GOD’S OWN LAND—ONCE
DEVIL’S OWN HELL
-
K. V.
Dominic (India)
Visitors call my
State God’s own land
Climate, landscape
prove it true
130 years back Swami
Vivekananda
visited Kerala and
called it “lunatic asylum”
True, it had a
notorious past in 19th Century
Full of filth with
caste system and social inequalities!
Untouchability at its
oppressive peak everywhere
Majority of people
belongs to lower caste
Men and women of
lower caste denied
covering their chests
before higher caste people
Low caste men and
women had to pay tax to government
when they become
labourers at fourteen
“Breast tax” and
“Moustache tax”!
In 1803, Nangeli, a
brave woman defied this law
And clothed her
breasts along with many others
Infuriated, tax
collector arrived
at her house with
police to collect tax
Instead of placing
money in a plantain leaf
she cut off her
breasts with a sickle
and presented them to
him!
Thus she sacrificed
her life in protest of the law
Her husband
Chirukandan jumped into
her funeral pyre
committing suicide
Arattupuzha Velaydha
Panicker,
another valiant youth
sacrificed his life
while protesting
against cruelty to low caste
This cruel law and
practice prevailed till 1859
Lower caste people
lived like slaves
Can’t worship in
temples, education denied
Women sexually abused
by high caste men
Cruel punishments to
those who protested
But this State is
God’s own land now
Literacy almost cent
percent
Highest wages for
labourers in India
Very few live in
poverty
Caste, gender
discrimination very little
Purely multicultural
and secular
Kerala owes deep
gratitude
to fights and
protests led by
several
spiritual-philosophic leaders:
Sree Narayana Guru,
Chattampi Swamikal,
Ayyankali, Sahodaran
Ayyappan,
Dr. Padmanabhan
Palpu, Mannathu Padmanabhan,
V T Bhattthirippad, C
V Kunjiraman,
Kumaran Asan, Vakkam
Moulavi
and many other
reformists
****