Nangeli was a Ezhava woman who lived in the early 19th century at Cherthala in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore in India. She questioned the mulakkaram (breast tax) system that existed during that time, by which women of lower caste were required to pay a tax to cover their bosom in public. She refused to either uncover her bosom or pay the breast tax. When the pravathiyar (village officer) of Travancore asked her to pay tax, she chopped off her breasts and presented them in a plantain leaf to him. She died the same day due to loss of blood.
She was an Ezhava woman who lived in princely state of Travancore in early 19th century. She voiced her dissent by refusing to pay a tax for covering her breasts.
Ezhava was a backward community and the modesty of covering breasts in public was only reserved for elite women. Women of lower caste were supposed to pay taxes should they wish to cover their bosom in public. Furthermore, the Mulakkaram (i.e. Breast Tax) varied from person to person based on size and shape of bosom. Incidentally, men had to pay similar tax to keep a mustache.
When the official demanded the tax from Nangeli she refused flatly and in protest chopped off her breast and offered it to the official. Taken aback by this outrage, the official left the house, leaving Nangeli unattended, bleeding to death. She died the same day, and later her bereaved husband jumped in her funeral pyre.
This incident cause a great furor and Mulakkaram was eventually abolished (after 10 long years).
Although passed down through word of mouth to subsequent generations, today Nangeli exists only in the minds of few researchers and reformers.
Nangeli's dissent and the desperation of her act emphasizes the level of injustice large population had to undergo for centuries. It reminds us how systemic the oppression was (/is) and how it ensured the resources remained centralized. The story of Nangeli is the symbolic story of unheard India which lurks in darkness and never makes it to the breaking news because it is way too inconvenient for developed India.
We need to remember her and countless unknown individuals who died to earn basic human dignity. Because it is too easy to repeat the past when we forget it.
Source :- https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-lesser-known-people-of-India
She was an Ezhava woman who lived in princely state of Travancore in early 19th century. She voiced her dissent by refusing to pay a tax for covering her breasts.
Ezhava was a backward community and the modesty of covering breasts in public was only reserved for elite women. Women of lower caste were supposed to pay taxes should they wish to cover their bosom in public. Furthermore, the Mulakkaram (i.e. Breast Tax) varied from person to person based on size and shape of bosom. Incidentally, men had to pay similar tax to keep a mustache.
When the official demanded the tax from Nangeli she refused flatly and in protest chopped off her breast and offered it to the official. Taken aback by this outrage, the official left the house, leaving Nangeli unattended, bleeding to death. She died the same day, and later her bereaved husband jumped in her funeral pyre.
This incident cause a great furor and Mulakkaram was eventually abolished (after 10 long years).
Although passed down through word of mouth to subsequent generations, today Nangeli exists only in the minds of few researchers and reformers.
Nangeli's dissent and the desperation of her act emphasizes the level of injustice large population had to undergo for centuries. It reminds us how systemic the oppression was (/is) and how it ensured the resources remained centralized. The story of Nangeli is the symbolic story of unheard India which lurks in darkness and never makes it to the breaking news because it is way too inconvenient for developed India.
We need to remember her and countless unknown individuals who died to earn basic human dignity. Because it is too easy to repeat the past when we forget it.
Source :- https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-lesser-known-people-of-India
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