Bruno Barbey
INDIA. 1997.
Soon, the Phules started their first school for girls on 15 May 1848 at Bhide Wada in Pune. Savitri was its headmistress. Sagunabai and Fatima Sheikh were her colleagues. The school brought together girls of all castes under one roof. The first batch had 25 girls. In the same year, they also set up a school for untouchable girls. Clearly, they were throwing an open challenge to male Brahmins’ monopoly over learning and their exclusion of women and Untouchables from knowledge for centuries. They went on to start no less than 18 schools between 1848 and 1852. […] This throwing open of the gates of learning to women, and those from the “low castes” at that, was a highly provocative act and it was unacceptable to the upper-caste orthodoxy.
As Savitri walked to school daily, the villagers would pelt stones and throw dung at her. She would stop by and politely tell them, “My brothers, I am doing the noble job of educating your sisters. The cow dung and stones that you are pelting on me are not a deterrent but rather an inspiration for me. It is as if you are showering petals on me. While I vow to serve my sisters, I also pray, ‘May God bless you.’”
One day, on her way back from school, a well-built ruffian stood in front of her and threatened her saying that if she did not stop educating the Mahars and Mangs, she would have to pay a heavy prize. People gathered to watch this drama but none came forward to her rescue. Savitribai remained unfazed and slapped the man hard. The stunned man ran away and so did the onlookers. This news spread like wildfire in Pune and such incidents did not recur.
The Phule couple had to face stiff opposition for their radical educational activities. While the English-speaking upper-caste reformers campaigned for limited education for women to enable them to be better wives and companions to the newly educated class of men and better mothers to their children, Phule, in sharp contrast, wanted the women of India to receive education that would empower them to fight against their exploitation and oppression and realize their human potential.
– Lalitha Dhara, “Social revolutionary, feminist and poetess Savitribai Phule”
January 3rd is the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule, a leader and icon in dalitbahujan history!
Screencaps are from a scene in Teesri Azadi, where the Maharastrian anti-caste social revolutionary, feminist, and women’s education activist vows to continue teaching. This vows follows a preceding scene in which she faces the daily taunts of savarna women in her village as she walks back home from the school she and her husband run. The social ostracisation she faces for being both an educated Shudra woman and daring to pass on that same knowledge to other women and Dalits is the type of reactionary violence she, and countless other dalitbahujan women, have faced in their lives for breaking free from the chains of Brahmanism and caste society.
Bruno Barbey. India. Rajasthan. Pushkar fair. 1986. People resting outside the fairgrounds.
the indian city of jodhpur, otherwise known as the blue city, located in the centre of rajasthan. photos by (click pic) marji lang, adam rose, jim zuckerman, mahesh balasubramanian and steve mccurry
Rejeesh Sarovar (Indian, b. 1985)
Eclipse, 2014
Oil on canvas
72 × 96 in
INDIA Madras ( Tamil nandu ) Padma a young bharatanatyam dancer , February 1966 . Roland & Sabrina Michaud
