Ayyankali (1863-1941)

 

Mahathma Ayyankali (1863-1941), the revolutionary leader of the Dalits of Kerala, was a major figure in Kerala Renaissance.  He was born in Venganoor, Thriuvananthapuram into a marginalized caste and his parents were agricultural labourers.  Dalits were denied almost all fundamental rights at that time.  Ayyankali questioned the practices and customs and proved that even a single man resist the society at large and make a difference.  His ‘Villuvandi Yathra’ in 1893 is one of the best examples for this.

Ayyankali was inspired by the fellow reformists like Ayyavu Swamikal and Sree Narayana Guru.  When he enrolled the Dalits student Panchami in the school at Ooruttambalam, the upper caste Hindus set the school on fire.  Ayyankali, then, declared the first ever strike of Agricultural labourers.  The government intervened and removed the school restrictions.  Similarly his protest against wearing stone ornaments of Dalit women too became successful.  In 1912 he was nominated to be a member of the Srimoolam Praja Sabha and fought for the rights of Dalits.  This extract taken from ‘Ayyankali: A Dalit leader of Organic Protest’, co-authored by Nisar and Meena Kandasamy, talks about the establishment of Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangam (SJPS).

Education, the powerful resource was denied to Adiyalar (Slave-Castes) of Kerala even in colonial period.  The upper castes and intermediary caste groups not only utilized this facility of modern education but were more conscious of the need to guard it from outside intervention, especially from the Dalits. As far as the Dalits were concerned, they possessed knowledge only about the various techniques and methods of agricultural productions.  So, they can’t enter into the public sphere.  However from the teachings of Thikkatt Ayyavu Swami, he decided to take equality and universal brother-hood.  He was actually more concerned about the economic development of the Dalits rather than any kind of Spiritual upliftment.

Moreover, Ayyankali understood that neither Christianity nor Brahma Nishta Sabha was going to solve all the problems faced by the Dalits.  So he decided to create a platform for the Dalits.  In 1907, The Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangam (SJPS) was formed under his leadership.  It was not meant for any single caste, but it unified all the depressed servile people (slave-castes).  Apart from fighting against inequality and social discrimination, it brought solidarity among the depressed castes and unified them under the title of Sadhu Janam.  Though SJPS has similarities with name, policies and programs of SNDP (Sree Narayana Gharma Paripalana Sangam), its activities can be considered the genesis of the emergence of Modern Dalit Consciousness in Kerala.

----Thulasidharan V