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1. Today is the 125th death anniversary of Gopal Ganesh Agarkar — liberal, rationalist, social reformer, crusader for individual rights, fearless writer. This bilingual thread is on his battles on behalf of women in 19th century Maharashtra.
2. Let me begin with the very last scene of ‘टिळक आणि आगरकर’, the celebrated Marathi play by Vishram Bedekar, on the friendship turned rivalry between these two truly great men.
3. Agarkar is dead at the tragically young age of 39. Tilak has gone to pay respects to his departed friend. Everything is quiet in the room till he hears someone wailing. Tilak asks what the matter is.
4. He is told that the gardener’s daughter is crying because she has given birth to a girl. Tilak thunders: “Someone go tell her that no girl should be in tears in Maharashtra from now on, because this is the land where Gopalrao Agarkar lived.”
5. In Marathi: “जा कोणीतरी जाऊन सांगा त्या माळ्याच्या मुलीला, ह्या पुढे महाराष्ट्रात मुलींना रडण्याची गरज नाही. इथे गोपाळराव आगरकर होऊन गेले आहेत"
6. Agarkar once wrote that the family is the building block of society, and that family life is based on the relationship between men and women. So we cannot think of a better society without first thinking about gender relations within the family.
7. He also said in the same essay that choice was important in the conduct of married life. Women had many children not out of choice but because of oppression/lack of choice within families.
8. In one of his most resonant essays, Agarkar argued that girls should get the same education as boys -- and that too in the same classroom, in the same school.
9. In the same essay, he dismisses critics who said that educated girls would then go out to work, thus trapping men at home for cooking, washing, taking care of children. "Is there any divine rule that only women should be doing such work?" asked Agarkar.
10. The Age of Consent Bill of 1891 split educated Marathi society down the middle. At a time when child marriages were the rule, the bill sought to raise the legal age of sexual intercourse for girls from ten to twelve years. Agarkar came out strongly in support of the bill.
11. However, Tilak opposed the bill, not because of its aim, but on the more subtle point that a foreign government had no right to interfere in Hindu social practices.
12. Agarkar lashed out against those who said that the Age of Consent Bill would undermine Hindu religion, asking where such religious pride was when Hindus were persecutes by the Portuguese in Goa or by Muslim rulers across India.
13. He wrote a lovely essay on enjoying the good things in life, for both genders (अलंकारमीमांसा). His rhetorical question: "If putting on jewellery, wearing fine clothes, eating tasty food and living in a beautiful house is pointless, then why live at all?"
14. One of Agarkar's curious obsessions was the clothes people wore in his times. He often wrote about this. He once used utilitarian logic to argue that Indian women should wear jackets with their sarees, and shoes when they went out of their homes.
15. Agarkar believed that dynamic societies should embrace change, and that his goal was to strengthen Indian/Hindu society rather than undermine it.
16. Agarkar has been described as the Saint of Rationalism, विवेकवादाचा संत, but the even better description in Marathi is: देव न मानणारा देवमाणूस, or the divine atheist.
17. A few years ago, Raj Thackeray, whose grandfather was a great admirer of Agarkar, drew this cartoon. Tilak TLs Agarkar: "Gopalrao, I am increasingly convinced that you were right after all".
18. This is the writer Vishram Bedekar on Agarkar (in Marathi)
19. And Agarkar himself on the task of the social reformer (in Marathi). I hope to translate this later
20. Finally, these lines from a famous Marathi poem dedicated to social reformers such as Agarkar.
श्रुतीस्मृतींना आता विसरा
अंधभक्तीचा पांगुळगाडा
मोडूनितोडूनि उपडा पाडा
पाताळी तो नेऊनि गाडा
करा साजरा यापरी दसरा!
--- गोविंदाग्रज
श्रुतीस्मृतींना आता विसरा
अंधभक्तीचा पांगुळगाडा
मोडूनितोडूनि उपडा पाडा
पाताळी तो नेऊनि गाडा
करा साजरा यापरी दसरा!
--- गोविंदाग्रज
21. I missed uploading this tweet earlier.
Agarkar fought for the rights of young widows. A British official arrogantly described widows as "chartered libertines" who are allowed "greater latitude of conduct". Agarkar tore into him in an essay, 'मि. अशबर्न आणि असंख्य हिंदू विधवा'
Agarkar fought for the rights of young widows. A British official arrogantly described widows as "chartered libertines" who are allowed "greater latitude of conduct". Agarkar tore into him in an essay, 'मि. अशबर्न आणि असंख्य हिंदू विधवा'
