He was the first to raise his voice against Brahmans in Maharashtra in the 1870s
Phule through his book Ghulamagiri (1872) and his organization Satyashodhak Mandal, proclaimed the need to save the lower castes from the hypocritical Brahmans and their scriptures
His Satyashodhak Mandal contained both an elite based conservative trend and a genuine mass-based radicalism
The urban educated Marathas were his most ardent followers