CBSE Class 8 Answered

Jyotirao Phule was a low caste leader who relentlessly fought for the upliftment of the people belonging to the lower castes. Some main features of his ideology were

1. He questioned the supremacy of the Brahmins by leveling them as foreigners who came from outside the continent and defeated the original inhabitants of the country.
2. He thus believed that the upper caste has no right and claim over the lands of the country. It is the lower castes which have the real claim over the land and other natural resources of the country.
3. Phule claimed that the golden age existed in India before the advent of the Aryans when warrior peasants tilled the land.
4. He asked all the people belonging to the lower castes to unite against caste discrimination.

He founded the Satyashodhak Samaj to propagate the ideals of caste equality. He also authored the book Gulamgiri in which he compared the condition of American slaves to the people of the lower castes in India.