Hypocrisy over Jyotirao Phule

Director Ananth Mahadevan believes he has mollified Brahmin organisations upset over the trailer of his film Phule a biopic of Jyotirao Phule his first name is spelt variously Indiarsquos foremost crusader against caste discrimination in the 19th century After meeting the representatives of the Akhil Bhartiya Brahmin Samaj Mahadevan claimed they were happy when he told them that the film shows ldquocertain Brahminsrdquo helped Phule set up 20 schools for the lower castesThe filmrsquos release on April 11 Phulersquos birth anniversary was postponed to April 25 for incorporating the changes the Censor Board ordered after having cleared the biopic earlier A voiceover explaining the caste system will be deleted as will terms such as Mahar Mang Peshwai and Manursquos system of caste Itrsquos hoped the deletion of these terms which pepper Phulersquos body of work does not turn him into a caricature in Phule the filmIt will indeed be ahistorical to claim Phule wasnrsquot opposed to Brahmins for imposing the caste system on society for perpetuating their domination In fact Rosalind OrsquoHanlonrsquos monumental study Caste Conflict and Ideology Mahatma Jotirao Phule and the Low Caste Protest in NineteenthCentury Western India begins thus ldquoJotirao Govindrao Phule was the son of an obscure lower caste family who pioneered the attack on the religious authority of Brahmins and their predominance in the institutions of the British government and administrationrdquoPhule did befriend Sadashiv Govande and Moro Valavekar both poor Brahmins at the Scottish missionary school from where he passed out in 1847 Both of them were closely associated with Phulersquos endeavour to establish schools for the lower castes including Mahars and Mangs the erstwhile untouchables Yet differences between Phule and his Brahmin friends surfaced over their conflicting perspectives on education Phule in later years wrote his Brahmin friends wanted only rudimentary education to be given to the lower castes in contrast to his insistence on a thorough education for themAll biographies of Phule date his alienation from the Brahmin community to 1848 the year he was invited to attend the marriage of a Brahmin friend At the marriage procession Phule was recognised as belonging to the Mali caste and severely admonished for having the temerity to join it Shaken he narrated his experience to his father who detailed to him the punishment such a ldquosocial misdemeanour would have incurred under the rule of the Brahmin peshwasrdquoPhulersquos perception of the oppressive Peshwa rule popularly known as Peshwai was articulated by a 14yearold Mang girl whom he had taught for three years Phule handpicked her to read out an essay to a Christian visitor a convert to the school She vividly described the suffering the untouchables were subjected to ldquounder the Brahmin government of the peshwasrdquo Just these two episodes in Phulersquos life should raise questions over the aestheticideological implications of deleting the word Peshwai from the filmThis is because Phulersquos experiences inspired his social analysis which claimed the Hindu religion with its rigid hierarchy of which the Brahmins were custodian as well as beneficiary kept the lower castes in servitude For instance the commentator in his play The Third Eye asks Malis and Kunbis to ldquorather let robbers fall onto your house than put your trust into a Brahmin priestrdquo And to the priest in the play the commentator says ldquoYou go and do a job of work and yoursquoll find that you will make a living in this world very well without insulting Mangs and MaharsrdquoPhulersquos opposition to Brahmanism constitutes the leitmotif of his ballad Priestcraft Exposed In yet another ballad Brahmin Teachers in the Education Department he underscores the communityrsquos numerical domination in the British administration their discouragement of the lower castes from educating themselves and the shallowness of their progressivismArguably among Phulersquos writings his A Ballad of the Raja Chatrapati Shivaji Bhosale is the most relevant today In it Phule depicts Shivaji as the protector of cultivators Kunbis from the depredations of the Mughalsndashand not as the saviour of the Brahmin and the cow a view the contemporary ideology of Hindutva upholds The ballad rubbishes the claim that the advice of Brahmin ministers was crucial in the Maratha kingrsquos extraordinary achievements and instilled pride in the lower castes regarding their military prowessAn oftquoted verse from A Ballad has Phule appealing to the British queen to rescue the lower castes from the domination of Brahmins It reads ldquoOh Queen you have the power Hindusthan is asleepEverywhere there is the rule of the Brahmans open your eyes and seerdquo After describing the various sites of Brahmin domination Phule says ldquoThe Bhats Brahmans are everywhere the Kunbis have no redressJoti Phule says we run for help deliver us from these evilsrdquoThis verse alone underscores the incompleteness of fathoming Phule without delving into his opposition to Brahmins as will also be true of any estimate of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb that doesnrsquot take into account his spree of temple destruction and brutal execution of Chhatrapati Sambhaji When communities draw pride from events and personalities of the past history becomes a casualtymdashand hypocrisy censorship and desire for vengeance the outcomesThe writer is a senior journalist and author of Bhima Koregaon Challenging CasteSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paperatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params