Selected Writings of Jotirao Phule

Selected Writings of Jotirao Phule

Product ID: 14923

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Author: G P Deshpande
Editor(s): G P Deshpande
Publisher: LeftWord
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 247
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187496223

Description

Jotirao Phule (1827–1890) was India’s first systematic theorist of caste, and the most radical 19th-century opponent of it, who desired nothing less than a complete smashing up of its oppressive structure. This volume makes available for the first time all his most important prose writings.

At the centre of Phule’s thought and analysis are Gulamgiri (Slavery) and Shetkaryacha Asud (Cultivator’s Whipcord), both included in this volume in their entirety. Also included are Phule’s deposition to the Hunter Commission on Education; his response to the Parsi social reformer Malabari’s notes on ‘Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood; his letter to M G Ranade regarding the Marathi Author’s Conference; his stirring defence of Pandita Ramabai in two numbers of the journal Satsar; and selections from The Book of the True Faith. All translations have been specially commissioned for this richly annotated volume, and the Editor’s Introduction places Phule’s life, work, and thought, as well as each text included in this volume, in historical perspective.

For anyone interested in the question of caste, this volume is an indispensable resource.

This volume is a must for all those to whom the book is dedicated-Shudraatishudras of various colours and hues including the organized ones.
-The Dalit

Deshpande makes a brilliant attempt to foreground Phule’s system of ideas in a series of tough arguments; The book is going to have a scholarly impact on those who otherwise have only a political interest in reducing Phule to a cultural symbol. It will prompt some of us to liberte Phule from self-serving cultural symbolism and situate him in the tradition of self-criticism, which was one of Phule’s core intellectual projects.
-Gopal Guru
Economic and Political Weekly

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

NOTE ON THE SELECTION

INTRODUTION

Slavery

Memorial Addressed to the Education Commission

Cultivator’s Whipcord

On Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood

Letter to the Conference of Marathi authors

Satsar

From The Book of the True Faith

Brief Chronology of Jotirao Phule’s Life

Further readings

Index