Remembering the Vaikom satyagraha

👌👏 #Vaikom100 https://t.co/whzpXlMkDn

— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) March 31, 2023

At the time, caste discrimination and untouchability was rife across India, with some of the most rigid and dehumanising norms documented in Travancore. Lower castes like the Ezhavas and Pulayas were considered polluting and various rules were in place to distance them from upper castes. These included a prohibition, not just on temple entry, but even on walking on the roads surrounding temples.

The Vaikom Satyagraha was launched in opposition to this. Amidst rising nationalist sentiment and agitations across the country, it foregrounded social reform. Not only that, for the first time, it brought Gandhian methods of nonviolent protest to Travancore.

A look back at the events at Vaikom, the historical context in which they occurred, and their enduring legacy.

The centenary celebrations of #VaikomSatyagraha will be kicked off tomorrow jointly with Comrade @mkstalin. The festivities will last 603 days, marked by programmes reminiscent of the historic struggle, a landmark in Kerala’s renaissance movement.#Vaikom100

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) March 31, 2023

The social context of Travancore at the dawn of the 20th century

The princely state of Travancore had a “feudal, militaristic, and ruthless system of custom-ridden government,” cultural anthropologist A Aiyappan wrote in Social Revolution in a Kerala Village: A Study in Culture (1965).

While the caste system was not unique to Travancore, some of the most rigid, refined and ruthless social norms and customs were seen in Travancore. Notably, the idea of caste pollution worked not only on the basis of touch but also sight. This was documented by travellers such as Portuguese Duarte Barbosa who wrote in his memoirs, “When (upper caste Nairs) walk along a street, they shout to the low caste folk to get out of their way … this they do and if one will not, the Nayre may kill him.”

In the second half of the 19th century, a number of social and political developments would usher in social change much faster than ever before.

First, Christian missionaries, supported by the East India Company, had expanded their reach and many lower castes converted to Christianity to escape the clutches of an oppressive system that continued to bind them. Second, with pressure from the British Resident as well as the accession to the throne of well-educated and somewhat westernised Maharaja Ayilyam Thirunal, many progressive reforms took place. Most important of these was the introduction of a modern education system with free primary education for all – even lower castes.

Lastly, forces of capitalism and these reforms created new social hierarchies – which were not always congruent with traditional ones. By the dawn of the 20th century, “there had begun to emerge among caste-Hindus,Christians and even avarna Hindus, especially Ezhavas, a significant educated elite,” historian Robin Jeffrey wrote in ‘Temple-Entry Movement in Travancore, 1860-1940’.

While religion and custom continued to be pervasive, and was even reinforced in various instances, the absolute material and intellectual deprivations of lower castes did not continue.

The rise of the Ezhava community

During this time, the Ezhavas emerged as “the most educated and organised untouchable community in Travancore”, political historian Mary Elizabeth King writes in Gandhian Nonviolent Struggle and Untouchability in South India: the 1924-25 Vykom Satyagraha and Mechanisms of Change (2015). The government’s education policies were significant in this regard.

“However, although some Ezhavas successfully pursued education as a portal to advancement, overall it offered little help in obtaining jobs in the government service, because such posts were reserved for members of the upper castes”, King writes. In 1918, out of 4000 jobs in the revenue department, 3800 were held by caste Hindus, a numerical minority in the population.

Furthermore, while a small Ezhava elite had begun to emerge, ritual discrimination was still rife and in many circumstances, this overrode the material and educational progress made.

For instance, Aloommootil Channar, an Ezhava, was one of the few people in Travancore to own a car in the early 20th century. Whenever the automobile reached a point in the road where the Ezhavas were not allowed to pass, Channar had to get out of his vehicle and take another route on foot, rejoining the road a later where his car, driven by a Muslim driver, would meet him.

The continued pervasiveness of caste caused significant consternation among the Ezhava community and other such backward communities, sowing the seeds for agitations to come.

The lead up to the Vaikom Satyagraha

The issue of temple entry was first raised by Ezhava leader TK Madhavan in a 1917 editorial in his paper Deshabhimani. Inspired by the success of Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement, by 1920, he began to advocate for more direct methods. That year, he himself went beyond the restrictive notice boards on a road near the Vaikom temple in north Travancore to make a point.

But it was not easy. The 1920s saw upper-caste counter-agitations across Travancore – and the Maharaja refused to institute reforms, fearing backlash from caste Hindus. While previously the British may have intervened in favour of more liberal policies to avoid social unrest, at the time, they were too caught up dealing with the Non-Cooperation Movement. However, the lower castes found a new ally.

Till 1917, the Indian National Congress refused to take up social reform, “lest the growing political unity of Indians against the British got disrupted”, Bipan Chandra and others wrote in India’s Struggle for Independence (1988). But with the rise of MK Gandhi and increased activism within lower caste communities and untouchables, social reform soon found itself front and centre of Congress’s and Gandhi’s politics.

When Gandhi came to south India in 1921, Madhavan managed to arrange a meeting with him and secured his support for a mass agitation to enter temples. Due to various reasons, it would take two more years before any concrete progress was made in the matter. In the 1923 Kakinada session of the INC, a resolution was passed by the Kerala Provincial Congress Committee to take up anti-untouchability as a key issue. This was followed by a massive public messaging campaign and a movement to open Hindu temples and all public roads to avarnas.

Vaikom, a small town with a revered Shiva temple, was chosen as the location for the first satyagraha. Notably, to widen the appeal of the movement, leaders including Madhavan, chose not to emphasise on the issue of temple re-entry to begin with. Rather, the movement focussed on opening up the four roads around the temple to avarnas.

The satyagraha

Early morning on March 30, 1924, “a Nair, an Ezhava and a Pulaya, dressed in Khaddar uniforms and garlanded, and followed by a crowd of thousands, attempted to use the roads”, Robin Jeffrey wrote. They were stopped by the police and arrested, with the crowd dispersed. But this whole drama repeated itself again and again – every morning, three men of different castes would enter the ‘forbidden roads’ and court arrest – until the police stopped making arrests on April 10, barricading the whole area instead.

Between April and September, protests reached their peak. Protestors sat in front of the barricades, undertaking rigorous fasts and singing patriotic songs. The focus of the national media was on Vaikom at this time. Leaders such as Periyar, who was arrested multiple times, and C Rajagopalachari came to Vaikom to offer support and lead the protesters. On the other hand, counter-agitations raged on and protesters were often met with violence and intimidation from conservative caste Hindus.

In August, 1924, the Maharaja of Travancore died, following which, the young Maharani Regent, Queen Sethulakshmi Bai, released all prisoners. But when a large group of protesters marched to the royal palace in Trivandrum, she refused to allow all castes access to temples.

In March 1925, Gandhi began his tour of Travancore and was able to iron out a compromise: three out of the four roads surrounding the temples were opened up for everyone but the fourth, eastern road, was kept reserved for brahmins. This was finally implemented in November 1925,  when the government completed diversionary roads that could be used by the low castes without polluting the temple. On November 23, 1925, the last satyagrahi was recalled from Vaikom.

The legacy and the aftermath

That such a strong and colourful movement continued for over 600 days, non-stop, through social pressure, police crackdowns and even natural disaster – in 1924, Vaikom witnessed one of the largest floods in its recorded history – in and of itself, is admirable. Furthermore, the Vaikom satyagraha saw previously unseen unity across caste lines, which was crucial for this continued mobilisation.

Yet, the end to the satyagraha was unspectacular, resulting in a compromise which many could not digest. It would lead to a rift within the Congress with Periyar famously falling out with Gandhi over the issue. While Gandhi, as always, was keen on a good compromise, for Periyar, the struggle had to be much more radical.

Historian MR Manmathan argues in ‘Temple as the Site of Struggle: Social Reform, Religious Symbols and the Politics of Nationalism in Kerala’ (2013) that through the Vaikom Satyagraha, “the (upper caste) leadership of the Congress was able to coerce the caste-Hindus to compromise on the question of temple-entry as the only viable means to ward off religious conversion which challenged the very survival of the Hindu community”.

In November 1936, almost a decade after the conclusion of the Satyagraha, the historic Temple Entry Proclamation was signed by the Maharaja of Travancore which removed the age-old ban on the entry of marginalised castes into the temples of Travancore. Even looking at the Vaikom satyagraha with a critical lens, this eventual outcome can be seen as a major success.

It showed the effectiveness of Gandhian civil disobedience as a tool for protest. Furthermore, as ME King wrote, “Despite its shortcomings … the Vykom satyagraha brought untouchability, unapproachability, and unseeability to the forefront of political issues in India.”