Bahuli , doll in Marathi is just another broken doll with her loving and progressive father dreaming about educating her and setting an example of girls education in the society.

Today on Savitri Bai Phule’s birth anniversary, let’s all bow our heads to a small innocent girl who was all of 9 years when she became the first Martyr in the cause of female education and emancipation.
Kashibai ( Lovingly called bahuli by her Father ) Ghole was the daughter of renowned surgeon Dr Vishram Ramji Ghole,

About 150 years ago, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule along with a group of like-minded people from Pune founded Satyashodhak Samaj (Truth Seeking Society) in Pune to eradicate casteism and promote modern ideas like female emancipation through women’s education.
Among the smattering who attended and bolstered the proposal of founding Satyashodhak Samaj was Dr Vishram Ramji Ghole.
Dr Ghole, who later would also become the president of the Samaj, was a well-known surgeon ,holding the title of ‘Honorary Surgeon of the Viceroy’. Though from so called ‘backward caste’ , he enjoyed a good rapport with elites of all hues, including those from the fiercely conservative upper class.

Dr Ghole was a strong proponent of women’s empowerment and believed in setting a personal example and thus enrolled his first born daughter Kashi( Bahuli) to school.
Women going to schools and colleges was inimical and antithetical to most in the society especially the elites .
It was believed that educating women would turn them sinners and would ruin the entire generation.

Dr. Ghole used to fondly call his daughter Bahuli. He sent Bahuli alias Kashibai to school despite hostility. Disregarding the contempt of the people, he kept busy in educating his daughter.  But he probably did not know that his naive daughter would have to bear the consequences of this. At first he had to face opposition from his own family.  Later, opposition to his initiative started from outside as well. His ingenuous daughter had to bear the brunt of their disapproval.
Now the narrative gets a little sketchy and details are not available.
What is clear, however, is that Kashibai was born on September 13, 1869, and died on September 27, 1877.
But the most accurate and accepted narrative is that Dr Ghole’s relatives fed the gullible girl a ladoo ( a sweet dumpling) which was mixed with glass shards .
The innocent girl all of 8 years ate the sweet mound and died due to internal bleeding.

Dr Ghole was shattered and grieved for his daughter.
Three years later he erected a fountain in his daughter’s memory.
This fountain, located close to the Ghole family home in Jhamre Chavdi, became known as Bahulicha Haud.
It had a fountain in the middle and a circular enclosure.

A few decades ago, when the Dagadusheth Ganpati Temple was constructed at its present place, the fountain was relocated to its present unceremonious place – in a corner of the courtyard of Faraskhana Police Station.( 300 metres from the famed Ganpati)
Here, it lives a life of neglect.

Undeterred by his tragedy, Dr Ghole continued to stand for women’s right to education and participated in the setting up of Huzurpaga Women’s School in Pune in 1884. He educated his younger daughter Gangubai, who became a scholar of Vedic religion of considerable standing.

Our history is sprinkled with so many such forgotten fables . Today we take so much and so many things for granted. The martyrs and the revolutionaries due to whom not only we got our freedom, but social awakening need to be acknowledged and feted.

Like this virtuous girl who got lost in the reams of our raucous history pages ,lets dig her out and ensure her place in the hallows of our history