Correct Answer - Option 2 : Krishnarao Bhalekar
The correct answer is Krishnarao Bhalekar.
Krishnarao Bhalekar (1850-1910) :
- He was born in Bhamburde, Pune and came from a Mali family.
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Deenbandhu was founded by Krishnarao Pandurang Bhalekar.
- Deenbandhu was a weekly Marathi-language newspaper first published in Pune, British India in January 1877.
- It was the first newspaper in India to cater explicitly to the labouring people.
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The weekly articulated the grievances of the peasants and workers.
- It served as an outlet for Jyotiba Phule's Satyashodhak Samaj.
- Bhalekar ran Deenbandhu almost single-handedly till April 1880 after which the newspaper moved to Mumbai because of financial troubles.
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Narayan Meghaji Lokhande, who had already been writing for it, edited the newspaper from Mumbai from 1880.
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Jyotiba Phule :
- Jyothirao Govindrao Phule was born on 11 April 1827 into a family that belonged to the agricultural (Mali) caste, traditionally occupied as gardeners and considered to be one of the Shudra varnas in the ritual ranking system of Hinduism.
- The original surname of the family had been Gorhe and had its origins in the village of Katgun, in present day Satara District, Maharashtra.
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Social reformer
- Jyotirao Phule was influenced by Thomas Paine’s book titled The Rights of Man and believed that the only solution to combat the social evils was the enlightenment of women and members of the lower castes.
- In 1848, he taught his wife how to read and write, after which the couple opened the first indigenously run school for girls in Pune where they both taught.
- The school welcomed girls from diverse sections, religions and socio-economic backgrounds — to come and study.
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Phule and his wife were ostracised.
- Phule vehemently opposed child-marriage and supported widow remarriage.
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In 1863, he, along with his friend and wife, opened an infanticide prevention center, where pregnant widows could safely give birth and care for infants.
- Phule recast the prevailing Aryan invasion theory of history, proposing that the Aryan conquerors of India, whom the theory’s proponents considered to be racially superior, were in fact barbaric suppressors of the indigenous people.
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He believed that they had instituted the caste system as a framework for subjugation and social division that ensured the pre-eminence of their Brahmin successors.
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His critique of the caste system began with an attack on the Vedas, the most fundamental texts of upper-caste Hindus.
- He considered them to be a form of false consciousness.
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Sathyashodhak Samaj :
- On 24 September 1873, Phule formed Satyashodhak Samaj to focus on the rights of depressed groups such as women, the Shudra, and the Dalit.
- The samaj opposed idolatry and denounced the caste system.
- Satyashodhak Samaj campaigned for the spread of rational thinking and rejected the need for priests.
- Phule established Satyashodhak Samaj with the ideals of human well-being, happiness, unity, equality, and easy religious principles and rituals.
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A Pune-based newspaper, Deenbandhu, provided the voice for the views of the Samaj.
