Gulamgiri

In Gulamgiri, an enlightened Shudra takes apart the foundations of the caste system which was, in his view, erected for ‘enslaving’ the majority of India’s population.

Gulamgiri has some of the most consequential few thousand words written in the history of India.

This seminal work by Mahatma Phule (social activist, caste reformer, thinker, and writer) is published by Pippa Rann Books, UK, in co-operation with Forward Press, New Delhi.

First appearing in 1873 in Marathi, this careful new translation ensures that none of the nuances and meanings is missed or misunderstood today.

Gulamgiri has never before been placed in its context so extensively, nor in as much detail.

Previously hidden away in assemblages of his voluminous writings, Gulamgiri can now be seen as the very centre of Phule’s achievement.

The impact of his most profound and potentially most influential text can finally be fully felt.

UJJWALA MHATRE’S mother tongue is Marathi, and she has a rare proficiency in English and Hindi. Having translated Gulamgiri into Hindi for Forward Press, she now translates the challenging, colloquial Marathi original into English.

RAM SURAT, Ph.D. is a researcher and writer.

IVAN KOSTKA, now a communications and management consultant, was the Bombay bureau chief of India’s first youth magazine, JS (Junior Statesman).

DR. KANCHA ILAIAH SHEPHERD, renowned Indian political theorist, writer, and human rights activist, has served as Professor of Political Science at Osmania University, and as the Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy at Maulana Azad National Urdu University. His most influential works are Why I Am Not a Hindu, Buffalo Nationalism, and Post-Hindu India. In his Foreword, he compares Phule to the African American abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.