On June 1, 1873, Jyotirao Phule’s (11 April 1827 – 28 November 1890) composition ‘Gulamgiri’ was published. This book was written in Marathi. Its preface is written by Phule in English and introduction in Marathi. Describing the basic purpose of writing this book, Phule has written that ‘the sole purpose of writing this book is to make all the oppressed people realize their slavery, to enable them to fully understand the causes of their condition and To enable you to free yourself from the slavery, oppression and injustice of the Brahmins (the role of Gulamgiri).

By Dr. Siddharth

Phule has written about 12 books. In all these books, he has used such style and language, so that these books can be understood by the broad Dalit-Bahunj and toiling men and women. To fulfill this objective, Phule also wrote Gulamgiri in dialogue style and divided it into various small passages. There are a total of sixteen paragraphs in Gulamgiri. Apart from this, he has also included a long pavada and three abhangas written in the style of the Bahujan saint Tukaram.

Phule dedicated this book to those people of the United States (America), who were fighting for the emancipation of Negro slaves. Dedicating it to him, Phule wrote that “in honor of those great men of the United States who generously and impartially cooperated and made sacrifices for the Negro people in the work of freeing them from slavery. It is my heartfelt wish that my countrymen should follow this commendable work of theirs and cooperate in freeing their Shudra brothers from the brahminical trap” (Gulamgiri, dedication page).

This book is divided into sixteen chapters. In these sixteen paragraphs, the story of the struggle between Brahmins and Shudras-Atishudras from ancient times to modern times has been told. It is necessary to underline a fact here that Phule is writing this book in the context of the social, political and economic structure of North-West India, especially today’s Maharashtra. Where originally the caste which established supremacy over Shudras-Atishudras and made them their slaves has been Brahmin. There has not been a caste like Dwij Kshatriya. The division of the society was basically between the exploiter-oppressor Brahmins and the exploited-oppressed Shudras-Atishudras.

Phule in his book ‘Gulamgiri’ states that there was no varna or caste division before the arrival of Brahmins in this region and their subsequent supremacy. There was an equality based state here. Whose symbol is Bali’s kingdom or Bali Raja. It was an economically prosperous area. Where everyone used to do farming and used to fight with external enemies when needed. Due to this all were Kshatriyas. Phule has also addressed everyone as Kshatriya. Describing Bali Raja and his kingdom in paragraph six, Phule has written that “A large part of this country was under the authority of Baliraj. … In the south, there was another region under the authority of Bali, that is called Maharashtra. The natives there were called Maharashtrians. Later it became a corrupt form of Maratha. Phule establishes in Gulamgiri that there was no varna-caste division among the Marathas before the supremacy of the Brahmins. The Marathas were ten times more in number than the Brahmins. To make the Marathas their subjugation forever, the Brahmins took away the right of education and divided them into thousands of castes.

In the role of Gulamgiri, Phule himself has raised the question that the number of Shudras-Atishudras is almost ten times more. Still, how did the Brahmins annihilate the Shudras and Atishudras? Phule himself answers this. He writes ‘First of all the Brahmins prepared a plan to spread hatred among the Shudras-Atishudras. They sowed the seeds of hatred instead of love. His trick behind this was that Shudra-Atishudra society would keep fighting among themselves, only then the supremacy of Brahmins would be strong and would take stability. Will make them slaves forever and will be able to flaunt their (Shudras-Atishudras) earnings without any hindrance without any effort. In order to take this ideology and trick to its end, Brahmins erected steel-poisonous walls of caste discrimination. Shudra-Atishudra should accept this ideology of caste discrimination from within, for this, Brahmins composed many books to tell caste discrimination as God’s creation.

The result of all this was that once the people of the same society started looking down on each other, started hating each other and started fighting among themselves. How the Brahmins took advantage of the rift between Shudra-Atishudra society. The saying ‘two quarrel and third’s gain’ fits very well on this whole situation. Explaining the meaning of this, Phule says that the Brahmin-Panda priests sowed the seed of hatred (caste) among the Shudradis and Atishudras and themselves are enjoying themselves on the hard work of all of them.

In the first section of Slavery, divided into sixteen sections, Phule discusses in detail the origin of Brahma and the advent of the Aryans. Let us elaborate on how the Brahmins made themselves Bhudev or the God of the earth. The cunningness and barbaric character of the Brahmin caste has been discussed in this passage. Phule writes that ‘First of all, those Aryans made many barbaric attacks in this country by forming large gangs and spread terror by repeatedly attacking the territories of the native kings here. (Gulamgiri, first paragraph). Chapter two deals with Matsya, the leader of the Brahmins and his attack. Section three describes Kachcha, Bhudev, Bhupati, Dwij, Kashyap and Kshatriya etc. It describes the attack on the natives under the leadership of Kachhapa, the leader of the Arya-Brahmins. Phule has exposed the reality of the story of the deceitful killing of the native kings Hiranyakashyap and Hiranyagarbha by Varaha, the leader of the Aryan-Brahmins, in paragraphs four-five. In this, the trick of Brahmins to trap Hiranyakashyap’s son Prahlad in their trap has been shown. Varaha and Narasimha were the leaders of the Aryans in this war. Chapter six focuses on Baliraja and his kingdom. How Vamana, the leader of the Brahmins, killed him is described. How much love and respect people give to Baliraja in the society of Maharashtra and they still wish for the return of his kingdom. Phule has revealed this fact through the widely accepted in the folk of Maharashtra “Ala bala jaave aur Bali ka rajya aawe”.

All these passages underline the fact that the Arya-Brahmins attacked the kingdom of the natives several times. There was a war between them. Ultimately the natives were defeated and the Brahmins won. Parshuram was the most cruel, brutal and merciless among the Arya-Brahmins. According to Phule, the Kshatriyas whose story of destruction 21 times by Parshuram has been told in Puranas, those Kshatriyas were none other than Shudra-Atishudra, the original inhabitants of this place. The brutality with which Parshuram killed him has been described in detail in chapter eight. The story of establishment of complete supremacy of Brahmins has been told in paragraphs 9, 10, 11, 12.

From paragraphs thirteen to fifteen, the arrival of the British in the modern era, some improvement and change in the condition of Shudras-Atishudras, how the Brahmins established their supremacy even in the British state, have been described. In these passages, how did the British rule bring some relief to the Shudras and Atishudras? How these communities got some freedom and a chance to breathe and took advantage of this opportunity to educate the Shudras and Atishudras. Phule writes in a part of Gulamgiri-

Manu was burnt to ashes when the British came.

Mother in the form of knowledge fed us milk.

The defeat of the Brahminist Peshwai and the consequences of the victory of the British are also discussed in these passages. In spite of everything, Phule also discusses in detail the reasons for how the Brahmins maintained their supremacy in the British state by taking advantage of English education.

Chapter sixteen focuses on how to free the Shudras and Atishudras from the clutches of the Brahmins. In this he takes three vows as the representative of Shudras-Atishudras-

We reject all the three major scriptures on the basis of which Brahmins have made Shudra-Atishudra people slaves of Brahmins and their scriptures which have been written in support of our slavery.

Whoever behaves in a demeaning manner to another person. We will not allow him to do this.

Those who accept the slave (Shudra, Das, Dasyu) as their creator and decide to follow the policy and adopt the proper means of earning livelihood and behave accordingly. We will treat him like a brother of our family, love him and eat and drink with him. No matter what country they are from. (Gulamgiri Section: Sixteen)

The book ends with the following lines of Abhang:

As soon as we get education,

we will get that happiness.

Read my article, Jyotirao says.

Dr. Siddhartha, The author is an independent journalist and Bahujan thinker. PhD in Hindi Literature. Sharp and factual writings on current issues. Das is the author of the important book Samajik Kranti Ki Yoddha: Savitri Bai Phule, published by Das Publications.

Courtesy : Dalit Dastak

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