The Kallumaala Samaram - Why is it denied its significant place in History?

Dr.Malavika Binny

Caste oppression was in its heyday in the eighteenth- nineteenth centuries in Kerala, a fact observed
by colonial administrators and the archival records alike. Caste practices in Kerala were indeed
inhuman and deplorable, including practices of both untouchability as well as unapproachability and
various practices of ayyitham(pollution by contact) and theendal(caste-transgression). One such
instance was of the practice of maintaining caste distance with the Pulaya , regarded as one of the
lowest castes in Kerala having to walk at least 66 paces behind a Namboothiri Brahmin. The very
sight of a person belonging to one of the so-called lower castes was considered to be polluting.
Folklore from this period such as the story of Mathilerikanni mention that upper castes could slay a
lower caste person for touching them or even being visible in their line of sight. Texts like
Vyavaharamala written in the 16th century which is very similar to the Manusmriti in content and
which was used by the ruling house of Travancore as a code of law till the enforcement of Monroe
reforms have several chapters dedicated to punishing caste based transgressions. Some of the
punishments include pouring boiling lead into the ears of a shudra if he happens to listen or
overhear the Vedas. Another punishment mentions that women from the lower caste if found to be
having any sexual liaison with an upper caste must have their heads shaved off and starved to death
after being publicly flogged. Similar to this was another punishment given to upper caste women
found in a relationship with a shudra men, which would entail the woman being exiled after having
her head tonsured and smeared with pock marks indicating her ‘immorality’ and being made to ride
on a donkey through the province. Canter Visscher, a Dutch priest who was in Kerala from 1661-
1666 also notes that the lower castes were a ‘miserable lot’ and lived sub-human lives and that
there were not allowed to enter the houses or temples of the upper castes. Francis Buchanan also
notes that there were about 40,000 slaves in Kerala in 1801 CE – a reference to ‘slave-castes’ or the
untouchable communities.

The case of the Pulaya women in particular was one which speaks volumes about the caste
oppression that the untouchable community were subjected to, in the past in Kerala. The Pulayas
were tied to the soil as several inscriptions from the 9 th century CE (for instance the Thiruvalla/Huzur
Copper Plates) onwards attests; along with the gift of land, the Pulayas who worked on the lands and
their services were also gifted to the donee by the rulers. The Pulayas and the Parayas , two castes
which were thought of as the lowest in the caste hierarchy was also prohibited from wearing new
clothes or lower body garments which were longer than knees. They were not allowed to wear gold
ornaments or blouses. One of the worst forms of oppression was that there were disallowed from
wearing upper body garments particularly in the presence of upper caste landlords. They were made
to wear garlands and necklaces made out of stone to signify their lower caste status. It is against this
backdrop, that the Kallumaala Bahishkarana Samaram led by Ayyan Kali, the revolutionary dalit
leader from Kerala becomes significant not only as an anti-caste protest, but only as a challenge to
Brahmanical patriarchy and a historical struggle for human dignity. Alas, the struggle has not yet
found its place in Kerala History textbooks or even in mainstream histories of Kerala.

So, what was the Kallumalla Samaram?

On 24 October 1915, a riot broke out between the lower castes and the upper caste at a place called
Perinad in the district of Kollam in Kerala. The cause of the riot was the defiance of caste rules by
Pulaya and Paraya women who had started to cast off the kallumalla (garland of stones) which they
had to wear as part of their caste insignia being inspired by the Shanar rebellion to wear the
melmundu(breast-cloth), which had angered the upper caste who attacked them. Much like the case
of the Balais mentioned by Dr.B.R.Ambedkar in his Annihilation of Caste, the Pulayas were given
several threats by the upper caste to stay within their caste boundaries. Ayyan Kali, who was by then
a prominent leader of the Dalits in Kerala raised a slogan of ‘oru adikku randi adi’ (two slaps for one)
against the threat. The upper caste Nairs and Namboothiris unleashed violence against the lower
caste and the latter retaliated leading to a riot-like situation. It came to be known as the Perinad
Mutiny. In December, a meeting which witnessed the gathering of hundreds of dalit women at the
Peeranki Maidan at Kollam in a circus tent, Ayyan Kali issued a declaration to cast off the stone-
garlands and for the right of dalit women to wear the melmundu (upper body garment). He also
asked the upper castes to accept the right of dalit women not to wear the kallumalla and to wear
upper body garments. Hundreds of women who were gathered at the meeting threw broke their
stone garlands and threw them away as a mark of liberating themselves from the shackles of caste.
What is to be understood is that this was not just a historic event in the anti-caste struggle ,but a
milestone in the gender history of South India and also in the history of human rights.

While there has been some discussion on Nangeli and breast -tax in the public domain in the recent
past, the kallumalla samaram remains under represented though it has comparatively more
evidence. There was not even a single program held this year to commemorate the historical
struggle and no mainstream newspaper even dedicate a column of news regarding it on 24 October.
It must also be remembered that other than a single aided college in Punalur, Kollam, there are no
educational institutions or universities which bear the name of the Ayyan Kali who when what his
greatest wish was, responded that it was to see 10 graduates from among the Pulayas. He was also
the one who led an agitation at Oorotambalam in Thiruvananthapuram to enroll a dalit student
called Panchami in the public school which led to violent attacks on the dalits by the upper castes
and eventually led to the burning down of the school building at Oorotambalam. The marginalisation
of dalits and dalit histories continue in different forms – in terms of dalit leaders not being given due
recognition, in the state not recognising and acknowledging their contributions to society, in the
non-commemoration of historical events in which dalits prominently figured in, in side-lining them
as dalit-exclusive events and not understanding them as events that changed Indian history. This
marginalisation should also be understood as epistemic violence against the dalits. It is not only
during instances of violent rape and murder such as the ones that happened in Hathras and Walayar
that one’s conscience should be awakened to the issue of caste -oppression, but also in every day
acts of caste, denial and invisibilization at both the macro level and also in acts of micro-aggression
against the lower castes that caste is perpetuated and reinforced.