Week 3 - Samyuktha Rao

After reading the chapter on Phule – Remembering the Kingdom of Bali, I was taken by surprise to know about the arguments regarding alternative history to the Aryan invasion and how it’s related to slavery, the reformist education by non-Brahman teachers and about the hypocrisy of progressive Brahmins in Maharashtra. What truly seemed interesting to me is that Phule’s act of proclaiming an orphanage for children of Brahman widows and adopting on those children while his work is centered around attacking Brahmin dominance and his true enemy is Brahmin supremacy. It was interesting to read about Phule’s work on mixing mythology and history to break notions of Brahmanism and provide alternative perspectives that would explain caste realities in India. He was writing at a time when the caste system was in transformation but he was still keen to notice the existing hypocrisy during that time and call it out, which was deemed to be radical. He also provided an alternative perspective to the colonial rule, saying that British and Brahmans went hand-in-hand to exploit the lower castes and farmers. Ironically, the independence movements that gained popularity much later was mostly Brahman-run too, leaving little or no voice of the oppressed lower castes during colonial rule. He believed that remedy for such exploitation is educating the peasantry so he dedicated most of his lifetime contributing to that cause. The chapter also discusses about his idea of monoaesthetic religion, critiques of nationalism,etc.