Maharashtra
has always played a leading role in the social movements in India 
language over knowledge and wrote a commentary on Bhagwad Gita
in Marathi, the language of the masses. This is the land where Sant Tukaram
(circa 1608-1650) fought with all his strength against the hegemony of old Brahminical culture, wrote about 8000 lyrical abhangas (short poems), was executed for it as being a Shudra he had no right to read or write as per the varna system of Hinduism, and was allegedly killed for his revolt against the old decayed (but still strong) social order where no one but the priest class was lord of all socioeconomic privileges. This is the land where the great Shivaji
, nearly contemporary of Sant Tukaram, became the first crowned King in Maharashtra who ruled for well-being of the masses. This is the land where Mahatma Phule
(1827-1890) and his wife Savitribai Phule started a real social revolution of the masses, started girl education in India by opening the first girl school at Pune, and challenged the hegemony supremacy of Hindu law which kept a large section of people away from all kind of knowledge for ages. And finally, this is the land where Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
(1891-1956) hit a final blow on the varna system by converting to Buddhism with almost half a million of his followers in this very city from which I am typing this post making Buddhism again a living religion in its motherland after being uprooted for about a thousand years. This is the land of revolution, counter-revolutions, and again revolutions.
has always played a leading role in the social movements in language over knowledge and wrote a commentary on Bhagwad Gita in Marathi, the language of the masses. This is the land where Sant Tukaram (circa 1608-1650) fought with all his strength against the hegemony of old Brahminical culture, wrote about 8000 lyrical abhangas (short poems), was executed for it as being a Shudra he had no right to read or write as per the varna system of Hinduism, and was allegedly killed for his revolt against the old decayed (but still strong) social order where no one but the priest class was lord of all socioeconomic privileges. This is the land where the great Shivaji, nearly contemporary of Sant Tukaram, became the first crowned King in (1827-1890) and his wife Savitribai Phule started a real social revolution of the masses, started girl education in India by opening the first girl school at Pune, and challenged the hegemony supremacy of Hindu law which kept a large section of people away from all kind of knowledge for ages. And finally, this is the land where Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) hit a final blow on the varna system by converting to Buddhism with almost half a million of his followers in this very city from which I am typing this post making Buddhism again a living religion in its motherland after being uprooted for about a thousand years. This is the land of revolution, counter-revolutions, and again revolutions.
