahmins and Shudra-Atishudras? How does leisure as life become a norm through the “system of priestcraft so galling in its tendency and operation?”
How does the fabrication of falsehood myths and stories dupe the minds of the ignorant masses? Why is the Indian ryot (Shudra-Atishudra peasants and landless agricultural labourers) still a proverbial milch cow? Is the Brahmin still the be-all and end-all of the Shudra-Atishudras?
The text further allows us to ask: If higher education is to prepare scholars that help the Dwijas who live by the pen (pen-wielding butchers is the word Phule uses in the text), why is there still a sheer negligence towards primary education where the masses (Shudras and Atishudras) benefit?
What happens when someone is deprived of their freedom and knowledge? Why are the young still told that the composed treatises are written by God and not by Brahmin men? How do we invoke the spirit of fraternity towards social and moral reparation? Can the freedom of mind facilitate writing and speech, and thus a person can claim their rights?
Why is there a great need for at least one of the oppressed castes to be a member of the municipality, the education department, the engineering department, the revenue department, journalists, etc.? Why and how did the Shudras-Atishudras lose their unity?
As we are aware, in India, the dignity of labour question is organically linked with caste, and when we read the Phules, we will be able to grasp many instances where they referred to the Bhat Brahmins as a leisured class. In this context, Gulamgiri further provokes us to ask: How do we embrace labour as life and the dignity of labour against leisure as life?
Though availing of leisure is linked to knowledge production, do we need to celebrate the privilege of having leisure as a life norm, which pushes women, especially, into household drudgery? And in these turbulent times, their writings force us to ask, have we become the ‘good people’ yet that the Phules aspired Indians to be?
Whether it is the cultural movement or political demand for equal representation, they are still orientated by the above questions, and that is how the idea of the social and the political is manifested in democratic politics. Thus, the moment of ignorance (of the nation and civil society) lies in not recognising the relevance of the Phules and the questions they raised.
Throughout his writings, Jyothiba especially relied on the method of dialogue. To use Paulo Freire’s formulation, the word being the essence of dialogue, to speak a true word is to transform the world. This is exactly what he did through his words.
If we have to embrace the Phules’ lives and writings, we need cultural action more than ever in instilling the courage to act against the oppressive system(s) of reality. Reading the Phules in/for our times need not be a sectarian one but should be an act against anti-dialogue and intolerance.
The Phules invoked the idea of fraternity and love (towards social and moral reparation), which is essential to the pursuit of justice, and by emphasising Truth as Knowledge, they actualised the struggle outside the realm of God, spirituality and the doctrine of karma. So, by reading Phules in our times, we may not only be ‘doing’ anti-caste philosophy but also may become the Phules’ ‘good people’ who would learn to perceive social, political and economic contradictions and take action against those contradictions.
Pallikonda Manikanta is a Phule-Ambedkarite researcher based in Telangana. He is the co-founder and faculty at Phule Ambedkar Centre for Philosophical and English Training (PACPET) in Tellapur, Hyderabad. Views expressed here are the author's own.