Shetkaryaca Asud (The Whipcord of the Cultivators)
FOCUS
“Without education wisdom was lost; without
wisdom morals were lost; without morals development was lost; without
development wealth was lost; without wealth the Shudras were ruined; so much
has happened through lack of education” – says the Introduction to Shetkaryaca Asud, a book by Jotirao Phule,
published in Marathi in 1881. This is an English translation by Gail Omvedt
(scholar, sociologist and activist) and Bharat Patankar (writer and activist).
Phule was a social reformer who fought against
untouchability and the exploitation of landless labourers. He was born on April
11, 1827, in Khatgun villiage in Maharashtra’s Satara district, and belonged to
the Mali community – now officially listed as an Other Backward Class in
Maharashtra. He founded the Satyashodhak Samaj, the ‘Truthseekers society’, in
1875.
This is one of Phule’s three books – the others are Gulamgiri or Slavery
and Sarvajanik Satya Dharm Pustak or the Book of the Universal
Religion of Truth.
In Shetkaryaca Asud, Phule writes about
the ritualistic and bureaucratic mechanisms developed by Brahmins and the
colonial bureaucracy to oppress the Shudra peasantry, how ‘Arya Brahmans’
migrated from Iran, and the condition of farmers and agriculture. He mainly
refers to three cultivator caste groups – Malis, Kunbis and Dhangars (each of
these is now listed as an OBC). And he makes recommendations to the colonial
government.
In Chapter 1 of five chapters,
the author explores the social and economic exploitation of Shudra
farmers by the ‘Bhat Brahmans’ through their ‘crafty’ religious rituals. Spanning
menstruation, marriage, death and various other events, these rituals divert
the farmers’ resources towards the ‘Brahmans’ and their attention away from
their own impoverishment. Phule writes: “The farmers who have been kept
ignorant for generations are so much exploited of their time and wealth by the
Bhat-Brahmans that they have no vigor left to send their small children to
school.”
Phule discusses the role of the colonial
government in allowing the Shudras to be impoverished in Chapter 2. The
colonial administrators, he writes, do not know the condition of the farmers,
and most government departments are dominated by Brahmins. They are looted with
“no bread to fill their stomachs or clothes to cover their bodies.” Previously,
farmers with little land could obtain subsistence – such as fruits, leaves and
wood – from nearby hills and forests. “However, the European administrators of
our ‘mai-bap’ government, in their comprehensive British wisdom, set up for the
first time a gigantic Forest Department. Since they have included all the
mountains, hills, peaks, glens, dales and all the uncultivated lands and pastures
as ‘forest’, this Forest Department has risen to such a pinnacle of power that
the poor helpless paralyzed farmers have an inch of ground left on earth for
their goats to even inhale the wind of the fields.”
Chapter
3 covers the arrival of the ‘Arya Brahmans’ – originally from Iran – in India, and
the condition of the Shudra peasants at the time. Phule traces the roots of the
oppressive caste system to their arrival. He writes about how the colonial
government heavily taxes farmers to pay salaries and pensions to their
employees. The force with which their wealth is extracted pushes the farmers
into indebtedness. Phule observes: “…for all these reasons farmers have to make
toilsome efforts even to meet the expenses for their cultivation. Then they go
to Marwaris and take loans for meeting the land revenue charges. Do the
indolent besotted and purity-engrossed Bhat government employees who have been
selected to make a detailed enquiry ever find the time to think of this? Here,
in so many Sabhas filled with so many great names, the officious government
native employees proclaim that ‘the farmers have become indebted because they
spend extravagantly on marriages.’...If the mind of the government is truly
agitated about our ruined farmers, why don’t they completely stop this
accumulation of billions by the English moneylenders? Wouldn’t it be better to do that and see if
the farmer can find a foothold?”
Drawing on his own experiences as a member of
the Mali caste, in Chapter 4 Phule discusses “the ruined and pitiable
state of the toiling ignorant farmers who labour night and day on the land.” They
are denied education; and the few that migrate to bigger cities end up doing
casual labour due to this. He describes the Shudra women: “The woman who goes
out, after cleaning up all the mess in the house, and works alongside the men
throughout the day to complete the work in the field, wears a woven cotton sari
and blouse, a small silver bracelet on her arm and if this is not available a
tin bracelet, a mangalsutra of one to one and a half measures of gold around
her neck, jingling tiny rings on her toes, tobacco tooth powder smeared on her
mouth, kajal on her eyes and kumkum spread all over her forehead; she will be
extremely fortunate to have anything else for beautifying herself.”
Chapter
5 contains Phule’s
recommendations to the colonial government to alleviate the suffering of the
Shudra farmers. On education, he says: “In order to make the children of the
Shudra farmers truly educated, teachers of their own caste should be appointed,
who can themselves demonstrate how to use the plough, weeding and sowing
instruments, and laws should make it compulsory to send their children to
school. For the first few years the
examination given to them should be simple, giving them as incentive the degree
equivalent to those of the Brahmans’ children…Without such controls, no relish
for education will develop among the Shudras.” Further, he writes, “the
children of the Shudra villagers who show their merit by passing examinations
in using the plough, weeding and sowing instruments along with the Marathi
sixth standard should be given the headmanship rights in the village. When our
compassionate government makes such laws, thousands of farmers will gladly send
their children to school in the competition to win headman rights. And, once
there are such educated and meritorious Patils in every village, all the
cunning Bhat-Kulkarnis in the rural areas will not be able to entice the
ignorant farmers into mutual quarrels…” He also urges the colonial government
to build as many tanks and ponds as possible, so water is easy to access, and asks
them to check the overemployment Brahmins in government posts.
Focus by Neeti Prakash.
AUTHOR
Jotirao Phule; translated by Gail Omvedt and Bharat Patankar
COPYRIGHT
Not mentioned in document
PUBLICATION DATE
1881