Jyotirao Govindrao Phule[a] (11 April 1827 - 28 November 1890) was an Indian social activist for the Dalit people, an thinker, anti-caste social reformer and writer from Maharashtra. He criticised the role of Brahmins in Hindu society and blamed the Brahmins as conspiring to keep the lower castes oppressed and suppressed. In his book, Gulamgiri, He openly thanks Christian missionaries and the British colonists for making the lower castes realise that they are worthy of all human rights too. Notably he dedicated his book Gulamgiri ( slavery), a seminal on women, Caste and reform, to the African American movement to end slavery.[17] His akhandas were organically linked to the abhangs of Marathi Varkari saint Tukaram.