FIRST HUMAN RIGHTS AGITATION IN INDIA

'VAIKOM SATHYAGRAHAM' 1924-2023

- V. Kumaresan

The atrocity of treating the toiling class majority as impure filthy humans has persisted for centuries in India. People with their birth-based superiority have been denigrating the majority. This mentality of the self-glorified upper caste people could be perceived by us even today. The Vaikom struggle was the first Human Rights struggle in India, that drew the attention of people all over the country.

Three types of ‘impurity’

The low-caste people were considered impure and distanced in three different ways: i) Untouchability, ii) Unseeability and iii) Unapproachability.

The people who glorified themselves as ‘superior’ believed they would be polluted by mere touch of the low-caste people. They kept them at a distance at all times and prevented them from coming on the line of their vision. They believed seeing them itself would make them impure. Roads, streets and water sources like wells were believed to become polluted by the use of low-caste people. Hence, their approach to those places was prohibited by the upper caste fanatics. Thus, there were untouchability, unseeability and also unapproachability.

Human Rights struggle

Among these three types of ‘impurity’ causing factors, the Vaikom struggle of 1924 - 1925 was a protest against the third category – “unapproachability”. The victory in that struggle scripted history. Vaikom town in Kerala was then under the princely state of Travancore. The low-caste people were prohibited from using the streets around the Mahadeva temple in Vaikom. Trespassing was strictly banned for quite a long period.