The reform movements of the 19th and early 20thcenturies that had worked wonders in the South have run out of steam. Pressure is building up on the beneficiaries of these movements to forget the glorious moments of their struggle.
It was in the southernmost part of the state of Travancore, which now constitutes the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, that the revolt against social and political oppression first took concrete shape. Travancore, which merged with neighbouring Cochin, and the Malabar district of Madras presidency in 1956 to form the state of Kerala, is today remembered widely as one of the handful progressive princely states.
But at the dawn of the 19th century it was under social despotism of the worst kind. Hindu orthodoxy barred women belonging to castes relegated to the lower rungs of society from covering their breasts and the Maharaja’s regime collected tax on if they dared to cover their breasts. In 'A Social History of India', a product of painstaking research, the late Dr. S.N. Sadasivan says the breast tax was one of more than 120 extortionist levies the princely regime imposed on poor communities.
The first to openly challenge the cruel social order was Vaikunta Swami (1809-1851) who dubbed its defender, the Maharaja, 'neechan' (evil-doer) and his protector, the East India Company, 'ven neechan' (White Evil-doer). At the instance of orthodox Hindu elements who feared his growing influence, the Maharaja had him arrested and brought to the capital where he was subjected to torture. Public protests forced the ruler to release him. His followers belonging to the Nadar (also known as Shanar or Channar) community today revere him as an incarnation of Vishnu.
Christian missionaries, who were engaged in promotion of education and won some converts from the Nadar community, constituted another force that acted as an agent of change. They encouraged women to defy the obnoxious bare breast rule, pointing out that Christian women in the northern parts of the state, belonging to the ancient Orthodox Church, were not subjected to such restrictions. However, when Nadar women appeared covering their breasts, Nair defenders of Hindu orthodoxy tore up their upper garments. The authorities characterized the events of the period as 'Channar Revolt'). A royal proclamation of 1829 commanded Nadar women 'to abstain in future from covering the upper parts of the body'.
The Nadars refused to be cowed down, and the British tacitly supported them. In a bid to mollify the British the Maharaja’s regime allowed the Christian converts to wear upper garments, like women of the older Christian communities. The Nadars, who maintained matrimonial links across religious lines, were not satisfied. So were the British, who cited Queen Victoria’s promise not to discriminate against her subjects on grounds of caste and creed. The Maharaja’s regime then permitted Nadar women of either religion to cover their upper body in any matter whatever, but not like Nair women. But the struggle continued until the caste supremacists and the regime agreed to equality in the matter of dress.
The Channar Revolt was the starting point of a social revolution which swept the South. Unlike the renaissance movement which originated in Bengal, the first region to come under the British heel, the southern movement was not initiated by English-educated Hindu 'upper castes'.