PM Modi pays tribute to activist Phule

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday paid tribute to activist Mahatma Jyotirao Phule on his birth anniversary, a statement released here said.

"Mahatma Phule devoted his life to empowering the downtrodden through education and social reform. Tributes to him on his birth anniversary," the Prime Minister said.

Phule was an activist, thinker, social reformer, writer and theologist from what was then the Bombay Presidency, which, after Independence in 1947, was split into Maharashtra and Gujarat.