The Phules: Teachers Who Disrupted the Familiar Order
In today's society, teaching is often a preferred profession for women as it is perceived to have a work-life balance. Additionally, it also doesn't threaten the traditional gender roles of nurturing and caregiving. But in 1848, when Savitribai Phule, India's first female teacher, took up teaching, she was stepping into something dangerous. She was threatened and attacked not just for teaching but for daring to teach those who weren't supposed to learn.
Savitribai Phule was born on 3rd January 1831 in Naigaon, Maharashtra. These were the times when access to learning was restricted by gender and caste. Patriarchal customs, incorrect religious interpretations, and colonialism ensured that access to education rested in the hands of a few men. Savitribai, along with her husband Jyotirao Phule, challenged every institution-family, patriarchy, religion, custom, and state that denied education for all.
At the age of 9, Savitribai married 13-year-old Jyotirao Phule and moved to Poona. Defying social norms, he chose to educate his wife and taught her to read and write. Subsequently, she completed two teachers' training programs and went on to become India's first trained female teacher in 1848. Their own family shunned them for going against the gender norms. Jyotirao’s father threw them out of the house.
In 1848, Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule opened a pioneering school for girls in Poona, with six girls as their first students. The idea of girls going to school was against the patriarchal beliefs of the time. People threw stones, mud and cow dung at her as she walked to school. She didn't see these as personal attacks but as public declarations that learning was not meant for women. It strengthened her resolve to keep doing what she was doing. She started carrying a spare sari with her to change into at school.
For the Phules, the fight was never just about women; their schools were among the first to educate Dalit girls. They knew that gender and caste were twin shackles, and that one could not be broken without the other. Educating "lower" castes was seen as a direct threat to brahminical control over knowledge and power, and for that, they were hated. As opposition grew, they relocated to the residence of their ally, Usman Shaikh. There, Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh—Usman’s sister—continued to educate girls in the neighbourhood, breaking not just gender and caste barriers, but also those of religion. Fatima Sheikh went on to become the first Muslim woman teacher in India.
Extending their resistance beyond classrooms, the power couple went on to establish Satyashodhak Samaj (“Society of Truth Seekers”). The society emphasised the importance of education and encouraged people to conduct weddings without priests. They organised marriages without a priest or dowry, in which couples took an oath in favour of education and equality. They promoted widow remarriage and opposed the cruel practice of tonsuring widows, urging barbers to stop participating in it—the Barbers’ Protest. When Jyotirao died, no priest came forward to perform his last rites. So Savitribai lit his funeral pyre herself—a role denied to women by custom.
In 1864, she built shelters for widows, destitute women, and child brides cast aside by their families and provided education for them. She also campaigned against child marriage, infanticide, and sati (the practice of a widow immolating herself on her deceased husband’s pyre). Since lower castes were forbidden from using the common village well, she took the initiative to construct a well in the backyard of her house for them. With every action, Savitribai challenged the systems that sought to determine who was worthy of learning and life itself.
Today, although the number of child marriages, discrimination based on caste and the practice of sati have drastically reduced, the mindset is disturbingly familiar. Even today, education for women is tolerated only as long as it doesn’t disrupt the expected timeline of marriage or motherhood. Dalit students continue to face exclusion and harassment in classrooms. In some regions, widows are still stripped of dignity, inheritance, and social standing. A recent film, 'Phule', based on Savitribai’s life, sparked both celebration and controversy, proof that her story still unsettles deeply rooted beliefs. This is exactly why we must remember Savitribai Phule—for the fire she lit, the systems she challenged, and the orders she refused to obey.
Written by Parvathy Ramachandran and edited by Janaky S. @ThinkHer
References:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savitribai_Phule
2. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Savitribai-Phule
3. https://www.facebook.com/DoordarshanNational/posts/remembering-savitribai-phule-the-first-female-teacher-of-india-and-a-true-champi/1022473423252011/
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpcvFMRghYk
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKQIpDDi7xQ
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