Official Website of CSI Parish Kattakada, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Official Website of CSI Parish Kattakada, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
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Wide Default

Upper Cloth Agitation

 

1. Dark Ages


     Kerala society had a long dark phase, which the present historians and leaders tend to forget for their convenience.  Those were the days when the foundations of our society were based on the Varna system; the Brahmanas controlled the society, the Kshatriyas held the political power, the Vaisyas or the middle class and the sudras tiled hard to feed the upper classes. The vast majority of people had no right to wear decent cloth or move about the thoroughfare. Any move to protect the basic human rights was portrayed as treason or radicalism. 


    In those days, slavery was common in the village society. Human beings were sold as though they were cattle or land. Even their shadow was considered to be impure, as it is described in the great poet Kumaran Asan’s “Chandala Bhishuki”. Hence, these people were kept away from the common society as “un-touchables”. They had no right even to worship in public places ear-marked for this.  But, it may be baffling to know that the so-called “upper caste” people, who pretended themselves to be the guardians of Kerala’s eternal moral values lived in a condition of immorality which anybody should be ashamed of. Polygamy (multiple wives), polyandry (multiple husbands), lose families where the father of the children had no right over them, etc., were the corner-stones of the order they preserved. Naturally, they thought it to be correct, when they denied the right for wearing upper-cloth to the women of lower castes.