RAS question
Jyotiba Phule founded which organization for the upliftment of lower castes?
Correct answer: (A) Satyashodhak Samaj.
Jyotiba Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in Maharashtra in 1873 to oppose caste discrimination and promote education among lower castes and women.
Explanation
Jyotirao, also known as Jyotiba, Phule is associated with the Satyashodhak Samaj, founded in Maharashtra in 1873. Its setting and purpose are central to the answer: it worked against caste discrimination and supported education for lower castes and women. Cambridge Core lists a chapter titled "The Satyashodhak Samaj in the 1870s" in Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century Western India, corroborating the historical context. For an RAS question asking which organisation Phule founded for lower-caste upliftment, that combination points directly to Satyashodhak Samaj, not later or separate organisations linked to other anti-caste leaders.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) All India Scheduled Castes Federation is wrong here because Phule is linked to Satyashodhak Samaj, while this option is stated to have been founded by Ambedkar.
- (C) Depressed Classes Mission is wrong because it was a different organisation, not the 1873 Maharashtra organisation founded by Jyotiba Phule for this purpose.
- (D) Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha is wrong because the question asks for Phule's organisation, while this option is stated to have been founded by Ambedkar in 1924.
Concept
This tests modern Indian social reform movements, especially anti-caste mobilisation in western India. RAS repeats such questions because reform organisations, founders and target social groups are standard factual anchors in modern history.