An annotated edition of Gulamgiri by Mahatma Jotirao Phule

In Gulamgiri, an enlightened Shudra takes apart the belief system on which the caste system and his people’s “enslavement” stand, turning myths on their heads and co-opting the mythological characters to uncover the underlying deceit. It’s a masterful use of brahmanical cultural references to hoist Brahmanism by its own petard! Yet, it is easy for any scholar or translator to miss the nuances and misinterpret them. So, here, we zoom in on some of the most consequential few thousand polemical words written in the history of India, whose impact on Indian society is yet to be fully felt. We train our minds as much as possible to see through Mahatma Phule’s eyes. We put ourselves in the time and space Phule inhabited. We emphasize faithfulness of translation, as well as contextualization through an introduction and annotations.