As there was a prevalent tradition of marrying girls before they hit puberty, she was married at the tender age of nine to thirteen years old Jyotiba Phule, who was determined to reform the society which held deeply entrenched conservative views regarding gender and caste. Girls were denied a formal education because of the conservative views that people held, widows' heads were shaved and they were looked down upon even after the abolition of Sati. He took the responsibility of educating Savitri Bai and accomplished this by educating her at home; the responsibility of her higher education was taken care of by Jyotiba's friends Sakharam Yeshwant Paranjpe and Keshav Shivram Bhavalkar.
After gaining education she enrolled in two teacher's training programs, first in an institution run by Cynthia Farrar in Ahmednagar and the second course at a normal school in Pune along with Fatima. As the teacher's program ended she started teaching girls at the Mahrawada in Pune alongside Sagunabai, a revolutionary feminist herself and a mentor to Jyotirao. Later, they started their own school at Bhidewada at the home of Tatya Saheb Bhide.
Their work was strongly opposed by the local conservative community. She used to carry an extra sari because she often had mud and dung hurled at her as her work was seen as an 'evil'. The opposition was from both the upper and lower castes. Jyotiba Rao's father, in the wake of opposition from the community having conservative views, asked both of them to leave his home. They then moved to one of the Jyotiba Rao's closest friends home, Usman Sheikh. Both Fatima, Usman Sheikh's sister, and Savitri graduated together and opened a school in 1849. Two educational trusts were established in the 1850s, the Native Female School, Pune and 'the Society for Promoting the Education of Mahars, Mangs' which later incorporated a number of schools led by Savitri Bai and later on by Fatima.
She opened Mahila Seva Mandal to spread awareness among women of their rights.
A total of 18 schools were established and teaching children from different castes and education of girls was furthered by their efforts. A care centre, Bal Hatya Pratibandhak Griha, for pregnant rape victims was also opened to help them deliver and save their children.
Other than being a teacher, a reformer and a strong opposer of the caste system, she was also a prolific poet and writer. At the age of 23, in 1854, she published Kavya Phule and Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar in 1892, a
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In Matter shall be lit the spirit’s glow,
In body and body kindled the sacred birth;
Night shall awake to the anthem of the stars,
The days become a happy pilgrim march,
Our will a force of the Eternal’s power,
And thought the rays of a spiritual sun.
A few shall see what none yet understands;
God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep;
For man shall not know the coming till its hour
And belief shall be not till the work is done.
> Sri Aurobindo, [_Savitri - I: The Secret Knowledge_](https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/33/the-secret-knowledge#p75-p76)
Hi y'all. I was re-listening to my favorite BtB episodes recently, and I just finished listening to the episodes on Savitri Devi. Robert goes into a significant discussion during Part 1 on the history of cat-burnings, and I was intrigued, so I went to the Wikipedia page on cat-burnings. It turns out there is some controversy over some of the anecdotes Robert used.
For instance, Wikipedia references this story regarding Louis XIV as told by James Frazer:
>It was the custom to burn a basket, barrel, or sack full of live cats, which was hung from a tall mast in the midst of the bonfire; sometimes a fox was burned. The people collected the embers and ashes of the fire and took them home, believing that they brought good luck. The French kings often witnessed these spectacles and even lit the bonfire with their own hands. In 1648 Louis XIV, crowned with a wreath of roses and carrying a bunch of roses in his hand, kindled the fire, danced at it and partook of the banquet afterwards in the town hall.
The issue with this story is that this story comes from a book called The Golden Bough, a book containing a good deal of speculation and theorizing. From the book's Wikipedia page:
>Godfrey Lienhardt notes that even during Frazer's lifetime, social anthropologists "had for the most part distanced themselves from his theories and opinions", and that the lasting influence of The Golden Bough and Frazer's wider body of work "has been in the literary rather than the academic world."
Another event Robert brings up is The Great Cat Massacre, as recorded by Robert Darnton in The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. This story has its critics as well. From Wikipedia:
>Darnton's approach to the historical texts he uses, both in the Cat Massacre chapter and others in the volume, has been criticised since shortly after the work's appearance for its simplistic assumptions. An early exchange between Darnton and French cultural historian Roger Chartier was subjected to a scathing analysis by Dominic LaCapra of the 'Great Symbol Massacre' involved.[5] Harold Mah in 1991 focused directly on Darnton's account of the 'Massacre', arguing ultimately that the author had 'suppressed' the actual nature of the source in pursuit of an engaging interpretation.[6]
None of this is to say that anti-cat sentiments didn't exist in Europe, that animal abuse wasn't a rampant problem in the past, or that the French haven't committed their share of crimes a
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