Remembering Savitriba Phule (1831-97),  A Pioneer Of Feminism And Anti Caste Struggle in India

Today is the 190th birth anniversary of Savitri Bai Phule (1833-97) , India's first woman teacher who opened 18 schools for girls with Fatima Sheikh and participated in a borader movement for gender rights and anti-caste activism with her husband Jyotiba Phule. Together, they founded the Satyashodhak Samaj to fight the iron-grip of Brahmanism on marriages, encouraging inter-caste weddings without priests or mantras.

Savitribai Phule also worked for the welfare and rights of widowed womena and rape survivors who had to face targeted social discrimination and abuse in the India of those times, the legacies of which continue to resound even today. Savitribai Phule and Jyotiba Phule are respected and revered by millions of Dalits, OBC's, Ambedkarites and the demand often arises to mark her birthday as India's Teachers' Dayrather than that of S. Radhakrishnan's.