Vaikom Satyagraha

Vaikom Satyagraha

Subject : History

Section: Modern INDIA

Concept :

• Tamil Nadu Chief Minister announced that the government was planning year-long events to commemorate the Vaikom Satyagraha that was launched to end caste discrimination in a local temple a century ago.

Vaikom Award

• The award would be given to eminent personalities or organisations that worked for the welfare of oppressed sections beyond the State borders.
• It would be awarded on Periyar E.V. Ramasamy’s birth anniversary on September 17, which is also being observed as Day of Social Justice by Tamil Nadu.
• Periyar was among the leaders who took part in the movement and went on to earn the title ‘VaikomVeerar’.

About Vaikom Satyagraha

• Vaikom Satyagraha, from 30 March 1924 to 23 November 1925, was a non violent agitation for access to the prohibited public environs of the Vaikom Temple in the Kingdom of Travancore.

Causes

• Kingdom of Travancore was known for its rigid and oppressive caste system and hence Swami Vivekananda called Travancore a “lunatic asylum”.
• The campaign, led by Congress leaders T. K. Madhavan, K. Kelappan and K. P. Kesava Menon, was noted for the active support and participation offered by different communities and a variety of activists.
• Most of the great temples in the princely state of Travancore had for years forbidden lower castes (untouchables) not just from entering, but also from walking on the surrounding roads.

The movement

• The agitation was conceived by the Ezhava Congress leader and a follower of Sri Narayana Guru, T. K. Madhavan.
• It demanded the right of the Ezhavas and ‘untouchables’ to use roads around the Vaikom Temple.
• Mahatma Gandhi himself visited Vaikom in March, 1925.

Reach of the movement

• The movement was backed by Gandhiji, ChatampiSwamikal, and Sree Narayana Guru.
• Prominent Leaders in Kerala such as T. Madhavan, K.P. Kesava Menon and George Joseph launched the movement.
• Periyar and KovaiAyyamuthu from Tamil Nadu worked in tandem with leaders in Kerala despite facing repressive action.
• The campaign gained popularity throughout India, and supporters arrived from around the country.
• Punjab’s Akalis helped by establishing kitchens to feed the Satyagrahis.
• Even Muslim and Christian authorities backed the initiative.

Impact

• Travancore government eventually constructed new roads near the temple for the use of lower castes.
• The roads, however, kept the lower castes adequately away from the near environs of the Vaikom Temple and the temple remained closed to the lower castes.
• After the intervention of Mahatma Gandhi, the agitation was given up and a compromise reached with Regent Sethu Lakshmi Bayi who released all those arrested and opened the north, south and west public roads leading to Vaikom Mahadeva Temple to all castes.
• Only in 1936, after the Temple Entry Proclamation, was access to the eastern road and entry into the temple allowed to the lower castes.
• Vaikom Satyagraha markedly brought the method of nonviolent public protest to Kerala.
• This was the first time in Kerala that an organised effort for the fundamental rights of untouchables and other backward castes was carried out on such a large scale.
• It became India’s principal human rights campaign.
• The Satyagraha movement became a trial ground for significant methodologies such as Satyagraha.
• It instilled reason in the people.