Vaikom Satyagraham - Introduction

Introduction

The Vaikom Satyagraha was the first systematically organized agitation in Kerala against orthodoxy to secure the rights of the depressed classes. For the first time in history, the agitation brought forward the question of civil rights of the low caste people into the forefront of Indian politics. No mass agitation in Kerala acquired so much all-India attention and significance in the twentieth century as the Vaikom Satyagraha. Vaikom is a small temple town in Central Travancore on the eastern banks of the backwaters of Vembanad Lake. The town is famous for its Shiva temple, which in the early twentieth century was the citadel of orthodoxy and casteism. As was the custom prevalent in those days, the Avarnas were not allowed to enter the temples. But at Vaikom, they were not permitted even to use the public roads around the temple. Notice boards were put up at different spots prohibiting the entry of Avarnas reminding them of their social inferiority. All the more unbearable to them were the fact that a Christian or a Muslim was freely allowed on these roads. An Avarna had to walk through a circuitous route, two to three miles longer to avoid the road beside the temple. It seems that when Ayyankali, a Dalit leader and member of Pulaya caste, had to travel through this road, he was asked to get down from his bullock cart, and walk through the circuitous route and his bullock cart without him was allowed to pass through the road.