We have just celebrated the 199th birth anniversary of Mahatma Jyotirao Phule on 11 April, and are marking Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s 135th on 14 April. The legacy of these two iconic figures in modern Indian history extends far beyond their popular image as social reformers. Both Phule and Ambedkar were thinkers and philosophers who challenged existing Brahmanical norms and strived for societal change. Their efforts marked a transformative shift from exclusion and hierarchy toward inclusion, rights, and social justice.
Working in different historical contexts—Phule in the 19th century under colonial rule, and Ambedkar in the early 20th century during the nationalist and post-colonial transition—both recognised that social inequality, particularly caste-based oppression, was deeply intertwined with the denial of education and poor health outcomes. Their work laid the intellectual and institutional foundations for modern India’s approach to human development.
Jyotirao Phule was among the earliest social reformers to challenge the Brahmanical monopoly over knowledge and education. He viewed education as the most powerful tool to liberate marginalised communities, especially untouchables and women, from systemic oppression. In 1848, he established the first school for girls in Pune—a radical step in a society where female education was actively discouraged. Together with his wife, Savitribai Phule, who became India’s first woman teacher, Phule worked tirelessly to expand educational access. Their schools not only imparted literacy but also encouraged critical thinking and self-respect among oppressed groups.
Phule’s educational initiatives were closely tied to his broader critique of caste hierarchy. Through the Satyashodhak Samaj, founded in 1873, he sought to democratise knowledge and promote social equality. The organisation emphasised rationality, social justice, and the rejection of blind faith and caste discrimination. For Phule, education was not merely about access but about transforming its content and purpose to challenge oppressive structures.
Phule also made significant—though less formally recognised—contributions to public health. He understood that health was shaped by social and environmental conditions such as poverty, caste discrimination, and lack of sanitation. During famines and epidemics, he and Savitribai actively engaged in relief work, caring for the sick and destitute. One notable initiative was a home for pregnant widows, aimed at preventing infanticide and ensuring maternal care in a deeply stigmatising social environment. His emphasis on cleanliness, dignity, and care for the vulnerable anticipated later public health approaches focused on social determinants of health. Phule recognised that caste-based discrimination denied essential health services to lower castes, and he directly linked health to social justice. He also noted that mental health and well-being could be addressed through education and the restoration of dignity—a point that modern, post-Ambedkarite interpretations consider crucial for coping with systemic trauma and oppression-induced anxiety.
Several decades later, B.R. Ambedkar expanded and institutionalised many of these concerns within a legal and policy framework. He saw education as the primary means of social mobility and empowerment. His famous call to “Educate, Agitate, Organise” encapsulated his belief that education must lead to collective action for rights and justice—a view influenced by Phule, whom he regarded as his teacher. Ambedkar not only pursued higher education himself but also created opportunities for others through institutions such as the People’s Education Society (established in 1945), which provided higher education to disadvantaged communities.
Ambedkar’s most enduring contribution to education lies in his role as the chief architect of the Constitution of India. Through constitutional provisions, he ensured the right to equality, prohibited discrimination, and abolished untouchability under Article 17. Importantly, he advocated for affirmative action policies, including reservations in education and employment, to correct historical injustices. These measures fundamentally reshaped the Indian education system by recognising education as a right and a means of achieving social justice.
In the domain of health, Ambedkar’s contributions were equally far-reaching. As a member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council in charge of labour, he introduced several welfare measures with direct implications for public health, including maternity benefits for women workers, regulation of working hours, and provisions for better working conditions in factories. By linking labour rights to health, Ambedkar highlighted the importance of safe and humane working environments for well-being. In a Bombay Legislative Council discussion on 10 November 1938, he acknowledged parental disability as a prime reason affecting children physically, mentally, and financially. He considered women’s reproductive rights essential for their development and proposed limiting the number of births for the health of women and children, rather than adopting the conventional stance of population control.
Ambedkar also emphasised access to basic resources such as water as a critical public health issue. In 1927, as chairman of the Satyagraha Committee, he led untouchables—mostly Mahars—to drink water from the Chavdar Tank in Mahad Taluka, asserting their right to public water sources. The Mahad Satyagraha was not only a struggle against caste discrimination but also a fight for clean drinking water, underscoring the intersection of social exclusion and health deprivation. Ambedkar argued that without addressing caste-based inequalities, meaningful improvements in public health would be impossible.
A key aspect of Ambedkar’s thought was his focus on the structural determinants of health. He recognised that caste, class, and gender played crucial roles in shaping health outcomes. His insistence on state responsibility for welfare led to policies and institutions aimed at improving healthcare access, labour welfare, and social security. The Mica Mines Labour Welfare Fund Bill, for example, resulted from a study of workers’ socio-economic status and addressed occupational health issues. It was due to his efforts that maternity benefits were extended to working women in 1942. Decades later, India professed the same ideals as a signatory to the 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration.
Comparing Phule and Ambedkar reveals a shared vision of social transformation but differing methods and scope. Phule worked primarily at the grassroots level, focusing on social reform, community mobilisation, and alternative institutions. Ambedkar operated within political and legal frameworks to bring about structural change at the national level. While Phule laid the ideological groundwork by challenging caste and promoting inclusive education, Ambedkar translated these ideas into concrete policies and constitutional safeguards.
Together, their contributions highlight the inseparability of education and health from broader questions of social justice. They challenged the notion that these are merely technical or administrative issues, instead framing them as fundamental rights requiring the redressal of deep-rooted inequalities. Their legacy continues to influence contemporary debates on inclusive education, public health, and social policy in India.
However, their contributions have systematically been reduced to “advocacy” and “movement,” undermining their academic and intellectual mettle. Phule’s writings—mostly in Marathi—attacked the caste system, untouchability, Brahmanical dominance, and gender inequality. Seminal texts such as “Gulamgiri” (Slavery, 1873), “Shetkaryacha Asud” (Cultivator’s Whipcord, 1881), and “Sarvajanik Satya Dharma Pustak” (1891) advocated for awakening from mindless religiosity toward rational religion and universal, equal access to resources. Phule’s humanitarian ideas on social justice, equality, and liberty were influenced by Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man.”
Similarly, Dr. Ambedkar was influenced by John Dewey. His writings span volumes, engaging with every aspect of human life—social, political, economic, and emotional. With two doctoral degrees from the world’s most prestigious institutions—Columbia University and the London School of Economics—his scholarship is second to none. His academic engagements included a professorship at Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics (1918), the principalship of Government Law College (1935), and politico-administrative positions as a member of the Bombay Legislative Council (1927) and Labour Member in the Viceroy’s Executive Council (1942–46). His essays on caste, Hinduism, partition, administration and finance, Gandhi and the Congress, and the rupee are evidence of his scholarship, as much as his role in the emancipation of all human beings—not only the downtrodden. The Hindu Code Bill was for all women of the country.
Jyotiba Phule and B.R. Ambedkar were visionary leaders who redefined the meaning and purpose of education and health in Indian society. By advocating for the rights of the marginalised and emphasising the role of social structures in shaping human well-being, they laid the foundation for a more equitable and just society. Their contributions remain profoundly relevant to ongoing challenges of inequality and exclusion, reminding us that true development must be inclusive, participatory, and rooted in social justice.
Therefore, it is imperative to recognise these two stalwarts in their academic capacities as well, and to give them their due—something that has been consciously evaded by reducing them to mere “social reformers.” In our caste-ridden society, we must collectively denounce this reduction as a genuine tribute. Let us prepare to engage with them as academics who were not only conscious of social anomalies but were well educated about them, and who worked sincerely toward their annihilation through access to education and health.
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*Professor, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University
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