This year marks the 157th birth anniversary of Mahatma Ayyankali (1863-1941), a major icon from the Pulaya community. A large number of civ...
This year marks the 157th birth anniversary of Mahatma Ayyankali (1863-1941), a major icon from the Pulaya community. A large number of civil society collectives, political parties and government agencies are celebrating the event, clearly reflecting a rejuvenated interest in Ayyankali’s thoughts and actions among subaltern communities in Kerala.
He has been remembered as one of the most influential anti-caste Dalit activists in colonial Kerala who effectively challenged caste-based restrictions in education, public space and social interactions in the late 19th century.
During last year’s Jayanti celebrations, the government of Kerala renamed the Victoria Jubilee Hall, an iconic colonial monument at Trivandrum, as “Mahatma Ayyankali Hall”, recognising his contributions to bettering the lives of Dalits in the state. This has been considered the biggest official recognition that Mahatma Ayyankali received in the state so far.
Assertion of Dalit power
Born in the untouchable Pulaya community, Ayyankali started his emancipatory mission by questioning a range of purity-birth based atrocities through a multi-layered resistance model in Travancore, a princely state that remained highly conservative in the hands of caste oligarchy.
In 1893, he rode a bullock cart (villuvandi) with brass bells, draping a white lungi, white vest, a matching shawl, a white turban, along with a thick moustache. As riding animal...
