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Sathya Shodak Samaj

Satya Shodak movement was started by Mahatma Jyotirao Phule in 1873 in Maharashtra.It was essentially a socio-religious movement.The rules and regulations of the Satyashodak Samaj included a ban on discussion of political questions.Any sudra was free to join the Samaj as a member but people belonging to the upper castes were either listed as friends of the samaj or admitted as members after some time only when other members of the samaj were convinced about their outlook and actions. The Sathyshodak samaj attacked the Brahmin priests who insisted on acting as intermediaries between God and Devotees.They believed that there was no need for any intermediary in matters of religion and refused to recognise the traditional role of the Brahmins as custodians of Hindu religion or interpreters of scriptures.The satyshodak strongly opposed the stranglehold of the bureaucracy dominated by Brahmins in their times.They totally rejected the Vedic tradition and the Aryan heritage. They regarded the Aryans as conquerors and destroyers of the indigenous non-Aryan culture. They launched vigorous attack on vedas and described them as frauds.Phule and his followers reserved their wrath for the intermediaries and were not willing to strike at the roots of exploitation of the peasantry and the working class by exposing the misdeeds of British government, the landlords and industrialists.