Publication of 'Gulamgiri'

By the early 1870s, Jyotirao Phule recognized that dismantling caste oppression required a robust theoretical critique of Brahmanical religious authority and historical narratives. On June 1, 1873, Phule published his landmark Marathi treatise, 'Gulamgiri' (meaning 'Slavery'). The book served as an explicit manifesto targeting the ideological foundations of caste exploitation and subaltern subjugation in Western India.

Written in the traditional dialogue format between a seeker named Dhondiba and a teacher representing Phule himself, 'Gulamgiri' systematically deconstructs Hindu mythological texts. Phule reinterpreted the various avatars of Vishnu—including Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, and Vamana—as historical accounts of foreign Aryan conquests over the indigenous Shudra and Atishudra populations. By reframing mythological stories as tools of ideological conquest, Phule aimed to expose how priestly elites maintained political and economic control through manufactured religious authority.

A central feature of 'Gulamgiri' is its explicit internationalist vision. Phule dedicated the text to the American abolitionist movement and the citizens of the United States who fought during the Civil War to eradicate Black slavery. Phule recognized clear structural parallels between the physical bondage experienced by African Americans and the systemic, religious, and socio-economic bondage imposed on lower-caste Indians.

Upon publication, 'Gulamgiri' provoked intense hostility from orthodox high-caste intellectual circles in Pune and Mumbai. However, it quickly became a cornerstone text for the emerging non-Brahmin and anti-caste social movements. Its critical frameworks laid the foundation for subsequent subaltern political thought, deeply influencing twentieth-century social thinkers and reformers, including Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who considered Phule one of his foremost spiritual and political teachers.