Educator and Social Reformer Fatima Sheikh Continues To Fight For Her Rightful Place In Indian History - Which Savitribai Phule Has Got
By
Dilip Mandal
9 January,
2019
So little
is known about educator and social reformer Fatima Sheikh that even her date of
birth is debated.
Fatima Sheikh and Savitribai Phule | Illustration by Siddhant Gupta
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Every year,
on 3 January, India celebrates (or at least acknowledges) Savitribai Phule’s
birth anniversary. She was the first Indian woman to become a teacher and start
a school for girls. However, there was another luminary woman who stood side by
side with Savitribai Phule and Jyotirao Phule. She worked in Phule’s Bhidewada
school teaching girls, going from house to house encouraging families to send
their girls to the school and managing the affairs of the schools. Without her
contribution, the whole girls’ school project would not have taken shape. And
yet, Indian history has largely relegated Fatima Sheikh to the margins.
This year
too, Savitribai Phule trended on Twitter on her birth anniversary. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi remembered her by saying: “I bow to the great Savitribai
Phule on her Jayanti. Hers was a life devoted to the empowerment of the poor
and marginalised.” Many of his colleagues and other political leaders joined in
with their tributes. Last year, Google paid homage to her with a doodle.
Despite Savitribai’s known anti-Brahminical views and writings, the RSS also
bowed to her. University of Poona was renamed Savitribai Phule Pune University
and the Maharashtra government has instituted awards in her name. There was
even a TV series based on her life and works. Although it took one and a half
centuries, Savitribai Phule is now well established in the public sphere.
History is giving her due credit.
Fatima
Sheikh, however, is so unknown that even her date of birth is debated. Many
argue that today, 9 January, is her birth anniversary. Then why is nobody
celebrating her?
When
Jyotirao and Savitribai were asked to vacate their ancestral house by
Jyotirao’s father – as he was angry with the reform agenda of the couple – it
was Fatima and her brother Usman Sheikh who opened the doors of their house for
the Phules. It was the same building in
which the girls’ school was started. It wouldn’t have been easy for them to do
so, considering the fact that the social elite of the time were dead against
the idea of girls going to school – and that too from all castes and religions
together. And yet, any mention of Fatima Sheikh is largely absent.
This is not
to say that the glory came to Savitribai Phule easily. Mainstream historians
were very cruel to her – while mentioning the Indian Renaissance, they talked
of Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Dayananda, Swami
Vivekananda, or Mahadeo Govind Ranade. In early textbooks, even the name of
Savitribai found no mention. It was only after decades of oblivion that Dalit
and Bahujan activists started to write about her, and her pictures started
appearing on the banners and posters of BAMCEF, an organisation started by
Kanshiram, who later founded the Bahujan Samaj Party. In the last decade, with
the advent of digital Dalits, Savitribai’s name and her contribution to society
have reached millions through social media.
But the
same process has eluded Fatima Sheikh. Her contribution as an educator and
social reformer was no less the Phules. Rather, she must have faced bigger
hurdles. As her works are not documented, we can only assume how difficult it
must have been for a Muslim woman to work for girls’ education, which was
considered irreligious at that time, especially in the Hindu-dominated Pune
society. Some writers suggest she was opposed by both the Hindu and the Muslim
community for what she was doing. Savitribai was fighting against the bigotry
of Brahminism. She was an insider, fighting against the ills of the system.
Opening the gates of her schools for Dalits was her challenge to patriarchy and
the caste system at the same time.
Fatima
Sheikh had a different proposition. Islam does not prohibit girls’ education
per se. So, her being part of the anti-caste project started by Phule makes her
more of a revolutionary. She was not
fighting for her own community alone. Her efforts to introduce modern education
to Muslim girls were not liked by the Muslim clergy. We know about some of these
things because Savitribai, while writing letters to her husband, mentioned the
contribution of Fatima Sheikh. A brief profile of Fatima Sheikh is now part of
Maharashtra’s Urdu school textbook.
Fatima
Sheikh’s Obscurity Can Be Explained Through Three Propositions:
One, Fatima
Sheikh never wrote any treaties on her life or work, which is why we know so
little about her. On the contrary, Savitribai and her husband Jyotirao Phule,
wrote a lot. They penned thesis, essays, plays, and poems and even love letters.
Although one can be deterministic, and blame the twice-born historians for
ignoring anti-caste reformers like Fatima Sheikh, we must acknowledge the fact
that there is not enough material available that can give us a clue about her
life and contributions.
Two,
Savitribai and Jyotirao Phule fit well in the anti-caste social movement
narrative in Maharashtra. Their writings and works resonate with the
Dalit-Bahujan movement. A range of scholars like Gail Omvedt and Rosalind
O’Hanlon has documented their contribution in this sphere, and B. R . Ambedkar
dedicated his book Who were the Shudras to Jyotiba Phule. On the contrary, the
Dalit-Bahujan movement largely ignored the contribution of Fatima Sheikh. We
don’t know the reason for this. The Dalit movement effortlessly adopted
non-Dalit ‘backward class’ icons like Phule, Shahuji Maharaj, Narayana Guru,
Basavanna and others, but failed to acknowledge the likes of Fatima Sheikh. It
is for the researchers to find out if this is due to the sectarianism of the anti-caste
movement or some other reason.
Three, even
Muslim scholars largely ignored the contributions of Fatima Sheikh. A Muslim
woman, fighting for a casteless society and for modern education for girls
probably does not gel with the dominant Muslim narratives. Fatima Sheikh and
Savitribai established the school for girls in 1848. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
established Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875, which later became
Aligarh Muslim University. Khan is considered as one of the harbingers of
modern education in India and rightfully so. But Fatima Sheikh was not accorded
the same status despite doing equally pioneering work.
Fatima
Sheikh continues to fight for her rightful place in history.
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Dilip
Mandal is a senior journalist.
Original
Headline: Why Indian history has forgotten Fatima Sheikh but remembers
Savitribai Phule
Source: The Print