Kerala to mark 100th year of satyagraha against untouchability

A century ago, Alummoottil Govindan Channar, an avarna (lower-caste person), was one of the few car owners in the erstwhile Travancore kingdom and also its biggest taxpayer.

- Jaikrishnan Nair

However, as an “untouchable” he was not allowed to drive past temples in his car. He had to get out and walk to the other side where his upper-caste driver would pick him up. Untouchability was so deep-rooted in Travancore and other parts of Kerala those days that Swami Vivekananda had once called the state a “lunatic asylum”.

That’s why the 1924 satyagraha against untouchability that started in Vaikom, a town 35km from Kochi and known as the ‘Varanasi of the South’, is regarded as a milestone in Kerala’s history. It eventually paved the way for the Temple Entry Proclamation of 1936 that granted members of the lower castes the right to worship in Hindu temples.

Launched with Gandhi’s support

On March 30, 1924, two untouchables - a Pulaya named Kunjappi and an Ezhava named Bahuleyan - along with Govinda Panikkar from the upper-caste Nair community, took the road around the Vaikom Shiva temple that was closed to the “polluting castes”. They were arrested and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.

But they were acting on an idea that had arisen three years earlier in 1921 when social activist T K Madhavan had met MK Gandhi at Tirunelveli to seek his advice and support for launching an agitation for temple entry. Gandhi had approved of the agitation and suggested civil disobedience and non-violent satyagraha.

Gandhi’s involvement in the struggle proved crucial as it mobilised the educated upper-caste Hindu opinion in favour of temple entry. Madhavan wisely allied himself with the Congress’ larger movement, became a member and participated in the party’s Kakinada session in 1923 that made untouchability one of its main concerns and authorised the state Congress to take charge of the struggle.