Savitribai Phule: Life and Legacy of India's Pioneering Woman Teacher
Savitribai Phule is remembered as one of the first women teachers in modern India and a pioneer of girls' education. On her birth anniversary in January 2021, VoxyTalksy recorded a conversation about her life in Lucknow.
What the video shows
The video was uploaded on January 3, 2021, Savitribai Phule's 190th birth anniversary, and was filmed at the Dr Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Prateek Sthal in Lucknow. Two women social workers, one of whom the description names as Dr Bela Turkey Kaushal, speak about her life. They describe her not only as a teacher but as a poet, organiser and social reformer, and say she worked for the education of women from all communities, including widows and Muslim women. They argue that her contribution has not received the place it deserves in history and that today's women owe much of their right to education to her struggle. They also say the Phule couple's educational work was recognised even by the British government of the time. The opinions expressed are the speakers' own.
Her life in brief
- Born on January 3, 1831, in Naigaon, in Satara district of present-day Maharashtra.
- Married as a child to Jyotirao Phule, who taught her to read and write and became her partner in social reform.
- In January 1848, Jyotirao and Savitribai, with Sagunabai Kshirsagar, started a school for girls at Bhide Wada in Pune, where she taught.
- She faced abuse and hostility for teaching girls, but continued, and the couple went on to open more schools.
- She died on March 10, 1897, in Pune, of bubonic plague, which she contracted while caring for patients during an epidemic.
Poet and reformer
Savitribai published her first collection of poems, Kavya Phule, in 1854, and a later work, Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar, appeared in 1892. Her poems urged people, especially women and the marginalised, to seek education. Along with Jyotirao, she worked against child marriage and for the welfare of widows, and supported the Satyashodhak Samaj, which Jyotirao founded in 1873.
Why she matters today
- January 3 is marked in many states, especially Maharashtra, in her memory, and several institutions are named after her, including Savitribai Phule Pune University.
- Her story shows how girls' schooling, now taken for granted, was once a radical idea that had to be fought for.
- For students, she is a useful entry point into the wider history of 19th-century social reform in India.
Learn more
Her poems and letters are available in Marathi and in translation, and many state education boards include her life in school textbooks. Reading her own words gives a clearer picture than social-media quotes, which are often misattributed.
