Savitribai Phule Poems
Savitribai Phule was the first Dalit women, in-fact first women whose poems got noticed in the British Empire. Savitribai Phule was the mother of modern poetry stressing the necessity of English and Education through her poems. Here are few of her poems from “Kavyaphule”, Collection of Savitribai’s poems, 1854.
Read Savitribai Phule Poems in Hindi from – विद्रोह की मशाल से समाज को रोशनी – कवियित्री भी थी सावित्री बाई फुले
Savitribai Phule Poems
If you have no knowledge, have no education,
And you yearn not for the same,
You posses intellect but work not on the same,
How then can you be called a human being?
………..
Birds, animals, monkeys, human beings too,
All go through life and death
But if you gain no knowledge about this,
How then can you be called a human being?
——
The Plight of the Shudras
Haunted by ‘The Gods on Earth’,
For two thousand years,
The perpetual service of the Brahmins,
Became the plight of the Shudras.
Looking at their condition,
The heart screams its protest,
The mind blanks out,
Struggling to find a way out.
Education is the path,
For the Shudras to walk,
For education grants humanity
freeing one from an animal-like existence
——
Read also – Mahatma Jotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule’s contribution towards women empowerment
So says Manu…
“Dumb are they
who plough the land,
Dumb are the ones
who cultivate it”,
So says Manu.
Through religious diktats,
The Manusmriti to the Brahmin tells,
“Do not your energy, on agriculture, waste!”
“Those born as Shudras,
All these Shudras!,
Are paying in this life,
For the sins of their past lives”
Thus they create
A society based on inequality,
This being the inhuman ploy,
Of these cunning beings.
——
Read also – ‘First Lady’ Teacher of India: Savitribai Phule
Go, Get Education
Be self-reliant, be industrious
Work, gather wisdom and riches,
All gets lost without knowledge
We become animal without wisdom,
Sit idle no more, go, get education
End misery of the oppressed and forsaken,
You’ve got a golden chance to learn
So learn and break the chains of caste.
Throw away the Brahman’s scriptures fast.
——
Rise, to learn and act
Weak and oppressed! Rise my brother
Come out of living in slavery.
Manu-follower Peshwas are dead and gone
Manu’s the one who barred us from education.
Givers of knowledge– the English have come
Learn, you’ve had no chance in a millennium.
We’ll teach our children and ourselves to learn
Receive knowledge, become wise to discern.
An upsurge of jealousy in my soul
Crying out for knowledge to be whole.
This festering wound, mark of caste
I’ll blot out from my life at last.
In Baliraja’s kingdom, let’s beware
Our glorious mast, unfurl and flare.
Let all say, “Misery go and kingdom come!”
Awake, arise and educate
Smash traditions-liberate!
We’ll come together and learn
Policy-righteousness-religion.
Slumber not but blow the trumpet
O Brahman, dare not you upset.
Give a war cry, rise fast
Rise, to learn and act.
——
Read also – Book Review of “A Forgotten Liberator : The Life and Struggle of Savitribai Phule”
The Greatest Wealth
Early in the morning,
Perform your ambulation,
Having become clean and tidy,
Pay your respects to parents and elders.
Remembering the name of God,
Immerse yourself in studies,
Waste not these precious days,
by insisting on going home.
Study hard, get educated,
Treat knowledge as your God,
Diligently take advantage of it,
Concentrating with all your heart.
Knowledge is wealth,
Greater than all riches,
Wise is considered he,
Who acquires it.
——
Learn English
Make self-reliance your occupation,
Exert yourself to gather the wealth of knowledge,
Without knowledge animals remained dumb,
Don’t rest! Strive to educate yourself.
The opportunity is here,
For the Shudras and Ati Shudras,
To learn English
To dispel all woes.
Throw away the authority
Of the Brahmin and his teachings,
Break the shackles of caste,
By learning English.
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