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Shahu had no illusions about the difficulties in his mission
in the accomplishment of which he had staked his royalty,
because he was determined to fill the leaderless void of the
cause of the depressed. “It is no doubt.” He said.” A
thankless duty to work in the interests of the dumb millions.
They are too ignorant to be able to express their gratitude
for it, or even appreciate it. But the duty has to be
performed at considerable self-sacrifice, only in a spirit of
chivalry with the sole object of helping the helpless, weak,
ignorant, downtrodden bulk of our people here.”
Thus in the true spirit of the saying of Tukaram - uplifting
suppressed and oppressed-Shahu carried on his social mission,
in which was the uplift of the whole society, by giving
opportunities to the lowest.
A great reformer as Shahu was in giving the oppressed classes
their humane due as withnessed in his order to the medical
department in his State to treat untouchables as gentlemen, he
was also a constitutional and administrative innovator. His
Hindu Code Bill passed in October 1920 anticipated, as Justice
Vaidya point out, all the social changes in the next fifty
years by removing discriminations between the higher and lower
classes by making every Hindu equal before the law.
Shahu’s Educational Reforms
Great, pioneering and versatile as Shahu’s accomplishments
have been, which entitle him to be called a renascent ruler in
modern Brithish India, I think , his most radical contribution
was in the field of education and the sound economic view he
held on the role of education as a real instrument of the
removel of backwardness and promoter of equality. In this
Shahu was in my opinion , a great thinker whose views have
been corroborated in the economic thought of the eminent Nobel
Prize winning economist Gunnar Myrdal in his Asian Drama.
In his concern for the education among the backward
classes, Shahu had to fight the Brahman obscurantism. At the
time of Shahu’s accession to the throne the percentage of the
educated among various castes and religion; was: Brahmins 79.1
per cent, Marathas 8.6 per cent, Kunbis 1.5 per cent, Muslim
7.5 per cent, and Jains and Lingayats 10.6 per cent. During
his tenure Shahu deliberately pursued a policy of giving
representation to various elements in a proportionate manner.
This can be judged by the fact that while in 1994, 60 of
the 71 officers in the Government department were Brahmins, in
1922 the last year of his reign of the 95 offiers in that
department 36 were Brahmins, 59 were non-Brahmins. In the
private department 46 of the 53 servants were Brahmins in
1894, whereas in 1922 Brahmins were 43 and the non-Brahmins
were 109 in addition to which there were servant from the
depressed clases.
Shahu’s philosophy of education was that of Mahatma Phule.
Phule had pioneered education for the humbler classes with the
basic belief in the egalitarian impact of education. Phule had
said in 1873 in Slavery recognizing the crucial importance of
education in eradicating caste distinctions:
“We know perfectly well that the Brahmin will not descend from
the self-raised high pedestal and meet his Kunbi and low caste
brethren on an equal footing without a struggle. Even the
educated Brahmin, who knows his exact position and how he has
come by it, will not condescend to acknowledge the errors of
his forefathers and willingly forgo the long cherished false
notions of his own superiority. At present, not one has had
the real courage to do what only duty demands and as long as
this state of matter continues sect distrusting and degrading
sect, the conditions of the Shudras will remain unaltered and
India will never advance in greatness and prosperity.”
Phule’s prophetic reading of the caste monopoly in religious
and educational matters was exemplified in the battle waged by
Shahu in the Vedokta episode. “I am opposed,”Shahu said.” To
continue and retain their unjust and despicable and inhuman
hold and superiority over others in religious and social
matters. I am not opposed to those who are advanced in
education.
Hence to free the suppressed classes from their age-old
thralldom Shahu introduced compulsory primary education in
Kolhapur. However he was careful to insist that the teaching
of the three ‘R’s should be co-ordinated with the ancestral
occupation of the villagers, namely, farming. “A village
school”, Shahu said,”will generally be provided with a small
farm to create pride in physical labour. Our boys should
understand the dignity of labour.”
... Continued
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