Tamil Nadu and Kerala Chief Ministers MK Stalin and Pinarayi Vijayan came together in Kanyakumari’s Nagercoil on the evening of Monday, March 6, to commemorate 200 years of the Thol Seelai Porattam or Maaru Marakkal Samaram – a decades-old struggle by women of the oppressed castes in erstwhile Travancore to cover their upper bodies. Travancore comprised parts of present-day south Kerala and south Tamil Nadu.
Wearing clothes to cover chests was at the time – early 19th century – deemed a right only enjoyed by women of the dominant castes (from Nairs to Brahmins in the Hindu caste hierarchy). Led by social reformers of the time, a number of women belonging to the oppressed Nadar and Ezhava communities agitated several times and were physically abused in retaliation by dominant caste men, before being legally allowed to cover their upper bodies in 1859.
Both Stalin and Pinarayi said they were honoured to be part of the 200th anniversary of the courageous revolt. Pinarayi Vijayan belongs to the Thiyya community, which falls under the OBC category. Stalin is from the Isai Vellalar community, which is identified among the Most Backward Classes.
The Thol Seelai Porattam opposed the Sanatana, caste-based discrimination, and paved the path for social justice, said CM Stalin. "Today, Tamil Nadu has reached the highest place in education, employment, economics, and civilization. We weren't in this status 50 years ago, or 100 years ago. In the past, all of us could not go to all the restaurants. Some eateries installed boards of no entry to the Panchamars and people with leprosy. There was a ban in theaters. Even in the trains, separate places had been allocated for oppressor castes to eat. After the commencement of train services in India, there were demands from people to designate separate compartments for each Varna," Stalin said.
Recalling further instances of oppression, which he said were higher in this part of the state (south Tamil Nadu which was part of erstwhile Travancore), Stalin spoke of people not being allowed to carry umbrellas, wear slippers, or even cover their roofs with tiles. The discrimination against women of the oppressed castes, and practices like disallowing upper garments, were also not found in other parts of the state, he said. Touching on the myth of Nangeli, the story of a woman who cut off her breasts to stop paying the breast tax, Stalin said that the place the incident is said to have happened, Mulachiparambu, is now a place of worship. "The protest against the breast tax started in 1822. For the next 50 years, this land witnessed the bravest protests," CM Stalin said.
CM Stalin and CM Pinarayi at the commemmoration event
Kerala's Maaru Marakkal Samaram and Tamil Nadu's Thol Seelai Porattam are one and the same, said CM Pinarayi. He linked the 19th-century ban on covering upper bodies to the 'reformations' brought on by the then King of Travancore Marthanda Varma, in his attempts to create a 'Sanatana Dharma Rashtram'. "Many inhuman systems were introduced, one of the most heinous acts being the taxation on parts of the human body (a debated topic about breast tax is discussed below). They used the law to stop women of the oppressed castes from covering their bodies. The Thol Solai Porattam was one of the struggles against it. The contemporary and political significance of the struggle is made clear by the presence of MK Stalin. The Thol Solai Porattam was not just against caste discrimination, it was also a political fight," Pinarayi said.
He then associated the Sanatana dharma, brought on by Marthanda Varma, with the sanatana Hindutva projected by the Sangh Parivar in India today. "They are trying to establish Brahmanical supremacy and bring back the dictatorial rule of the old days. That is proved by the continuing attacks on Dalits and Muslims. Communalism by anyone is the enemy of humanity. A few states now exist without communalism. Tamil Nadu and Kerala are two of them," the Kerala CM added.
It is important that the event took place in Kanyakumari, which has a significant number of Hindus and Christians, and where the BJP has a formidable presence.
“Aiyya Vaikunda Swami (a social reformer) began the struggle, bringing together women and holding meetings with them. There were two to three stages in the struggle before a final settlement was reached. During this period – in 1813 – slavery was banned in Kerala by a proclamation from the Travancore kingdom. But the Channar revolt took longer,” says historian Rajan Gurukkal, who co-authored History of Kerala: Prehistoric to the Present with Raghava Varrier.
Channar Revolt or Nadar Lahala are the other names of the struggle, with Channar being a surname used by people of the Ezhava caste, which now falls under the Other Backward Classes (OBC). The seeds of the agitation began when women in the Nadar community, after converting to Christianity, began covering their upper bodies. Wearing a jacket (blouse) and a mundu on top of it was a sort of dress code used by dominant caste women. Members of the dominant caste began attacking oppressed caste women who covered their upper bodies, saying that this would make it difficult to identify the caste of the women.
In the first stage of the struggle, the police were called in and the strike was diffused, but nothing came out of it, Rajan Gurukkal says. In the second stage, they could get the British dewan in the Travancore court, Colonel John Monroe, to issue an order allowing Christian Channar and Nadar women to wear upper-body clothes. But this too was revoked with pressure from the king’s council.
By then, more women of the oppressed Hindu castes had joined the struggle. “When we talk about the Channar Lahala, the focus always goes to the male leaders of the time. It is true that it wouldn’t have happened without people like Ayyankali (a 20th-century Dalit rights activist who gave support to the women), but the Dalit women who took part in it boldly, were risking their lives, and very few of them are mentioned by names in the archives. They were absolutely invisiblised by history,” says Malavika Binny, Head of Department and Assistant Professor, Department of History, Kannur University.
The agitations continued violently till on July 26, 1859, when the Governor of the then Madras, Charles Trevelyan, persuaded the king of Travancore to issue a proclamation allowing all women to wear upper-body clothes of their choice. “While it is great that major leaders like Pinarayi Vijayan and Stalin are coming together to commemorate the event, I wonder if a woman leader will also be there,” Malavika said, before the event took place. Her fears appear to have come true, for there did not seem to be any woman on the stage. “All these fights were against caste, but it was also a women’s rights issue. The Channar Revolt was a fight against Brahmanical patriarchy and now, only the Brahminical bit is remembered, not so much the patriarchal bit,” Malavika says.
Malavika also has a different opinion about the breast tax or mulakkaram that was believed to have been levied back then. Many historians argue that it was only a name given to the taxes levied on women, as opposed to the thalakkaram taxed on men. Rajan Gurukkal too is of that opinion. He says that thala only referred to the headcount of slaves, and it was the land owner who paid the taxes, the amount being directly proportional to the number of slaves he had. Mulakkaram was only a term used to identify the taxes on women, he says.
Malavika however asks what the need was to differentiate the taxes levied between women and men, unless women were paid much less, in which case too, it is a form of discrimination. “If two categories of taxes had to be recorded, it means they were different in terms of amount or some other way. Women also have heads, so why do you use a different term called mulakkaram. We also have a reference to something called meesai karam, which was levied from men who wanted to sport moustaches. This means that bodily adornment, even if it is something natural as a moustache, was taxed. Then there is a high possibility of mulakkaram being a tax for covering breasts,” she says.
When women of certain castes won the rights to wear jewellery / Courtesy - Drishya Bhoomika exhibition
Both theories – of it being an identifier of gender, or it being a tax for parts of the body – do not have a lot of recorded history as evidence to support them. “Whether it was a tax on women’s labour or for wearing clothes on the upper-body, both show the history of discrimination against women,” Malavika adds.
Another interesting observation is made by historian Stalin Rajangam. He tells TNM: “The discussion of whether the taxation happened or not, aside, I’d also want to understand why there is a denial or acceptance of this history. For any caste group, history is not as important as how the rest of society views them. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Nadars went through a movement of cementing their identity as a business community, tracing lineage to the Pandya kingdom and such. All throughout history, in Tamil Nadu, not just the Nadars, but other castes have also similarly wanted to be identified with the socially powerful groups. For that reason, the history of oppression may be erased or let go of. Reminding a caste group about their past oppression, to them, feels like a denial of who they want to be seen as. They do not want to be identified as lowered-caste.”
KA Manikumar, historian and author of Murder in Mudukulathur—a book on the Mudukulathur Caste Riots that took place in Tamil Nadu in 1957 – views the event as a statement. “History comes to the defence when there is a threat to hard-won rights. I see celebrating 200 years of the revolt as a call to collective action against oppression.”
Manikumar also comments on the denial of this history pointing out that across castes, there is a similar tendency. “We see that among sections of the Pallar community as well, who want to now be identified as Devandra Kulla Vellalars and as Kshatriya.” He also stresses on the importance of the commemoration event happening in Kanyakumari. “The empowerment of Christian Nadars through conversion and education is a reason the Hindu Nadars flock to the RSS and BJP. In Kanyakumari, there isn’t caste solidarity among Nadars. They are divided by religion.”