Latest news with #Savitribai
Time of India
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Students question post-doctoral fellowship selection at Savitribai Phule Pune University
Pune: Students who were not selected for Savitribai Phule Pune University's post-doctoral fellowship have raised concerns over alleged irregularities in the process. Applicants and student activists have claimed that some of the selection panels did not have subject experts, and in one case, have alleged nepotism — pointing to the selection of a former HoD's daughter. The university advertised the fellowship in Sept last year and recently published a list of 14 selected candidates. A few days ago, senate member Krushna Bandhalkar wrote to the vice-chancellor, urging him to cancel the published selection list, order a formal investigation into the matter, and conduct fresh in-camera interviews to ensure transparency. "Several students flagged serious issues. Being a public university, it is bound to follow reservation norms during the selection of candidates, which were clearly violated. Moreover, some of the selected candidates are reportedly related to serving or retired university officials, raising concerns of nepotism. There are also allegations of money being exchanged for selection. Given the gravity of these claims, we request the VC to scrap the current process and announce fresh interview dates with a more transparent, in-camera procedure," Bandhalkar said in the letter. Rahul Sasane, a student activist, alleged discrepancies in the selection process, pointing out that although the university has nearly 50 departments, only 14 students were selected. "In fact, students were chosen from just six departments, with some departments seeing multiple selections while the rest were completely overlooked," he said. Moreover, while most fellowships have an age limit of 50, this one was inexplicably capped at 32, he said. "There are also serious concerns about favouritism and the lack of subject experts on the selection panel, as raised by several students." Sasane said that a letter was submitted to the vice-chancellor demanding the cancellation of the published list and implementation of a fresh, transparent process. "The university must also ensure that applications for these posts are invited annually. After the fellowship was initiated in 2019, no selections were made until the latest advertisement in Sept 2024." Chhaya Pandharkar, a PhD holder from the Hindi department and one of the rejected applicants, raised questions over the transparency. "There was no subject expert from the Hindi department on the three-member selection panel. I filed an RTI to understand how marks were distributed, but the reply provided no clarity on the criteria or how scores were awarded out of 100 to each candidate." Pandharkar also pointed out discrepancies in the number of fellowships awarded. "The advertisement mentioned that typically 20 post-doctoral fellowships would be granted, but only 14 were given. Some of the selected candidates lacked complete documentation. Without subject experts or clear marking parameters, how can we trust the process? At the very least, the university should have awarded the full 20 fellowships as advertised," she added. University officials could not be reached for comments. Protest against removal of Buddha statue Students staged a protest at the university's main building on Thursday, demanding the re-installation of a Buddha statue that was removed a day before from the education department. They said if the statue, a gift from foreign students, was not restored by Buddha Purnima on May 12, they would intensify the agitation. A university official said that the statue, which stands 5.5 feet tall, must comply with certain rules and regulations before it can be re-installed. "We will examine all aspects — who gifted it, how it was installed, and whether it can be re-installed— before taking an appropriate decision."
The Wire
25-04-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
Perpetrators Are Victims: We Are Seeing the Age of Sanitised History
With the CBFC recommending 12 changes and cuts to the film Phule , it seems we are not far from a future where Brahmins are portrayed as victims of the caste system. The trend we are witnessing follows an Orwellian script: War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. This aversion to truth serves a dangerous agenda. Historically, the untouchables suffered the most brutal oppression during the Peshwa rule. When Savitribai Phule walked the streets of Pune to teach young girls, she was met with hostility – stoned and shamed by the Brahmins and their supporters. Even Anandibai Joshi, often celebrated as India's first woman doctor, faced resistance from her own Brahmin community for seeking education. So why this sudden attempt at historical denial? Why this newspeak ? Consider a scene from the 2019 biopic Anandi Gopal : when Anandi chooses to pursue education, her Brahmin neighbours – Soman, Godse, and others – throw garbage into her home, accusing her of defiling society by stepping beyond prescribed norms. Interestingly, this portrayal didn't provoke objections (perhaps because it dealt with tensions within the same community, revealing volumes about the selective sensitivities of the CBFC). So what has changed now? Why is the CBFC, along with sections of the Brahmin community, suddenly afraid of a scene showing a Brahmin boy throwing a stone at Savitribai? The censor board causes harm to the society not just by what it allows, but by what it chooses to cut or conveniently 'reinterpret'. When historical truths are sanitised to maintain comfort, censorship shifts from regulation to active collusion. It stops being neutral and becomes part of the problem. The CBFC should be a fair and independent body that supports free expression, not a tool used to protect dominant and powerful groups. Often, the most important art is the kind that makes us uncomfortable. When Chaava depicted the undeniable fact of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb committing atrocities against Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, no one feared it would incite hatred toward Muslims today. Then why this anxiety around Phule ? Do they worry that showing a Brahmin child attacking Savitribai will provoke anger toward Brahmins today? The reaction to Chaava stoked Hindu-Muslim tensions – now the fear is that Phule might augment the Brahmin-Bahujan divide. Is that why history is being whitewashed? The intent here is not to juxtapose Chaava with Phule. As such Chaava offers a limited portrayal of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj—focusing heavily on his torture while sidelining his intellect, compassion, and depth. In doing so, it misses the opportunity to present a fuller historical picture. One possible source of anxiety around Phule might be that it disrupts the Hindus versus Muslims debate and poses a threat to the Hindu consolidation that was deliberately generated after the release of Chaava . We must remember: when injustice against one group is normalised, it threatens justice for all. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' Just as Chaava has been misappropriated in contemporary times to fuel anti-Muslim sentiment through communal interpretations, Phule too carries the potential to be instrumentalised in ways that generate anti-Brahmin sentiment by emphasising their role as historical oppressors. Selectively invoking or erasing history to serve contemporary politics is a perilous game. History is messy, uncomfortable, and rarely convenient – but it must be told honestly. The Phule controversy has shattered the myth of castelessness in Indian society. Also read: Anurag Kashyap is Right. Indians Need to Confront the Uncomfortable Truth About Caste Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap recently called out this glaring hypocrisy. A case in point is Anant Mahadevan, the director of Phule , who, in an attempt to defuse backlash, stated: 'I'm a staunch Brahmin. Why would I malign my community?' But that statement only underscores the deeper problem. In a society where individuals proudly flaunt their 'Brahmin genes', they cannot then disown their community's historical wrongdoings. You can't cherry-pick pride and disavow guilt. If we only preserve flattering narratives, we are no longer historians – we become propagandists. At its core, this controversy reveals a deep discomfort within the Brahmin community about confronting their past. Had there been genuine efforts at moral or spiritual reparations – if not material ones – since independence, such resistance to truth-telling wouldn't be this fierce. Acknowledging the persistence of caste-based prejudice and discrimination would be a powerful first step. Activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan, in The Trauma of Caste , offers tools for this kind of reckoning – worksheets rooted in Equality Labs' Unlearning Caste Supremacy workshop. But unfortunately, such transformative tools remain confined to the marginalised. Had the reparation processes begun post-independence, perhaps today's truth-tellers wouldn't be met with censorship but with solidarity. But it is never too late! Shweta Ahire teaches at a college in Thane. Views expressed are personal. This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.
India Today
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Phule review: Pratik-Patralekhaa's revolutionary film dimmed by dull storytelling
In one of the most heartening scenes, days before he dies, Jyotirao Phule looks up at the sky, questioning God whether his doors would open for the lower caste people. He mentions how he's seen the temple closed for him and his community all his life. While this particular sequence comes towards the end of Ananth Mahadevan's latest directorial, 'Phule', it encompasses the crux of the biographical heartbreaking that not many know about Jyotirao Phule and his ever-supportive wife, Savitribai Phule - the fiery revolutionaries who kickstarted the movement for women's education in India and fought for the lower caste. However, it's sadder that the first Hindi film on these great reformers ended up as a dull and uninspiring film opens in 1897, when Pune was under the grim tragedy of the bubonic plague that killed many. Through Savitribai (Patralekha), we are transported back in time to when these visionaries began their fight against caste, patriarchy, and orthodox beliefs. And while they are challenged at every step, cow dung, stones and death threats also follow suit. You watch in disbelief at the strength the two displayed as they took on Brahmins, their own family, and society to ensure young girls received an education. And while on the path, they also championed the upliftment of lower-caste people, supporting widows, preserving their dignity, and even digging a well in their compound so that untouchables could access water. But the film, shown in a muted colour palette, never fully takes you in with its banal the film stands out is in how honestly it portrays how religion and caste have been the biggest shackles for society to break out from. Also, as expected, women have to suffer at great extremes. The film, thankfully, is not preachy and becomes more like a mirror to the audience, showing how these beliefs have only marred the growth of any nation. When Phule talks about how India is a sensitive country and religion can be used to create a divide, you cannot help but chuckle at how we continue to be in the same position even after hundreds of years. One should probably take a leaf out of these stories to help build a better future for our next to performances, Pratik Gandhi effortlessly becomes Jyotirao Phule in this biographical drama. From dialogue delivery and expressions to those powerful emotions, full marks to Pratik. The makers ensured that Savitribai's contribution to the movement is highlighted, giving Patralekhaa a chance to sink her teeth into a powerful role. She also gets one of the most powerful monologues in the film when she confronts Brahmins about seeking as much hierarchy as the British, exposing the politics of the ones in even after an earnest try, she never wholly becomes Savitribai. Her dialogues seemed more like a child reciting rehearsed lines on stage rather than an actor feeling them. Actors Alexx O'Nell, Amit Behl, Joy Sengupta, and Akshaya Gurav ably added support to these lead stars, while Darsheel Safary was completely wasted as Phule's adopted for director Ananth Mahadevan, for Bollywood fans, he may be known to have helmed a thriller like 'Aksar'; not many know he also directed Sindhutai Sapkal's Marathi biography 'Mee Sindhutai Sapkal', which earned him a National Award. The filmmaker picked a similar slow and docu-style approach for 'Phule' too. However, the two-hour-nine-minute runtime suffers from sluggish pacing, making the film drag midway. Given that it's such an inspiring story, you somehow want to stay connected, but the snail-paced screenplay makes it a weary watch. The songs and the flute-heavy background score also do not do much service to the how little we know of Jyotirao Phule, the first Mahatma of this country, 'Phule' definitely deserves a watch. And if you are not up for it, at least read up on him and Savitribai's radical journey. They deserve a lot more recognition, respect, and glory. And just like Phule looking to the heavens for answers, perhaps it's time we look into our own history with the same hope - that someday, stories like theirs are told with the fire they lit.3 out of 5 stars of 'Phule'.Tune InMust Watch
Scroll.in
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
‘Phule' review: A dull biopic of fiery revolutionaries
Ananth Mahadevan's Phule goes down the list of Key Milestones Associated with the Great Reformer. The Hindi-language Phule, co-written by Mahadevan and Muazzam Beg, dutifully dramatises the inciting events and turning points in the lives of the nineteenth-century activist Jyotirao Phule and his supportive wife, Savitribai. You have Jyotirao (Pratik Gandhi) teaching Savitribai (Patralekhaa) to read and write; the opposition Jyotirao faces from his family for his views; the vicious backlash from Brahmins to Phule's critique of the caste system. The dung and stones hurled on Savitribai; the pregnant Brahmin widow sheltered by the couple; Phule's campaign to persuade barbers to stop tonsuring Brahmin widows; Dalits prevented from drawing water from a well – it's all there in a studious, cursory fashion. A muted colour palette and flute-heavy background score accompany Jyotirao and Savitribai as they move seemingly inexorably from one hard-earned triumph to the next. Against the odds, they educate girls from all castes. Their bond is tested, but also strengthened, by sustained and frequently violent attacks. The parade of events leaves barely any room for an exploration of ideas. Phule's revolutionary critique of Brahmanical values, his analysis of the actual meaning of ossified traditions, his understanding of the caste system – these aspects are largely missing in a 127-minute drama that is as dull as it is dutiful, sincere but stilted too. Phule was better served by Nilesh Jalamkar's Marathi-language biopic Satyashodhak (available on Prime Video) or even the short episode on him in the Bharat Ek Khoj series on Doordarshan. Satyashodhak included Phule's trenchant views on why caste injustice lingers, and who is responsible. Satyashodhak also provided a fuller portrait of Phule's life beyond his activism, such as his work as a contractor. Mahadevan's biopic has a dual focus, revealed in its title. The film is equally about Savitribai, portrayed here as a co-author of Phule's vision. Fatima Sheikh (Akshaya Gurav), who teaches students alongside Savitribai, is a key secondary character. Patralekhaa is more committed to her role than Pratik Gandhi, whose Jyotirao is unusually subdued and flat. The fire is missing from Gandhi's portrayal – an off day for an otherwise gifted actor. The film itself douses the more radical aspects of Phule's singular achievements. Pratik Gandhi is barely present, Patralekhaa marks her attendance more strongly. And so the film trundles on, from one familiar history lesson to the next. Play
