For centuries, castes have dictated almost every aspect of religious and social life in India, with each group occupying a specific place within the complex and hierarchical society. The Dalits or “untouchables” are the poorest and most discriminated members of caste society. And Nangeli , as you may have imagined, she was a dalit .
Nangeli lived with her husband Chirukandan, logically also Dalit , in Cherthala, a small coastal town in the kingdom of Travancore (now Kerala state in southern India). Some nets and a hut were her only possessions. Due to their status as untouchables, they had many obligations and taxes to pay, including the mulakkaram , the breast tax that Dalit women they had to pay if they wanted to cover their breasts. In addition to filling the coffers of the upper classes, this tax served to maintain the caste structure, since the naked torso was a sign of respect towards the upper castes and, in this way, they could also be identified simply by the way they looked. they dressed The clothing marked the social identity, and the upper part assumed a symbolic role. Still, by paying you could cover yourself.
Young Dalit adolescent girls They received the visit of the official on duty and established the tax they would have to pay throughout their lives if they wished to be covered. And Nangeli, outraged and humiliated by that injustice that only forced women of her caste, one fine day, at the beginning of the 19th century, said enough. She walked through the streets of her town with her breasts covered without having previously paid the tax. As expected, some neighbor of her town denounced her and received a visit from the collector of the kingdom. He required her to pay the tax and she refused. After threatening her with the corresponding punishment for that infraction, she Nangeli took a machete and, right under her nose, she cut off her breasts and handed them over to him on a palm leaf.
If I don't have breasts, I don't have to pay the mulakkaram
The officer, terrified, ran away. When Chirukandan returned home, he found Nangeli's body in a pool of blood. She had bled to death, but her sacrifice was not in vain. The news spread like wildfire throughout the kingdom and many women from the lower castes rebelled against paying the tax, in what became known as the Channar revolt . A revolt that, repressed on many occasions with brutality, the women of the lower castes kept dormant for more than 30 years until they achieved their objective. The rebellion had reached such a scale that the British government and Christian missionaries pressured the Travancore government to give in. And he did it in 1859. Trying to please everyone, dalit women were allowed cover her breasts without paying any taxes, but the restriction that they could not imitate the dress of women of the privileged castes was maintained.
Cherthala came to be known as Mulachiparambu , “the land of the woman with breasts”.
