Vaikom Satyagraha: Struggle against Untouchability-Essay Question 1
Kannur University
Common Course
Readings on Kerala (1A02ENG)
1. “The Vaikom Satyagraha is a good example of the mutual
relationship between the local and national movements during the liberation
struggle.” Explain.
Vaikom Satyagraha was one of Kerala’s foremost organized
agitations for the eradication of the shameful practices of untouchability and
unapproachability. According to K N Panikkar, the humiliating treatments
practised in the name of caste included observance of distance pollution,
exclusion from public places of worship and denial of the civil rights enjoyed
by upper castes. People who belonged to ‘lower castes’ had no access to public
roads near temples, could not be appointed to government jobs, and their
children could not be admitted to government schools. It was in this context
that T K Madhavan, a prominent social reformer and journalist, considered
rightly as the original architect behind Vaikom Satyagraha, moved a resolution
in the Assembly in 1918 and while doing so claimed that “temple entry is my
birthright.”
The Diwan rejected this appeal citing the reason that it
may trigger religious disharmony in society. However, T K Madhavan met Gandhi
at Tirunelveli in 1923 to seek his advice and support for launching an
agitation for temple entry. Gandhi approved of the agitation and suggested
non-violence as the strategy. Gandhi also gave a message to the people of
Travancore emphasizing the untouchable’s right to worship in Hindu temples. After
Gandhi’s appeal, several upper caste reform associations supported the cause.
The Kerala Hindu Sabha, the Nair Service Society, the Yogakshema Sabha, etc are
some of them. T K Madhavan then took steps to establish closer links with the
national movement. He became a member of the Indian National Congress and
participated in the Kakkinada Session of 1923 as a delegate to attract
attention to the situation in Travancore. He eminently successes in this
mission, as is evident from the invitation extended to him to attend the
Working Committee of the Congress and to introduce a resolution providing for
the formation of an all-India committee for the eradication of untouchability.
T K Madhavan also became a member of the Kerala Provincial Congress Committee.
The satyagraha aroused considerable enthusiasm at the
local and the national level. Volunteers came from all over Kerala and the
number of those who offered to participate in it was so large that the
organisers had to make a public appeal to volunteers not to reach Vaikom
without prior permission and a certificate of character from an important
citizen. The satyagraha not only symbolized the struggle against untouchability
and caste oppression but also the nationalist quest for emancipation from
social and political bonds, for it was viewed as part of the struggle occurring
at the national level. The Vaikom Satyagraha is a good example of the mutual
relationship between the local and national movements during the liberation
struggle.
REF: Multiple Modernities, edited by Board of Editors, Kannur University, Cohin: Hornbill Publishing House, 2019. Print.
Paragraph:
Comments