By Joseph Maliakan
AYYANKALI was born on 28 August 1863 to Ayyan and Mala in Venganoor, a small village 13 kilometers north of Thiruvananthapuram. His father, Ayyan, was the Adiyalan (slave) of Panangott Ottilathu Parameswaran Pillai and would spend all his time working for the landlord. In appreciation of his loyalty, Pillai gave five acres of land to him, and therefore Ayyan could lead a relatively better life than other Pulayars. Even then, Ayyan persuaded his children to labor for the landlord.
AYYANKALI was born and brought up in a social milieu where caste discrimination and untouchability were practiced with extreme brutality. The Kerala society was the most caste-ridden and practiced the worst forms of untouchability, far worse than those prevalent in other parts of India. It had elements of untouchability as well as unseeability!
AYYANKALI is the first-ever social reformer Kerala society produced from among the Dalits. He was a born revolutionary who organized the untouchables and fought for their human dignity and rights. Born and brought up on his father’s five acres of land, when he went out, he faced several impediments. He thought about the reasons for the various discriminations faced by his people, the Pulayars.
These violations of the rights of his people, he concluded, had no logic or validity. AYYANKALI, who was brought up in the forest, believed in the unbridled freedom of the human being. When he came out, the first thing he encountered was that he and his people had no right to use public spaces, including public roads.
He did not wait to go and meet people in authority and ask for permission to use the public road. The road is for everyone. Therefore, he walked on the road. He was least bothered about the consequences.
In 1893, by traveling through a public road in a Villuvandi (a specially decorated bullock cart that only an upper caste could ride), Ayyankali willfully violated an upper-caste diktat that only they could use a public road. The act of even buying a Villuvandi by a Pulaya itself was a violation of the social code, let alone riding it dressed in white clothes with a headgear.
Before he undertook the Villuvandi yatra, Ayyankali had organized the youth in his community into a fighting force willing to undertake missions to enforce the rights that are natural to all human beings.
He then unilaterally urged his people, who had been from time immemorial working for their landlords seven days a week, to stop working on Sundays and keep that day for rest and discussing problems faced by the community and finding solutions.
His next step was to regulate the time of work. The Pulayars were used to working in the fields from sunrise till sunset, that is, a minimum of 12 hours a day. Ayyankali advised his people to restrict working to eight hours, and his people followed his instruction in letter and spirit. The landlords could do nothing about it; they accepted the timings as a fait accompli.
AYYANKALI further asked his people to take their wages for their work only in cash, not in kind, that is, raw rice, half of which used to be chaff. Money, he said, could buy what they wanted and with that they could prepare what they wanted and eat it as they liked, he taught his people.
As a member of the Srimoolam Praja Sabha in 1911, Ayyankali never tried to get any favors from the government for the Dalits. He always strived to ensure that the human and constitutional rights denied to the Dalits because of years of caste discrimination were restored to them.
In his lifetime, he never begged for anything before anyone. He forcibly obtained certain rights for his people. That was his specialty. He got the right to use public roads by riding a Villuvandi, which until then was prohibited for a Dalit.
Since 1914, the confrontation between the Dalits and Nairs over the use of public space, mode of dressing, use of ornaments, and cleanliness had been increasing. There were several uncivilized strictures against the Dalits. They were not allowed to wear any clothing above the waist or below the knees; this rule applied to both men and women. The women also had to wear Kallaum Malayum. This particular ornament of the Pulayar women was a mark of subordination and savagery.
AYYANKALI urged the Pulayar women to stop wearing these ornaments. In south Travancore, the women threw them away. But in Quilon, similar movements were opposed by upper castes, leading to violent clashes. He convened a meeting of the Pulayars, presided over by the reformist Changanassery Parameswaran Pillai. At the meeting held at Neyyatinkara, Ayyankali exhorted all the Pulayar women present to cut off their Kallum Malaum. Thousands of Pulayar women cut off the ornaments, and it was endorsed by the people irrespective of caste or creed.
When Pulaya children were denied admission to government schools, Ayyankali organized the first agricultural strike to force the upper castes to admit Pulaya children to schools. Here also, Ayyankali’s action was unique in that the agricultural strike was not carried out for increased wages or reduced working hours but to ensure the implementation of educational rights. Much before B.R. Ambedkar, Ayyankali, who had no formal education whatsoever, had realized that the Dalit’s path to attaining equal rights lay in education.
