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Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society: The Non-Brahman Movement in Western India
The colonial period saw important social movements in India. Among the strongest of these was the non-Brahman movement in Maharashtra. Its founder was a remarkable intellectual and social activist from the gardener (Mali) caste, Jotirao Phule (1827-90). His writings laid the foundations of the movement, and the Satyashodhak Samaj (‘Truthseekers Society’) which he founded in 1873, became its primary radical organization, lasting until the 1930s.
Shahu Maharaj, the Maratha maharaja of Kolhapur, who turned against Brahmans because they considered him a shudra, and became radicalized from this, was a major patron. The heyday of the movement took place between 1910 and 1930, when the Satyashodhak Samaj carried the message of anti-caste anti-Brahmanism throughout Maharashtra; one of its offshoots was a strong peasant movement.
In the 1920s a political party emerged, as did Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s Dalit movement, which drew sustenance also from support of the non-Brahmans and patrons such as Shahu Maharaj. Young radicals such as Keshavrao Jedhe and Dinkarrao Javalkar challenged Brahman cultural dominance in Pune and intervened in the Brahman-dominated Communist movement in Mumbai.
By the 1930s, however, the movement died away as the majority of its activists joined Congress. It has left a strong heritage, but the failure to really link nationalism with a strong anti-caste movement has left a heritage of continued and often unadmitted dominance of caste in Indian society today.
Gail Omvedt currently holds the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Chair of Social Change and Development at IGNOU. She has over the years worked actively with social movements in India, including the Dalit, anti-caste, environmental and farmers’ movements and especially with rural women.
Shahu Maharaj, the Maratha maharaja of Kolhapur, who turned against Brahmans because they considered him a shudra, and became radicalized from this, was a major patron. The heyday of the movement took place between 1910 and 1930, when the Satyashodhak Samaj carried the message of anti-caste anti-Brahmanism throughout Maharashtra; one of its offshoots was a strong peasant movement.
In the 1920s a political party emerged, as did Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s Dalit movement, which drew sustenance also from support of the non-Brahmans and patrons such as Shahu Maharaj. Young radicals such as Keshavrao Jedhe and Dinkarrao Javalkar challenged Brahman cultural dominance in Pune and intervened in the Brahman-dominated Communist movement in Mumbai.
By the 1930s, however, the movement died away as the majority of its activists joined Congress. It has left a strong heritage, but the failure to really link nationalism with a strong anti-caste movement has left a heritage of continued and often unadmitted dominance of caste in Indian society today.
Gail Omvedt currently holds the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Chair of Social Change and Development at IGNOU. She has over the years worked actively with social movements in India, including the Dalit, anti-caste, environmental and farmers’ movements and especially with rural women.
332 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2019
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About the author
Gail Omvedt
32 books67 followersDr. Gail Omvedt is an American-born Indian scholar, sociologist and human rights activist. Omvedt has been involved in Dalit and anti-caste movements, environmental, farmers' and women's movements.
She was born in Minneapolis, and studied at Carleton College, and at UC Berkeley where she earned her PhD in sociology in 1973. She has been an Indian citizen since 1983.
In recent years she has been working as a consulting sociologist on gender, environment and rural development, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Oxfam Novib (NOVIB) and other institutions.
Wikipedia
She was born in Minneapolis, and studied at Carleton College, and at UC Berkeley where she earned her PhD in sociology in 1973. She has been an Indian citizen since 1983.
In recent years she has been working as a consulting sociologist on gender, environment and rural development, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Oxfam Novib (NOVIB) and other institutions.
Wikipedia
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September 10, 2020
There is a common misconception that Satyashodhak movement died after Jotirao Phule's death in 1890. But Gail Omvedt in this meticulously researched book shows that that's not true. Even though satyashodhaks after Phule were not as radical or charismatic as him, they continued to challenge Brahmins and Brahmninism. The movement got absorbed in the nationalist politics of Congress after Keshavrao Jedhe joined Congress in 1930. Omvedt's book remains the most authoritative study on this history of the Satyashodhak movement.
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