Opinion Two anti-caste revolts, a shared inheritance

Common to both these assertions is the role of caste in mediating social relations and the making of new publics. The 1823 Channar Revolt was not just about what to wear. It concerned civil rights and the rejection of a caste-enforced social order and discipline. It marked a churn in the Travancore kingdom that had been triggered by the arrival of a new modernity, introduced into the region by East India Company and British missionaries. Travancore was a Hindu kingdom, where the sovereign ruled on behalf of Lord Padmanabha, the deity who resides in Thiruvananthapuram, the seat of royal power. However, by the early 19th century the powers of the sovereign were on the decline. The East India Company’s influence was on the rise and the British resident had become influential in the affairs of the kingdom. Protestant missionaries who had the backing of the Company introduced their own set of values that had been shaped not just by Christian piety but also European enlightenment. Not surprisingly, many oppressed communities found in the new religion a faith that also emancipated from the oppressive stranglehold of caste. The Channar Revolt was an expression of agency by this new public that had rejected the caste order protected by the Travancore sovereign.

The years between the beginning of the Channar Revolt and the Vaikom Satyagraha were momentous and transformed the region. The cloth revolt inspired rebellions beyond the Travancore kingdom in many parts of Madras Presidency. In the heartland of the Thol Seelai Porattam, in the 1830s, Vaikunta Swami, born in a Nadar family, started a radical spiritual movement that had equality at its core. Influenced by the Tamil Siddha tradition, Vaikunta Swami challenged the custodians of caste and the religious sphere it maintained — he questioned all the seats of authority, old and new including the Brahmins, the king, and the missionaries. His call for freedom encompassed all spheres of human activity and the spiritual energy he unleashed impacted the Hindu society in Travancore in many unseen ways. Sree Narayana Guru (1854-1928), who followed, was well aware of the dialectic between the community and the individual, the material and the spiritual spheres. His message was: Man is of one kind, one faith and one God. Guru also said: “What one does for one’s self-happiness/ must also secure the happiness of the other.” He also acknowledged colonial modernity as an emancipatory presence.

The Channar Revolt was an essential rupture that allowed a people to discover their potential. In the years that followed, Travancore popularised English education, introduced Western medicine, and modernised public services. Institutions became secular spaces, of course as a response to numerous instances of public action and struggles. A new set of leaders — across castes and faiths — led reforms within their respective castes/communities and influenced larger transformations beyond their sphere of influence. Vaikom Satyagraha was a culmination of these changes. Guru and Gandhi had important roles in shaping its contours. If the Channar Revolt marked the assertion of a new communitarian identity, the Vaikom Satyagraha signalled the making of an inclusive Malayali identity. Both rebellions rejected the primacy of caste in public affairs. Ironically, a journey that began with women asserting their agency had few of them in the forefront as a new Malayali public emerged.

It is in this historical context that the camaraderie between Vijayan and Stalin becomes a reflection of political solidarity and inheritance. Their homes, the Dravidian Movement and the Communist Party, were built on ground prepared by the anti-caste movements of the 19th and 20th century. One of the leaders of the Vaikom Satyagraha was Periyar E V Ramaswamy, who arrived in the temple town as a Congress volunteer. He returned as an anti-caste crusader and radically transformed politics in the Tamil region. Vaikom inspired the Guruvayur temple entry movement in 1931. Two young Congress workers who came to the limelight as part of it were P Krishna Pillai and A K Gopalan. Both became founding leaders of the Communist Party in Kerala.