Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, India’s one and the only genuine Mahatma, is not only a household name in Maharashtra but being acknowledged as one of the gurus of Babasaheb Ambedkar, he is now known all over the country as a great revolutionary. But unfortunately, the upper caste rulers of Maharashtra have neglected this great Backward Caste (Mali community) leader. At least bending to pressures, Chief Minister Sharad Pawar, a Maratha, has announced a Rs.2-crore grant to convert the little home of Mahatma Phule in the Chitpavan strongold of Pune, into a national monument. The SC/ST/BCs and minorities of Maharashtra, to whom the Mahatma did so much, must be vigilant and see that this fund is not swallowed by the enemies of the Mahatma. For further reading on the Mahatma, we recommend two books, Caste, Conflict & Ideology by Rosalind O’ Hanlon, 1985, Orient Longman, and Mahatma Jotirao Phooley, by Dhananjay Keer, Popular Prakashana, Bombay – EDITOR
Pune: But for the Maharashtra archeology department’s board at 408, Ganj Peth and a spruced-up structure enclosed by a freshly painted fence, one would not take a second look at the house that Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, among the greatest social reformers in the country, lived in. It is in one of the conjested bylanes of Pune’s Ganj Peth, amidst dirt and squalor, that the Phule house is located. In fact, it is because of the narrow lanes, pedstrain traffic and the dirt that the municipal corporation has dropped a visit to the historic house from its ‘Pune darshan’ itenarary for tourists. Nevertheless, thanks to the Mahatma Phule centenary year and the recent visit by the Maharashtra chief minister, Sharad Pawar, considerable interest has been generated in the Phule Wada. It is literally on the concluding day of the centenary year, on Wednesday last, that Pawar announced a grant of Rs.2 crore for the conversion of the house into a national monument. Given the practical difficulties and the situation in which the house finds itself today, the task of converting the house into a national monument does appear daunting. This is mainly because, apart from the narrow lanes, the house is surrounded on two sides by conjested residential quarters. Converting the house into a national monument would require the acquisition of surrounding properties and the satisfactory rehabilitation of its residents. As the former principal of the agriculture college, Dr K.S. Farande, closely associated with the Phule house, told this correspondent, “This task of raising the national monument should be taken up by social workers and community leaders and not be left to the government alone”. This was the house in which, Phule explored and implemented the idea of educating women amidst still opposition from a conservative society. It was also in this house that Phule, by advertising through posters put up in villages, dissuaded women from committing suicide for bearing illegitimate children. (Sunday Observer Dec.2)
