IMAGINING EQUALITY: MODERNITY AND SOCIAL

TRANSFORMATION OF LOWER CASTES IN

COLONIAL KERALA

Thesis Submitted to
Mahatma <;andhi University
in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
ir History

P.SANAL MOHAN

S C H O O L O F SOCIAL SCIENCES
M A H A T M A GANDHI UNIVERSITY
KOTTAYAM - 686 041
KERALA, INDIA
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 11: COLONIAL TR.ANSFORMATIONS: SITUATING

THE EXPERIENCE OF LOW CASTE SLAVES IN NINETEENTH
AND TWENTIETH CENTURI' KERA1,A 16
Introduction 16
Structures of change 16
Caste, colonialis~nand low caste (:ommunities 22
Christianity, low castes and the missionary intcrfi~ce 3I
Conclusion 40

CHAPTER 111: EQUALITY AS COLONIAL MODERNITY:

MISSIONARY DISCOURSE AND SLAVE EXPERIENCE
Introduction
Q~lrstionsof method
Who were the slaves?
Slavery: Experience and nasrativ~
Agency and the power of the wold
Sin and repentance: Disciplining the slaves
Conclusio~i

CHAPTER IV: LOW CASTE SEARCH FOR RESOURCES 102

Introduction 102
The dellland for land and econonlic resources 101
The problem of cultural and sy~nholiccapital: Desire for education 118
Conclusion 133

CHAPTER V: PRATHYAKSIIA RAKSHA DAIVA SABHA AND THI':

IMAGINING OF EQIIALITY IN TWENTIETH CENTURY KERAI,A 135
Introduction 135
L-quality it1 the spiritl~;~l
and rclii:io~~s
rc;ll111 130
Spaces for negotiating social and political equality
Preparing to be equal: Reforming [he bodily practices
Notions of work and culture in the context of negotiations for equality
Engaging the symbolic realm as a means for achieving equality
Identity and social boundaries in the context of the struggle for equality
Conclusion

CHAPTER VI: MEMORY AN11 EXPERIENCE: DISCOURSES OF

SLAVERY
Introduction
Religious ideologies and social cr~tique
Modes of narrativising the history of slave suffering
Ritual discourse and rememory of sufferings
Transformation of slavery as imai:ery
Slavery as ;I foundationalist categxy
Essentialising slavery as a catego1.y in the religion of the oppressed
Conclusion

CHAPTER VII: DISCOURSES, OF HISTORY AND MAKING OF

COMMUNITY
Introduction
The place of history
Social movement, religiosity and history: Recasting history
Reconstituting history
Historicising 'lacks'
On the borderlines of history and fiction? Mythologizing slavery
Making of community through history
History as means to negotiate the present
Conclusion

CHAPTER VIII: CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
 ABBREVIATIONS

CWMASOAS UL - Council of World Mission Archives. School of

Orient; 1 and African Studies, University of London

CMS - Churcb Missionary Society

CMSA UB Churct Missionary Society Archives, University of

Birminghani

CMSCAK Churct, Missionary Society College Archives,

Kottay i m

IOR - India Office Records

KSAT - Kerala State Archives Trivandrum

LMS - Londo 1 Missionary Society

MCMR - Madra; Church Missionary Record

PRDS - Prathyiksha Raksha Daiva Sabha

TCDR - Travar core and Cochin Diocesan Record

 CHAPTER 111

EQUALITY AS COLONIAL MODERNITY: MISSIONARY DISCOURSE

AND SLAVE EXPERIENCE

Introduction

In this chapter 1 discuss notions of equality that emerged in nineteenth and

twentieth century Kerala. I draw on the writings of CMS and LMS missionaries
who were active in Travancore a: the time. The missionaries, identified as the
catalysts of the emergence of these particular notions, articulated them and used
various strategies to achieve then in a caste-based hierarchical society. In the
course of their reflections the idea of equality itself was redefined. The ideas and
practices that developed around the notion of equality are treated here as markers
of modernity in colonial Kerala. VJhile modernity and the project it initiated have
been questioned for various reascns today, the central problem of emancipatory
politics that modernity initiated still remains significant.

In this chapter L also analyse the representations of slave experience

available in missionary writings on Kerala. This will help us to understand the
discourses generated by missionaries. In the first section I give a brief description
of the slave castes. In the second section missionary perceptions of equality and
inequality are explored by analysng slave narratives that foreground experiential
aspects of slavery. The third sectism analyses the acquisition of agency by the low
castes through the 'Word', which 1 argue, was essential for claiming equality.
The fourth section considers i.spects of the disciplining of slaves hy the
introduction of notions of sin and repentance which can be seen as instrumental
in transforming them, in the view of the missionaries, into socially acceptable
individuals.
Questions of method

In contemporary social theory and historiography there is a significant

emphasis on the question of social memory. This is of fundamental importance
in research on subaltern social groups. Recollection is a valuable method when
it gives an account of traumatic e:cperiences of the past such as genocidelethnic-
cleansing or- the social suffer in;:^ that a particular social group might have
experienced in the past. While memory is constitutive of history it is not history
as such. Sometimes it can have a surplus of meanings and allusions over and
above history, and memory is not replicable by any other source. As Dominick
La Capra has observed, memory-along with its lapses and tricks-poses
questions to history in that it points to problems that are still alive or invested
with emotions and value. He further observes that, ideally, history, in its turn,
critically tests memory and prepares it for a more extensive attempt to work
through a past that has not pass4:d away. At the same time it is necessary that
historians working on the material of memory are able to understand "false
memory syndrome" which, acccrding to La Capra, is one of the more socially
consequential forms that memory may take. I This caveat is significant, as
historians very often work with secondary memory available to them in source
materials, that is, the survival of memory as recorded information. Employing
the arguments arising out of the history/memory debate I will explore further
the problem of slavery with parlicular reference to the rememoration of slavery
as practiced by certain social mcvements in contemporary eral la.'

I
Dominick La Capra, History arid hlrrnor! r~fterA~rschwit:(London: Cornell University Press;
1998). pp. 8-9.
' I am here referring to thc moveme it. Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sahha. founded by Poyiknyil
Yohannan who is posthumously ~iorshippcdas Kumara Gurudevan and God. I have traced
the career of Yohannan and his transformation in the later chapters of the thesis. It was a
Inovenlent o f untouchable castes !uch as the Parayas Pulayas and Kuravas. These castes are
referred to in the nineteenth centul y documents as 'Slave' castes and i n contelnporary critical
writings as Dalits.
Who were the slaves?

In the existing literature on Kerala agrarian slavery is considered integral

to caste society in pre-colonial and colonial times.' In ancient and pre-colonial
documents the castes that provided productive labour in the agrarian society
4
were referred to as Adima, ~nelningslaves. In most parts of Kerala, the
agrarian labour force until very recently was drawn largely from the traditional
agrarian slave castes such as :he Pulayas and Parayas. In some areas it
included people of Adivasi cc,mmunities as well. According to the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century ethnographic reports slaves chiefly
consisted of two castes-the Parayas and the Pulayas (Puliahs), the latter being
Hindu rt:ligious ideology legitimised slavery as the
the more t~urnerous.~
principal means for the coercive appropriation of labour power. In the pre-
colonial and colonial records we come across extensive accounts of agrarian
slavery. In certain instances there are references to people who were sold
recording their names and kinshp terms, the latter denoting the relationships of

'
K. Saradarnoni. Enrerge~lceo f a s'uve cusre: P ~ l u y a sof K~,ralu (Delhi: Pcoples Publishing
House, 1980) pp. 48-50: for missionary account of slavery see Samuel Mateer, Native Life if1
Travuncure (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. 1991 ), pp. 297-317. For an analysis of
the complex relationship between land and caste along with fornls of labour including slavc
lahour see Dharma Kumar, Lanr' and Caste in South Indiu. Agric~rNuralLuborrr in the
Madras Presidency During the Nirfereenrh Cmtar?. (New Dclhi: Manohar,1962), pp. 14-48.
M.R Raghava Varier and Raja11 Gurukkal. Keremlrr Cl~arirl?r<r~?i (Sukapuram: Vallathol
Vidyapeetam, 1991) also see Raja11 Gurukkal and M. R. Raghaw Varier. Ciilturul Histor? of
Keralu, i.01 I (Fmta the Erirlies~ro rhr Sl>r-errdof Wer-rice) (Trivendrum: Depart~nentof
Cultural Publications. Govt. of Kerala 1999). p. 261
'
Pulayas and Parayas arc the traditional t~grarianslave castes of Kerala. For more details on
them see Edgar Thurston and K . Rangachari. Custe rirld Tribes of Sorrrh I,idia, (Delhi:
Cosmo Publications, 1995(originxl, 1909) vol. VI, pp. 77.139: vol. VII pp. 19-27 and r,ol. I1
pp.45-91 and Samuel Mateer, Nalive Life irr Ttuvarzcore. . . 1,. 32-59 also see his The Lr111d(IJ
Churiq: A Drsct-iprive Account (if Trttir~~~,.nru rind i f People (New Delhi: Asia Education
Services,l991). For an early colonial account of the caste structure that included Pulayas,
Parayas and similar castes see M. Gangadharan. ed. Drrurte Buhosu's The Lur~dqfit.I~~l~ibirf;
(Kottayam: Mahatma Gandhi U~~iversity,ZMK)), pp. 66-71. The originary myth of Parayas
traces their lineage to the Hindu5 who ejected them from society for violating caste norms.
Their own tradition has i t that tht y were a division of the Brahmins who were trapped into a
breach of caste norms hy their <:nemies who ~ n a d ethem eat bcef. They cat carrion. They
claim the carcasses of all domestic animals as helonging lo them hy right. Thcy h'equently
poison cows and kill them for thc sake of their llesfl.
persons thus traded to each otht:r." For the present study. howevcr, I draw
information largely from the accounts of the protestant missionaries of The
Church Missionary Society and London Missionary Society that were based in
Travancore, the southern part of Kerala. These missionary documents provide
significant information on Pulaya and Paraya slaves of the nineteenth and early
twentieth century and their everfday lives that we do not get so extensively
from other sources.

The missionary accounts al:;o give us information on changes in the social

world of the low caste slaves. This applies, particularly, to those who joined the
missions and who had active intzraction with the missionaries even before the
formal abolition of slavery in the princely state of Travancore in 1855. Missionary
documents, well into the early decades of the twentieth century, published the
narratives of slaves which included accounts of the personal lives of individual
slaves and many other aspects of their religious and social lives. Church
Missionary Society documents, in particular, provide information on slavery in
Kerala as the practice of slavery was more entrenched in their mission field.

In order to give an idea of the conditions of low caste slaves I quote here
extensively from missionary records of which only a few excerpts have been
previously published. The follc)wing quotation is taken from the text of a
conversation tthat a native missionary had with a Paraya slave. It provides
information on the mental world of the Paraya informant

Par~lyrrsare part o f ,he rizosr ~ l e g r a d e ~

.sectiorz.s
l of the lrzdiulirr,~
society orzrl '~iocc.lzerei their ~Ie~rtrrlatiotz
.YO i.on~pletr,
u s in 1hi.v
co~tntry' (native state of T r u v ~ ~ r ~ c o rThey
e ) . Lire regnr~lerlrt.s
~rrzclear~nnrl that the:. are s ~ ~ p p o s e to
d cor~veypollution to
/xr.son.s of other caste! by contact and evr2r2by approach. They
are so miserr~blyprov'rled with the rzecrssuries of'life that the

" William Adam The Lalv and Co.;tom qf Slarer~in British lrldiu 111 u S e r i e ~($L~rrer.ro
Tl~omusFo~,ellBuxtot~.Esq (Lor~don:Smith Elder and Co. Corn Hill. 1840). Prrssir~r.For
select documents on slave trade see. Adoor K K Ra~nachandran Nair. Slu\>ei:\' irr Kercillr
(Delhi:Mittal Puhlishers, 1986). pp.28-46.
 IIIO.\/ Io(rt/?.so!r~e
thi!~,g,s. T I , < / I '1,s <.c~r/-i<~/l
u r <~I fec/.st,/iir r/r1,111 f111d
(11-e rrnrrllonrrl hy the117 its irridity. (Sic.) T i p e r - I arid
property ore errtirely c ~ tthe r1isl)oscrl of their ~rrost~r-s
hy whotrr
they 01-ehoicghr unrl sol(, like cattle rr~alure erm i.vo~setrr~rterl.
The owners hurl formerlc power ro,tlog them arlrl e~l<.hai~r
them
rmd i r ~some ccrses nwirn them ~rrldto deprive ther?~oftheir lives
fholl,pA these cr~reltiescrre not ,ION. .sarr~.tiorledh? law. Their
conrlitiot~.i[lo not uppea to he inrproved us they hove 110mrtrrts

to ger leg01 rt,clress n p i . zsr their cr~reltyrants. '

Paraya slaves were paid the: lowest rate of wages, wages that would barely
keep them alive enabling them .o be referred to as 'speaking tools'. In places
where caste oppression was particularly strong they were forced to work every
day and their daily wages were particularly low: a piece and a half. Even the
highest rate did not exceed seven pieces. In the wetland regions of Travancore,
where the practice of paymerct in kind was the norm, their wages were
abysmal.x This low level of wases was barely compensated by wages in kind,
usually paddy. The common cc~olieswere paid at the rate of somewhat more

' Journal of Kcr. George Matthan lor the Quarter ending 31 1)ecemher. 1849 entry dated 12
October and Journal for the Quarter ending 31 March, 1850, 30 June. 1850,11 December.
1850. 'They werc valued differently in different places. The price of an able hodied slave i n
the low country where their wage; werc comparatively high is not more than six Rupees. In
Mallappally. it came to nearly I t rupees and in places further above, it rises considerably
higher, even double the actual antount. The children of slaves do not belong to the father's
master hut were the property of th: mother's owner. In some places the father was allowed to
the right of one child. which of course was the property of his master. This succession by the
female line was in accordance wi'h the custom of the Nairs the principal slaveholders of the
country. for in their own internal affairs the sons ilnd not the nephews are so considered the
proper heir of a person. The slaws form ;I great portion of the population of the country.
Being probably one sixth of the whole. In the village of Mallappally alone their nurnber
anlount to 520 souls while all tht other classcs together fall below 1500 souls. A great land
lord in a neighbouring village ha, nearly 200 work men of then1 daily eniploycd i n his ihrrn.
while three times that number are let out on rent to inferior farmers'.
"ichard Collins. Missionary Enterprise in the East with Especial reference to the Syrian Christians
of Malabar and the Results of Modern Missions (London: Henry S. King& Co. 1873). p. 228
describes the special tasks nf slave labourers in the wetlands of Travancore. "Slaves are engaged
in pumping water out of the fields. This is done hy means of large wheel without rim. Ihe spokes
ufwhich are wonden blades that w.xk through a trough and drive up the water into the canals. The
slaves sit on a framework of bamboos. and prnpel the wheel by foot. When the wheel is large
three or four slaves are perched olle above the other, and work night and day at this agricultur;~l
treadmill. A good numher of hand:; or rather feet is required for this service, as the work is very
heavy. and each individual can ol~lywork for a short time at once".
than an Anna per diem, while carpenters and other artisans were paid at double
these rates. The usual daily wages in the interior were exactly two Annas and
three pieces for each man.

The other caste of slaves, Pulayas, as the following quote shows were in a
similar condition: '
Polygamy ohtrii!ls ornong then1 rrs crrnong the Puriahs;
though the derestable pructice ofpolyandry is pecrfliur to the
latter. They are considered as s~rperiorto the Pariahs. They
are much better scrrlants, heing rnore.faithfir1 to the interests
of tht masters. There i? a cluss of them known b~ the name of
Eastern Pulr~yaswho (.hirf%' inhahit the hills. They are in a
much more dt,grade(l ..vrrrte than the Western Pi11nya.s und thr
Pariahs who ivorrl(1 corrsider them as poll~~ted
by coming irlto
of rhr
corltrrct with them. 7hey crpperrr to he ortt-i~~r.ste.s
Pirlirrhs as in lung~iri>:earlrl other /~artic~rlar.s
they (lo not
differ froni fllern while there is a ~narkerl(llffererrce betwee11
thrrrv arrd the Paria,'zs. They generrrll~ go ~vitlror~ru r ~ y
<.lothing,barely coverifrg their 11nker1nes.sby LI string oflerrves
d ioin. They ear all the refi~ses.which the
propped a r o ~ ~ ntheir
puriuhs rat. Lying, stealing and dr~~nkennessare the
prevailing vices o f the.ie different tribes ofslaves. Vices of an
r~ggrm,r~ting
natnre rrre very rare umong them except the
Pariahs ~ v h o are f~equently churgeublc, with robbery.
11,
burglary, kidnapping, 'v~rrrclerunil other- 1reinorr.s i,ritne.~.

" Thcy did not wear kudutni on thi.ir head. which distinguished thc~nfro111 the Parayas and
other Hindu castes. They were more particular as to the kind o f food they took, abstaining
frorn thc flesh of all dead animals. For details see the Journal o f Rev. George Matthan for the
Quarter ending 31 Decelnher 185(1. CMSAUB. In addition to the Pulayas and Parayas there
were several other low caste groups in Kerala that were slaves. I do not intend to analyse herc
the prohletns of those s ~ ~ c i groups,
al as the materials under consideration do not specifically
talk ahout them. But. at the same time the generalisationr that emerge froni my discussion
here would illu~ninatc[heir sicuatic~ntoo.
/I/
ihid.
Slavery: Experience ant1 narrat ive

1 will now focus on nar~atives of slavery that are available in the

missionary archive. These narratives are significant as they give us both entry
into the social world of slaves as well as missionary perceptions of them. These
are narratives of slave experience as recounted by slaves themselves to
inquiring missionaries. They are not full-length texts on the conditions of slaves
from the perspectives of individ~lalslaves. Rather, they are fragments which,
nevertheless, provide insights i n t ~the social world of slaves as they recollected
and recounted their past. I will analyse these narratives of slaves to unpack an
experiential dimension. I use the term experience here in a technical sense,
referring to the way slavery is arliculated in the reported speeches of the slaves.
The experiential aspect of s1aver:i is important as we are provided with nuances
about the everyday lives of slaves. It is at the level of everyday life that slavery
is recollected, talked about and recorded and not just described as an abstract
condition. As a result we get to Know what I refer to as the slave sublime. The
slave sublime here stands for the essentialised aspects of slave experience, those
particular aspects of their experience which the narrators make reference to. In
certain cases these references are to extreme forms of torture that slaves
suffered, in others to separation of family members through sales, and in yet
others to murder and other brutal punishments and so on. These experiences are
recollected by the nan-ators to provide their interlocutors with a historical
perspective on the slave experience. It is at this level that the social construction
of the experiences becomes im~ortant. In the documents discussed here, we
read the recollection and memoly of the slave experience which included many
facets of individual and collective life and the alienation that slavery imposed
on low caste people. It should t e noted, however, that these recollections were
made possible by the external agency of the missionaries.

The religious experiences of the slaves are also ernphasised as many ot

them were undergoing instruc ion under the missionaries. Those who were
undergoing religious instructicn used their new knowledge to interpret the
problems of their lives. This is evident from the new ways in which they were
sl;ives. This is, itself, an interestir g process because it involves re-cognizing, in
the literal sense of re-thinking, th,? slave. Re-cognition is imbricated in the very
act of listening. Similarly, when the slaves recount their story, they engage in a
process of identification which includes the claiming of roles and their
associated activities. This situat on leads to a recognition by the slaves of
themselves and their conditions." There is a sense of critical action involved in
this pmcess of interlocution.

The fact that the missionaries were listening to the slaves had a dramatic
effect on the identification of t t e people who were slaves. It meant that the
narratives had a function other than what is normally specified through the
strategies of the narrative. It hz.d a liberatory function even before that term
itself emerges in the discourse of equality. Narration itself, for slaves, is
equivalent to a coming to light and therefore being at the threshold of equality.
In the human condition. to be r1:cognized as human is a precondition for any
claim to equal status. The claim to equality becomes impossible if this is
denied. It is in this context that the missionary recognition itself becomes
liheratory, marking the first step:, for the people who were slaves to being given
equal treatment. It should be nofed here that the question of narration has been
discussed by others as a crucial issue for indigenous communities in the context
of the coming of the Protestant missionary Christianity.''

The missionaries consider~:d low caste slaves as human beings who were
endowed with inalienable human faculties. The missionaries conviction as to
the inalienable humanness of slaves was centred on the human essence that the
slaves achieved through their knowledge of their creator and their
understanding of the project of salvation that faith in Jesus Christ offered.
Though clearly the missionary s x s e of humanity was defined by the missionary
project itself, nevertheless, it ,was one which included rather than excluded

'" ihid., p. 8
I;
See the dchates between Comarofs and I DY Peel in John L Comaroffand Jean C(~marolT.
of Re~~rlntionand Revolution vo . I1 (Chicago: Thc University of Chicago Press. 1997).
pp. 442-52.
those peoples who had been deemed un-human in the discourse of slavery, itself
legitimised by Hindu ideology. Both as saved and potentially salvable souls
slaves were human beings. This sense of their humanity prepared the ground
for addressing the more materia aspects of life such as adequate wages for
labour performed, facilities for t ivic life such as education, access to public
space including ritual space, stab12 family life and new forms of marriage which
were privileged over the prevailing practice of polygamy. I t is this concern with
the multiple problems of the live!, of the slaves that enabled the missionaries to
speak of the body and soul of the slaves as a unified whole and for us to see this
as process leading to the evoluticn of modern individuals itself evolving out of
the slave form.

Thus the individual slave who was the object and site of social control
and dominance became much more contested with the arrival of the
missionaries who theorised the body and the soul of the slaves in manner
described above, rejecting the dm~minantconstructions of the low castes. The
struggle for the recovery of the mortified soul became the central concern of the
missionary project. I consider the narrative strategies deployed in these
recollections as devices with w h i ~ hsuch a recovery was made possible. In their
narratives the slaves emerge wi h body, soul, names, feelings and emotions,
relationships, past, present and luture." In other words, although the process
was complex and chequered, they emerge as social agents.

Questions of religion

Let me now turn to the particular text I want to focus on in this section.
The first twenty-four questions asked by the missionary were on religion. They
shed light on certain aspects of t le new religious consciousness and worldview
of slaves in Travancore. 19 Of all the answers what interested the missionary
most were the answers to the religious questions. He juxtaposes these answers

IX
hr rr Mis.rionay. ... pp. 2 - 1
Q~re.rfin~is
I 'a
ihid.. p. I
with those relating to the economic condition of the slaves that show thern as
very poor. He thinks that they have a most interesting spiritual state. The
interview starts with a question about what the slaves thought of Christ. They
answered that they considered h ~ mto be their saviour. The questions asked
were simple and the answers provided to them have been precise betraying the
religious instruction the slaves hall undergone. They understood the precept that
they should know God by heart. They perceived Jesus as someone who came
among them and walked among them like any other human beings. They knew
that Christ had come to save all 1 hose who followed his teachings and lived in
the path of righteousness and the unrighteous are saved only when they live
according to the commarldments of God. The commandments were understood
as the cardinal principles, the oheervance of which alone would bring salvation.
Christ saves only those sinners who repent and pray with their heart to Him. For
a thief to be saved it is not en0uf.h to stop stealing; he must also obey the other
commandments of God. A thief viill be saved only if he begs pardon hearing the
commandments and the mere stopping of theft will not save them. They were
equally sure of the fact ihat a thief should cry for pardon not at the hour of his
death but much before, when he is alive. When the missionary challenged the
answer of the slave by quoting the Biblical example of the eventual offer of
paradise that was made to the thref who was crucified along with Jesus himself
on his right side, the slave answered that the thief was saved by his faith."'

The slaves were convinzed of the fact that they could obey the
commandments only by God's grace. And similarly they were taught that they
could have holy desires only uith God's grace and that the Holy Spirit puts
holy desires in their mind. When they mentioned the names of Christ, God and
Holy Spirit they were ;asked if it meant three different Gods. They answered
that they were actually one and the same in substance."

"' ibid., p. 2
' ibid.
 I will briefly discuss the n e a religiosity of the slaves. one which has been
denied authenticity in conventic'nal historiography. The low caste slaves of
Travancore were given a new religious idiom and practice. They heard about
the notions of salvation, Ten Con~mandments,holy trinity in one God, faith, sin,
repentance and confession -to mention some of the important ones. What would
have been the impact of these n ~ t i o n son the individual slaves and them as a
collectivity? In the course of the thesis I argue that one finds a new mentality
evolving among the slave castes n Travancore as result of these new concepts.
This new mentality showed an zmbivalence, in the sense of values pulling in
two directions, that was peculiar :o the religiosity of the low castes. We observe
them engaged both in the practices of their pre-Christian past and the new
notions and practices that came out of missionary Christianity.

Questions of1itercrc.j

Having discussed the religious precepts, the next round of questions by

the missionary was on matter:: relating to their quotidian existence. The
missionary starts with the most 1 alue-loaded question about whether the slaves
could read." The slaves answered that they could not read, as they were forced
to work day in and day out and that at night they had to keep vigil over the
crops against wild animals and thieves. At the same time they informed the
interviewing missionary that thc:re were actually many others like them who
were willing to learn but their vile masters did not permit them to come in the
open and learn. They informed the missionary that such people would not come
to learn because of their fear of starvation and also because they couldn't fast
on all Sundays.

One observes that though they, themselves, were not able to read their
77
children were teaching them tommandments and prayers: This piece of
information is important as we hear later on that some of their children were

" ihid.
>?
ihid.
attending schools conducted for !he slaves and that some of them could read
and write. This trend was to cor~tinuefor the rest of the nineteenth century.
During the first few decades of the twentieth century this trend changed
qualitatively as there was some improvement in the enrolment of low caste
children in schools. This periol signified the low caste people receiving
minimum literacy that enabled thf:m to read.

At first their literacy education was confined to teaching them to read

scriptures though, of course, litc:racy could not be limited to this. However,
considering the very limited circ~lationof books and their non-availability for
the low castes in general, we n-ed to take care in our understanding of the
spread of literacy.'4 Elementary prayer books indeed provided the low castes an
important experience. These prayer books were very simple and they introduced
words and phrases that eventual1 f became common usage especially among the
low caste people in Travancore. rhese books propagated Christian teachings of
the moral life and circulated biblical knowledge in a simplified manner easily
understood by the newly literat3 But books in a predominantly non-literate
society have a semiotic value ;part from the immediate purpose of reading.
Carrying books became a marker of importance as far as low caste Christians
were concerned. Missionary accounts show the significance of the simple
possession of books to low caste Christians.

Wages und conditions

In the next part of the nterview the slaves provided some valuable
information on wages prevailinp where they worked as well as in the adjoining
districts.'"his particular piece of information helps us understand the actual
conditions of the slaves but also show us their own understanding of their

Extracts frorn the Rev. O o n ~ e nMamen's Journal tilr the hall year ending 71 Deccmber'l85h
in Church Mi.s.sionar? Record, vol. XXlV No.? May 1857. p. 127.Also see Work among
Pulayas i n Olesha, Arppookkara. etc Docurnent 11Procredinps of the Travancorc Provincial
Council for 1890: report of the Kxtayam District Council that rnet at the Valiya Bungalow
at Kottaya~iion Wednesday the 27 of July 1890, CMSAUB
conditions vis-i-vis other sectiois of the traditional agrarian society. I t is
of the question of
important information in relation to our ~~nderstanding
equality.

According to the slaves in their area 314 of an Edangazhy of paddy was

the wages for adults above 15 years of age and that was equal for both men and
women. In other districts such as Pambardy, Chambakkara, Meenerdum in the
Changanachery district 112 Edangazhy with a trifling present during onam""
once a year were the wages. A ~ a r tfrom this pittance, they did not receive
anything that would help them to meet the emergencies of life. Similarly
during old age and sickness" the masters never paid anything to them, because
the slaves were no longer capable of rendering them any service. In sickness
they were not paid anything ex8:ept some medicine in the initial stages that
would be discontinued fairly q ~ i c k l y .The masters did not give food to the
slaves when they were slck and ~lnableto work.28 These observations on wages
and penury in both old age and sickness as well as the neglect that children
suffered are important markers of the situation of the low caste slaves at the
time the discour,se of equality begins to emerge." The observations are
important to their arguments for the improvement of the material conditions of
their lives.

Food pructice.~

References to food gradually brings in references to the food habits of

slaves that open up possibilities for exploring another aspect of their everyday
life. The slaves informed the missionary that they ate the leaves of a plant called
thak~lrtr,which they consumed t'oiled. For half the year they also ate the roots

'" ihid. Onam is the Malayeli harvest festival that falls i n the Month o f Chingsm (Malayalam
calendar)and the corresponding Month is August.
?l
These documents do not speak spe:ifically ahout the conception of old age and sickness hut
there is substantial infbrniation on Ihe notions of childhood tat-gely hecause of the missionary
goal of improving and developing children as Christians.
'' ihid
2'>
ibid.. pp.2-3.
of wild yams dug from the jungle:.. From other sources we know that they also
consumed small fish and oysters from the nearby streams, paddy fields and
canals."' Many of these food items were abhorred by the upper castes as they
were considered polluting.

Food is a powerful signifier in relation to caste hierarchy." In certain

accounts given in both colonial et~nographyas well as missionary records there
are references to the food and culinary habits of the low caste slaves. On many
occasions the low caste practices emerge as being seen to be unclean and,
therefore, requiring change. Changes in food habits, that would signify changes
in many other aspects of life, we-e considered essential for achieving equality.
It has been observed that they were content with Kai~jji(boiled rice with water),
which was consumed along with some chilly and salt. What formed curry were
the leaves of edible plants and sometimes a few tubers and stems that are
cultivated and given by the land ords. There was no elaborate cooking among
these people as they were very dzprived. Taste and culinary habits are socially
determined and most low cast'? people had to be content with generally
'tasteless' things. They had whzt Bourdieu would call the taste of necessity."
In one account the visiting misr.ionary saw in the hut of a Pulaya some rice
boiling in a 'Chatty' (vessel for zooking rice) and some live fish waiting to be
cooked in another pot." As all a3le-bodied men and women went to work they
could not think of, let alone practice, a sophisticated cuisine.

There are accounts of how they cooked rice at night after returning home
from the day'r toil. by the time children and old people would have gone to
\leep. Sometimes when they returned home after work they would b r ~ n gpaddy

ill
P C Joseph, Tile Ecorronric And Social E~nironmmruf The Cl?ur<hirr Not-117 Tra~~mlcot-r
rrr~d
Cochir~(Kottayarn: CMS College. 1938). pp. 20.21
" Therc is a huge anthropological li1,:raturc on the place of fcn~dand f<x,d practices i n sr~cial
life and, in particular. as ~nlarkersol hierarchy in India.
" Bourdieu. Disrit~rtio,r;t i social c~iriqueof fhr judgrmmr of !f<t.rtr.(Boslon. Mass: Harvard
University Press. 1984).
-Ii
Richard Collins. Missionarx Enrerl;ri,sr irr rhr East. . . p. I8 I
that they had received as the day's wage which they wottld then cook for the
night. They would boil the raw p ~ d d yand afterwards fry it to pound and make
rice to cook. Cienerally the specialized work of women, they would fry the
boiled rice in big frying pots and then pulverize them using traditional wooden
pestles. When a sufficient quantit:) of rice was thus obtained they would cook it
and prepare gruel. By the time the gruel was ready i t would be past mid-night
and they would wake up the emaciated and tired children and the elderly people
for supper and later stretch the Inat for a hard earned sleep only to wake up
early morning to work in the field of the landlord. There would not be anything
left for the morning except the rice water of the previous night and the children
will be content with that, These a:counts show very clearly continuing forms of
inequality. Inequality was entrenched and experienced in a variety of ways in
their everyday life. A discussion of food practices is central to a discussion of
equality.'"

The early twentieth centurl accounts refer to the coming of tapioca. This
was important to the lives of pocr people in Travancore and in particular to the
slave castes. Rice formed part of their diet only during harvest season. In other
words, though they were instrunlental in cultivating it, they hardly had access
to it except during the harvest se,ison when they received paddy as wages. Even
then they had to exchange some '>f this paddy for items of consumption like salt
and tobacco. In the absence of other wealth they had to use the paddy for all
other requirements including marriages, the topic I turn to next.35

Polygamy crrzd its problems

When the slaves mentioned the term marriage the missionary began to ask
questions related to marriage. Marriage is also central to discussions on social
equality." Different societies have different systems of marriage. Marriage

'I Field data

35
Qlresriorls b y u Mi.\sionrrry.. .. p. 3.

'" ihid.
systerns show the position of thz social groups in a society. They involve
ownership and inheritance of prc~perty,reproduction of labour power. control
over females of a group and so on. Forms of marriage and marital relations
between social groups can determine their relative position in a social system.
In a caste society, for example, inter-caste relations are defined by, amongst
other things, whether one social group can marry from another or not. When
viewed from such a perspective rr arriage and marriage practices are particularly
significant because relative position of social groups depend on marital ties.

The two slaves gave testimony to the missionary regarding certain aspects
of their marriage and inheritance practices. Pulaya girls used to be married
between the age of ten and sixteei~.Pulayas sometimes divorced their wives and
no disgrace was attached to it and it was possible for their widows to remarry.
Regarding inheritance they obse.ved that if by some means a slave acquired
some property, at the time of his death it used to be taken over by the master."
But it is not known exactly wh-ther they owned any thing worth the name
property. The census reports for t le first half of the twentieth century categorize
most of the low castes as landless agricultural labourers. More than this, the low
caste slaves themselves were considered the property of landlords. Normally
the children born to slaves beconie the property of their mother's master. Their
father or father's master did nct have any right over them. This should be
understood in terms of the necesjity of the physical reproduction of the labour
power of the slaves.

Among slave castes such as the Pulayas and Parayas the custom of
polygamy prevailed and it began to create serious problems for the missionaries
when it came to admitting them n the church.i8 Of the two slaves interviewed,
one had two wives and the other x r s o n had only one wife. According to them it
was very common to see men with three wives but not more than that.
Polygamy created a moral dilem~nafor slaves as well as the missionaries when

17
ihid.. p. 7
'"hid.. p. 1
the slaves expressed their desire to become Christians. The moral dilemma was
a result of the fact that Christian~tydid not permit polygamy. The slave with
two wives, for example, in the ccurse of the interview expressed his readiness
to part with one wife if he was required to do so after baptism.

Throughout the nineteenth century the practice of polygamy continued to

exist and pose major challengc,~to the missionaries. It was seen as an
impediment from within the social conditions of the slaves themselves which
hindered the progress of missionary work. Parayas were observed to have three
and even, occasionally, four uives. The practice of polygamy was very
common also amongst the Pulayas. More than this, polyandry existed amongst
the Parayas, though not the Pulaj.as. It is important to understand that for the
missionaries it was essential to reform marriage and family life of the low caste
people and especially of those who joined the missions so as to transform them
to the protestant norms of farnily life and private domain. This, to the
missionaries would be the prima~ystep towards claiming an equal space in the
larger society. But this transition was not very easy as becomes evident in some
of the examples that follow.

The Rev. George Matthan recorded an incident of the conversion of a

Pulaya Muppan (head man) who had two wives. This incident demonstrates
certain aspects of the mentality of the low castes in Travancore as well as
aspects of the missionary efforts at transforming their social practices so as to
make them more socially acceptable. Being socially accepted in this regard
would be a move forward in their efforts at claiming an equal space in society.
In this particular instance, the missionary found it difficult to arrive at a
decision on the question of polygamy practiced by the potential converts. The
man and his wives, who had been long under instruction, had come forward to
receive baptism

His desire ,for the orrlinut~ce ~ v u s.rtrung eno~cghto tnuke

hit,, uvilli~~g
to put uwclv one of his wives when he,found thut
ur.u.s indispensuble. Bitt the r l ~ f i ( . ~ ~ lu.ns
t \ . which of thefn
 should he givr'zr up. Uozh were ~villirzgto he hul~tirrarlcrrzd live

~ v i t hhirrr izr their form< r relotiozr,ship onrl hot11 o/' rlrez?~\vcJre

l e g a l b tnorrie(1 to hinz rrccorrlir~grile (.nstonl of their rrrce. I

felt the crrse so piririfiil that if n r j zirirlrl hurl zrot heiw

previorr.slj nurrle np t r the mntrury. I ,L-oirld hrrrr heerr

inclined to rrlIo\v the m,rrl'.s r-etuinirlg both ?f them nnd bvorzlrl

have rrrgrred tllut p ~ l y g ~ ~ IVUS

r n y rrot incornpafihle with (I strrtp

of Krrrce sreirrg it wa:. permitter! in the ccrse of Ahrahum,

Duvirl and other sirints in the Olrl Testanierzt urzd that 1r.hilr
the rmla~.fiulnrssuf polygamy was only inferable in the New

Testament, d i ~ , u r c eiva: e,~plicitlyforbidden by our lorrl. But

my j~rdgnient ,vas,firm as I corrsirlererl how ~IifSicrrIfit wo111d

he to stop the prrrctice orz<.e pernzitted in the Ch~rrch.As to

which o f t h e ~vivesshc~rlrlbe retainerl. some c o ~ ~ r e r ~ r that

led

the rnan should keep to the one whom he has rnurrirrl f i r s t she

being his only lawful 1v;fe. But I thought he sho~rldhe a l l o , ~ ~ e r l

to hrive his choice of fh,. seconrl wife, seeir~fithe other IL-US o k l

1zni1 pus/ rlre rrge of c h Id bearing. 7b this the cozrser~tof the

,first wife was fbrully oz~trrinedo n the prorrrise heirlg mode 1 7 ~

rhe znun to ~.ontinrreh;s protection of her r111r1her chilrlrez~

eqrrirlly n'ith his other ~.,'ifeaz~rlc h i l ~ l r e ~ r(Sic.)

.'~

Another version of the same incident that was heard from the village
where the Pulaya Muppan had to make this choice was interesting for the fact
that the man opted for the old w fe considering the fact that she would find her
future miserable if he followed the well-thought out and rational argument of
the missionary. The M~ippanrelsoned that nobody would be willing to marry
an unhealthy broken woman. Richard Collins who heard it in the village
Komarum (Kumarakam:] where he event took place gave yet another version.
According to him this was the occasion when the faith and earnestness of some

1 c,
George Matthan. 'Annu;~l Letter to Rev. Chapman Secrevary o f the C M Society. London
datcd 1 I January, 1859'. Manuscript, CMSAUB.
o f the slaves who were hecom ng Christians were singularly tested and he
observes

Orlr nlrrn, Jor inst~rr~ce

a.s is rtot nncomrnorz unrorl,qsr them,

hrrrl three n.ivc,.s. He f e l - thrrr $he hurl became o Christiurl he

, e wiji,. Whut sllo~rlrlhe d o ? Strch yrre.stion.s

r.orrlrl only / ~ ~ norre
us this crrr &en ver?)perplerirlg to the rnissionury US might he

.s[rppo,serl.The olrlrst (?l'tris wive.r ivus cr broken-down. .sickly

woman; the other two were us firle, handsome-looking,

healthy young women (7s you h,orcld wish to see; and it was

ttnderstood that he wu, very,fond of them both. He however

rfecirlerl for himself rhar, as the oldest was his first, she was

his proper +r.!fe; and i o her he remained faithfitl after his

baptism.J" (Sic)

Both narratives describe ;I situation of conflicting worldviews: of the

missionaries and that of the lsw caste protagonists. Although the events
narrated in the passages quotzd above talk about the mentality of the
missionaries nevertheless it shecs some light on the low caste mentality also.
The conflicts that surfaced were between the customary practices and the new
social practices introduced by the missionaries which were themselves based on
Protestant principles of domesticity. The new social practices that were
introduced by the missionaries were indispensable, in the eyes of the
missionaries, for the liberation ~f low castes from slavery. The missionaries
predicated the liberation of slave;; on the dismantling of the customary practices
that the low castes sometimes privileged above the Christian practices. The low
caste protagonists were eager to join the mission and be liberated from slavery
by exercising their choice. Hon.ever, they did not find anything wrong with
their pre-Christian practices as it had the sanction of their gods when such a
choice was originally The significance of this in the context of a
discussion on equality lies in the fact that the reorganization of family structure

I0
Richard Collins: Missiurlar~Er~terp-isrill the Cl\r. . . p. 182.
II
George Matthan. Annual Lctler .... r'. 2
and marriage was quite fundamental to the n~issionaryproject ant1 to their sense
of the evolution of modern indivicluals from among slaves. This evolution was
considered essential to participarion in the evolving public sphere. In the
particular case in hand, the missionary was more concerned about the legal and
theological implications of the prclblem while the low caste protagonist thought
of the more humane aspect of it in relation to the life and security of the older
wife. The missionary's reasoning was based on two distinct issues: a possible
violation of the scriptural injunctions against polygamy and the economic
rationality of retaining the young wife who was able, healthy and still in a child
bearing age. In the first versior~ that was given in the 1859 report of the
missionary, the Pulaya Muppan appears to have accepted his suggestion of
retaining the younger wife and leaving the old one but assuring to protect her.
But in the later writing of Richa~dCollins who collected information from the
village where this incident took place, the protagonist decided in favour of the
elderly wife who was past the child bearing age and really needed the support
of her husband.

The oral tradition of the \-illage also recalls the story the way Richard
Collins narrates it." Michael Thlrakan has interpreted this, on the basis of the
oral tradition, as an instance of a 'native discourse which was more humane',"
one which was not imprisoned in the iron cage of the missionary rationality. He
identifies this as a latent feature of the subaltern consciousness of the low
castes in Travancore society. This generalization would be possible if we do not
have the missionary report of 19.59 in which the first version of the acceptance
of the younger wife as the legitimate wife by the Pulaya Muppan is given. But
the very fact that the Pulaya protagonist had doubts about the suggestions of the
missionary to part with his wifelwives in order to accept the Christian truth
shows that there was a clash of worldviews of the low castes and the
missionaries.

42
i n the E u \ r.... p. 182
Richard Collins. M i s s i o t ~ u Ertreri~rise
r~
13
Michael Tharaken PK. 'Kerala Charithrathinnoru Adiyalar Veekshanntn' J(~\'rfkerulurn
Octoher 1992. pp. 5-9.
 Low caste people drew frcm theit- fund of 'common sense' ideas and
practices that were alternatives to missionary worldviews even when they
44
joined congregations. However, the argument of the slaves, that their
polygamous marital status was [)re-Christian and had the sanctions of their
Gods, does not seem to have had any effect on the missionary who was driven
by Christian notions of monogamous marriage. The low caste protagonists were
in fact arguing for the equal validity of their pre-Christian marriage practices
which they did not consider as inpediments to a Christian life. The trauma and
emotion of separation of the spouses did not seem to influence the missionary
who was trying to introduce Christian discipline. We find here, then, the
triumph of the technicalities of the missionary rather than the love and
compassion that the Pulaya protagonist expressed. The Pulaya Muppan was
able to decide for himself the best alternative that was open to him judging the
situation using his own facultie:.. This can been seen as an example of the
critical orientation that the low castes were achieving. These events and the
issues they raised are Important in understanding the development of the
discourse of equality because we see here that in this discourse modern notions
of monogamous family were privileged, by missionaries, as requirements for
liberation and social equality.

As the interview progresses, the slaves expressed their desire and

eagerness to receive baptism and told the missionary that they were
catechumens. They added that they did not expect any drastic changes in their
material life even if they became Christians. They expected to remain what they
were even after Simil;.rly, on the crucial question as to the particular
church they wished to attend once baptized they replied that they would be
happy and satisfied if a chapel w rs built for them in the jungle." This shows, at

II
Following Gramsci. thc notion of crlmrnon scnse may hc detined as traditional conception of
the world that could he used to explain the worldview o f the low castes. Antonio Gramsci,
Srlectio,ls From the Priwn Notebo,>k.sed. trans. Quintin Hoare and Crofficy Nowell Smith
(New York: International Publisher:. 19871, p. 197.
45
. . . 11. 3
by a Mis.$io,~ur\,
Questio~~s
I" ihid.
least in psychological terms, a degree 01' religious independence. Moreover. this
independence was articulated pric,r to any explicit statement on equality. Such
reactions and comments were an expression of a strengthening of their own
identity, though this was still conditioned by their slave mentality and
experience. The Fdct that they did not expect to join the already existing
churches and congregations showed both their sense of the reality of the
stratification existing within the church and also their determination to have
their own institution." In other uords they suspected ill treatment from Syrian
Christians and resistance from the landlords. Later, in several parts of
Travancore, there developed contests over the sacred space of churches between
PulaydParaya Christians and Syrian Christians. This is explored in more detail
elsewhere in the thesis.

The interview progresses with questions on the intimate experiences of

slavery. It is at this level that the experiential aspect that I have mentioned
hecomes significant. In fact four lays before the interview (15 August 1853) the
slaves had seen a man, women and two children (about seven and five years of
age) brought for sale." They h,ld witnessed instances of wives and children
being separated from their husbands and fathers by sales. For instance, in one
such case, where a wife and her children had been separated from her husband
and their father, the man tried o follow then1 but was beaten up and driven
away. Similarly the slaves gave information on the sale of some slave children
which had taken place just sic months before the interview. The master,
Themali Narayanan, of these particular children sold them. Later the relatives
of the children came to claim them but the new master did not permit them to
take them away." These incidents are recounted here to show how the
prevailing social structure traumltized the low caste slaves.

27
ihid., p. 3
ihid., p. 4
4'1
ihid.. p. 4
 L shall quote here an early twentieth centut-y docurnent that records the
experience ot' slavery as articulated by a person at the time of the jubilee
celebration of the Church Missiolary Society in the village of Chelakkompu.
This account shows the continuity of the cruel treatment meted out to the slave
castes as it resonates with the situation that existed in the mid nineteenth
century.

Thrrl an old man fro~rzAyroor recorrnterl his e.xperiences.

Everv morning people ivould he led o ~ to

~ work
t nrrrl would

rtor he allowed to bury t l ~ e i dead,

r even theirfither o r mother,

t i l l the day's work was r ver. They were sold, the father to one

nI1711, the mother ro aftorher trnrl rhr c h i l r l r r ~ ~

to . r n v r i l

separite persons (rticl ruorrlrl not he crllobved to see orzr

rrr~other c~fter~~,arrls
and rrrzrler .slich crrlel trerrtrnr~ltssome

h i v e entered the f i ~ r e pr-eferriny

. ~ ~ ~ to he rurer~ rip hy ~ v i l r i
5,)
hea.sts rhurr to /earl srrch misercrhle lives:

In this ex:rmple the forced separation and the emotional pain and suffering
that it creates become the centra theme whilst reference is also made to harsh
physical labour that reduces the humanity of slaves. Slavery allowed for slaves
to be driven out of their familiar place and environment. More than this, there
was no chance for the separated members of the family to meet again. The
emotional bonds of the kimily life of slave were at the mercy of the landlords
and they had no mercy. These r~~collections
take place at a time when the ex-
slaves were claiming some free space forty-five years after the abolition of
slavery and the relative stability of family life in the absence of slave trade. The
notion of the family was becoming entrenched among various low caste groups
and in particular among those who joined the missions since they were being
instructed in the virtues of Christian family life. The slaves, Cherrady and
Thaiwathan, described from th2ir own experience the example of how the
Syrian Christian family named VJattacherry forced four married slave women to

S(1
TCDR vol. XV. May 1905.No 3. cp. 42-43. The ancicnt dictum. "Kill you may kill sell you
!nay sell" was inscrihed on the hist~,ricaldocuments of slave transactions.
separate themselves from their h~sbands and to take others chosen for them by
their masters." Collectively these examples show the continuity of the slave
experience of families being torn ipart.

In the light of some of the debates of early twentieth century it is possible

to argue that even from rnid nineteenth century onwards the desire for a family
and the affective aspects of familial life were very much present in both the
individual and collective imaginztions of low caste peoples gradually emerging
from the effects of slavery.52This becomes clearer still if we take into account
oral sources that describe the de:;ire for family life which will not be shattered
by the cruel acts of a ~andlord.~'

Self-negation and mnihila~ion,as acts of resistance to slavery, were also

observed in several contexts. In the reports quoted above we see self-
destruction being employed as : means of resistance. It is an assertion of the
self through the denial of control over it in the final act of death.

Forced separation remained part of the slave sublime, still available to

collective memory. For examplf: the Travancore and Cochin Diocesan Record
for the year I912 carried the s ~ o r yof an ex-slave named Kumaran who was
more than eighty years of age at the time of the events he reports on. Kumaran
was undergoing niissionary instructions but had not yet been baptized. He used
to visit the church occasionally and had problems with walking. He also could
not remember some things. However, he described how he was sold at the age
of 10 or 12 for rupees 14 from I'andalam in the south by a Muhammadan from
Kanjirappally to a Nair, the fo~.efatherof his current master in the plantation

i?
See for details the speech of Kantan Ku~nllranin the Pr(~reedi~lgs
ofthe TLC?II~\.
Fourth Sessiofz of
Sri M~rlamPruja Subhafor 7Mrrh1Y28 (Trivandrum: Government Press,l92X). p. 147.
51
Mariatnma John. Manikknn~ P I (Changanassery: Manusham. 2001) Po~kn\.il Srer
m r : Puhlication 2000).
K l i l l l ~ r aGUI.I(DCVUG e e t h i r ~ ~ ~ a l . ( E . r a v i p PRDS
district. He recalls his harsh experiences to the missionary including how he
worked for different masters and ;ilso describes the extent of his sufferings."

The body of the slave

Kumaran then went on to speak on the important subject of the slaves

body. He said that he and his co-slaves were not even allowed to wear clothes
much less carry an umbrella or put on any thing on their heads. All they were
allowed to wear were the leave!; and barks of trees.5s Yet another person to
speak on that occasion was the eldest man from the Mettathumavoo
congregation

Ht, said he was n s l u of

~ n ri<.hlnncllorcl c~nrlhnd to work
fi-0117 early morrring to very inre 117 the n w i n g i~nrler.stria
slrpervision rrncl could ?lor he rrhsrat rr sirlgle clay without
being plrnisherl. He h,zd seer, rilm yoked with hrrllock or
h~rffaloro druw the pl7~rghrrrrrl ufiencarcls chnirzed so thnr
they might r~otesccrpr."

What stands out in this pzrticular account is the work schedule and the
harshness of the work that culminated in the slave being forced to furrow the
field along with bullock as if he too were just an animal. The sufferings and
pain of hard labour become the theme emphasised. It is important to remember
that such experiences were still f -esh in the memory of low castes in Travancore
even in the early decades of the twentieth century.

54
TCDR vol. XXII August 1912 N 1 4. p. 86. This story was reported by the catechist at
Ponkunnaln named T. S . Nanu. He told the catechist that he had cultivated many compounds
for his master who was very kind tc h i ~ nHe was living in one of such cornpounds and unlike
rnany others his master was kin< to hirn. He was allowed to vake the produce of the
compound and whatever he gave to his master the latter received gladly and left the rest to
him. He claimed that his master ha3 great faith in him. Thc catechist asked the local teacher
to earnestly prepare the old man for the haptism that he desired.
'' TCDR vol XV May 1905 No?, pp. 42-43
'" TCDR vol X V May 1905 N o 3, p. 42.
 It appears from the interview. that the practice of chaining slaves had been
on the decline i n the 1850s at least in the area from where those being
questioned came.57 Rut they had certainly heard of people being chained. In
their neighbourhood itself they had known cases of slaves being beaten up and
disabled and unable to work for months. Five days prior to the interview (14
August 1853) they had heard the case of a Nair beating up two of his slaves
cruelly for being absent from thei . work for a day from sheer exhaustion. They
had not had a days rest for a whol~?month.58

1 shall consider here some materials that were published half a century
after the interview of the CMS missionary with the Travancore slaves were
published. This is mainly to srovide a comparative dimension of slave
experience after the formal aboli~ionof slavery. The document 1 will make use
of is an example of 'secondar:~ memory': the missionaries in many cases
reported the recollections of the slaves which was not in the form of first person
narrative, that is, in the voice of the slaves themselves. Secondary memory is
the result of critical work on primary memory, whether by the person who
initially had the relevant experierces or, more typically, by an analyst, observer,
or secondary witness such as the historia~l.~'This recollection was used to
convince the new generation of the descendents of the slaves of the changes that
were brought in the lives of the :;lave castes of Travancore since the coming of
the Protestant Missionaries. But, interestingly, slavery remains a prominent
experience in their collective menory. One of the speakers on this occasion was
a teacher among the slaves. h e had collected vital information on the ill
treatment and wretched condition of low caste people fifty years previously:h"

The ~nastershat1 po ,ver of life atld rlec~thover- their .slaves.

He harl heorrl of one rqarr's hear1 heitzg cr~ro f f for stealirrg rr

'7
Qurstiorr.s b? a Mis~iorla,!..
. .. p. 4.

'' ihid.
5')
Dorninick La Capra, Hisiory arrd h'etno~;~
ufter A~rsch~vin
. . . p2 1
"" TCDR vol .XV. May 1905 No.3, p. 43.
 \~rr11 rmvry and rr tl~irrlbeing
~rrrother-lxrrrrt irlire for vr~~rrrirrg
rlro~r.r~ed
for sonle trjflini: cmlrsr. They cor~ldnot ~volkrrlon,q
the voor1.s hut o / ~ lthrorr,:h
y j~nl,qle.\.

Another instance of an extrf,me form of- cruelty was reported in relation to

the 'erring' behaviour of Parayas.

Sornetime irr errrly IX:;.< rr Prrriar (Paraya) stole a cow. The

owrrrr, nrissiri~ it at r!aybreak, ctrllerl a large number (f
slaves and proceeded to the Parirrr's abode, where they fount1
him cutting up the beef. They seizerl him, bountl him hand and
foot, and tied with his hands behind him to a tree. Qrricklime
bvris the11 brort,qhr und rifhbed it? to his eye.\-, ~t'hichwere then
hoiold with a cloth, am1 he bras left in the direst agony 11nti1
his eyesight 1~11scompl?rely rle.struyed.' After reportirr~it the
missionary hinrselj'sain he i.t,olrlrfgladly turn a,vuy,frorn slrch
revolting pictrrres, to olhers bri,qhfenerl by the hope of better
tliin,q.s. Accnrrlin,q to hinl the Gospel seerrt~~~l
,specially .r~riterl
to c.heer rlrirl elevate ,he rlo\r.r~trorlrlen sln1,e. It rnrrkes h i n ~
hold his lieurl rip."

The missionaries observed that the practice of stealing and killing of the
cows of the masters had been irterpreted by Parayas as an act of resistance to
caste hierarchy. Such acts used to invite the retribution of the upper caste
landlords. According to one of the informants higher castes accused them of
kidnapping their womeri whom they were then said to beat in the most brutal
manner. It is suggested that it i i their custom to turn robbers in the month of
February, to break into the houses of Brahmins and Nairs and to carry away
their women, children and property. They were said to be motivated more by
desire for revenge than of malice, and justified their actions by pleading the
injury their caste had received from these parties. In addition to this their

.The Travancore Slave: A hriel i:xtract of Mr. Hawksworth Septernher 7. 1853' Clilrrch
Mis.sio,rnr). Regi.~r?r1854. 11. 479
-ceremonial uncleanness' of their person render them objects of aversion to all
l~arties.''2

The ir~formantof the missic~narybeing a priest among then] he asked the

slave priest the truth of the c h a r p traditionally made against his community.
It appears from the description of the missionary that while his informant
acknowledged the truth of the charges made against his caste he never admitted
their guilt. He interpreted it as an acl of revenge against the Brahmins whose
family they belonged to and thrsugh whose intrigue they had fallen into the
state of slavery.6' According to the missionary account, however, their most
common crime was the killinf: of cows belonging to others by secretly
administering poison to them.'"

Sltr ve children

The slaves being interview:d also provided interesting information on the

lives of slave children. Slave children were not paid anything till they reach the
age of 15, as they were weak and emaciated due to under-nourishment and
hence not capable of doing any productive work for their masters. One of the
slaves being interviewed had a son who was 12 years and didn't receive any
wages and he was attending tile school. According to the slave, generally
masters never allow slave children to go to school. There was, in fact, a case of
four children being beaten up and driven away from school by their Nair
landlord who learnt that they were attending school.

"' Rev. George Matthan. Jour~rol,for rhr Qrtnrfer e~,din,q.?I Drcr~?~brr,lX.jO entry dated 5
December. In former tin~esthey allpear to have been able to perpetuate the cruelties almost
with impunity, which people feared even in the second half of the nineteenth century. This
particular custom has hecn on thc ,vane hy the later dccades of the nineteenth century due to
the greater vigil of the police as the Government hanned it.
c> 1
h i d . In the month of February they took to crime, as it was thc month in which they had
suffered the wrong.
irl
Rev. George Matthan, Jolrrnirlfo- the Quurrer E n r l i n ~31 Dermrbrr- 1849 cntry dated 12
Octoher In this their interest and f:elings are alike concerned: for the carcass of all domestic
animals in whatevcr manner died 11elongto then1 hy right and custom: and also thcy feel the
same horrid satisfjction in the sla~~ghter of cow as in the murdering o f a Brahmin. horh the
crimes being of equal m21gnitude ir the opinion of Hindus.
 This discussion took place 11 a time when there were speculations about
the emancipation of slaves in Travancore following the example of the
emancipation of slaves in British India. And the expectations of that period are
clearly documented in the text that we deal with. The slaves had very clear
answers to the question what they would do if emancipated. They were aware of
the fact that they would have to work with the same masters for a livelihood
even after emancipation. One of he slaves opined that "we must still work for
our living and would it not be right to work for the present master?" Already it
was noted that several slaves had run away from oppressive landlords and taken
refuge in the forests bordering the plantation areas."

It should be noted here that slaves used to practice many of the strategies
referred to as 'weapons of the we:~k'""o escape from harsh practices of slavery.
The method most resorted to was to run away form cruel masters. Run away
slaves like these had been livin;: in the eastern plantation hills.h7 Sometimes
they escaped to the jungles rather than being killed by landlords. Some slaves

05
George Matthan, Jourrial.for the Qlrlrter endi~rgMar-C/I.?1,1859. Also sce his 'Annual Letter
Mallappalli. 3 I January, 1859.': 'Anl~ualLetter Mallappalli. 26 January. 1860'
"With regard to the slave congregation also I am thankful to say our difficulties are lesscninp
and our prospects brightening. Thouph it is hcre that the first opening among the Pulayas was
made i n this country the progress of the work is more seriously impeded here than elsewhere.
'The persecution raised against the slaves was so severe that many of them were compelled to
run away for refuge to Mundakkaya n and other places, which though seemed spread the light
of Gospel among the fellow caste men i n those places greatly reduced their numbers and
deterred others from joining. Th( slave owners thcrcfore are beginning to see that the
introduction of Christianity amon:! thern does not necessarily intlict any injury to the
management of their property and hat it is ilnpolitic in them to put themselves forward as
opponents in the matter".
1.0
James C. Scott. Weupollr of the Wer'k: Eb,mduj I:ortir.~of Peasurrt Resi.sfciricr. (Delhi: Oxford
University Press.1986), p. 29 also see James C. Scott and Benedict 1. Tria eds.. E~,enduyfi)rnlsof
Peasant Resistance ill Soirth-Eci.rtAsii, (London: Frank Cass. 1986). pp. 5-35
"
Rcv. Henry Baker Jr. The Hillilrriatrs of T r a r a ~ ~ c oiirrd
r e the P r o ~ l - e sof
s CI?N,sfinrrifyAnlnrl~
rliern (London: Wertheim Macintost &Hunt. 1862). p. 22
ran away as they were not able to get sufficient food and wages and they went
wherever they could get sufficient wages.68

The weapons of the weak included 'foot dragging, dissimulat~on,false

compliance, pilfering, feigned ignarance, slander, arson, sabotage and so forth.'
Some Travancore slaves tried sorcery and witchcraft against cruel masters and
there are several instances of sl;~vespilfering the crops at night particularly
during the lean season^.^' Even after the formal abolition of Slavery in 1855
there weren't many changes in the conditions of liberated low caste slaves
immediately. Because most of them did not own property they had to live in
the lands of their masters. But from the beginning of the twentieth century we
find gradual changes taking place among low castes such as the Pulayas and
Parayas and in certain places tkere emerged marginal peasants from among
them.7" Another trend was the migration of people to plantation districts in
search of land. But a large majority of them continued to live as labourers
attached to their old masters. -'he protocols of social hierarchy were very
important in the relationship between different low castes. They still observed
the norms of distance pollutior~ among themselves. It was unthinkable for
Pulayas and Parayas to have so2ial interaction with each other and similarly
they would avoid any interaction with Kizhakke Pulayar or Eastern ~ u l a ~ a s . ~ '

The text refers to the mastt:rs of the men being interviewed as Christians
and these masters were said to bc kind to them. But it needs to be reiterated that

ilii
In addition to Missionnr~essuch as Gcorge Mauhan. Henry Baker Junior talks ahout the
existence of the settlements o l t l ~ erun away slnvcs in the easterri hill arcas such as
Mundakkayam. For details sce Hen1 y Baker Junior, ihid.. 11p. 54-55.
6')
Rev. Koshy's Journal for the qlarter ending Scptemher30, 1856 in Mlldras Ch~rrclr
Misiiortnry Record. v o l XXIV No :i,May 18.57, pp. 138-14 1
ill
It may he ohscrved here that ever since the nomination of the representatives of low castes i n
the Travancore Sri Mulam Legi!.lative Assembly they began to demand assigning of
cultivable land to the members of heir comlnunitie who were traditionally most important
segment of the agrarian population Also instances of limited migrations to the hilly areas of
Travancore in search of land by 1o.v castes prove the fact that they were becoming marginal
peasants. For details see Prucrr<'i,igs of Tlir Sri M ~ l a n lAssembly f i ~ r l OMarch. I932
(Trivandrum: Government Press. 1'132), p. 27.
71
Sanluel Mateer. Nariw Life . . . pp. 13-59
masters, irrespective oT whether they were Syrian Christians of Nairs. were as a
72
rule very cruel to slaves. It is interesting to note that the ~nasters~tsedslaves
for their private ends. In some ir~stancesmasters employed slaves to steal for
them. Such practices were, howeker, no longer to be found in their area but they
were certain that such practices existed in western regions."

But the slaves were not sun: what to do once they were liberated. The idea
of liberty had not reached a large majority of slaves who were removed from
any contact with modernity. It sliould be noted, moreover, that in the case of
slaves who came into contact with missionaries the idea of liberation came to be
associated with a disciplined good life as propagated by Protestantism. It is at
this stage that the cruc~alqueslion of property comes in. Slave people as a
whole did not own any propej.ty and therefore their choices were limited,
especially as spatial mobility was out of question in the traditional order. And in
the case of those who had some idea of liberty as a result of contact with

72
ihid. "High caste opposition to tea<hing is less now, for fear of complaint. Christian rnasters
acknowledge it to he their duty to :lid in their enlightenment. Jacohite Syrian opposition was
rnore on account of fear of losin: their hold on their life property. They were under the
impression that the slaves would he all forcibly set at liberty as soon as they embraced
Christianity and thought that the cultivation of their grounds would necessarily fall as they
had no conception of frec labour irl such concerns. But they are convinced of their mistakes.
The government issued a proclamztion which virtually abolished slavery in the eyes of law.
The slaves however have not as a body availed themselves of this liberty to leave the services
of their forrner owners. The tempt~tionto high wages. which is seldom offered here, is not
strong enough to overco~nethe att'chment to the place of their nativity to the society of their
liiends and to the habits of livin): to which they are accusto~ned.Moreover, the baptised
slaves belonging to those who wi:re favourahle to their amelioration. instead of deserting
their parts. became more honest in their dealings and diligent in their work and Inore faithful
and attached to their masters."
11
They werc sure that what they had heard really existed. Similarly the slaves were used as
private mercenaries to tight out the disputes hetween masters. It has hcen reported by thc
interviewed slaves that sornetimes there used to he 50-60 on either side of thc conflict. They
recalled that almost a year ago ttere occurred a quarrel between a Roman Catholic and a
Brahmin and each called out his slaves and lnarly of them had their arms and heads broken.
And i n another fight about five yexrs ago many were frightfully beaten and some disabled for
six months and disfigured for lif,.. As per the existing legal practices even if n slave was
treated cruelly it was not possibl,: for them to complain to the authorities. They have not
heard of any instance of a slave's complaint being heard or a slave complaining against the
rnastcr. There is no use even i f solne one chooses to complain. Q~resfio~~s ...
IJ! I I r~~i.ssio!ru!~
p. 6.
missionaries there prevailed uncc:rtainties over future courses of action. But
they were certain that of the choic:s that were opening up for them as a result of
emancipation they would not as a rule choose to remain with cruel ~andlords.'~
Contrary to the normal view thal slaves ran away more because of economic
exploitation and oppression, rhos? being interviewed reported the case of two
slaves who ran away because the!, were not allowed to attend school on Sunday
and were beaten for attending sct~ool.'' Schools began to have influence on the
lives of those low castes that cam? under missionary instruction. There was also
a gradual evolution of wage labour among slaves although it had not evolved as
the dominant mode. The major p~.oblemthat they had faced, however, was their
inability to find work in the abser ce any other cultural endowments.

In the interview, there are some references to the relationship between

those slave castes that had joined the missions and those who had not. Slave
castes like the Pulayas and Parayas used to observe distance pollution among
themselves, but a change in rel:ltion to these practices is seen amongst those
who joined the missions. This portion of the interview helps us to understand
how much low castes groups mere willing to associate with each other. The
slaves being interviewed were !hemselves Pulayas but were willing to walk
alongside Parayas so long as .hey became Christians. They said that they
believed that others of their cas:e would not learn with the Parayas unless the
latter became Christians.

The last few questions of I he interview were about the religious practices
of the slaves. The interviewee; expressed their happiness to have heard of
Christianity. Responding to the question about who it was that they worshipped
before coming under missionaly instruction they replied that they had been
worshipping vile gods and dev:ls. They said they had worshipped gods made
with wood, stone or metal placed in groves, near which no women or child

7l
ihid. p. 5. But these on the othtr hand who were owned hy such as persecuted rnan on
account of religion ran away from them to places wherc thy could not be injurcd by then1 and
thus hy the withdrz~walof their ser.?icesinflicted serious hlow upon this tyrants.
71
ihid.. p. 5.
could approach. They said that they had thrown them away when they became
Christians. According to them these devils stood as God or werc Gods to
them.'"

We need to remember the extreme form of slavery practiced in

Travancore. It deprived slaves of all their humanity. Here is a striking example
of the oppressive social conditions the experienced as recorded in one of the
missionary journals. The missionary Hawksworth recalled a visit to him by a
slave who had brought an idol to his Bungalow. The slave's story about the
idol, which the missionary had confirmed from other quarters, is singular:

It IL.(I.S the idol of thei,. deity thnt he himself had vvorshippetl

~ r ~ l the
i l leur~ledthe religiort of C h ~ i s t .The idol is the itnuge
of rr mttr~lererl s1~rr.e. unrl ~ v o nmde
,~ cnnl set up hy the
m~rrdererto nppeo" the spirit of the victinl. The slzockirtg
m~itilrrtion of the bouy, and other portit.ii1nr.s has heell
norrccterl; proving that scverrrl r i r ~ r s t have comn~itterl the
<.riri~e.
O t ~ eof the .s~csptctedprrrties destroyer1 hirit.se1f cr .sllort
rime ugo. Pr,rlz~~p.s
nnthii~gco~tlrlhe rnore clearer or njore
c<fe~,ting
proof of' the ~noraldegrcr~lationof the slaves, than
the fact of their regard,rlg us n ileiry what they believed to he
the image of a rn~lnlerelslave, (mil actually rvorshippi~lgit."

The full shape of the dehu~nanisationof slaves is given expression in this

story of slaves worshipping the spirit of a murdered slave that was said to haunt

76
ibid.. p. 7. "They admit the existen-e of a suprelire being hut are unahle to comprehend thc
governance of the vast world. Spirit of dead men exists in a separate state hut also not seen to
think that thesc happenings depend up on their conduct in this world. Spirits moving about
the earth wandering over the interelts of their friends in the body. Ofierings-rice. areca cakes
and other things. which i l they Ivithheld, the spirits are behind to haunt thern. to take
possession of them and to punish them with maladies. Their main ohject of worship was
Blood goddess Kali but offerings a i d sacrifices werc made to hill gods for plentiful harvest.
This account o i the slaves i n this c,untry is intcnded to show to what a miserahlc low stock
they arc reduced by the cruelty of their fellow creatures: for I am sure if their case he only
known fully, i t will raise many he ievolent and Christian friends who will sympathize with
them. pray for them and advocntc their cause".
"
'TAP Travancore Sla\,e. A brief E.rtrclct of MI-. H~rvk.srrnrthSeprrnrh~r7. 18.53' Church
Missionary Register 1854. p. 471
the landlord who committed the murdcr. In this account we only get indirect
information on the landlord whc committetl the murder but oral tradition, as
well as other accounts, refer to 1;rndlords who used to kill their slave labourers
for various reasons including 'ths- propitiation of the angry Gods whose anger
leads to the breach of embarkments of paddy fields.' The practice of
worshipping the murdered slave in order to appease his wandering soul which
would otherwise seek revenge up on the landlord and his family was part of the
popular belief and ritual system:. in most wetland regions of Travancore.7 8 In
the instance quoted here the soul of the murdered slave was incarnated in a
stone idol and propitiated with r pecial offerings and, moreover, fellow slaves
who were unaware of the story were asked to worship it. They did so until they
realised the truth to their extreme disbelief. In many other cases such idols came
to be worshipped by the local people out of fear as they came to be viewed as
malevolent. This is a case of the ;~potheosisof a murdered rebel slave.

1 shall quote here another :.ource that provide interesting information that
that Rev. George Matthan had with
is relevant. In the course of the c~~nversation
a Paraya slave he understood that the Paraya informant 'believed in the
existence of one Supreme Being. the original cause of all things but was unable
to comprehend how the governnent of this vast world could be carried on by
him without the assistance of subordinate agents'. During the short span of time
of their conversation the mis:;ionary endeavoured 'to correct the Paraya
informant's views on this and other important subjects' and to impress upon
him the notion of the exceeding love of God to men in giving up his only
beloved son for their redemption." We do not get further information on what
must have been the Paraya informant's 'views on this and other important
subjects'. Conceptions of divinily that the Paraya informant had are significant
when we try to understand thei. world view in the context of ~nodernity.The

7%
For similar narratives on thc oppression and sufferings of low caste agricultural labourers
before the coming of the modern agricultural labourers movement see N K Knmalasanan.
K~trrur~rrdrrrti (Kottayam: D C Books. 1993). pp. 30.32.
K a t ~ h a k aTlrorlfiluli t'rasrhr~anac~unr
7"
Rev. George Matthan Joirrrrulfi~rtile quarter- errdirrg De~.etirher-1849 entry dated October 12
main goal of this section of the chapter has heen to give sonlc idea ot' how
missionary teachings made slaves evaluate their lives and practices in the light
of the new teachings and how tbis helped them evolve new practices. These
new practices were essential to their claims for equal space in society.

Agency and the power of the word

1 have already referred to the importance of the experiential dimension of

slavery in Kerala. This perspectibe on slavery looks at how slave experience is
constructed over a period of time and how, in the process, certain elements of
that experience are selectively deployed to make them part of collective
memory. The diverse narratives are important for the simple reason that they
give voice to those who are otherwise stifled and silenced. The goal here is not
to contribute to those'silences bu1 to let the docu~nentsspeak. What we find is a
breaking away from the silence of the past and the emergence of subjects who
are able to reflect on that past ant1 see differences between their slave past and a
possible state of freedom. This \vas made possible because of the intervention
of an external agency in the fo-m of Protestant missionary Christianity. The
agency of the low castes cannot >e understood without also taking into account
the mediation of the Church Mis:;ionary Society although the low castes were to
contest the ideas of the missionrries later. The people experienced a sense of
freedom and a break with their past which they thought was leading to the 'new
heaven and earth'. This was a defining social experience for the slave castes in
Travancore. The significance of :such developments lies in the fact that it shows
that the people were able to think of their future differently from what it had used
to be in the past. More than this, the narrative accounts given to CMS missionaries
provided, in themselves, the means for emancipation. In other words, low caste
people realized emancipation in their very acts of interaction with missionaries.
However, in the following decadm-s it should be noted that people developed their
own projects however vague the!;e might be. It would be difficult to think of the
agency of the low castes outside cf such programmatic actions.
 Therc a also certain instances where the slaves. well aware of the
consequences, gain agency through their own action. Thus, for example, in the
journal of the native missionary, Oomen Mammen, we read of the promise
made by a slave to give a piece of land in order to establish a slave school.
Later on this same slave informej the missionary of his inability to do provide
the land unless the missionary himself could persuade the 'heathen master', to
donate the land, as the slave himielf feared him.x" What is worthy of note here
is that the idea of establishing a school had already entered into the imagination
of this low caste individual and lie was also aware of the difficulties that were
to be encountered in realizing it. After his initial enthusiasm he realized the fact
that he had no right to donate the land, as he had no ownership right over it.

There are also accounts of the beginning of the Gospel work in villages
amidst fears of oppression. In one such account we find slave converts braving
oppression and persecution in order to learn, sometimes travelling long
distances at night to meet in secret places to speak and pray very quickly lest
they should be found oul and pur~ished.x'These are moments of realization of a
community feeling nurtured by the experience of learning. We find here, then,
the imaginative amalgamation of the traditional worldview of the low castes
with the new ideas and practic~:~
that were conveyed to them through their
learning of the scriptures and the alphabet. Such new initiatives brought
together low caste people who were unlettered in traditional society.

In these examples we observe the desire to avert both individual death and
the 'social death' that was characteristic of slave life. Socially meaningful and

RU
.Extracts from the Rcv. Oomen M;~mmen's,Journ:ll for thc half Year ending ?I December
1856' i n Chrrnh Micsioniirr. R e c o r ~vol. XXIV. No 5, May 1857, p. 127..
"
.'Once a visitor came to a villagc called Kurumpanadam one day in pitch darkness. and found
the few gathered in a house in g e a t fright and on quietly asking about the reason he was told
that their masters had heard that Gc spel preachers were accustomed to comt: and instrucl the
people and they were thcrcfore o n the look out to catch thcm and so he had to rcturn after
offering a short prayer very quietl!. In the context of oppression solnc of the111 tried to do
witchcraft against the oppressing lotrdlords. They realized the futility of their rrndilional black
magic as it failed to protect them from the cruelties of their landlords and over the years
landlords also hecame less afraid of their hlack magic" TCDR vol. XV. May 1905. No. 3. pp.
42-41.
subversive acts such as the eslablishrnent of schools and participation in
learning went some way towards achieving this goal. The spread of the message
of the Gospel arnong the slave castes had several consequences. As in the case
of many other social and political contexts in other parts of the world the effect
of this spread on the lower crders of society, here the slave castes of
Travancore, created the conditions for them to develop ideas of a millennial
future. The low castes really believed i n the millennial ideas implied in
teachings and practices of protest:lnt missionaries.

The spread of the Gospel and the new spatial practices relating to the
realm of the sacred were subversive elements. By new spatial practices I mean
the constitution of the sacred space of the chapel and the relationships that low
caste people now developed wit1 sacred objects including, in particular, their
proximity to them. There were, to use Bourdieu's terms, radical changes in both
habitus and habitat and the relationship between them. Unlike in traditional
practice where they were kept amay from sacred space and sacred objects, in the
new Protestant Churches they gained access to sacred ob-jects and spaces
through their receipt of holy sac]-aments.The new found access to the space of
the school had similar effects. T t e new space and their orientation to it began to
mould their social disposition, tteir habitus. as they had to adopt new practices
to go to chapel and school. They began to appear in clean clothes with
transformed behaviour, both considered to be requirements to participate in the
congregation. This inculcated arnong them a new notion of ritual community.
These spatial practices were paricularly significant not just because they were
different from hut because they were completely against the prevailing norms of
social space and access to it. Ttie low castes got access to the sacred space as
against the traditional insularity of that space and their exclusion from it. This
led, by the end of the nineteenth century, amongst those who joined the
missions assertion of their right to public space, challenging upper caste
hegemony.
 At the same time that the coming of Protestant 1.eIigious activities offered
slaves n possible future nevertheless several contradictions were involved in it.
It appears from missionary sources that the people who joined missions
considered this act of theirs as a very serious because it involved the
redefinition of their social selves. Their clandestine meetings were important as
they brought together people ibr prayers, and at a later stage they were
instru~nentalas occasions for discussing and moving toward the establishment
of schools and chapels. Their presence i n the slave schools and chapels
demanded a completely different orientation of the mind and body. For instance
people were expected to appear in clothes given by the missionaries rather than
in leaves and twigs around their waist. Similarly they had to orient themselves
to listening to the scriptures md imbibe the ideas, metaphors and signs
associated with it. This was cxnpletely different from their experiences of
conducting witchcraft and other rituals of their traditional worship. Similarly
there was a co~npulsionon the 1'1w caste slaves to learn new prayers that were
part of a different ritual order and understanding of divinity, articulated in a
different vocabulary.

In another context a missit~naryreports a visit to a nearby village called

Changal accompanied by a slave. During his visit to the village the missionary
spoke to them about salvation through Jesus Christ. One of the slaves of the
village was a catechumen and c:ould read. The other slaves of Changal were
astonished to see a fellow slave reading a book which none of them could. This
particular slave read out scriptures to men while his wife spoke to women. The
missionary observed that the Christian slave named Joshua spoke very well
compared to his cornparlions thc'ugh he has not learned to read. It is important
to see how the ideas of a possil~lelife were conveyed through the reading of
books." Reading becomes a significant social act which creates a community of
listeners. The power of the written word is increased when the texts are read for
an enthusiastic community of believers. The prayers and prayer songs

'' 'Extracts horn the Journal of Rev. Oomen Mamen for the Half Year ending Decernher 31.
1856' in Chlrrrh Missionilrx Recon', No 5. May 1857. v o l XXIV, p. 127.
co~nposedby the low castes s h o ~ that
s they were able to transfor111 the ideas
received from missionary disc ours':^ according to their own social vision.

1 have already commented on the fact that books performed functions

other than being materials for reading. This surplus function was generated in
the context of a people who were becoming literate for the first time and trying
to 'rise in the scales of civilization'. Reading of hooks provided them with
symbolic capital in a society that had denied them access to learning. Their
entry into the field with symbm~lic capital was capable of subverting the
symbolic order of the society in u,hich they lived. So much is this the case, that
there are reports of older illiterate: slaves listening to the book reading sessions
of children and of their catechists as moments of enthusiasm and fulfilment for
themselves. It is against this background that their enthusiasm to set up a slave
school in May 1857 must be understood.

The nlissionary told the slaves in the course of their conversation that
baptism required some trial of their sincerity and testing of their learning."
Baptism signified for the slaves a fundamental reorientation of their lives. They
were heing asked to reflect on their lives and actions from a Christian
perspective of sin and redemption. The missionary asked them if they would
send their children for further studies and they all expressed their willingness to
do so. He went on to ask t h e n to work for him in constructing the school
~hed.~"his, according to the missionary, was for making a decent place of
worship for them. He promised ts give them what they wanted if they promises
to give hirn what he needed. 'The slaves were enthused and agreed to do
whatever they could for him.85Vie see from these missionary accounts that low
caste people had minds of their own. We can see from their actions that I have

"
'Conversution with Slaves i n Mepr; ' in ihid.. p118.
" ihid.
" Church Missionarj Record. No 5 . May 1857. vol. XXIV. pp. 138-14I.After taking the
promise from them the missionary pointed to the little shed that was being used as place of
worship and slave school and aslced them to $0 to the jungle and bring some poles to
construct thc school and they ohliged it. Follorving the instruction of the missionary they
hegan the work of levelling the land lor constructing the huilding
just described that they were try ng to change themselves accot-ding to a new
social vision that they had prcjected for themselves. I n fact we find the
centrality of learning in the social vision of both the missionaries and the slave
castes.

Children and adults among the poor illiterate Pulaya congregation were
being encouraged to learn to reld and to qualify themselves to compete for
annual examination when prizes were given to those who proved themselves
diligent and deserving. Annual examinations were held by pastors and their
helpers. It revealed that the number of those who could read was increasing. It
was also pleasing for the missionaries to record that the grant indirectly helps
evangelistic work, because those who had been taught were generally diligent in
teaching others and they read t i e word of God to their heathen friends and
relatives with the result that tk,ey often succeeded in bringing them to the
Church of Christ."

The introduction of annual written examinations and the enthusiasm with

which Pulaya children and adult:; participated in them show how the low castes
were responding to the coming cf the new practice of competitive examinations
and the emphasis on selection by merit. Even in the selection process for
children seeking entry into the boarding schools also we find that the single
criterion was merit of the students, both boys and girls. The parents were urged
to send their wards only if they were promising based on their performance in
previous examinations." It was reported that large numbers of them came to
take the examinations. In subsequent decades when the question of low caste
education and employment, m;~inlyin mission institutions came up, it was
considered that the meritorious low caste candidates should not be left out of

86
See for details. 'Report or the Herry Venn Fund Grenl for the year IRRh'Docurncn~No.58.
CMSAUB. "There was ;I timc when the question of providing for the instruction of these
Christians caused grave :~nxietiestn the Church councils. as the native church was not able to
rnake adequate provisions for the increasing hodies of converts. But now though the grant
from the H Venn Fund hy itself is inadequate yet the council fcels very grateful for the help it
al'fords and by which it has been erabled to surmount a difficulty lo a certain extent".
'' ibid.
c o n ~ i d e r a t i o nThe
. ~ ~ fact that thii particular notion of merit was acceptable to
the educated sections of the low castes within the missions completely unsettles
the notion of merit that was in vogue in twentieth century debates on low caste
education and employment.

Another missionary Rev. J . Therian recorded in his Journal for the half
year ending December 3 1,1856 tiis visit to the slave school in a village called
Mepra where he went to examine the candidates who have been under
preparation for ~ a ~ t i s There
m . ~ were
~ fifty men and women who came to meet
him. The missionary examined them in the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel
and found their progress to be satisfactory. At the same time he felt that they
were yet to come up to his expectations. From their answers he felt that they
understood more than what they could actually articulate. 'It was really difficult
for them to get at some of the terms necessarily employed in their instruction
such as repentance, faith, holine:;~etc. They quite often replied to a question
that we must love God and transqess his commandments always. (Sic) But at
the same time they were all fully convinced of the sin and the folly of idolatry
and that salvation is only througt Jesus ~hrist'.'" It is quite possible that there
was gradual penetration of simlar signifiers in their everyday speech and
action.

The transformations effected by literacy on those who have experienced

slavery are very important. To slave castes in Travancore, literacy offered an
effective tool to articulate their sccial imaginary. This was not an unadulterated
quest based on a self-generated idea of development hut on the contrary their
social imaginings were directed t ~ ythe religious ideology of Protestantisn~,an
ideology that helped them to understand their location in a new light. At the
same time, however, categories and concepts such as sin, repentance, faith,

sx
G B Durrant S e c CMS to The Bishcp of Travancore and Cochin Diocesc Tr(n,u,~<.o~-e
Letter
Rook. V o l 111 /YO.<-1915.CMSAUB pp. 260-61
XU
'Slave School' in Rev. J. Therian's Journal for the half year cnding 31 December, 1856'
quoted in Cl~lirrhMissionary Record . ., p. 14 1 .
holiness and a host of others introluced to then1 in the course of their education
became organizing principles 01' their lives. They might not have always
succeeded in understanding the subtle nuances of all these categories, as
witnessed by the seemingly confl~sedanswer referred to above: "we must love
God and transgress his commandments alwaysn." Yet, people desired access to
social progress through the neu learning that was becoming available and
which they were taking up. H'lwever, i t was around the complex issues
surrounding these categories that much contest took place in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century Kerala.

Sin and repentance: Disciplininq the slaves

Notions of sin and repentarce are important to any discussion of the new
ordering of low castes in the wake of missionary activities. Missionary activities
focused on encouraging their flelgling congregations of low castes to acquire
social standing by reforming everyday practices. It was reiterated by the
missionaries, time and again, that Gospel truth made the slave castes free, and if
they accepted it then they would t ~ efree indeed."' This emphasis on the liberatory
potential of the Gospel legitimised the new disciplining regime that the
missionaries introduced. The freedom that comes out of Gospel discipline was
considered as essential for low castes to claim equality in the public sphere. No
other alternatives of ways towards freedom are articulated by the missionaries.

The notions of sin and repentance were instrumental in changing the

social conduct of low castes. These notions reyuired tl.ansforrnation of the self.
The new social conduct emerging from these transformations made the low
castes who experienced them actively engage with the new public sphere where
contests over social equality tool: place. At the same time, however, we can see
that there are significant differences between missionary discourse about sin
and the low castes' own account of their actions. Missionaries used to interpret

" iibid.
" Church Missionar? Ir~telligencerI h Y 2 vol XLIII & VoI XVll New Series. p. 922
many of the social and individual practices of the low castes as sins. Thus, for
example, one of the missionaries t:xplained to a group of low castes that they were
all sinners and that idolatry, Sabbath breaking and polygamy were sins although
they were unaware of it.'?

It appears that there was only a selective acceptance of the notion of sin, as
the following empirical examples show. But at the same time it is the case that the
Christian notion of sin was taken on by low caste minds in course of time. Such
transformations have been observed elsewhere as well. In the contemporary
historical anthropology of missio~~s
the disciplinary power of the notion of sin is
discussed in the writing of Joel ~ o b b i n sIn
. ~the
~ context of Papua New Guinea he
points to the significance of the notion of sin and its impact on the people in the
ordering of their everyday life.'5

The question of disciplinins the slaves who were already subjected to the
disciplinary regime of slavery emerges from the fact that the slaves used to
transgress the restrictions impost:tl on them by the upper caste landlords. They
used to steal and kill for meat th~:cows of the landlords that they were sent out
to graze." Instances of slaves atsconding from oppressive landlords were also
referred to as another example oi' indiscipline." Those who joined the missions
also continued with many of thew old practices or the missionaries feared that
this kind of behaviour could res~~rface
even though they might appear to have
abandoned them.9x The missionaries felt it necessary to control these aspects of

"
Extracts from the Rev. Oomen Mn~:ien'sjournal for the hall year ending iIDece1nhcr.1856
quoted in Church Mission;~ryRecorll vol. XXIV. No. 5 . May 1857, p. 127.
'14
See for details Joel Rohhins, Beco,~ziz~g
Sinnezs: Chrisliarritj rrrzd Morn1 Tonrie~irill o P~rpiru
New Gzrirzerr SocieQ. (Berkeley :University of California Press,204), pp. 2 12-252.

'jh
Rev. George Matthan. Jozin~nl,fi,rf11e Qaorter er~dirq31 December. 1849. entry dated 12
October. 1849.
'I7 ihid.
'IX
For example see the various Annuzl Reports of LMS: Annual Report on Attingal 1903. p.
2;Annual Report on Attingal 1908. 11. 2-3:for similar observations from the CMS area see W
S Hunt, Thc Anglican Church in Travancore and Cochin 1816-1916. v o l . II( Kottnynm: CMS
Press. 1968). pp. 104-12.
the lives of the low castes in order to transform them into a community that
could eventually demand equality in social life."" Notions of sin and repentance
were deployed to discipline the fledgling community of slave Christians. These
developments are recalled in the account of the experience of one man called
Pothny (named Paul) whom a missionary had helped.""'

He IVUS LI stron,q h ~ ~ r rnrrti

l t rrgerl aho~lt36 rrrlrl kvos still
Iufely notorious for th~evinguric! other crimes us \re// (r
disobedience to his m:lsters. He n.us also dreaded for his
skills in witchcraft. H8, rvus opposed to the instruction of
knowledge and truth among his fellow slaves rlot so much
of his for<fatherc rrs fronr
frum bigotry to the ,s~~,~erstition.s
fkfcr of losing his ir!fllce.~cemzrl of' his crafi heirzg etiOungered
for he was shre~vtlenollgh to forc~see that his delusion art
would die away before the light of Gospel. The word of God
Izorver,er .reerit,sto have efficiently touched his heart; he lately
hegan regularly to attend our Sunday school instructions and
prayers and at once g,ive up his evil practices and vicious
habits-quite changed character. ( S i c )

An interesting representational strategy is used in the text in which highly

charged categories are used to describe the slave Christian person whom the
missionary wanted to bring under instruction and, consequentially, from the
missionaries point of view improve the slaves moral standards, attitudes and
self perception. In the descriptisn he appears as a strong man with a strong
proclivity towards violating the lorms of 'Christian existence' as demonstrated
in the fact that he resorted to thr:ft and other crimes. He was equally notorious
for his disobedience to his masters. Examination of his character helps us to
explore the context of his vio ent behaviour and disobedience. Were these

' A F Painter To Durrant 'Tr;rvan,,ore and Cochin Mission.. Class Mark G2 I 51 0 1908.
Document 26.7 1 March. 1908
IIXI
Rev. George Matthan. J~,lr~rr~aljiir-
the Quarter rvrding -10"'Jrrrrr 1856, cntry dated 2OApril.
The missionary had an 'intense cunversation with the communicants on the nature of this
hlessed ordinance and the proper fiime of mind i n which it should he served'.
activities of his instances of social protest in the face of cruelties perpetrated by
the landlord classes and the cast(: hierarchy'? These cruelties could have been
reasons for his rebellious natur:. He was described as someone who was
disobedient and one who disliked the disciplinary strategies of the missionaries
and the transforming effects of the Gospel. He was reported to have been
opposed to the spread of gosp~:l knowledge among his fellow slaves. His
prowess in sorcery actually cawed fear amongst them. His opposition to the
spread of the word of the gospel @asperceived to be based on a fear of the loss
of the benefits that he had been deriving out of his practice of witchcraft and the
fear that his name evoked in the ninds of the people.

This missionary made succ~:ssfuluse of the notions of sin and the need for
a sinner to save himself through atonement and modification of his behaviour.
In this instance the man was con.~incedof the need to change his individual and
social conduct.. The use of th-se notions, then. derived from the Gospel,
becomes significant as a social act. The results of this act are visible in the
regular attendance of the protagcnist at Sunday school instructions, prayers and
also in his readiness to give up his former 'evil and vicious practices'. There
will have been many similar cases of change of heart, not reported in
missionary writing. Christian teachings affected the people by bringing them
under the missionary gaze.

Rev. K Koshi's Journal for the quarter ending 30 September 1856 carried
a very interesting narrative of a slave who 'repented' his earlier ways. It was
the case of a Pulaya who lived eight miles away from the slave school at Mepra.
He did not seem to mind walking the distance, including crossing water, in
order to attend Divine worship on Sundays. The missionary talked to him at
length and was impressed by hi:; knowledge of spiritual matters even though it
was at that stage 'experimental'. He listened with interest to the account of how
the slave attended Sunday services inspite of the difficulties arising out of the
opposition of his master, a rich Nair landlord. He was happy that thus far he had
been able to observe the Sabba.h except once when one of his masters seized
him in his hut before daylight while he was in the act of praying with his wife
and took him to the field. The roor man described these circumstances with
much grief and remarking u p m his master's conduct and said, "how
advantageous is my helief in Christian religion is to my master, whose property
is now secure, as far as I am con~erned!I f a thousand men with two thousand
eyes were watching me 1 would blind fold them all (alluding to his former
adroitness in the act of stealing, whereas now, if 1 found a grain of paddy
sticking to my cloth I am sure ta shake it off into my masters stack.""" Some
members of the low castes used to steal when they were starving during lean
seasons and stealing has been observed as a form of subsistence as a result of
landlord exploitation. But with the coming of Christian morality stealing was
interpreted as a mortal sin and forbidden. In other words a lot of low caste
102
practices were redefined as vic~:s and sins. It seems that the disciplinary
mechanisms in the teachings wers: an effective leverage i n keeping people away
from what the missionaries deerned to be evil and sin and also encouraging
confessions and subsequent 'charges of heart'.

Observance of Sabbath ;ind chanting of prayers had become very

significant for low caste Christirns. Both the Sabbath and prayers introduced
new spatio-ternpor;il practices among them themselves and also for their
relationships with upper castes. The observance of Sabbath as holy day drives
home a different notion of the time1 work continuum in which the idea of holy
day-a day dedicated to the lord #ithout work-becomes important. There was a
contest over this question between the Travancore government on the one hand
and the missionaries and low c,rste Christians on the other. The missionaries
demanded that as they had become Christians the low castes should not be
bound to perform 'uzhiyam' ((:ustornary labour) on ~ u n d a y s . ' ~Prayers
' on
ordinary days were also determined by the work schedule, often posing moral

101
Chllrrh M ~ S S ~ ~ R
NPI ICI O , 5, May 1857. v o 1 XXIV, p. 141
: ~Y ~NO
10?
For details of the narrative of innr:r transformation of the low caste Christians see Sa~liuel
Mateer. The Lo~rdof Charin....,pp. 354-5.
In?
For the Tmvencore Governrnent's early response to the low caste converts' avoidance of
U?.hiysrn see Travancore Government Neetlu 1004 (ME) 1829 (CE) . 6 . 21. p. 48 KSAT.
problems for ~nemhersof the low castes. In many cases the prayers thenlsclves
became forms of discourse which addressed the prohlems that low castes faced
as individuals and as groups.

In this instance we also see the missionary calling upon young people in
particular to be prepared to give up 'evil' practices and to lead 'holy' lives after
baptism. He warned them against stealing and drinking as vices. He was joined
by elders who repeated the caution against drunkenness and said, seriously,
"Arrack is Satan's de~oction.""~

In Travancore the moral conduct of slave Christians was often praised

when compared with the 'looseness' of their neighbours of the same castes. The
upper caste Hindus and Christiarls in the midst of whom they lived also bore
witness to their superiority in thi: respect. Here, we see the missionary proudly
recalling the opinion of the upper castes on the slave Christians that 'among this
people not only drunkenness, adlrltery, thieving and other vices, formerly very
corninon were almost banished but also evil spirits were obliged to run away
from the place, there being scarcf.ly any instance of demonical propitiation, real
or imaginary.' Rev. Koshi K o s ~ ireports a Syrian Christian informant who
remarked that in the stillness of the night he could daily hear in his home, the
united voices of men, women anc children from their different huts, praying and
praising God in the 'most fervent' manner.""

These testimonies are give1 by upper caste Hindus and Syrian Christians
amidst whom the low castes wer,: living and with whom they had to contest for
social equality. They help LIS un?erstand the development of low caste demands
for equality. The disciplinary strategies employed by the missionaries would
lead to the 'reform' of e v e r ~ d a y practices. The moral vigilance of the
missionaries was such that 'an:? failure of good conduct on the part of our

I04
'Re\,. J . Therrian's Journal for ihe half ycar ending 31 Deuernhcl-. 1856' in CIi~irch
Missiorinry Record No5 May I857 vol XXIV, p. 141
"15
Annual Letter of Rev. Koshi Koshi dated 2 January, 1857. CMSAUB.
people is at once noticed ahout and made a matter of public reproach, as
inconsistent with their high piofession.'"'" All these developments were
prerequisites for the effective articulation of their demand for equality. In fact
access to social space depended on the social worth that the low castes were
able acquire by adopting these new practices..

The act of repentance had l'ar reaching consequences for many run away
slaves who wanted to escape from the tyranny of the landlords. It is important
to see 'repentance' as an agential act as it demands objectification of ones' own
self. It can have quite serious repercussions for those who engage in it. For
example, there is the case of one of the runaway slaves whose repentance lead
to his death. As they had become Christians some of them felt it their duty to
return to their old masters. Prol,ably they thought of reconciliation with the
landlord following Christian teachings of forgiveness. Henry Baker Junior, one
of the most famous missionaries, has recorded a number of such cases. cases of
runaway slaves who had taken .efuge in eastern hills amidst the Mala Araya
tribe. In one of the cases he desuibes, some of poor slaves who had joined the
CMS mission in the hills went down to Kottayam to meet their old masters.
Two of the returnees were severely beaten up.""

It is important to explore what must have prompted these slaves to return

to their masters. Their new reli5,ious subjectivity must have given them a new
disposition to face the landlord even if the latter were vengeful. They might also
have been imbued with a feeling: for reconciliation and a rethink of their act of
absconding from their former master. But the desire to escape from cruel
masters continued because sorile of the slaves who returned to their former
masters then once again return6.d to the hill with yet other slaves where they
I OX
would be free from the landlord:.

IIM
Also R ~ L ,Kushi
. Koshi'z jourtinl from Jill? 22 lo rhe e ~ of~ Srptrrrrher
d IK57 entry dated 22
July. Also see ihid.
1117
of Truvancorr.. .. p. 49.
Henry Baker Junior, The Hill Arrior~~
IiiH . .
~h~d.
 One extreme case was that of a run away slave owned by 11 Syrian
Christian in Parlai (Palai) who hac escaped to the hills and lived there in a Mala
Araya village and who had come under the instruction of CMS. Eventually he
became close to Henry Baker u h o named him "Uncle Tom" through some
supposed "likeness to Mrs. Stowe's character". He was under instruction for
two years and impressed the missionaries by his knowledge of Christian~tyand
1 I9
apparent consistency.

One day he called on Bake1 and told him of his resolve to visit his master
whom he had deserted and that ht. had a present ready with him in order to avert
his anger. Although Baker warned him not to go, as he knew how cruel the
master was especially through kis previous attempts to capture the run away
slaves, thC slave stuck to his decision. When the slave returned to his master, he
was seized and tortured and was smeared with hot ashes all over his body and
confined in the cellar of a granary. The son of the master himself told Henry
Baker that "the poor fellow lay there days groaning and praying that God would
forgive all his sins, and his master's too". When he asked for water they gave
him the filth from the cowshed and the poor man died of the wounds and his
mortal remains were bul-nt away 'I('

These narratives are food for thought in relation to the notions of sin and
repentance and their relationship to the idea of equality. In the instances
recounted here it has been shovin how determined the slaves were to return to
their former masters knowing fi~llywell that the masters would punish them. It
showed the new resolve the :laves had acquired as a result of missionary
teaching. This is particularly ,evident in the last case where, inspite o f the
missionary warning the slave of the consequences of going back to the former
master, 'the slave stuck to his decision'. It means that he had ahandoned the
disposition of a slave and had begun to have an opinion of his own, one that
was informed by an awareness of the consequences of his actions. All this

"' ihid., p. 57.

I10
ihid., pp. 57-61, Emphasis added.
might point to his possible awareness o f his equal worth as a human being, an
awareness which is part of the di>courseof equality. Furthermore, the equality
of the master and the slave was enlphasized by the slave in the dungeon because
he prayed to God to forgive all his own sins and those of his master's too. A
prayer like this is only possible i ' the slave felt himself to be the equal of his
master, as human beings capable. of committing sins and being forgiven for
them. The slaves brave return to his former master raises further questions
about issues of false consciousness or traditionalist thinking. It has often been
reported that the commitment of low caste slaves to their masters was
absolute.l" The power ofthe notion of sin in directing the decisions and actions
of low castes should be viewed in this larger context. The learning of Christian
principles through catechism als,, found expression in similar acts. However,
these do not diminish the significance of the decision taken by the slave to
return to his master in an act of repentance expecting similar good will from the
master.

The clash of the worldvie'ws of missionaries and low caste people who
joined the missions was evident in many practices of the latter. An exarnple of
this is to be found in the recollections of a missionar-y with a slave named
Choti, "a very intelligent and a leading rnan among the slaves" who died in
August 1856.

He was ,from the ve,y beginning in the habit qf regularly

attending the services and receiving instrtrctions and had

in~lrleun adn~imblrzpr(1gres.s it1 the kr~o\vlerlgeof Christinr~ity.

He refirserl. however, to c o m r f i ~ r w r r r dto he hupti;rd from tlre

(.irc~rmstance
of'his ha 'ing /+GO \vive.s, tleither ofwhoni he 1r.rrs

incliner1 to divorce. his being a r ~ r i r s trrnro~tgthe 'hentheti

.slaves', at1 qjfzce hcrerlirarj i n his ,fimaily r117rl ileriving

rnnsiderahle b r ~ ~ o n i ~ f i otheir
m stater1 uncl volu~xta~-y

cferings, M.u.~
anothet impediment i n the way of11i.stornwlly
embracing Christiuniry. The last time whe~r the ~nissionory

"' K(r,-.vhnka... pp. 30-3 l

N K Kamalasanan. K~1rt(rt7adunt
 1rir.s irr the .sr~lrool.Cltoti e.rprrs.ver1 his h o l ~ t tlrirr
, h r ~r.orrl<l
!rot

corlsider hi,,, t o be rrrl r r r ~ b r ~ l i r v efir1111

r Iris rlrlrryirlg t o hr

hapti:ed crnrl stated tho' his sole rrlotive ill their rr<.tivity wa.v

I r i , rlrsirc~ t o bring rnore of hi.s f e l l o w caste rrrerl t o the

krrowlerlge of the rrlrr11; ,for his ir?flner~ces worrl(1 he lost

irrnorlg then1 if he e r ~ t i r c l y.seprrrated,fror?i their comnttrnity by

hrrl~tisrn.The r~ri.r.~ioncrri.
bvus irt u /o.r.r to ,fornr a n opiniorr of

his state of minrl Orrrir~gthe sickn~.s.s,as )l,irhin a fin. rlays

from the catching of the diseuse n severe kirlrl q f j ~ i n g l efever.

he had lost his con.scioi~.sness.'"

Despite being regular in 2hurch attendance and receiving instructions

Choti did not come forward to b': baptized. But at the same time Choti did not
want the missionary to consider him an unbeliever. Moreover, the missionary
himself admits that he had made considerable progress in knowledge of
Christianity, something that they considered as essential to the new claims that
the slave castes were making. While continuing with his traditional practices of
witchcraft, he was equally concerned with the new notions of Christianity that
he had imbibed. In other words, he betrayed ambivalence as far as his religious
perceptions and practices were concerned which is not unusual in the case of
Christianity among indigenous pt:ople in other parts of the world."'

Choti, according to the report of the missionary, did not want to lose
contact with the people of his community who have not become Christians.
Hence he remained without ba!~tismbut at the same time he hoped that he
It may be that he did not feel "sinful" as
would not be considered unbe~iever."~
he continued to attend church regularly. More than this, he may felt that, as he
had not severed connection with them, he would be able to influence his people

I"
.Rev. George Matthan's Journal fol the Quarter ending 10 Junc 1856 entry dated 2 0 April
11.:
There is a considerable anthrop~alogical literature on figures like this. especially from
Melanesia. Two h m o u s individual, are Marnhu and Yali. described, respectively. in Kenelm
Burridge. Mon~hu;a Melanesirrn nrillerrniu,n. Peter I,awrence. 1964. Roird h e / o l l ~(.(rrgn a
study ofthe cirrgo rrrnrer~re,~t
irr the Sontlrrrrr Murlarrg District.
"I ihid.
who have not yet become Christi~nsand bring them to the knowledge and truth.
He was a l i r r l i t ~ t i lperson. in Turrer's terms.. As Victor Turner has pointed out
"the attributes of liminality or 41f liminal personae ("threshold people") are
necessarily ambiguous since this condition and these persons elude or slip
through the network of classifications that normally locate states and positions
in cultural space. Liminal entitix are neither here nor there; they are betwixt
and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention and
ceremonial." It may be suggested that the liminml position appeared liberatory
to the protagonist of the story that gave him some amount of freedom and
I IS
equality vis-i-vis the missionary judgments.

Other cases highlight other aspects of the regime of sin and repentance.
Thus, for example, there is the case of a man who went fishing without
observing Sabbath. He was reprimanded but he refused to admit his mistake.
The missionary prevailed upon him with the help of the elders of the
congregation and finally convinced him of his mistake. He tried to justify his
actions by saying that it had been too late to attend the service after his return
from fishing and, furthermore, that others were inimical towards him. As he
was deemed not to be repentart, he was dismissed from the communion. He
immediately admitted his mistakes and solemnly promised to avoid future
similar violations and also expressed his readiness to submit to any discipline in
the way of punishment that might be imposed up on him.'''

The cases I have described show the notions of sin and repentance being
used to the discipline slaves. We need to ask if these concepts offer any
possibilities beyond disciplining of slaves. The most significant aspect of the
disciplining is that it is situated in a social context where slave caste individuals
who are made to realize the ' nistakes' which are labelled sins and urged to
avoid them. The elders of the congregation had a role in this along with the

I15
For a discussion of lilninality a e Victor Turncr. The Ritual Prorrss Strrrrtro-r ii,ld h r i -
Sfr~rttnrt~.
(Ithaca: Cornell Univeriily Prcss. 1987). pp. 94128.
"".(;eorge Marthan. Journal for the juarter ending 30 Junc 1x56 entry dated 23 June Monday.
missionary as they form a community that can reprimand people defined as
being in sin. In other words tht: disciplinary practice is internalised by the
community and each individual is urged to be on their guard. This guarding of
their own behaviours could be ertended to other social contexts and it is the
self-aware guarding regard which controls to a large extent their behaviour in
those contexts. The disciplining had created a liberatory threshold that was
essential for the later developmeit of low castes as citizens who would enjoy
social equality. There is actually, however, another side to this development: in
later years as we come across the example of the low castes who joined the
missions being subjugated and ccntrolled by the discourses and practices of the
missions. By the first decade of the twentieth century the Anglican Church itself
accepted the existence of discontent among those low castes who joined the
missions as they were kept out of the developments that the mission brought
in. 117 Without going into the details of this process once can refer to the
complex nature of the disciplinin;; strategies that the missionaries introduced.

The liberatory aspect of the new discipline is observed in the following

case. It concerns Thewatthan, the first man from the low castes to join the CMS
in Travaneore. An example of the most ardent adherence to the new discipline
was expressed by Thewatthan christened as Abel, on the occasion of his
daughter's marriage. He was the first man in Travancore from the slaves to
attain knowledge of Christianity. He learned the elements of Protestant
teachings on sin, polytheism and idolatry from his old master. According to the
missionary

The seed if the vvor<lof God however vvhic.h he had sovvn

rlirl not perish but took deep root, thoirgh ,for rl lot1g time
u ~ off
upprrrently vvirho~ltlife From that time T h e ~ ~ , a t t hl<fi ~
worshiping ir1ol.s anrl perfirming fhrse ahsr~rrl unrl sinfirl
religiorrs cere~nonits,I I hich nzen of his crrste were in the hrrbir
of crlehrating. He rlirl ,lor hovvevrr think openl? of prqf'essiny:

117
TCDR vol. .XXI, No .2. April. 191 I. p. 45:Also see TCDR vol. XXIII. No.5. p. 102
 Clrr;,~tir~~rity;
f11r /re krrr,s rrr~(/er//re irrrpr6,.~.\i(1rrtl~<rf
11e 1ror11rI
rror be nllo~ved rlris pri\>ile~r0 1 1 ac.colrrlf I?/' the e.~t~-t,rrlc
~lu,qrrrclcrtion of his c o ~ r e . But wlrerl a11 opporrrrr~ity ir.rr.s
oflerrrl by the efforts 10 .spr~'rrd ( I I I I I I I ~ ~//re .sIa~~e,s
11ert.
k~lo\~,lrdge
of C'hri.stiuni,y, he was the first to offer- hirnselfu
cu~~rlirlulrrte a ~ l dever .siirce llis hr~prismhe h o . ~
f i r irr.sfr~~ctioi~
heerr rrrlorirlg his prqfessiotr hy his sincere piety rrrrrl
consistent Chrisfirrrr c o ~ ~ ~ i u c t . " "

The missionary has been o f the view that Thewatthan was not however
free from failings, as he was too sensitive and takes offence at trifling affairs.
He was intolerant to others, as hf: demanded things from a high moral ground.
In other words he wanted the p e ~ ~ p to
l e be strict adherents to the teachings of
the missionaries. According to th: missionary he would have been more useful
among his fellow men had he bee I 'more prudent and conciliatory' with regards
to the failures of the people in following the Christian discipline. Thewatthan's
uncompromising nature was to surface more forcefully at the time of the
marriage of his daughter. His daughter was trained i n Christian discipline and
he was not ready to marry her ~ f to
f someone who does not have the same
accomplishments and hence she was not married even after she was past usual
age. This according to the missionary was due to his strong objection to allow
her to be "unequally yoked with an infidel." In other words he waited for a
suitable bridegroom for his daughter who has been disciplined in the new
Christian way. When everythilg was prepared for the worship and the
bridegroom with his friends was coming to the Church, Thewatthan refused to
bring the bride by saying that he would not have the marriage unless the parents
of the bridegroom as well as himself were at once baptized. The missionary
could not consent to the baptism of the parents, as they were unprepared. After
a long and angry dispute howe\.er he consented to the marriage on condition
that the new married couple s h o ~ l dlive in his house till they were baptized. The
precautions appeared unnecessary to the missionary, as there was no danger of

"' ihid
 1 I" We
their falling back in to heathenism if they remained with heathen parents.
come across here the conflicts of :he perceptions of Thewatthan who tlernanded
complete adherence to the princ~plesand the missionary who was ready for
some kind of compromise with re,@ to Christian practices.

The 'seed of the word of God took deep root, and bore fruit' in the case of
Thewatthan that was exemplifi6:d in the uncompromising moral ground of
conviction and faith he showed. Similarly his desire for the imposition of
Christian discipline even on his daughter's in-laws and the precaution for
preventing his daughter and son-in -law from sliding back to their pre-Christian
past are significant. This diligence, that was exercised by him continued till the
last moments of life. While in his deathbed he expressed the desire to see the
Nedungadapally Church coming up afar where the slaves also had membership
and for which he and his people have contributed money. "Feeling that his end
was near he asked to be carried to the top of the Kypatta hill so that he might
see this 'new house of God' at Iiedungadapally, about two miles away, before
he died. On the top of the hill they raised the old and dying man in their arms
and seeing the distant church he thanked God and died in peace." This is a clear
example of the desire of this man to achieve equality within the Church
although the later history does not validate such an expectation.""

It is remarkable to note tt~atin describing in a very detailed manner the

hopes, trials and sufferings of the slave castes as authentic experiences, the
missionary narratives projected ;L model for precise social action. The sufferings
were described both at individual and social levels focusing on the problems
involved in them. At the individual level detailed descriptions of the everyday

"" ih~d..entry dated Monday 23 June 1856

'I"
J. Caley, A n Accourrr of The Pasr~r-aresUnder The Nurive C11un.h Courrcils /,I The Diocese
Of Travrrtrcor~A I I Corhirr.
~ (Koltayam: CMS Press.1905). p. 10. But the drea~nof Ahel
(Thewatthan) never materialised, as his people were ncber allowed to worship in that Church.
The author of the text J Caley who was Bishop's Commissary noted an incident that occurred
in I896 in the following manner. "Nine years ago 1 insisted on at least a dozen crf them heing
allowed lo worship there, and hrought them in for that purpose. the others all left the Church
i n a hody and 1 conducted the Sunday morning service with the lwelve despised ones. We are
suffering frorn the vile spirit of carte yct".
life of the slaves are given in the narratives that foreground the slave as an
individual."' At the social level it was sought to describe the webs of the social
relations in which the slaves were placed as labourers in agricultural
production, and as commodities tcm be exchanged by the masters.

Conclusion

The inhuman conditions in which slave castes lived attracted the attention
of missionaries who campaigned for their emancipation. They put pressure on
the colonial administration in M;~drasand the native rulers of Travancore and
Cochin. They identified two majm~rissues that the slave population faced: lack
of 'property' and lack of 'civili~ation'. The acquisition of both was seen by
them as essential for achieving :,ocial equality.'" In such actions as donating
land to liberated slaves they gave effect to their vision of empowering slaves.

Protestant ethics determined the overall context in which the ideas of

social equality and development evolved. It was in fact this protestant
worldview that was the basis for the collection of 'humanitarian' narratives that
I have analysed. The n~issionatynarratives, large in number, described the
dreadful conditions of the slave: population in different parts of Kerala and
argued for their immediate amelioration. One of the effects of these
humanitarian narratives was th: construction of the lives of the slaves as
examples of social suffering, (mes that 'elicited sympathy'. Missionaries
provided both extensive and in-depth information about slavery."' The hitherto
largely anonymous slave populalion emerged as human beings and as suffering
individuals who were acted upon by the dominant structures of society.

121
Mudrus Clinrch Missior~nryRecord 1854: pp. 52-53
'" K.Saradamoni. Enlerget~<.e o f a Slave Ccisre ..., p. 99.Als see the 'Memo on the Condition of
the Freed Slaves in Native Cochin tly Dewan Peshkar, 16 April 1872' quoted on p. I06
,I1
"The condition of these unhappy k i n g s is, I think. without parallel in the whole range of
history. They arc s o wretchedly prrtvided with the necessities of life that the most loathsome
things are a treat to them. They an: bought and sold like catlle. and are often worse treated.
The owners had formerly power to tlog them and enchain them, and in some cases 10 maim
them. and even to deprive them 0.' their lives." For details see the Journal o f Rev. George
Manhan for the quarter ending ?I 1)ecember 1850, entry dated 5 December. 1850.
Through these narratives one call see a re-ordering of slaves' selves by their
own actions, even though from the point of the missionaries this reordering was
the result of 'acts of the benefactors who relieve them of sufferings and provide
them Christian evangelical mecy.' For missionaries, the effect of these
interventions was dramatic, resulting in a narrative of, in missionary terms,
'improvement': "Through their improvement in industry, sobriety, and domestic
order, and through the divine blessings upon those who seek Him, their
temporal circumstances speedily ~ e g i nto improve.'""

Later reflections on equality are located within the discourse of

improvement, an improvement which, according to the missionaries, was
accomplished through the blessirlgs of the Lord. The practice of collecting and
publishing humanitarian narratives and the reformative practices that they
described were mutually enforci~~g.
Human agency had to be liberated from the
thraldom of slavery and bondage so that a different conception of labour could
evolve. The humanitarian proj'xt of missionaries could not exist without
redefining labour and positing it as dignified human action in which production
was involved. Production could take place both at a material and a spiritual
level and because of this they talked about their own work as 'our labour among
slave castes.' In other words, their own humanitarian work itself was
categorized as labour. For them this labour was an essential part of the idea of
equality. They imagined that a:, it was accepted more widely the entrenched
distinction between different social groups would come to an end in the process.

It is in this context that we should analyse the new notions of work and
the good life along with the ideas of devotion, cleanliness and self-help. The
capitalist notions of work adviinced by n~issionaries were distinct from the
feudal notions of work that prevailed in pre-colonial and colonial Kerala. The
redefined notion of work woul~jenhance the status of labouring people even
amongst those who remained $laves in practice though legally free. Idleness
was thought to be a sin: it wol~ldprevent slaveslliberated slaves from setting

"' ihid
higher standards of life and rncrals for themselves. The message that the
missionaries conveyed through th?ir notions of progress and development was
reaffirmed and dedicated the slaves to work. Even the landlords believed that
those who joined the protestant missions became more hard working and
dedicated to their calling.

As far as the missionaries were concerned, social equality could only be

claimed by those who had 'purc:' social practices, precisely those that were
valorised in caste society. Thus, from their point of view, low castes could
claim equality only by reformirg their 'evil and degraded social practices.'
These changes began with the 'rdorm' of the polluting body of the low castes.
To the evangelists the symbolic ict of baptism was tantamount to washing off
both the unclean body and the original sin. The cleaning of the body was
significant because it was associ~ted, in the minds of missionaries, with unclean
habits and social practices.. The!.e unclean practices included their food habits,
their dress and ornaments, the ccadition of the huts in which they lived and the
specific economic activities in which they were engaged. Low caste belief
systems, practices and the ritual. associated were all also considered unclean. It
was felt necessary to elevate them from their fallen status.

The realization of equalit:/, thus, involved disciplining the people who

joined the missions by giving them sermons on religious ideas and social
behaviour. This was deemed necessary because it was thought that people who
were thus disciplined would evolve into people capable of taking on new roles
in society, roles where their social selves would he compared with that of the
dominant social groups.

In the missionary worldview equality was conceptualised in theological

language, the unboundedness 01'which permitted different readings or different
interpretations. Whatever these differences the acceptance of Christianity was,
from their point of view, an invitation to an egalitarian society and fundamental

"' W S Hunt. The Anglicnu C h u r c l ~ ... /I/'. 107-I08

to the project of equality. However. missionary discourses in thernselvrs could
not bring down the structures of camination that continued to exist within their
congregation. Missionaries creatzd institutional sites (as diverse as ~nakesl~ift
schools and institutions for industrial training) that tried to address these
additional questions of social ecuality and inequality, but the problems and
contradictions remained. These contradictions reflected the heterogeneity o f
colonial culture. The missionar!, discourses could sometimes transcend the
boundaries of colonial discourse even if they could not completely negate them.
 CHAPTER IV

LOW CASTE SEARCH FOR RESOURCES

Introduction

In the previous chapter we addressed the issue of missionary perceptions

of equality by emphasizing the representational and experiential aspects of
slavery in Kerala. The slave ca:tes' gradual liberation from slavery and their
interaction with missionaries introduced them to a new notion of life. Liberated
slaves and their descendents, in the following decades and into the twentieth
century, engaged in complex s a y s with new structures of the economy and
society. They required new resources to start their lives as free people. But this
turned out to be a formidable challenge.

However, even this kind of space was not available to large segments of
the lower caste population who continued to live as slaves as evidenced in
missionary sources such as letteri, reports and other writings.' In many cases
the oppression and exploitation of supposedly liberated slaves continued
unabated. Reading between the lines of a report such as the LMS annual report
of Trivandrum district written as ate as 1916, we can see how members of the
lower castes still experienced their lives as one of slavery:

They uttrnd the serviw rmrl the r<>ochirrji.s,srtbs(.rihe ro the

si~pport of their litt/(~(.hrrrche.r ond s~ibmit to the nlornl
(1i.sc.iplinr e.rer<.isrtl o v e p rhen~,h ~ their
~ t poor mi1ir1.s .seem
I ~ ( ~ ~ ~ e l r clortderl
, s . s l ~ nnri ~ ~ ( I ~ I I L I I 7%e
IL long yrner-utio~~s
of
. s l r ~ ~ , ehrn~e
rj upparently rlorre their ~ ~ , o rrmd
k reducrd them,

I
' A . I;. Painter lo Gray letter dated 7 Jaluary, 1884.' CMSAUB. Also scc 'Letter from Bishop
o f l'ravancore and Cochin T o Mr. Durrant Travancorc and Cochin Mission' G2 I 1 51 O
1912.Document NCI.7 . CMSAUB. Al!o see 'Annual Reports o f London Mission Socirty for
Trivandrum District for the year 1911i'. p. 3 CWMASOAS Also sce C. Achyuta Menon.
Coctri,~Sriltr Mrr,rrurl. (Ernakulam:Government Press. 191 1). p. 205.
 I I I I 1 0 I I I / e l . Y P ~fllt').~' (II.(' 1110 l i i l t ' . ~of

il,,,,.~
h o j ~ t , .7%u ~Irrrkr~t~.v.\ .sonietiint,.r g i i v , ~rvryt o j x i t i u ~ r ti . o ~ ( ,

r l r r r l roil LIII(I r / i f ! l t flit, ~IL'II., q e r l e r ( i f i ~ l li.7 ( I L I ~ S (.I ~ ~ I I C I - ( I / ~ O I I

tvhich i s ~ r l r r o < l yescciping,frotn /lie rl~lr-k/IN.S~11.11ir.h.srmi.s 10

s t i l l jircisll the prirerrts, 7nrl is p r r s s i r t ~011 to rlie n r l v ljfe:

Alongside this realization of the actual situation, however, there was a

general consensus growing among the administrative elites that the liberated
slaves would only attain 'civilrzation' if they could acquire land and other
3
resources. This chapter will address the question of and quest for such
resources.

The demand for land and economic resources

The condition of the lower castes such as Pulayas in the emergent public
sphere in Kerala was a much-contested question in the last decades of the
nineteenth century onwards. The much-celebrated first editorial of Malayala
Manorama newspaper, entitled Pulayarude Vidyabhyasam (The education of
I
Pulayas), was part of that dehate. The entire discussion of the editorial was in
the language of domin;~nce,which was camouflaged in the reformist zeal that
the elites indulged in. The refixmist editorial compares the condition of the
lower castes in Kerala with that of 'cattle' although the editorial did not have
any doubt about the similar it!^ that the lower caste people had with human
beings.'5 The reason for this realization, according to the editorial, is the
'prevailing new interest in educating these classes although their education was
still opposed by many in Travancore'. The editorial laments the Fact that even
those 'landlords who make use of the cheap labour power of Pulayas seemed to

' 'LMS Annual Report lor Trivnndrutn District for thc year I9 16'. p. 3.
K.Saradan>oni. Entergenre of ci Slave Caste. Pu1~iyt.sq/ Kernlii (New Delhi: Peoples
Publishing Hous~.. 19x0). pp. 1 0 1 - 106.
'Pulayarude Vidhyahhyasam'. M~rlayulamMa~roranriieditorial 22 Mnrch.1890. This is thc
first editorial of the first issue o f lvlulayala Manorama newspaper that was started publishing
on the satne date. This editorid is invoked quite often ;I\ evidence of Manorama's
commitment to the well heinp of I Iwer and out castes of Keral:~cociety.
be tolally opposed to their education'. Accordinp to the editorial it is surprising
and tragic that the landlords d o n'lt realize that the rise in wages is natural and
that the rise in wages would natllrally push up the prices of the products and
along with this if those who work are well mannered and knowletlgeable and if
they work in mutual trust with th2 landlords the latter's income would increase
considerably. It further argues th~:case of the Pulayas by saying that, as 'some
landlords are willing to feed and maintain much expensive lot of oxen but due
to sheer lack of thinking they are not ready to support the less expensive but
more rewarding prqject of educa.ing Pulayas. If the landlords who spend much
money for the upkeep of' the catt e had the knowledge of a Pulayan, they would
have spent much more for employing the Pulayas than what they are spending
today."

The editorial ends up by exhorting the landlords to think further if it

would not he beneficial to them to reform the Pulayas by whose wages they
profit today and with whom tt(ey constantly interact and who are, although
equal to cattle, much below tht:m with regard to the availability of food and
other things.' This editorial goe; very well with the prevailing attitude towards
lower castes in Travancore, where because of untouchability the Pulaya patients
were treated unequally and admitted for treatment separately from upper caste
patients along with animals. In i'act "a separate shed was constructed for Pulaya
patients at one corner of the general hospital compound, along with a shed for
the carriage and animals of the medical officers attached to the hospitals."8 This
observation is made on the basis of an official document of the Travancore
Government for the year 1890, the same year in which the above quoted
editorial was also written." The point to be emphasized here is the existence of

" ihid.
ihid
n Sunitha B. Nair. 'Social History of Westcrn Medical Practice in l'rav3ncore: An inquiry into
the Administrative Proccss' in Drepak Kurnar (ed) Diseuse r i ~ l d Medi(.i,l(, ill I t ~ d i a ;A
Historical Overview (New Delhi: Tulika. 2001). pp. 215-32.

Cover File. Bundle No. 152. t i e No. 3181,1890. Construction 01. ;I shed in the General
Hospital for thc treatmi:nt of Pulaya patients. KSAT. Quotcd i n ihid.. p. 222.
similar discourses in the public damain on Pulayah and othc~-lower castes that
did not find any rnarked differenle between them and cattle. But [he situarion
changed in a matter of twenty years when we find the members of lower castes
articulating their requirerrlents in the legislative space given to them. Moreover,
there had already started the movement of Ayyankali fol- claiming public space
in Travancore and in 1893 he brolie the caste rules by riding a ~ ~ i l l u v ~' t' I ~ ~ d i ,

Richard Collins, one of the prominent missionary educationists, recorded

in his book, 'Missionary Enterprise in the East', the interesting story of two
Pulayas who transgressed the pul~licspace of a road defying the command of a
Brahmin to give way to him as I'ulayas would have done traditionally in order
not to pollute him. When the Bmhmin uttered the cry go! go! they refused to
run away as they were Christians. To this the Brahmin said that the time had not
yet come that he should have to get out of the way for Pulayas and although he
knew the fact that times were ctanging and as the situations remained more or
less the same he demanded that [he Pulayas go away and not pollute him. "The
slaves laughed, but did not movj: out of the way, and the Brahmin was obliged
to go in to the hedge himself, ~ . h i l ethey ~~tr.s.sc~rl,
tho~ighqititr rr.s~~ectfully,
by
the other side of the road."" Although they did not go away from the road their
show of respect to the Brahmin is important as it is inscribed within idioms of
defiance.

The empirical examples that I have given above would demand a

problematisation of the questions of resources and public space for which the
outcastes such as Pulayas and Parayas had to struggle for a long time. The

"I
Villur~otrdiis thc hullock car1 usel cxclusivcly hy thc uppcr castcs. Ayyankxli houpht one
such cart fin the purpose of ridin;; through the village roads to hrcak the rules of thc castc
hierarchy. For details see THP Ctentharasseri. Ayyanknli (Trivandru~ll:Prahhat Puhlishcrs.
1979). p. 63. Also sec C Ahhimanyu, Ayynr~kali (Trivandrum: Department of Cultural
Publications. Govcrnme~tt0fKera a. IYYO), p. 59.
I'
Richard Collins, Missionnry E r ~ f e r l ~ r i sien rlir Ecrsr brirlr Speciol Refererlce ro the Syrirr~r
Chrisriur7s of M a l a b a r rrrrd tlre Rtsrrir.~of MMo>rrl Mic.sio~rs.(London: H ~ C I IS- y. King& Co,
1873). p. 187.
examples quoted belong to tht ];IS[ decades of nineteenth ccnti~ry when
outcastes were gradually evolving as significant social presence in Tr~vancore.

In the present study I ccnsider the claim to resources as singularly

important for the development o ' the liberated slaves as they were denied any
access to resources even half il century after the abolition of slavery. The
significant point is that those l ~ w e rcaste people who had come under the
influence of the mission;iries had already made efforts to acquire resources and
had begun a different life althoush they had to filce several challenges and the
problems which they confronted well into the twentieth century without finding
a resolution. But the fact that outcaste people realized the importance of
resources such as land and education makes the validity of the dominant
representations such as the reformist editorial of I894 doubtful.

We have dealt with the question of slavery and its textual representation
in the previous chapter leaving open the possibility of reading equality as
modernity for the lower castes. At the same time the question of equality is
raised in relation to specific in~~terial
and non-material objects and situations.
For lower castes in pre-coloni;ll and colonial Kerala what was denied was
equality of opportunity if we consider the question of resources. In other words
they were denied the chances of acquiring material resources. It should be
considered in the context of ttle slave formation that existed in Kerala that
systematically deprived the s l a ~ ecastes of any access to resources and public
space. I am not elaborating it here as I have already referred to this in the
second chapter of the thesis. In fact a theoretical possibility of access to
resources does not guarantee lower castes' attainment of material I-esources.
The lower castes' efforts at possessing resources were in fact the stepping-
stones towards acquiring the status of free citizens. In the case of the lower
caste slaves in Travancore thert: were definite intermediate stages between the
abolition of slavery and their J'inal evolution as free citizens. There was the
example of missionaries freeir~gthe slaves of Munroe Island in 1835 and
ascribing them the status of 'hired servants' before slavery was forrnally
;tholished in Travancore. Although it was a constrained process. the liberated
slaves wele evolving as 'hired seevants' and the missionaries sought to have :I

legal guarantee that they were not enslaved again." The s t a t u of 'hired
servants' ascribed to the former outcaste slaves is important because it shows a
particularly significant stage in tteir evolution as wage labourers. But it should
he reiterated that the labour process was al\vays ingrained with their status as
low caste slave labourers. It may be ohserved in a comparative manner that
even in the early decades of the twentieth century, prominent members of the
Sri Mulam Praia Sabha, in the ccurse of their speeches in the Sabha referred to
'the slaves that were under th-ir control."' Evolution of the outcastes as
modern citizens was a long dram n out process that was beset with a number of
contradictions.

The search of the lower castes for resources in the twentieth century
happened at a time when the traditional dependent relationships between upper
and lower castes in the villages of Travancore were facing challenges. These
changes were later on accentuated hy the structural changes that transformed
the traditional economic units-matrilineal joint families-that were the rnajor
employers of lower caste labc~urers.Much of the source materials for the
discussion on the struggle for resources have been drawn from the proceedings
of the Sri Mulatn Praja Sabha ("opular Legislature) that carry the details of the
memorandums and speeches tnade by the representatives of various lower
castes in the assembly. Similarly, there are other memorandums submitted by
the leaders of the movement a. well as individuals requesting the Government
to consider their demands for ilnd and education." These representatives were
demanding state intervention ihr them to be provided with various types of

The First Part of the Cotfayam Rcoorr'. Acc.No.01 I ? CMSAUB. pp. 64-82
1 2
For details see the specches of 'rhariyathu Kunjithomman and others Proc.eedin~.sof Tire
T,-uxrr~core Le~islative Count.,/ Fir.st Sc,.rsio~~ I O Y Y , Thursday I Novc~nhcr 1923
(Trivandrum: Govern~nentPress, 1923). pp. 254-264.
I4
For details sec thc 'Prr~c,eedi,rgsr f the Sri Mulrrnr Plzijci Sabhu for various years stsirting fiorn
19 12. Also sce a representation 'Demand to Institulc a few scholarships in collcfes and high
schc~olsFor the use of Pulayas a l ~ dParayas' Education Depar~rnentFile N o . 379 of 1920 B
117. KSAT
goods that they thought were i~~dispensahle
fur their development as propcr
human beings. The debates n the Sri Mulam Prqja Sabha that had
representatives of various lower caste communities as its niembers since 19 12
show the complexities of the proole~nsof social transformation of lower castes.
The first half of twentieth centurlf witnessed the heightening of struggles around
these issues as the notion of de.r,elopment came to be shared widely by every

The practice of nominatirg the representatives of lower castes started

from 1908 onwards and Ayyan 1;ali was nominated to the popular assembly in
1912." This representation in the Popular Assembly provided them with
opportunities to articulate their problems in the appropriate forum but not at the
cost of mass mobilization at leist during the early decades of the twentieth
century. Inspite of the fact that Pulayas and other lower castes had their
representatives in the assembly, in 1915-16 there were riots in Quilon and
I6
neighbouring areas between Pulayas and Nairs. Similar situation of
confrontation existed in various other parts of Travancore.

By the turn of the twentieth century there emerged a situation in which it

became necessary to intervene in the process of forming public opinion by
making use of the legally guaranteed space. At the same time the lower castes
ran their own publications for the propagation of their ideas. 17 When we
examine the nature of the demlnds articulated by the representatives of the
lower castes it would appear thar these demands were recurring and sometimes

Ii
Nomination 01 ;I Pul;~y;~Mernher 1 1 Reprcsent tile Pulaya Intereht, sec Political Department
Book VII. Bundle Nurnher 497 19. 1912 Also see T H P Chenthmassery. Ayyankali . . : C.
Ahhimanyu, Ayyankali.. .. p. IOO. A so see J W Gladstone. Pmresrrrnt Clrrirtiurrity rrilrl Peo/~le.c
Movements in Kerolrr 1850-1936 ('Iriv;lndrum: The Scrninary Publications. 1984). p. 275.
Ih
'The Mass Movement' i n Arllluu/ Report af the Qrrilo,~rr,rrlAtti,zgaI. Di.swicr.~191.5; Also x e
the letter of 'R. Sinclair To W. Fister dated 12 March 19 15'. CWMASOAS:
K.Saradamoni, E n ~ r , r ~ e ~of
t <rr. eS1or.r Crrsfr . . . pp. 152-53: C. Abhirnanyu. Ay?arlkali .... pp.
127-144.
17
One of the historians of carly Dalil movements in Kerala refers to !he journals such as Sadlru
Jana Doothan (1919) published under the direction of Ayyankali lioln Thrikkodilhanam.
Pampady John Joseph. ;mother dslit leader started i n 1'223 another fortnightly. Cherama
Doothan. THP Chentharnssery, Pa~nl~nrlr. Joh11J,~seplr(Tiruvalla: BPDC). pp. 30 K
were never- substantially conside .cd by the state. But the representatives of the
coiiimunitics continued with their programme ol' cal-rying forward their
mobilization for their prqlect ot social advancement that was instrutnental in
developing the grass-roots network of their organizations. Ayyan Kali
organized Sadhu Jana Paripala Sangharn in 1907 that was followed by various
similar organizations floated by different leaders of various castes.'' It should
be noted that all of them had th: same objective of the social advancement of
the lower castes. At least from ] h e late1920s onwards there were co-operative
societies of the depressed castes functioning in various parts of Travancore and
in certain places in an efficier;t manner making lower castes familiar with
modern forms of organized aclivity although they were mainly government
sponsored. W e may consider here efforts at securing land and other economic
resources on the one hand, and d u c a t i o n and other modern skills that could be
considered as part of cultural capital on the other. Along with this we consider
the lower caste etideavours to iiccumulate symbolic capital, although the path
towards it was difficult. This process in fact signified the engagement with
modernity as far as lower caste communities were concerned. In the following
parts of the chapter we take up z discussion on the search for economic, cultural
and symbolic capital by lower caste communities in Travancore in the early
twentieth century.

The generalized notions of development and improvement, in their

various manifestations, evolvetl to become the rationale for a host of social
movements and agencies that were simultaneously negotiating for their own
space. For the moment we shall confine our analysis to the marginalized groups
to know how far these noticns were decisive in the process of colonial
transforination and the poss:bilities they held out for the postcolonial
developments. The empirical cases that we draw upon show the early
incorporation of lower castes i ]to the enveloping new developments. But it is
necessary to observe that they vjere to remain within the confines of a particular

IX
C. Ahhimanyu. Ay\.o~zk(ili... pp. 7 t N 5
space even at'ler their- incorpori~tion into the new space created by colonial
modernity.

It may he said that the desire of depressed classes in Travancore to

possess land could be pushed b ; ~ c kto inid nineteenth century if we go by the
source materials.'" The missionary societies observed this as a socially
significant trend and consider,:d i t as the most promising aspect of the
endeavours of the hitherto dominated lower castes in Travancore. In his letter
dated 19 December 1912, the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society in
London wrote to the 'Travancirre missionary Hunt that he was very much
'impressed by the land huriger shown by the depressed cusfes crnd rhut the
disubilities that the depressed c1rr.s~Christiuns seem likely to suffer will be
~.s<filu
/ s tr renl lest of religion."' The problem of 'land hunger' was common
to depressed castes irrespective of religion particularly in the early decades of
twentieth century. The desire for land emerges from the fact that in Travancore
most of the land was owned by upper castes and historically the lower castes
were employed in their land a; slaves or later on as wage labourers. In this
situation the lower caste's skills were actually in the field of agriculture tending
the fields. But in the twentieth century when they were gradually evolving out
of the centuries old servitude, ownership of land was considered as the key to
their independence. The problem of land hunger came to the centre stage of
their social and political actigisrn. The problems that the depressed caste
Christians faced at that time within the CMS was very complex and that
included equal access to the sacred space and resources of the church, and a
proper share in the material and spiritual advancements that came with the CMS
in Travancore. There dcvelopec certain instances of struggles within the Church
that the secretary of the CMS felt as a real test of religion to the depressed caste

1'1
The first part of Cottaya~nrepor . V11 'The liheration of the slaves on Munroc Island.' 16
March 1847. A c c No. '11 0 112. CMSAUB.
211
'Letter of E.H Waller lo Mr. Hu it in Tra\,ancore I Y Dccemher 19 12' i n Truvn~lc.orrL r t r r r
Book. vol. 111 1903-1915. CMSAIJB (Emphasis added).
~hristians." These issues have been felt as f<,rnlidahle challenges to the
depressed caste Christi;~ns and much of this was accentuated by their
subordinate position in the Church about which the missionaries h~lda fairly
good idea.

In the discussions of the 1t:gislative assembly one oft repeated problem

was that of land as most of the depressed castes were land-less labourers who
were slaves till a few decades ago. The available source materials on this
question do not permit us the reasoning that they were fast adapting to other
professions or other professions #ere available to them, as only in 1930s were
there some positive trends in their enrolment in schools. In the course of the
speeches in the assembly Ayyan Kali demanded that the menial post should be
given to the people of their community. Large majority of the lower castes were
agricultural labourers although in certain areas there began to emerge marginal
peasants from among them with access to land as they were clearing puthuval
lands and becoming agriculturist:;.22

In certain cases, they vent.~redto clear large tracts of land, but when the
work was over, all the lands wer: taken over by uppel- caste peasants. The issue
at stake was the urgency felt by lower castes to transform themselves as
peasants from the degraded posilion of semi slaves. This transition was possible
because of the changes that cam,: into being although highly restricted, after the
abolition of slavery in 1855. It showed the intermediary position between slave
status and marginal peasant 1 aEricuitural labourer status that was fraught with
challenges. But still we do not find them becoming peasant proprietors with

" Thc international secretary of !he CMS was of the opinion that 'the dis:~hiliries what
Christians seen1 likely to suffer will hc useful as a rcal test of religion.' For detdils see E H
Waller to Mr. W S Hunt datcd I 0 December. 1912. Trav;lncorr 1.elter Book vol. I11 1903-
19 15. CMSAUB, p. 464.
22
Ayyankali's Speeches i n the Sri !vulani Praja Sabha, The Second day Tuesday. 22 Fchruary
1927 and the Fourth day the 22 Fchruary. 1927 in the PSMA, IY27( Trivandrum:
Government Press. 192'7). pp. 2425. The sarne demands fhr land was raised in his first
speech in the Assembly dated 27 F:ehruary 1912. For details see Ayyankali's Spccches i n the
Sri Mulam Popular Assclnhly an( the Dewan's Reply i n K. Saradn~noni, Emergence ol' n
Sl:~veCaste. ... pp. 159-(11
sufficient landholdings. In fact their only skill by the carly decades of the
twentieth century was in the field of agriculture and this peculiar status made
them stake their claims for citltivable land. One of the inemhers of the
Assembly representing the Cheramar community, Paradi Abraham Isaac,
pointed out in the course of the discussion in the assembly that 3000 acres of
"disafforested" lands were mad^: available for wet cultivation and demanded
that these lands ought to be distributed to the depressed castes for cultivation."

He identified the availab lity of land in different villages of Central

Travancore that could be assigned for distribution among the lower castes. In
particular, he pointed to in his speech in the assembly the lands with survey
numbers283/1, 111/I, and 372/1 of Ranni Pakuthi, Pathanamthitta Taluk.
Similarly, he sought the attention of the government on the simmering conflicts
over an extent of 37 acres of l a d s occupied by Cheramars in the villages of
Nedumpuram, Kalappakkad anc Kuvakavu swamps that were under threat of
being usurped by Syrian Chr~stians. He added that the members of the
Kanakappapuram Cheramar co-operative society had submitted applications for
the latter piece of land."'

It has been observed that he Government Order that was passed in 1921
regarding the assignment of 3 a':res of land to each lower caste family was not
implemented. Along with this it was pointed out that, had the Government been
following a favourable attitude lo the lower caste demand for land, they should
not have been content with 3277 acres of land when their total population was
over one million. At the same t i n e the total land earmarked for distribution was
153 13 acres only and that fell skort of what they had been expecting. One of the
reasons why more lands were not registered to lower castes has been the
unsuitability of the available lauds for cultivation. Lands thus identified turned
out to he rocky, water loggeti and unprofitable for cultivation. It was the

' Speech oC Paradi A. I ~ a i i c i n t t e SriMulilrli Prnia SahhalO March 1932. (l.ri\nndrun~:

Govern~nentPress. IL)32).p. 27.
ihid.
Rcvenue officials who earmark~:d the lands for the purposc of distribution
alnorlg the lower castes, hut they seldor~~
visited such lands, and when the nctuc~l
distribution took place the distributed lands invariably turned out to be
~ n ~ r o d u c t i v eAnother
.'~ important problem faced by lower castes has been the
threat of eviction, which in most cases had been a reality. There were cases of
eviction after the occupants had made improvements of their possession on the
ground that these lands formed part of either puramboke or formed part of
registered holdings, or were reserved for grazing purpose.'h In certain cases
such lands were assigned to inf1u:ntial upper castes.

It was reported by Ayyan Kali in the Assembly session of 22 February

1927 that the portions of lands assigned to the Pulayas in the Vilappil Pakuthi,
Neyyattinkara taluk 1094 ME (1919) were still under the possession of wealthy
and influential people of the locality but the tax was being paid by the Pulaya
registry-holders.27 The government could not proceed against the occupants
because they were registered lar~ds.The Pulayas were not able to sue them in
the civil court hecause of their poverty. The lands could not be alienated from
them if it could be deemed a!; service inam lands. Ayyan Kali urged the
Government to resume control over such lands and reassign them to Pulayas
and sought legal safeguards in this regard. The Kayal Puramboke of about 179
acres of Vellayani Lake with survey numbers 236/1 and 238/1 of Ti~uvallarn
Pakuthi were requested to be aisigned to the Pulayas. Similar requests were
made for obtaining cultivable lands in Quilon Pakuthi bearing survey number
91771A and also they had requ(:sted for urban land in Trivandrum for burial
ground. And these demands weir pending unanswered for five years until the
time of the cited discussion n 1927." Specific requests were made for
assigning 34.41 acres of Kayal I'uramboke land, bearing survey number 44111-

ihid
"' ihid
,7
Ayyan Kali's Speech J I I the SriMuarn Praja Sabha o n 22 Fehruary. I927 i n th~.Proceedings
ofthe Sri Mularn Praja Sabha. ( Triv;indrum: Govern~nentPress.1927). p. 25.
'"hiid.
'ureindeuI?]ied 'mllvuunn 'ei11qiureue1led '!iassr!u4ueq3 'urefnotAaa
'aperumad ' e q z n d n i l c ~ n w" e q z n d n p o q ~u! purl i o j paydde peq Lay, L[le[!w!s
.ynIw eqzndel~?qurvj o sqtlnyed pl?ye.~ndpur: tqzeyu,L u! puel jo saJor: 9 ~ p
JOJ uo!ieo~lddr! UI? u! ind pcq S I ? L ~ . I Eaql
~ 'L~.I~I!UI!S 'wLe1ed aqi . ~ o jp a ~ a 1 y 4 a i
aq 01 1q4nos seM aAiasa1 Isaioj aql j o lied 1011 s e qn!qfi
~ ' 1 e L e ~nneymnpaN
se u ~ o u yaA1asa.I Jnlleyy!Jen aql u! puef 30 same SE iaqlouv .L~is!Zai
[eXa[ 103 1 u a w u i a ~ o 2aq] paqor!oidd~!peq Lay1 q 3 1 q i~o j spuc[]saioj aql jo )n?d
Ll.raur~ojaJaM leqi pug1 j o same ~g Ljtluap! pfn03 Laql ynfei L~asseuc4ueq3
aql u1 .Elu!ploq aiaM Lag1 leql puer aqi u!eial 01 seLeled alqeua pInoM s ! q ~
aaqMasra ynfel awes aql u! arqepcAe a.raM s p u o ~2ujze.14 aql leql ]no palu!od
L a q ~' a ~ ~ a s a .4u!zei8
1 I? se daay 01 papua~u!SI?M I! 41 'puef aqi uroq tuaq)
01 paiicls s4u!paa3o~d pue uraqi isu!c41? pa~ais!4a~SI?M aseo ayoqurernd
'luamalllas 1taqi 2u!u!orpe q o ~ n q g s![oqle3 I? 40 a 3 u a n ~ u 1aqi 01 ~UIMO
i n 8 .[ooqos c pur! u r e i e ~cue[eqg I? puc s%u!p[!nq lo!luaprsai dn ind pue ynlei
Jnllvuunx 341 $0 ~ 1 0 pug
~ 9 1 1 ~ s1aqurnu
~ 9 L:~-lns qltm sa.rar! ZE . ~ o jspueLuap
inr!ur!spas!I?1 'uI?.n?urnn uepuex 'sr!Ll?lr?d :rqi JO a ~ ! i e l u a s a ~ d aaqA
~
0s
.urlupueApL u! saLelnd j o asn uotuuroo aql i o j %u!p(!nq e j o u o ! i ~ n ~ ) s u o 3
aq1 103 sale1 leuo!ssasuoa uo pun1 j o siua:, 001 u21sse 01 palsanbai s e ~
$1 .s~uaur~elsu!
aA!j l o Jnoj u! saau8!sse aq] J
~ O I palakosai aq plnos pucf aq] ~o
a3!id aql loql pun waqi 01 pau4!sse aq plnoqs puel JU sluas g ueql aiom pauuoj
L ~ p i e qir!qi paA!l Laql q o ! q ~u! pealsawoq aql leql papueurap aH .urn1pueA!.IJ
JO seLe[nd aql j o ssaussaIpuv[ ,lo s u r a ~ q o ~aq)
d pas!ui Jaqiinj ![en ucLLv
'S31SI?3
hC
passa~dap 01 pau21sse spucf j o iuaurq~vo.13ualsu1e2e paidope aq saJnsealu
lua4urrls 11?qlpalsanba~seM 11 s ~ q ql i ! ~Zuolb 'yn1vJ p e 2 u e u l n p a ~jo iqinyed
~
I I ? Y Y V I I ? U I C Z ~ Z241 u! put: ynlnL e.~r!yu!~leLLai\[
J O !q)nyt?d [ ! d d e p ~u! sput?~
3q1
lo >sl?s a q ~u! pas!r!.r I~~
2 . 1 2 ~S ~ I I I ? L LLpnS 'scLt:lnd aqi CII '!qinyI?d I I ? Y ~ I I JO
O ~8
Kottarakkara. Nedumangad and \ ilav;uncode taluks that were not decided upon.
I t was demanded that the land bearing survey nucnher 515/3-D of the Tir~~volla
41
pakuthi be assigned to the Paraya:; for putting up a Bhajanarnata~n.

The representative of the ICuravas had also made the same demand for
land and identified the lands thlt they had already occupied. The particular
instance cited was the move by the Government to evict the Kuravas front the
plot of land under the survey number11859 that measured 15 acres. Similarly
another stretch of land that measured up to 1,168 acres of land with survey
number 43211 of Koduman pakuthi though forested was already parcelled out to
influential people and that happmed to be an area inhabited by poor homeless
Kuravas. It was requested that they might be granted 500 acres of such lands
available there. And also that lands for which the Kuravas had applied should
not be assigned to others and solti in auction."

In the case of the pa ray;^^, if has been further pointed out that they
required agricultural lands and other facilities to transform themselves into
peasants. It has been pointec out that they had initially requested thc
government to grant 3 acres of and to each family of their community and by
extension to all lower castes.'"t is of significance to point out that Parayas
wherever they lived staked clainls on land that they considered as significant for
their survival. Towards that t h y had identified lands in different parts of
Travancore. The Parayas had been waiting for disafforesting and registering an
extent of 600 acres of land belonging to Kuvakkavu, Kalappokkd and
Valavukodi and other blocks of lands situated on the sides of the road leading
from Manimala to Perumpuzh;~kadavu, for which they had approached the
Government and were lookinj: forward to getting the land registered for
themselves.

I'
Kandan Kurnaran's Speuch on I O 1vI;lrch 1932. ihid..
:?
Narayanan Raman's Speech on I0 March 1032. ihid.. p. 2'1.
ii
Kand:~n Kumaran's Speech on 14 UarchlY27. ihid.. p. 219.
 'The situation of the P;~rayIS was almost that of the b o n d s ~ i ~ einr ~ the
Taluks of Pattanarnrhitta. Kunnattur and Pattanapuram who were undel- the
threat of eviction, and therefore it was demanded that they be assigned lands at
Ranni, Vadasserikkara. Kodumon, Vallikkod. Malayalapuzha, and
Pattanapuram reserves. This was r long-standing demand that was assured to be
considered once the disal'forestation was over and their representative requested
the government to consider this matter. The claims that the Parayas made on
certain lands in Takazhi and Potxkad Pakuthis were ignored as the Government
was proceeding with an auction. which the community sought to resist. Even
the Parayas were ready to take lands on Kuttakappattom lease by paying the
usual rent Along with this they look u p the question of specific plots of lands
for which they had applied for ownership rights that included, survey numbers
224/1,107/2C of the Vallikkunnam Pakuthi, and 1 1911 of Thamarakkulam
Pakuhi in Mavelikkara taluk.14 l'he claims over land hy Parayas spread over a
vast area, Thiruvalla in Central Travancore with the survey numhers 52812A
and B and 452112 B of th~: Eravipuram Pakuthi. Parayas sought the
"disafforested" swampy areas identified on the sides of the D e v i k ~ l l a n ~ ,
Kotamangalam and Neriamang;llamn road. Similarly a request was made to
distribute the lands bearing surv:y numbers 34911 and 594/1 in Anchal pakuthi
and one-acre each of the grazing blocks identified in Punalur with survey
number 64411 to parayas.j5 The member further requested that the applications
submitted by Parayas for the registry of lands in all the taluks of the state
should be disposed of as early ;IS possible and for that end it was requested to
appoint a full time officer to reg ster lands for the depressed castes.

The representatives of the Sambavars from Nanjinad presented their case

pointing out that they still lived as bondsmen on the lands of rich landlords who
might turn them away at any ~ioment.'"They had to earn their livelihood by
hard work and sometimes they could not find work. They could not put up new

3,
ihid.
.-
" ihid.
'"
K.Madhavan's Speech on I 4 M a c h 1927. ihid., p. 22')
huts as landlords drive them away. Many households of Parnyns in Nanjinad
were situatcd on the hanks of rivers and they were marooned at the time o f
monsoon and, moreover, due to the demographic pressure on the original
homestead they were forced to sf t up new huts and that gave rise to miserable
conditions of existence and therefore they needed new house-sites for
settlements in consultation with local sanitary and revenue officials. If the lands
were found available for registry they should be registered without tharavila."
This was felt to be so urgent that he requested that it be met within six months.
If no puramboke lands were available, private lands should be acquired for that
purpose as was done in Mysore and British India. Another problem of
significance was the digging of a,ells for the Sambavars who come home late in
the evening after a day's hard work and are forced to travel long distance in
search of water." In order to av(,id the tortuous search for safe drinking water
they would use whatever water v,as near their habitation and the constant use of
such polluted waters had give11 them serious health problems. And in the
summer even such sources of w rter would dry up adding to the tribulations of
their everyday life. In order to resolve this they demanded more liberal grants
from the Government than the lmaltry sum of Rs1001 that was paid then. It has
been noted by the Sambavar representative that very often the funds earmarked
for the construction of wells for the Sambavars lapsed, as they were not used
properly within the stipulated

It is important to take ncte of the fact that lower caste representatives

were very much concerned with the acquisition of resources other than land that
they thought would enable them to resolve the problems of marginalisaton. It is
in this context that one has to situate the dernand for resources other than land.
This particular demand was not free from the stamp of the pre-existing
structures of domination and sul~ordination.This is clear in the demand that the
representative of Parayas raised in the Assembly when they demanded that they

17
ihid.
1%
ihid.
3,)
ibid.
should be allowed to cut ceta (rec'Js) and cane fl-om the reserve forests to pursue
sollie cottage i n d u ~ t r y . ~Parayas
" were traditionally engaged in basket and mat
weaving using Bamboo scrapes. In the modern context also they continue their
adherence to the traditional skills and are not able to acquire new skills that will
be available only through m o d e r ~education.
~ While they were eager to acquire
modern education they had to confront the existing social structure. They could
acquire modern education only by negotiating with the traditional power
structure that they were able to dca with some success only from the third decade
of twentieth century.

The problem of cultural and syrnbolic capital: Desire for education

The introduction of modern western education and other similar

institutions and practices that developed in Travancore from the nineteenth
century onwards constituted the riajor site of cultural production. Institutions of
traditional learning were no lc~nger considered relevant to meet the new
requirements of colonialism and, moreover, they were inaccessible to the lower
castes due to the restrictions on social space. Contests between traditional forms
of knowledge and institutions on the one hand and colonial forms of knowledge
and institutions on the other bt:came important. The acquisition of mod err^
forms of knowledge from elementary education to higher levels of learning that
guaranteed participation in the colonial system and access to channels of social
mobility became the main concern of the emergent social groups. It would be
revealing here to recall a conver;ation one of the Travancore missionaries had
with a Tahsildar

One of the missionarie: of the CMS had recorded a revealing

conversation he had with a Tha:.ildar while he was on his regular visit to the
village of lower caste adherents of the mission. The Thasildar wanted to know
why the slaves were taught for w ~ i c hthe missionary jocularly answered that the
slaves were taught to take up the jobs of proverthicr~res. goorr~c~.sta.s
arzd

'0
Knadan Kurnaran's Speech on14 M ~ r c h1927, ihid.. p. 238.
trrhsildrr~c.Hearing this the T h a s ~ l d aenquired
~ seriously i f it was really so and
for which the missionary replied that in the north Kerala Tial-s and Slaves hold
places under Government and that situation might change in Travancorc. I l

All the caste groups were r!ot equally well placed in terms of their initial
endowments to participate in the run for acquiring new resources in the colonial
phase and to a large extent such struggles were led by traditional elites but the
system was stretched to the lin~itsby the pressure exerted by the emergent
social groups such as Ezhavas who demanded access to modern education. In
the case of the lower castes :uch as Pulayas and Parayas ever since the
protestant missionaries started lheir work among them the latter introduced
them to the world of literacy. This literacy initially had the limited function of
reading scriptures but in courie of time as the missionary endeavour in
educating the lower castes expanded, large numbers of Pulayas and Parayas
began to learn. It appears from an observation of the pattern of enrolrnent in the
schools in the nineteenth century Kerala that most of the students were from the
upper caste that had control over resources. It took several decades, and in the
case of lower castes almost h;df a century to secure admission in modern
educational institutions:"

It has been observed in tht' official reports of the Travancore Government

on education that the el em en tar!^ schools in Travancore did not have a uniform
pattern as far as the curriculun~was concerned." In many schools class two
would be the terminal point whi e in some others it would be class three or four.
But this asymmetry was more rampant in schools where pupils were drawn
largely from lo\ver caste^."^

"
Oornen Mamen's 'Journal ihr the t a l f year ending 31 Decernbcr. 1857. CMSALIB.
12
For dctailed statistics of the students of various depressed classes enrolled in diflcrcnt classcs
in the 1920's see the Rrporr of I11t Trrri,m~rnreEd~tr.iirir,~lRqforrrrr- C'nm~?rirrre.(Trivandrum:
Government Press 1917 I. pp. 285.07.
11
ihid.
 The new education was thcught to inform the people of lessons in civic
life cornrnitted to equality, social development and progress. The o\'erall thrust
of the programme was acceptable to the traditional elites who had been
modernising under colonialism. They perceived English education to be
beneficial to the development of Travancore. At the same time when it came to
the question of the developments of lower castes there were differences of
opinion as the upper caste elites opposed the education of lower castes. Modern
education in colonial society became a much-contested one as different social
groups began to consider it as a means to social and economic development. To
the missionaries and the lower castes it was the ultimate thing that would bring
in social advancement. With regard to the spread of modern education in
southern parts of Kerala they observed that

I I ~ i.7 sprear'ing
I i11 (1 remorkahle degree in this

( . O L I I ~ ~and
I . Y , must irlevitnbl~bring with i f , hy the hle.s,sirig.s of

God, the do~vr;fallof !~rpervtition.err-or arid oppressiorl unrl

the meon.7 of irltrorlucinp LIII err1 of ~lrrtio~lrrl

rnlighte~rrrie~it.
progress anrt,freerlomi

The above observation cor~sidersas important the spread of education and

the resultant downfall of supelstition that would eventually lead to national
enlightenment, progress and freedom. This particular trend of transformation
was observed much before the riissionaries began their labour among the lower
castes in Travancore. National enlightenment, progress and freedom had their
binary opposites in superstitiorl, error and oppression that characterized pre-
colonial Travancol-e according to thc interpretation of the missionaries. In the
opinion of the colonial official.; thc same situation continued unabated. This
might appear true if one cons ders the situation from the perspective of the
lower castes. The notions of 'superstition and error' are epithets that are used to
characterize the Hindu religion, as it had existed in Travancore. The reference
to oppression would mean c a r e oppression and other forms of tyranny that

' MCMR vr,l 74, December 1827. 2 147

prevailed in Travancore society But the colonial transfor-mation under the
l f l
P a r ~ u n o ~ ~ nearned
t c y for TI-t~vnnccre
the epithet of 'model state' subsequently.

The ideas of national enligf tenment, freedom and progress were stretched
to engage with the problems of lower castes that would make these concepts
more inclusive. The lower caste: could rethink their position in society in the
light of these new ideas and redefine their social roles. The notions of freedom
and progress definitely had substantial significance as far as the lower castes
were concerned as they were denied both. The meanings of nation and
enlightenment could become much more deep if one could bring in the
problems of the lower castes whc, were slaves during that period and interrogate
the power structure of the society from their perspective. The idea of nation in
the contemporary sense of the te.m was hardly present in the Travancore polity
although the structures of modem governance were already established under
colonial influence. But there w;~sa clear acceptance of the fact that modern
education was necessary for the formation of a loyal law-abiding and civilized
population that was the very foundation of good government. This was evident
in the speech of the Maharaja cf Travancore in Kottayam when he addressed
the CMS missionaries

I ,yrut<fi~llyu ~ ~ k n o ~ v l ~the
~ r lhonorrr-
ge yorr have rlorle me ill
\ w i f i n g up or1 me w i t h the or/rlres.s. I t gives me great plrrrsrrre

t o meet you a l l ugrrirl r r t Cotfuyrrrrr orlr q " t h e chi<f~.erirre.sr~

Civilization i n Travanc ore. I regrrrd w i t h sincere plea.srrre the

testing yorr have horrre the tolerrrrion rrrld protection, which

the, state has ~ I [ I L . ~ I SL\I L corrlt,r/ to ?err rrr~r/,of the rrid rer~der(,rl
irl the sprearl of edrrcrrtiori. Those I cirri ' I ,firrizly rr.s.srrr-el ~ r . i l l

(11wr1y.s he most r~hee~f'~rI1y

confirtrted urzd erter~rlerl,f o r the
bolrrrlce of herletit I curl safely srn., has heerr on the sirle of the
stare, ill us rnrrch us yolrr 1rrho~rr.rhave hertz irrcrea.sirl,y year

For a discussion o n these issues scc. Rohin Jeffrey. TI?? Drc.linr of Noyar Donlbio,tcr:
Societ? and Politics ill T,rrwr,r<.orr,18471908 (Delhi: Vikes Publishing House' 1976). p. 13:
 The new economic and social practices were gradually spreading among
the elites who had some exposurc to European thinking although their numbers
were very limited. In fact we will see in subsequent chapters of the thesis how
these ideas influenced the lcwer caste's critical thinking. Notions of
enlightenment, freedom and prosress s~tbstantiallyinfluenced the new social
self of the lower castes. They began to consider themselves differently in the
light of these new ideas and the changes that were effected in their lives due to
the missionary activities and the spread of modern education. The lower castes
engagement with the new ideas that included freedom from caste oppression
made them in many ways diffe.ent from what they used to be earlier. Each
social group had to take part in the evolving context of development that would
have been the end result of the transformations witnessed. This was a much-
contested process given the dynamics of the society under consideration. There
was a particular structuring of priority in the sphere of education when we
consider the fact that one promi lent opinion was in favour of imparting to the
lower orders technical education rather than scholastic e d ~ c a t i o n . " ~

There was a long drawr out debate within the CMS regarding the
appropriate form of education thdt was to be followed in the case of castes such
as Pulayas and Parayas. There vias opposition to the education of lower castes
on the ground that once they were educated there will not be labourers for
working in the fields of 1andloj.d~.Similarly another fear that was expressed
was that of the possibility of educated youths from the lower castes leaving
their ancestral profession ant1 not finding alternative opportunities and
sometimes not evolving as suited for new employments. Moreover, i t was

-17
Address of the Maharaja ofTravan:i~re on his visit to Kottayam repri)duccd i n the letter. W.J.
Richards. Cottayam. lettcr dated 15 August 1880. CMSAUB..
4%
This was actually pert of n long-dr iwn out debate that was continued well in to the twentieth
century. For some of the early debates within thc CMS see 'The Agents Week i n Kottnyarn'
r r r . XX1.IV. vol XVIll (New Series 1x97). p. 922
in Chrcrch M i s s i o ~ r a Ir~~r r e l l i ~ e ~ r vol.
argued that their 'uppishness' w ' ~ u l dnot pcrtnit theln to take up ;igricultural
works."' The same opinion inakels argued that the lowel- castcs were not suited
for the intellectual pursuits and ttat they should he enrolled for technical trades
such as carpentry and blacksmith!. This was f o ~ ~ nacceptable
d and CMS started
in Kottayam an industrial trainir~gcentt-e mainly to cater to the lower castes
where they were trained in blacksmithy and carpentry.'" But those who
graduated from these training centres could not find employment mainly
because of the preference of the people to employ traditional artisans for their
works. In fact the intergenerational transfer of skills depended upon caste
specific kinship ties rather than modern training, as each caste had its own
specific occupation.

Similar restrictions worked behind the perception that the lower castes
needed to be trained in the basic kiterary skills alone. The institutional structures
restricted access to modern symbolic resources although equality was
sometimes considered as an operative notion. The missionary perception of
equality was a historically structured one and i t was informed by protestant
ethic. The concept of equality should not be treated as isolated from their
notions of work, good life and s milar ideas that went in to the making of their
71
program.^

The concept of cultural capital is useful in understanding the lower castes'

search for modern education. According to Pierre Bourdieu, cultural capital is a
form of knowledge, an internzlised code o r a cognitive acquisition, which
equips the social agent with empathy towards, appreciation for o r competence

4,)
W.S. Hunt. 'Mass Movement Pheromenn' in The Harvest Field. vol. XXXIX June 19 19. p.
210.
'I
See the letter of W A Stephens To Durrant on Technical Education dated I6 Aprill907.
Class Mark 0 2 1 5 1 OI CMSAUE; Also see W.S. Hunt. Community Schools. Manual Type
o f Education-Apriculturc is Pert c f Pr(~ceei1ingsof the Travanc<~reand Cochin Missionary
Conferencc. March 5. 1926, Docitncnt No. 5. 15 Fchruary I926 W S Hunt. CMS Press.
Kottayam. 1926.
il
For details see the second chapter where I have dealt with such questions.
 52
in deciphering cultural relations and cultural artifacts. The possession of the
code or cultural capital is accuinuated through a long process of acquisition or
inculcation which includes the xdagogical action of the fdmily or group
members (fanlily education), educated members of the social formation (diffuse
education) and social iristituliors (institution;~lised education)." The same
source mentions cultural capital as concerning forms of cultural knowledge,
competences or dispositions. Thi; can transform the habitus of the individual
agents and social collectivities as they are introduced to new forms of cultural
capital. In the case of the lower castes in Kerala it is noted that new cultural
resources in the wake of colonial modernity could transform their habitus. It is
revealing to note how lower caste people were achieving new competence.

It may be seen from these reports that a great and good work is being
carried on in several pastorates k y means of the most valuable help which the
two district councils are receiving year by year from the H Venn memorial
fund. Not only children but adu1.s also both men and women among them the
poor illiterate Pulaya congregation are being stimulated to learn in order to
qualify themselves for the annu2'l examination when prizes are given to those
who prove themselves deserving

It would be difficult to extend the theoretical arguments mentioned above

in the case of the lower castes in Kerala by the turn of the twentieth century
who were gradually coming ou of the negative effects of slave experience.
Their desires and strategic mc'ves to acquire modern education could be
analysed more fruitfully following the arguments of Pierre Bourdieu.

The lower caste interactior with the missionaries and their own efforts at
developing social movements were instrumental in offering them new

'' Randal Johnson. .Introduction3in Fierrc Bourdieu. Tile Field of C~rlrirrulPI-oductiotl: Essa\t
an A , - t ~ n r l L i f ~ 1 - c ~ f(Cambridge:
1!1-6~ 'olity Press. 1993). p. 7.
5' ihid.
'' Nu 5 8
A rcport 01' [he Travancore Provin<:ial Church Council lor the year 1882 Docurr~et~r
CMSAUB.
knowledge. competence and dispositions. Their knowledge of scriptu~.esand the
innumerable occasions when the) interpret them in their own context actually
refers to a different disposition tl-at they have been acquiring. Latel- on, in the
context of the social movements consequent upon the coming of the new social
imaginaries these dispositions be,:an to acquire new proportions. For example
in the fifth chapter I consider the alternative religious discourses evolved by
lower caste movements where this specific problem becomes clear. The
pedagogical action that was available to the lower castes in Kerala during the
early decades of twentieth centur:, enabled them to internalise codes that would
help them understand the challeng;es and possibilities offered by colonialisn~.

Drawing on Bourdieu in x d e r to understand the context of colonial

modernity and missionary social ;~ctionit may be argued that right from the mid
nineteenth century missionary instruction enabled the lower castes to acquire
cultural capital. It is possible to cieploy the notion of cultural capital in relation
to the development of lower castes with the passage of time and their increased
exposure to modern education in the twentieth century. It should be mentioned
that modern education spread a nong lower castes in a significant way only
from the first decade of the twentieth century onwards. But with the work of
missionaries among the lower caste communities there developed a literate
group who were able to read anc write although their literacy was restricted to
the reading of simple scriptures initially. Literacy can't be restricted to a
particular stage if we consider its peculiar dynamics. We find the gradual
spreading of literacy anlong lower castes leading to far greater consequences
that led to the formation of a grc,up of people who were able to make forays to
acquire modern cultural capital. It is this aspect of the spre21d of literacy and
education in the colonial context among lower castes that form one of the
concerns of this chapter.

In the course of the discussions in the popular assembly the members

representing the lower caste community evinced an understanding of the
contours of the unfolding in:titutional structures vis-i-vis themselves in
.rr,~ ~ v ~ ~ n cItoprovides
, 5q ~-c. 11s impartant information to understand the cvolving
mentality of the people who wcr? definitely considering colonial modernity as
emancipation. When I use the term colonial modernity I do not make a sharp
distinction between societal tncdernization and cultural modernity which I
consider as in certain ways interrelated particularly in the case of the lower
castes in Kerala.

In following the discussiors in the Sri Mulam Praja Sabha one gets the
feeling that the representatives o the lower caste communities were engrossed
'

in their demand for the well leing of their respective communities. The
discussion on educational issues >bows that they were worried about the relative
advancements that each commur~itywas able to achieve and the institutional
structures that determined them and their concern regarding transforming the
institutional structures i n their fa~mu-.There are certain issues that are common
to the speeches of the me1nbel.s that included problems in getting school
admission, provision for noon meal, books, dress, scholarships, exemption from
fees, minimum mark for pass an11the pedagogical aspects of education. While
these issues appear to be general problems. nonetheless they referred to
particular instances that required specific attention. Sometimes problems of the
individual students such as requt st for scholarships or the problems related to
school admission that one stud8:nt faces are taken up for resolution. Such
problems were raised on the flocr of the house by individual leaders and they
sought the help of the burea~~cracyto resolve them. In fact there are
innumerable examples where the main point of discussion had been access to
modern education and the represc:ntatives of each community repeatedly raised
such issues.

$5
~ the uqage of the officinl records of the Asscmhly Proceedings
One outstanding p r o h l e ~ lwith
as source of information i \ the unavoidable prohlern o f the repetition of the themes discussed
as different individuals representing different lowcr castes communities got distinct
opportunity lo present his case as l'e was representing his own community although there
were exceptions in the cast. of a f e u member5 who spoke ibr lhc general p m h l e ~ n sof the
depressed classes as a whole.
 The representative of thc Pulayas in the Assembly. Ayyan Kali argucd
that the Pulaya children were lacing LI major problem in getting modern
education as they did not have noon rneals and, moreover, their parents were so
poor that they could not provide them noon meals.'" He demanded the
intervention of the state to make provisions for the noon meals of such children.
It had been a long pending demand that was not met favourably by the
Government. It was felt necessary that the Government should initiate measures
for the noon meals and Ayyan Kali wanted the state to take responsibility by
granting at the rate of one chtrkr~rmfor rice and one ktrsrr for salt for each
Pulaya pupil. Similarly, he had presented the case of 15 Pulaya youths, both
male and female who had passed ESLC but were without any employment and
he feared that the youths would not be eligible for jobs if they crossed the age
of 25. One of his worries had b?en the fact that having undergone schooling
they had become unsuited for lgricultural work and hence they should be
accommodated in suitable Goverlment jobs. Regarding the demand for jobs he
requested that one person each r,hould be recruited to departments other than
Devaswam from the Pulayas as p:ons including in the Taluk offices."

Exactly similar concerns were expressed by the representative of the

Parayas, Kandan Kumaran, who wanted the implementation of the noon meals
scheme to cover the Paraya children studying in the English and Vernacular
Schools. He sought Governmert Grants to meet the requirements of dress,
books and other study materials to the Paraya students. Many of the boys were
too poor to have even morning and evening meals and to buy books. He raised
the demands for scholarship to all inrelligent and industriorrs Paraya students. It
was suggested that as a hpecial means of encouraging education among Parayas
those of them who had studied up to class V11 should be granted licenses to
teach in class I1 and I. He deminded that the pay of such teachers should be
fixed at Rs.101-per month. Sin~ilarlyhe sought Government grants for the

16
Ayyan Kali's Speech in the Sri Mulam Praja Sahha on 25 February 1927 in the Proceedings
of the Sri Mulam Praia Sahha. (Tri\andrum: Government Press. 1927). p. 1 14.
17
ihid.
orphanage heing run by I'arayas at Peruvincha-sivagiri in the Kunnattur taluk
and also assistance for starting a school attached to this orphanage.i"pecific
demands were raised in I-elation tc the educational requirements of Parayas that
included granting of Scholarship to the wards of the above orphanage. At the
time when this demand was raise11in the assembly, the parents of the children
studying there, with their subscri ~ t i o n sand contributions met the expenses of
the orphanage. Similar issue\ wele taken up by Kandan Kumaran later on and
he demanded that though there u,ere not many in the Paraya community who
had passed School Leaving Examination, suitable appointments could be given
to those in the community who cculd read and write under various Government
departments. Specific demands were raised in favour of two students, M. I. Tevi
and K. K. Gopalan attending 6 ' 5 n d 5Ih classes respectively in Vernacular
Middle School, Sastankotta, and Vernacular Middle School, Kavur in the
Thevalakkara Pakuthi for a fixed period. Pointing out the individual case of one
Mr. Yohannan that he may be given appointment in the public service as a
holder of School Leaving Certificate N.2470 of 1 1 0 0 . Similarly he demanded
that Paraya children appearing fcr the vernacular School Leaving Exa~nination
qhould he exempted from the payment of examination fees. Another important
demand raised by him was that Paraya children should be declared to have
passed the examinations even if they got a few marks below the prescribed
minimum for each subject."

Lower castes experienced the pressures of societal modernization and

cultural modernity as they cam': into contact with new structures of power
under colonialism. Their entry i ~ t othe legislature provided them a space for
articulating their problems and their perceptions of thern. T h ~ sis important
when we consider the desire of the lower castes to acquire land and education.
This was closely followed by the efforts to acquire recognition in society in the
form of honour, respectability and general worth that they could derive through

<8
Kandan Kumaran's Specch in thc S l i Mulam I'raja Snhh;i o n 14 March 1927. ihid.. p. 218.
5')
ihid.
mottern education. I woulti dl-nw upon the tbrrnulations of Pierre Bo~lrdiei~
10

understand the struggles that were centred on symbolic capital. Symbolic

capital refers to the degree of accumulatetl prestige, celebrity. consecration or
honour and is founded on a dialectic of knowledge (connaissance) and
recognition (reconnaissance).'" 11 the case of the lower castes that had been
slaves historically it was necessary to acquire honour and respectability before
we can think of symbolic capital for them in the real sense of the term. In fact
the effort to acquire honour anc respectability for the lower castes could he
tentatively identified with the acts of the missionaries to bestow freedom to the
slaves in the Munroe islands whom they bought along with the land and who
were eventually made free by giving each slave a written document recording
that once liberated they are free ]'or ever. Their effort was to restore the human
essence of the slaves." In mis!,ionary reports we come across innumerable
instances of the efforts of the lower castes that joined the missions to acquire
respectability by adopting new viays of presenting their selves. This particular
trend went well into the twentieth century and culminated in the movements to
reform their collectivities.

At the same there were the efforts of ordinary Pulayas and Parayas to
claim public space that someti~nesled even progressive people of the late
nineteenth century to raise t:leir eyebrows. For instance the Malayala
Manorama published a news item under the title 'nelavila' with a slight
derogatory tinge wondering how the Pulayan and Pulayi (Pulaya woman) who
had come to see the Aarattu (ritlral bath procession of deities) had the courage
to walk in the middle of the road." Similarly there was another instance
I-eported of a Pulaya Christian woman being made fun of by quoting the wrong
answer she gave to a question during the viva voce that was held at CNI
institution in Kottayam. She was asked to answer the question 'how many miles
would thirty two furlongs be?' J:or which she said she hadn't seen a 'parlong'

,I/,
Pierre Bourdieu. The Field of Cultu-a/ Prodlrctio,~.. . p. 7
"' The First Part of Coltaya111Report. 4 c c no.9 I / 1 12. CMSAUB. p. 82
,I?
blnlayala manor am;^. 27April 1x95 (Mirrofil171)
cver in her life! Obviously she did not ~~nderstand
the word furlong properly
hi
and ~rlistooki t for some strange otjcct.

The use of chaste Malayalzni in everyday discourse provided the lower

castes with essential cultural end~~wments
to participate in the evolving public
sphere in the early twentieth century. What we find here is the effort made by
Pulayas and other lower castes trying to put forward their claims on social space
as well as the actual physical space that were generally closed to them. These
instances are considered as examples for the stmggle to acquire honour in the
public domain.

Another important social institution that would have given the lower
castes social significance was the family. Family and its structure were not
available to the slave castes iri Travancore as told by some of the slave
informants in the mid nineteenth century." They had referred to instances when
landlords forcefully separated w,,men from their husbands and forced thein to
take as husbands men chosen l'or the purpose by the ~andlords."~
We have
already mentioned in the second chapter of the thesis how the slave trade had
actually made family life in~po!.sibleto the slave castes. But those who had
joined the missions had already been made to understand the significance of
family as the missionaries had ntroduced the norms of the Protestant family
among thern. There mLlst have evolved relatively stable families among the
lower castes following the aboli ion of slavery in 1855. But the transactions of
slaves continued to prevail ehen after the formal abolition of slavery as
evidenced by the testimonies cuoted in the second chapter. The missionary
sources actually refer to the significance that family as an institution came to
achieve among the lower castes who joined the missions that was evident in the
manner the missionaries tried t c ~regulate the marriages alllong the lower caste

ll i
Malayala Mnnorama. 14 Decemher 1895 fiW~(.rqfiInlj
bl
'Qucsrions hy a Missionary and Ar swers hy 'Trnvancore Slaves Taught in a School of the CM
Society Tiruvalla.' CMSAUB ( M n z ~ r r c r i p t )c, 1 21 07124. 19 August 1853.
"' ihid.
people who ,joined the inissions. ,It the same time it is necessary to undel-stand
the historical and sociological dimensions of Family as an institution that makes
the gender roles specific for both male ant1 female. Moreover, it is related to the
power structure of society as well as the reproduction of it across generations.
Although such structures are new to the lower castes the family forms can't be
considered as a given thing devoi,l of its cornplex histories.""

From the late nineteenth century onward there were efforts at regulating
the family structure of dominant (castes in princely Travancore and Malabar that
was part of the Madras presid-ncy. But these regulations and other legal
procedures did not have any impact on the lives of the lower castes, as those
measures were not intended for them. In his speech in the Sri Mulam Praja
Sabha on March 14, 1927 the representative of the Parayas, Kandan Kumaran
drew the attention of the House to the absence of any law of succession and
inheritance among the Parayas, a ~ the
d consequent inconvenience and difficulty
they undergo. According to him some of them were following the Makkcrttuyi
law, others the Mtrr~imrrkkntta)i law, while still others were following the
Misrtldc~yilaw. In the absence of' a uniform law of succession, he argued, [here
was no inducement for them to earn property. Therefore he felt it necessary to
apply some uniform law to reg:ulate their practices. The member thought it
would be enough if the provisior s of the Nayar Regulation were extended to the
Parayas, the majority of whorl were agreeable to such a course. To the
proposals of the member the Dc wan replied that it was not possible to extend
the Nayar Regulation to the Pariya community for purposes of succession and
transmission of property. He Further suggested that if the members from
depressed classes could form a c ommittee and draw up a memorandum of their
needs, he would hc happy to evamine them." ?'he whole idea of family and
inheritance, let alone the inheritable property, should be seen as central to the
new social self imagined by th: Parayas and this appeared to have been the

66
I arn thankful to Janaki Nair for thi. observation on thc f:~rnily structurc.
hl
Kandan K u m a r ~ m ' s Speech in t t e Sri Mult~rn Praju S a h l ~ aon I4 March 1927. in thc
Proceedings of the Sri Mulam Praj:l Sahha. (Trivandrum: Government Press. 1927). p. 218.
situation o f similar lower. castes in Travancore. We have instances of people
migrating from their tratlitional bzillages in search of lands to other areas in
Travancore and this was happening in plantation distl-icts although their
numbers would have been 1imit';d when compared to the migrations of the
1950's.

The epistemological base ,f the new social institutions that the lower
castes demanded becomes sign ficant. The demand for a regulated family
culture was actually rooted in the perceived rationalization of the institution of
family that was considered as tne central agency to control the lives of the
lower caste people in the modern period. Although the family structure that is
coveted is patriarchal one, it was felt necessary to have such a Pamily to restore
honour to the lower caste cornmLnities. Honour functions as the most important
symbolic substance that was demanded. In fact it is when the question of
honour is brought in that the rec.ognition of lower castes as social agents take
place.

In the speech of the lowel caste member of the Sri Mulam Praja Sabha
that was quoted above the rne~nberargued that the legal recognit~onof the
family structure would encourage the lower castes to earn property that would
eventually lead them to have an honourable social existence. The attainment of
self-respect in the case of lower castes was bound up with the acquisition of
property. The need for an hon~~urable
existence and the power to command
respect in society was significant for the lower castes. Subsequently the lower
caste movements took up such i';sues when they were being mobilized. It refers
to the transition from abjection lo the stage of becoming a social object and the
eventual evolution as subjects. In a different context Julia Kristeva refers to the
notion of abjection that provitles a sketch of that period which marks the
threshold of the child's acq~~isitionof language and a relatively stable
enunciative position. Kristeva explores the ways in which the inside and the
outside of the body, the spaces I~etweenthe subject and object, and the self and
other become structured and made meaningful through the child's taking up a
position in the symholic order.""

These insights are helpful in understanding the evolution of the new

subjectivity of the lower castes in Kerala. We trace the specific stages of its
evolution by exploring their exp~riencesof struggle for resources in the late
nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth century. In fact if we follow the
representations of the lower cas es in the twentieth century sources we find
them being referred to as adolescents if not infants. In other words, they are
represented as existing in the slage of 'abjection' from which they have to
evolve as objects and subjects. Their transformation from the stage of abjection
is significant as they evolve zs individual and social collectivity that is
demanding recognition and becoming an ohject of representation as well. The
recognition of the lower castes by the missionaries and subsequently by the
state and other social groups becomes significant. This recognition is
considered here as a precondition for social equality. It is through this process
that their subjectivities were crezted. But in the subsequent phase of the social
movements, as we shall analyse in the following chapters, the authority and
authenticity of the subject thus formed are challenged.

Conclusion

The rnain concern of this chapter has been to focus attention, firstly, on
the particular ways in which lower caste representatives and movements
articulated the desire for modern resources and, secondly, the actual search for
them. 1 have shown how there emerged a particulal- language of dominance in
the public sphere that enabled tlic reformists of various hues to speak for the
lower castes and their social ievelopment without necessarily raking into
account what the latter might actually be interested in acquiring. The prominent
newspapers such as the Mal;lyala Manorama carried interesting articles
including editorials and items of news directly connected with development

68
Eli7.eherh Gross. 'The Body of Si:nificntion'. i n John Fletcher and Andrew Benjamin. eds.
Abjection: Mrluncholin u ~ l dLo!.< The Work of Jirlia Kli.!rrv~i(London: Routledge. 1990). p. 86.
problems. In fact there is a cvnvcrgence of the language of dominance i~setlby
newspapers. the Tr~vancorestate. and thc missionarieh in their narratives.

I had been drawing materials f r o ~ nthe early twentieth century sources,

hoth official and non-official, to ;~nalysethe lower caste struggles for resources.
The legislative space provided by the princely state became an effective
instrument for articulating their demands. Much of the discussions of the lower
caste members in the legislature were related to the problems of resources and
survival. The debates and discu:;sions were centred on questions of land and
economic resources, education ;ind symbolic resources as well questions of
cultural capital. There were demands for family regulations as some felt that
that this would encourage lower Zastes to acquire property as well as safeguard
whatever they already had. This was a strong pointer to the fact that the notion
of the family as an economic unit was becoming important to lower castes.

In addition to the campaigns in the legislature we also find struggles at the

same time to acquire material resources directly. These resources were
necessary to overcome the appalling social condition in which they had lived
for centuries. As a result of thc: coming of colonial modernity the exploited
lower caste masses were able to put forward legitimate demands for social,
economic and cultural goods !hat were essential for their participation in
cultural modernity and societal modernization. In the following chapter I
engage further with the question of resources in the context of the lower caste
movements' struggle for equalit) as exemplified by the PRDS movement.
 CHAPTER V

PRATHYAKSHA RAKSHA DAZVA SABHA AND T H E IMAGINING OF

EQUALITY IN TWENTIETH CENTURY KERALA

Introduction

This chapter analyses one of the lower caste social movements of

twentieth century Kerala, Prathyitksha Raksha Daiva Sabha (here after PRDS),
using the arguments presented i r ~the previous chapters of the thesis about the
experiential aspects of slavery and the claims for resources articulated by the
lower castes in Travancore. The I'RDS movement tried to engage with problems
of caste hierarchy and exploitati~~n,
and strove to achieve social equality along
with material and spiritual progress. The founder of the movement was Poyikayil
Yohannan who mobilised pa ray;.^, Pulayas, and Kuravas to achieve these ends
through the new movement. The movement developed in the larger context of
missionary Christianity but rnov:d beyond the limits of the missionary project
and offered a critique of it. The movement is an effort by lower castes to
negotiate modernity by making e(1ualitytheir major concern. The term modernity
is used here to describe the fact that lower castes were reacting to and coping
with modern social conditions. These conditions brought about new institutional
structures that have been identified with capitalist modernity in many parts of the
world. These new conditions forced the lower caste people to develop a new self-
understanding.

In this chapter 1 discuss tke processes by which equality was conceived by

Yohannan during the course of the evolution of the movement and how the
concept was broadened to inclu'ie struggles in the non-material realm. For the
lower castes who had experienced slavery, modernity meant emancipation and
social equality. In fact all the dis~:oursesinvolving the lower castes in the colonial
period during and after the abolition of slavery, show continuous reference to
 The ideology and practice of caste was so pervasive that even lower
castes who were at the hottom of caste hierarchy strictly adhered to the norms
of distance pollution among themselves. As Yohannan grew up he began to
attend the conventions and public addresses of the missionaries. This was a time
when Central Travancore wat passing through a phase of Christian
revitalisation movements.' Yoharlnan, in his youth became an active preacher
and wa\ an itinerant follower of r~issionaries.Before joining the CMS and later
Brethren missions he war with the Marthomite church, which was a church of
reformist Syrian Christians. One of the missionaries observed his early career
and work in a remarkable manner.

Poikuyil Yoharlnan is u Poruyu convert 11,ho left the C M S to

join the Mrrrthumite ('h~rrch and lefi that ch1rn.h , f i r the
Brethren, ,from where he secerled o yeirr ago o ~ i dheccrnle or1
itlclcpenclent preacher. tre hus utrrzicrerl u n~trnherqf',follo,ver.v.
He ir u ,tine looking mlrrl U J I ~nutzy
~ hrrre fi)imd pu~verin his
preachin,?. At one tinir, lie !.ontetlterl hitrz.se/j with prorltrcil~g i l l
his hearer, in votne par'ic~drirper-,son, an intense conviction of
sin and after that conviction of salvation.'

He realised the existence of caste prejudice in Church when at a near by

place called Pullad, the dead body of a lower caste Christian was removed from
the grave at the insistence of Syrian Christians. Similarly the instance of
opposition to the marriage of a Syrian Christian woman to a lower caste
Christian made him realtse the entrenched nature of was caste prejudice\ among
the Christians. Yohannan could not understand the rationale behind this and he
left the Marthomite church and joined the C M S . ~By that time he had become

'
Revival rnovetnents werc popular i i Central Travancore area from I873 onwards and the last
one was in 1906-07. For details see The CMS Missiorr br Trava,rcorr urld C'uchir~(I.ondon:
CMS, 19 15), p. 23.
' TCDR. vol. XXIV, Fehruary 19 14. p. 15
6
Vijayan Kangazha. Sree Kunrur-[I( : u ~ u d e...,
~ ~11.a I?. While Church Missionary Sources refcr
to Yohannan being a meinher o f tteir Church we do not find corresponding rckrenccs in his
hiographic written hy his latter d: y followers. But ic i s n f;lcr that large nurnhcrs of Puliiyas
and Parayas who were with CMS j ~ i n e dthe PRDS movement right from its \.cry beginning.
l'alnous ;IS a Bible preacher with a talent for articulation and instant composition
of verses, talents that were to become useful later when he started the PRDS
movement. But soon he was to rxalise the caste prejudices existing among the
CMS Christians, as there was a formidable presence of Syrian Christians in the
CMS. Within the CMS, the c'lntroversy over the question of interaction
between lower caste Christians and Syrian Christians continued to exist and in
fact it had a history of more than half a century when Yohannan started his
movement.' He considered it, as a grave problem as he thought there won't he
any caste distinction once one becomes a Christian.

The continuity of caste prejudices in the church was a problem of

immense proportions that denied equality to those lower castes who had joined
the missions. This had set in mc~tioncontest between different sections within
the CMS church. As he found it difficult to settle with caste prejudices and
practices within the church, Yolannan left the CMS and joined the Brethren
mission where also the situaticn was not different. His experience in three
denominations of the church made him realise that it was meaningless to remain
within the fold of the churches tlat had caste practices and inequality inscribed
on them. Thus Yohannan finally broke away from the church denominations
and began his career as an independent preacher. He left the church with a
group of followers and they pre,lched the message of the Bible among Pulayas
and Parayas in and around the villages of ~ i r u v a l l a . ~

The PRDS combined the revolt against the caste dominance prevailing in
the church with alternative constructions of power and the rejection of
dominance and subordination. The notions of equality that informed the
struggle against dominance and subordination drew its resources from
missionary worldviews and the cultural resources of the lower castes that were

This controversy had generatzd cntensivc writtcn materials l e t t e r s and other

correspondences-which were suhs-quently compiled and puhlished 'to lay hare hefore our
readers hoth sides of the question.' For the derails see The Pula.v~i Qlrestio~~
ill the A~r,ylicorr
Kottrr?cm~.... pp. 1-65.
C/III,-<./!.
"CDR. vol. XXIV.Feh. 1914. p. 1:
:tvailahle in their oral tradition. l'he following sections considers in detail the
problems that the PRDS movement addressed. I concentrate on the contest
between Yohannan and the mksionaries and the struggle within the caste
inequality complex to transform i f .

This contests with the misjionaries are important as Yohannan evolved

here a powerful prophetic 1angu:ige that provided hirn equal footing with the
missionaries. The prophetic language and speeches endowed him with power to
challenge the missionary perceptions of the problems of the lower castes. In fact
in course of time Yohannan's prs~pheticpowers grew to such an extent that he
grew beyond the domain of the missionaries and in the process showed the
possibilities of transcending t t e limits of the established Churches. The
significance of this process is icentified in the potentials that it opened up in
constructing equal space in the religious sphere. In fact religion was a site
where much of the contest took place that was instrumental in intervention in
other spheres of life.

The claim of Yohannan tfat he had access to the revealed truth for the
lower castes in Travancore mad<:him very powerful vis-a-vis the missionaries.
Subsequently it became evident that he had great powers in convincing 'the
truth' that he had propounded. This notion of truth remained fuzzy during his
lifetime and which was a combination of his teachings that were rooted in the
need for establishing an egalilarian social space for the lower castes that
combined in it several notiois of Protestantism. This included rational
interpretation of the Bible althc~ughthere were some ambiguities involved in
their relationship with the Bible along with such characteristics as thrift,
dedicated work to mobilise resxrces, both material and non-material. These
notions were to form part of the truth or the worldview that he had projected for
the lower castes the meaning c~fwhich was always deferred because he had
articulated these ideas in a prophetic language. It can be suggested that the term
truth becomes a discursively constituted one that is amenable to several
negotiations over a long period of time.
 The notion of the truth 1att:r on assumed canonical significance in PRDS
the mcaning of which was defer.ed and it is beyond definition. In some of the
recent biographies of Yohannan ihe notion of truth is deployed as an amorphous
category and sometimes it is a metonymy referring to the message of
~ o h a n n a n . "In the contemporary discourses of the movement particularly on the
ritual occasions 'the truth' becomes a much-deployed concept. This was made
easier by the peculiar usages of words and phrases into idioms that carry special
meanings to the community of believers. This particular usage of the notion of
truth refers to the ideas of salvation that Yohannan propounded which is always
rendered in a fuzzy manner. In other words, following contemporary
discussions on similar problenis, I shall interpret this as developing and
circulating a particular 'ritual lar guage.'"' This ritual language is significant for
the co~nmunityof Yohannan's bllowers when we consider the fact that "his
speeches could evoke in hearer's intense conviction of sin and assurance of
salvation". This realisation of sin and assurance of salvation was an integral
part of the missionary project th;lt we have already dealt with in chapter two. I t
was successfully imbibed by Yohannan and practiced in their ritual
congregations and tried to turn up side down the common arguments of the
missionaries. This power of Ychannan and his new sect was a problem that
attracted the attention of missionaries.

The missionaries' charact~:rised Yohannan's movement as some sort of

"esoteric system" that was unfalded in midnight gatherings at lonely jungles.
Those who accept his teachings as divine revelation made certain vows. They
used to conduct meetings spanling over a long period of time. Yohannan's
followers regarded him as not only a recipient of divine revelation but himself
as a divine revelation. I t is this transformation of being divine revelation that
granted Yohannan the drvine power and raised him to the status of divine power
itself. The desire to establish eqllality with missionary Church in particular and

" M S Thankappan. Suthya,n (Trivanclrum: Ravi Sree Puhlications. 2001 ). p. 120.

I0
Matthew Engelke. 'Tcxt and Performance in an African church: 7'hc Book. "live and direct"
Erhrrologi.sf Vol. 3 I . No. 2(WM. p. 82.
in A~~zrrir.a~l
Churches in general was evident here as Yohannan was evolving as divine in
the perception of his followers. The divinity of Yohannan is considered as
powerful enough to bring down structures of inequality and establish an era of
reign, which guarantees equality. The notion of the era of reign is significant to
the community of believers as they consider the period after Yohannan as a
transitional phase to the era of rtign. To the comn~unityof his followers he is
the one who has come with d i v i ~ ~revelation
e to the oppressed untouchables of
Travancore and his messages were couched in subversive arguments. Contrary
to the usual practice of celebrating the Bible, we find Yohannan initiating a
critique of the Bible even when h? was working with the missionaries.

In one of his conferences at Vakathanam, he embarked on a critique of the

Bible and articulated that the Bib'le was not meant for the descendents of slaves
and that there weren't any refere Ice to them in the Bible. He argued that it was
meaning less to carry a book so closely to one self, which does not mention a
word about them. Hearing this pt:ople dropped their texts and up came a pile of
books, one of which Yohannan pulled out and burnt. This news spread far and
wide. In the next day, there was confrontation at the venue of the conference
but as Yohannan's people were also prepared to meet the eventuality did not
spiral in to a big confrontation.'' But it is surprising to see that missionary
records, particularly letters and c.orrespondences of that period do not mention
the incident of the burning of t t e Bible. But the oft-quoted source where this
incident is mentioned is the wor:c of the celebrated Christian poet Mahakavi K
V Simon that deals with the history of the Dissident Churches in ~ a l a n k a r a . "
However this particular incident Iecame important in the history of PRDS when
it wanted to define itself as Hindu in the wake of the schism that ensued in
PRDS after the death of the foun~ler.

"
. . . p. 47
Grantha Rachana Satnithi. Sree K u i ~ m r uC;trruiI~viir~
I?
K.V Simon. Vrrpurlu Subhakulude Clzurithrum,('Thiruvalla: S;lthy;lrn Publications. 1999). p.
116. For a similar incident i n anotllcr movement i n Africa see Matthew Engclkc. T c x l and
vol.
Perforlnance in an African Church: The Book. "live and direct" in Anrrricx,~ Eflr,~olo,qisf.
31. N o . I l . p . 7 X .
 Yohannan put forward the argument that the message of the Bible was not
addressed to the lower castes r f Travancore. It appears that he wanted to
construct alternate histories and theologies of salvation that are rooted in the
experiences of the people and it was accomplished by a critical engagement
with Biblical teachings

In the N e w Testtr~nen+
tire certrrin Epi.sr1e.s hy St. fur11 rnrrl
other.^. To ~ v h o(lid St. PLILI~~ v r i t et11i.s El~i.stles:~TO the
Romuns, C o r i ~ l t h i a t ~tstc. There k1.a.s not one written ro the
P~11ayu.s
of Trui,ancore. ;"herefore, there is no revelation ~ I those
I

t v ,fbr the Rornans, Corinthians ere. The

Epistles ,fbr you, h ~ l on!
11
revelation to you Prr1~rw1.cof Trtrvancore is through me.

The claim of revelation t ~ r o u g hhim suddenly raises him to a higher

position of a prophet. While challenging the power of the church hierarchy on
the basis of the prevalence of int:qualities within the church he himself tried to
assume the power that was equivalent to the church hierarchy. But when he
began to be considered as divine power itself he rose far above the missionaries,
as they would have never placed themselves in opposition to the apostolic texts.
While recognising the force and the extent of credibility he had won among his
people, the missionaries were ezger to make judgements on the movements of
Yohannan. Their interpretation of Yohannan's movement remained largely
within the assumptions of colonial knowledge on the lower castes. It is
interesting to read one of the pieces that the Diocesan Record brought out. It is
an example of the creation of a separate sphere of religion that contested for
equality with the dominant religions.

As might be e.rpecred the teaching is fitted with gross

estrcnvuga~~ce.~
r~rld the midnight meerirlgs are marker1 b~
~ ~ ( ~ r i o r rr.;travngn~~r~s-s~voons,
s fits, contortion.^. ~vild
lur~ghter.rltrncing crnd the like-the char-ucteristi~.sin facr, of
thut primitive anirnisn ir.hir.h Johtm~zu' s f o l l o ~ v r r sq ~ ~ i t t e0(1f

" TCDR. VoI. XXIV. Frb. 19 14. p. I:

 I c.onr~rn\inr~. Y~./rtn~ri~irr
sre1n.s hit~r.sc~l/'t o lr(n.r

~Iegenrrareclit1 to 0 n~rgulottzarriuc,givillg hinrsrlf or1r ro he

sotne great one. He l r r s hewitched the poor prople who

14
I-r,yrrr(l hitn os the p o x r - cj'Gorl, vvhich I.\ c.ullrrl great.

Animism is a universal cLtegory with which the religion of the lower

castes are analysed, compared with and made sense of. This in turn is
considered as far inferior to m(~notheismand it is this animistic spirit that
causes extravagant religious expressions such as swoons, fits contortion, wild
laughter and dancing which were part of the pre Christian days of the followers
of Yohannan. As Yohannan was the cause of such a movement, missionaries
referred to him as megalomaniac bent up on bewitching the poor.'5 Poor people
consider him to be the personification of the power of God. Here the
observation that people attrib~ted the power of God to Yohannan is
fundamental in understanding :he later history of the movement and the
transformation of his popular image. It is difficult to differentiate his power as
one who preaches a new order and the one who himself is that power. He came
to be worshipped even before his death and later on his irnage became
entrenched and was ritualised. [t appears that during his lifetime Yohannan
combined the divine prophetic aura of a redeemer and existed mostly on the
liminal space transgressing B blical teachings but remaining within the
Christian life-world. This proces:; was creating a separate sphere of religion that
would help them to proclaim equality with the dominant religious (Church)
hierarchy. This was achieved by imagining social boundaries that were always
in a flux.

Missionaries' situated Yohannan's movement in the context of the

"unrest" faced by the CMS in Ttavancore. In fact, the history of the unrest can

14
ihid
I?
It is pertinent in this context to observe the fact that T ~ a v a n c o r e had several rcvival
movements among the Christians .uccessively from I873 onwards and the last one was in
1906-07. I t was more likely that lnlny people who were part of Yohannan's tn<]veriicnl and
Yohannan hiniself were part of the revival movements. For details sce Tlrr CMS il.li.tsior~in
Tr<rrnncorr a t ~ dCochill (London: Church Missionary Society. 1'115). 13. 21.
he traced right from the time c f the 'joining of the way of Christ". If we
consider here the history of CMS from 1850s to the 1900s we find the
tremendous inroads that missionz:ry activities had made among Lower castes. I 6
Lower castes constituted more tkan half of the membership within the church.
But, they were left behind the pnxess of development that the mission brought
about. This included matters ~f spiritual and material requirements the
fulfilment of which was mediatei by the upper caste Syrian Christians within
the CMS. In other words when u.e consider the contests within the Church we
come across the intertwining of the material and spiritual aspect of life. The
continued existence of caste feelings within the church and the practice of
segregation gave rise to a variet:~of movements most often led by the lower
castes themselves. In other word:: it refers to the existence of inequalities that
were religious and social in character and the critical engagement of Lower caste
people with them were represerted as "unrest" among the lower castes in
Travancore.

During the early decades of the twentieth century, even the CMS church
had to admit the prevailing "spirit of unrest" and they were bent upon
redressing the grievances of lower castes as a matter of strategy. The spirit of
unrest in the case of Yohannan wzs different as he evolved a different discourse
and critique of the practices of tbe Church. On careful observation the church
hierarchy felt it to be a "heretical blasphemy"" and in some of the documents,
Yohannan is referred to as "F'araya Christian heretical teacher Poikayil
Yohannan". It is interesting to read the observation of one of the CMS
missionaries, W . S. Hunt, who hat1 very close relationship with the lower castes
in Travancore. 18

"' TCDR. vol. XXII. Octoher.1913. n(1.5,pp. 99-105.

I7
'Travancore and Cochin Diocesan Kel~ortcarried hrief reports of blasphemy i n othcr mission
centres like Uganda in Africa where h e Church Missionary Society had to face hlaspheniy.
For details see TCDR, vol. XXVII. J a ~ ~ u a r19
y 19. no.1. pp. 19-20,
1s
Rcv. W. S. Hunt. 'Mass blovetnent Phenomena' i n TIIP NLII-LYSI
Field. vol. XXXIX. Junc
lY19.pp. 208-17.
 His herrrrrs n.ere n t r i r l l , r.lriqfIy fel1011-orrt-(.rrtr
r.o~rr.er-ts,h ~ t of t l r ~ rP~I . ~ I Iirrclrrrlirrg S y r i ~ ~ r ~~.er-e
r ~ , rrttrrrcreil
pok,.er- rrnil g~frof .song. He rrlternatively
with his tr~rrrr~rrrtic
terr-ified and .soothed thmi; he worker1 therii rrp ulnrosr to
fi-enzy of terror- over the r.orrsrylrerrces of their sir1.s ~rnrl
produceil a r.orresporld;rtg intensity of relie!f ~11er1
r ~ the
t close
the .ser~,ice,lrr reveule,l ro them the way of .sulvution. It wus
the same prerrchirrg that hurl heerr so .srrrv.e.s.sfirl h<fiirc hrrt
intensified, unrestrained, lasring jbr whole nights, kvith
dr~lmming tnnes and other accompnniments rhvrhmic
throbbings under the nridnight stars unrl lit of songs, and the
sense of irnceasing power of the preacher as he ivu.rerl
hoarser irnrl hourser a,ril more bvilrl anrl hloorl shot, guve his
heorers inten.sity of erzotiotiol ecstasy never e.rperienced it1
the ordinary ~vuysof Christirmiry ~ ~ n d f i r n iuttacheil
ly them to
him. He hecome a kind ~f'intorirorion.His teaching ho\ver.er.
wrrs reporter1 to he ort<roilo.rwhen it was known thnt ony one
I ~ U Spre.rent w h o wo.: likely to report rrp orr it, f i ~ r rhr
prerrcher's henchntrrr r~stantlyirfornzerl him i f N J I srrrrnger
~

was umorrg his hearers urrrl he ,framed his discoursr

~rccorrlingly. But it g~orluully r.ume to he known rhrrt his
preaching wc1.r not the srrnze thut it had heen. ar~rlespecicrlly
thut the way of solvrrti~m.vvhich he revealerl. wos rlot whrrr he
had fornrer1.y l,roclaim,!d. This new wuy was a secret one only
re~~euled
to those ileenrd fit to believe it ond imparted ut
rlerrrl of night with rlrtrrrl ~rrconrprrninlerrt.~
thrrt appenleil to
the centuries old rrni~n'smin hi.s heurer.~.The thri1l.s of terror
rmd relief: irr n lone19 jrrngle. Those to bvhom it wns thrrs
impnrterl were "the .sai,eil".

The Church was determined to fight hack heresy and blasphemy of

Yohannan in Travancore invokir~gthe history of fighting heresy in the Christian
world. In the Travancore case they frankly admitted that the strategies of the
church were not effective to win over the people who were lured away by
Yohannan. The ideas transmitted as heresy were very much part of the desire to
articulate equality with the Church at the level of theology. In fact Yohannan
had been deriving his ideas iritially from the Bible but subsequently he
formulated a critique of it but remained within the ideological world of the
Bible. These ideas bad been projecting a social vision for the people.

At this level it will be appropriate to discuss the most important aspects of

the heresy to which the mission~rieswere referring. Yohannan articulated his
social vision in speeches during their conventions and speeches that attracted
large numbers of believers. His main themes were sin, repentance and salvation.
The conventions of Yohannan wzre found to be more effective than that of the
missionaries as he made use of the methods of missionaries with greater
success, as the latter did not have many such effective men to intervene.

Writing in the Diocesan Record, the Bishop of Travancore and Cochin

exhorted the missionaries to collcentrate more on teaching than on preaching
and he observed that teaching was behind the success of Yohannan. This
statement of the Bishop shows the power that Yohannan had acquired as a
teacher among his people in -'ravancore. Teaching is preferred as against
preaching, as the former should be more calibrated and capable of logical
argumentation to establish a p;irticular point of view. The use of the term
teaching is important for the reason that it acknowledges the power of
Yohannan as a teacher and the desire of the people to learn which is in
contradiction with the normal prt:aching that the missionaries had been carrying
on. Here we might observe the act that Yohannan had reached a position that
was far beyond the reach of the missionaries if we consider his ability to
convince the people of his ideas. The Bishop reiterated the significance of
regular communion, confirmat on and other strategies including Christian
marriage that would discipline psople in the Christian way and keep them away
h-om the evil designs of the 'false prophets.
.I Y In other words i t is a suggestion
to niake the people more ritual hottnd to have effective control over them.

The significance of heresy in relation to the ideology is further developed

in the next chapter where I take U I the question of narrativising oppression and
suffering. Thus i t turned out to ne an open contest between the missionaries
and Yohannan, hoth using the salne language and metaphors. This equality in
the field did not guarantee any s ~ c c e s sto the missionaries. Hence the need of
the hour, they felt, was to have more effective men who could use Yohannan's
own methods when they addre:sed people. This particular attitude of the
missionaries was a pointer to the fact that they had realised the potentials of
Yohannan's movement. But it appears that Yohannan was successful in
influencing his people and winr~ing over even the pastors of the CMS on
account of which they had to closc: down some of the out stations."'

The CMS in Central Trav;incore was forced to remain alerted to keep

their followers with them. The n1i;sionaries found it difficult to counter the new
nlovement and its teacher, as the: latter knew the lower caste life-world very
well. This contest over the religious and social space can be brought to light
further if we situate Yohannar in the context of the evolving religious
consciousness of the lower caste,;. In order to do this 1 would situate here an
example from the experience of Church Missionary Society. One of the sites
where we can engage with the religious consciousness was the instruction
imparted to those who were waiting to be haptised. In mission centres that
comprised mainly of lower castes, missionaries appointed teachers from among
the lower castes themselves to t ~ a c hthe catechumens. In the local parlance,
they are known as "Asans" (teachers). They used to interpret the Biblical
themes suited to the occasions. Recurring themes of liberation from bondage,
the hope of salvation, were interxeted in such a manner that their aspirations

1')
TCDR. uol XXVII. Mny 1917, No. ::. pp. 36-37.
lil
'Travancorc and Cochin Mission Pr( prcss Report'. 1015. p. I?
 'I
and self-images found a ready s ~ a c cin such interpretations: The spread of
literacy among those who joined the missions helped them compose simple
verses using intermittently, met;tphors that were familiar to them. What is
striking here is the possibility of bringing their social experiences in realms of
discourses that missionaries initiated. They could give vent to these desires that
were socially significant. In fact Yohannan and his followers imaginatively
used this possibility of interpretation that was available to them. But when we
attempt an analysis of the way Yohannan theorised his project, we would
comprehend the potential of such interpretations.

The prophetic nature of 'iohannan's interventions may be understood

from the fact that people who bzlieved in him and his teachings expected the
millennia1 transformation of their lives. One of the features of this
transformation could be social equality, which was noted by many
contemporary observers of Yolrannan's movement. Even the Bishop of the
Travancore and Cochin Diocese of Anglican Church observed the recourse to
prophetic power in the method of Yohannan that could mobilise lower caste
masses in a significant manner. In one of the com~nunicationsto the Travancore
Government the Bishop had observed that Yohannan's movement was chiefly
racial and there was not much -eligious content in it." But when it comes to
describing the influence of Ytmhannan he positively refers to the faith that
people had in him as a saviour. rhis particular image of Yohannan as a saviour
has had its social implications for his followers who believed in millennia1
11-ansformation leading to social equality. The source of Yohannan's power is
the alleged authority that he had received from 'the high' and the
communication of the Bishop refers to it." This is in direct contrast to the
power of the Bishop as the ordained priest of Christ for whom the power and
authority are delegated. The situation here demands a probe in to the prophetic

?'
TCDR. vol. XV, May 1905. pp. 42~43:vol. XXII. August 1'112. Ni1.1. p. 85
'' Political Department (ci,nfidentiall Office of (he Resident of Trnvancore. Poxknil Y(~ha,i,lii,l
dated 30-7-1915 1 0 R R/2/882/1 17
I,
ihid.. p. 3.
image of Yohannan that was c i r x l a t e d among his followers. This was made
possible by the 'social imaginary' of the people who came to believe in him."
Charles Taylor's says that the social imaginary is the 'way ordinary people
"imagine" their social surrounllings, and this is often not expressed in
theoretical terms; it is carried in inages, stories, and legends'. He further argues
that while theory is the possession of a small minority, social imaginary is
shared by a large group.

It is equally important to consider that it was largely the Christian habitus

of the people that provided the space for the circulation and sustenance of this
particular image of Yohannan that became a social imaginary.15 This is proved by
the fact that most people who j ~ i n e dthe movement of Yohannan were from
various Christian denominations .ind they were very much aware of the biblical
prophetic tradition. The missic~naries considered this prophetic power of
Yohannan a potential threat and tlat is evident in the following formulation. The
prophetic power of Yohannan dic transcend the social imaginary of equality and
elevated him to a higher plain where as for the masses of his followers it was part
of the discourses of equality. It is in this context that the fragment that the
Travancore and Cochin Diocesan Record carried assumes significance.

'Irr rerrrlirlg rrburrr R ~ s p u t i t ithe Kussiarl monk ~vlrowas utl

irldirrct cuuse of the recent revolutiort, one c.url't help
thinking of another pronhet, in this rliocese. His religious ur~rl
philosophicr~l themes irtsed 011 his rrllrgerl ortthor-it? f i o n ~
High. rrrirl on rhr "cl~rrnsirzg"of the ~vorhlfrorrl its .si~ls
thror~ghhinr. ~ttrcrcterln throrr,g of disciples e.spc~ciollyfemale
anrl opener1 r, wide rrrerirr ,for the grutificrrriorl rfhi.r
~li.sc~il~lc.s,
26
pro/wr~.sitir.s.

24
Charles Taylor, 'Modern Social Irniginaries' in Public. Culrrirv I4(I 1: 2002. p. 106.
25
The term habirrrs is used here in the: sense in which Pierre Bourdieu has introduced it i n f i e
Logic. ($ Prrrr.ricr. Por details se? Picrrc Bourdieu. TI!? L o ~ i <of Pmctice (California:
Stanford university Press. 1980). pp 52-55.
' TCDR, vol. X X V I I . May 1917. No.). p. 35
 Yohannan, the prophet referred to here had the potentials to create a
revolution unparalleled, in the rural Central Travancore society. He took his
authority from the High. h.~t was intimated by a combination of
philosophical and religious themes, which would help him "cleanse" the
world form its sins through him. He would be the medium between the
divine and the mundane mediating the process of cleansing. This cleansing,
as we would see subsequently had its material and non-material aspects. At
the material level there was an engagement with the cleansing of the
untouchable human body and at the non-material level it refers to the
cleansing of the mind of the lcwer caste people from the sins. I have used
the term untouchable body a s t had acquired metaphorical qualities in the
discourse of Yohannan and l a e r on in the discourses of the PRDS. This
effectively attracted large n u m l e r of disciples particularly female disciples
and gave him an entry into the minds of the people, which were s o far the
domain of the missionary disccurse. It is important to note that even before
the coming of Yohannan's mo.iement there was a considerable presence of
women in the missionary m o v e n e n t . This was the general trend that we find
in the missionary organisations as they had appointed Bible woman to visit
homes and propagate the message of the Bible through printed pamphlets,
flysheets etc. In fact the missio:~aryreports carried details of the visits of the
Bible women and other activities that they had carried out that were aimed at
women and children of both C'hristian and non-Christian social groups. In
the case of the PRDS movement it appears that they have carried forward
that tradition of the Bible women and they had a number of women
preachers who are referred to a:, ~ ~ a d e s h i n i s . "

It may b e argued in the light of the above quotation that the

'gratification of the propensitil:~' of Yohannan is a term that is capable of
hiding different layers of mean ng. The gratification of the desires have been

?7
Mrinalini Sebnstiari. 'Rending Arclives from n Postcolon~olFeniinist Perspcctivc: "Native"
Rihlc Woman and the Missionary deal' i n Journal of Fcminist Studiec in Religion. VOI. 10.
No. 1 . 2003. pp. 5-25
a much-contested terrain where, the missionary project of improvement and
development. of both material and spiritual realm, confronted with the
meanings that lower castes attri ~ u t e dto it. While there can't be substantive
differences in the perception o i development by both the missionaries and
the lower castes as the latter ,earned it from the former, the differences
persisted on the role that each agent would play in the process

The PRDS movement tried to engage with modernity and the resources
thus available, for social transfmnation. It is necessary here to clarify why
the term modernity is used here to describe the changes that were taking
place among the lower castes in Kerala of which we consider in details the
example of the PRDS move'nent. Modernity here stands for the new
experiences of the colonial society in the wake of the expansion of the
European colonisers that forct:d the former to think of their society in a
different manner. It may he pointed out that there emerged a situation that
necessitated a critical engagement with ones' own society in a rational
manner. This developed out of the modern conditions of living made
possible by colonial modernity. In the case of the lower castes in Kerala and
elsewhere in India this experience marked a moment of fundamental change
from the past. It is this particular experience that I refer to as modernity. In
the case of the PRDS movement, there was coalescence of elements of
modernity with certain notion:, of the shared life world of the lower castes,
which were products of modern critical thinking on their past. In the course
of this critical re-conceptualis:~tion that the experience of slavery, Adi-
Dravida past, Prathyaksha (revelation) of God and Raksha or salvation etc
were made part of the new worldview that the movement articulated. It has
been observed in the contect of the religious collective memory that
religions reproduce "in m0.e or less symbolic forms the history of
migrations and fusions of races and tribes, of great events, wars,
establishments, discoveries and reforms that we find at the origin of the
societies that practice them."" These insights are important if we hring under
consideration the colleclive menories of migration, fights, and sufferings to
which the ritu;~l discourses refer to. Similarly the PRDS discourses at a later
stage could develop the originary stories of the lower castes and their defeat by
Aryans as ritually significant categories.'"

Following this line of e ~ q u i r y it is necessary to contextualise the

significance of the imagining of history the movement had worked out bringing
in the concepts such as Adi-Dravida past of the lower castes, their sufferings
under slavery, and the revelat~on of the truth of their salvation through
Yohannan. In the practices and perception of the followers of the movement
these ideas were essential for the r social and spiritual development. This can be
considered as critical resource fc~rengaging with structures of inequality in the
context of the mobilisation for equality. It is at this level that mutuality of the
spiritual and the material realms could be thought of as important aspects of the
project of PRDS. The environment for the spiritual retrieval was integral Lo the
project of Yohannan who had conceived of both the spiritual and material well-
being. This was actually a case for making an argument in favour of equality.
The slave castes of Travancore were leading a life in the sufferings of the
present and were not in a posit~onto think of either the future or the past of
their lives. Yohannan brought to them his new spiritual project. During fourteen
days of Thothu yogam (convention of measurement) he devoted the entire days

:n
Initially people were appri~achedon the hasis of kinship ties and whereever they went
Yohannan discussed with the peol~lehis 'themes'/ 'subjects' and won their hearts. These
deliberations of Yohannan were m irritant to the upper castes and particularly Syrian
Christians and they were waitins for an opportunity ti1 finish him. As a result <if the
opposition. it became difficult for johannan and his followers to propagate the new mcssage.
In several places the opposition led to open confrontations and are treated in the history of
PRDS as important evcnts, whici their people had to pass through in their quest fnr
liberation. There were npen confrontations at Vakathananam and Vellinadi in 1908, and
Kozhikuchira and Mangalam in 1 J12 and 1913 rcspectively. It was in the scheme of the
locally dominant peoplc to s u p p r ~ s sthe clandestine movement. For the next couple of
decades Yohannan and his associa es concentrated inore on the organisational details o f the
new congregation and nurturing 1. For a theoretical treatment of similar questions see
Maurice Halhwachs, On Collecti .e Me111oc ed.. trans. Lewis A. Coser (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press. 1992) p. 81.
2'1
For details see, Gr~ndhaRachana {amithi. S I Kirrt~oro
~ Ettu~nanoor:Srec Kumara
I)evn~~.(
Dharme Samajam. 19x3). pp. 1 1-20
f01- discussing subjects /themes related to the past and present of the slave
castes. Although the texts of sucl- speeches have not been printed i t is possible
to piece together from the oral tradition of the community and the missionary
sources the main ideas that were articulated during such conventions. It may be
pointed out here that one of the major themes has been the suffering of their
ancestors under slavery.'" In the course of this convention that he
disclosedlrevealed the most important theme of plan Kettidam or Planned
Building or the notion of a secure structure that is constructed in accordance
with a well laid out plan." For tht: salvation of lower castes that offers refuge to
them from the unequal structures of domination.

Yohannan was instrumentzl in reconstituting the customs and habits of

the people. After the thothu yogam the followers of Yohannan began to feel
themselves a different community." It may be recalled here that the efforts at
reforming the customs and habits of the people started during the early phase of
the work of Protestant missional.ies among the lower castes in Travancore. It
was considered as essential for bringing lower caste masses into the centre of
social life. In the case of the PRDS movement the reforms of the customs and
habits were carried forward in a rigours manner. The concept of plan kettidam
(planned building) shows the wa;] to redeem the culture along with spiritual and
material well being of descend an:^ of slaves. This encompasses the construction
of new structures in every spherc: of social life of the slave castes according to
well-conceived plans. This new structure can provide a ray of hope to those
who are already saved, both in s3iritual and material aspects of life. According
to the later tradition of PRDS those who are saved would dedicate their lives to
this task. The construct of plan kettidarn as enunciated by Yohannan himself is
interesting:

10
TCDR. vol XXIX, No.6, 1)ecemher 1919. pp. 95-98,
i/
Grandha Rachana Samithi. Srce />p.
K ~ r ~ n r r l -Deva~i.
ii 50-51.
ihid.. pp. 71-72.
 Y ~ I Inni.st
I <.o~rstrr~ct If
1, brii/~/in,qi~,itlzfili~r,fro~~ri.s/>iei~c,.s.

sI~oiil(1he o three-srorie 1 hrrilrlirz~.Yoli sl?orild c,o!r,secrutr nre

on thc~toy most ,floor 1'1 rr glus, i.ase. 011 rhe grorirzrl floor-
.shoiilri be the t h m i ~ eb1:i.h hhr~rhedfinr~in,~.
Whe~lthe tinre urrrl
honr comes I \~.orild c scene1 ,fron~the ivester~l poika wit11
p1origh.s o n the, shoulrler ~-,lnditr kachathorth orrrl sporti in^ <I

thoppi pala [cop nzarle of tenrlrr fold of nrecu plunt]. Keep

hot ivrrter. incha, [fibre .?fa <.reeprrirserl to rub the horlyl und
.soap for Jne ro bath and white c.lothes to iveur. I i~,orrlrlope11
the bciilding with the ?olden key. All the buildings of the
f plan
i~,orldlvill he shaken s<.verely in the vvhirl~vind.B ~ r the
kettidam sho~rlrlpmvir'e refiige to those escaping from the
ii
severely shaken strrrctii,-es:

Yohannan's discourses refix to the era of reign and his followers are the
heirs to that reign in which lower castes would be liberated from oppression and
live in an egalitarian society. Yohannan who has been born for the descendents
of the slaves as their father and mother represents a unity of the self and will
remain as the guiding light that will lead the slave castes to the secure structure
that guarantees equality. The heirs apparent to the era of reign would come
from those who have internaliscd his themes/subjects. In one of the verses of
Yohannan we read:

I criine iiz several gat b.s

Of Gorl, man, state, ~eligioncrnrl

Id
Jatis hv breaking thc,.\r chuin.\.

I,
ihid., Also see Rev. P C Joseph. Poiku\.il Shl-i Klrnriircz Crr,-rr Jeevirharrr~~r
Dnr-sl!u,~m.rrm
(Tiruvalle:Malayalam Christian Literature Society. 1994).p. 64.
24
1 o p 1 . : Poikayil Sree Klrnilrir Girrii Devtr~i (compilation o f thc discourses of
Poyiknyil Yohannan) (Kottayam: FRDS Puhlication. 19x1). p. 25.
 The above lines remind the followers of Yohannan that equality could be
achieved only through liberation from the continuing effects of caste slavery. It
is i n this process that Yohannan deploys the concept of Adi-Dravida past and
reflects on the possible liberation of lower castes. According to Yohannan his
programme was not to follow what others have argued and substantiated,
instead he would embark on a new project that will lead to the future retrieval
of history." After Yohannan's phase, this was interpreted as a project to realise
the lost spirituality, letters, rc:ign and knowledge." Similarly the later
generation of his followers considered him to have undergone great deal of
sufferings to accomplish this. And it may be observed that in the course of the
discourses of the PRDS movement social suffering was transformed into an
analytical category. Social suffering is discussed as a means to achieve
equality." A statement alluded t c Yohannan recalls sufferings to highlight how
he had suffered amidst the horrors of slavery as he was horn as low caste slave.
He descended to the earth as a slzve grazed cattle, peddled the water wheel, was
tortured and chained, and endured all this for the descendents of slaves.2xNow
in the discourses of the PRDS lrovement the personal sufferings of Yohannan
were equivalent to atonement tor the salvation of a fallen race that would
eventually lead them to the attainment of social equality.

Yohannan conceives of his projects a la Moses, leading lower castes to the

Promised Land where milk and hmey flows. The other aspect of the reference to
Moses would remind the followers of the supreme leadership qualities he had to
lead the people. This journey pas;;es through difficult terrains of social mediation
and reaches the political terrain where the reign of the chosen people should take
place. This refers to a possible ec:uality in the political sphere that the movement
wanted to achieve. It should evolve, following one of their songs, a phase in 'the

35
ihid.. p. 3 1
I,,
ihid.. p. 20.
"
This argurncnt is put lhrwnrd follo,ving very closely the ritual discourses of the PRDS. Also
sec Jtrnnopudesti~~i.... p. 26.
4s
. p. 26.
J,rcirroi~ild~so~,r..
beautiful Travancore where the problems of caste are resolved and the joyful
reign starts'. For this purpose he has lighted a lamp for the lower castes and that
light would guide them. A new earth and new sky will be born for the lower
castes in Travancore that would make possible the unity of the separated souls in
the era of reign. According to Yohannan 'the destruction of sin and desire was the
prerequisite for dressing then1 up in the garment of salvation, leading them
through the path of eternal life'.

Yohannan argued that the l ~ w e castes

r became slaves when there was no
Prathyakshata or revelation. In order to escape from slavery and to attain
equality in social life the lower c.astes took refuge in the rituals of Hindus and
Christians-Baptism and Suddhi.that did not clean them. On the contrary
Yohannan had a plan to secure his people from these oppressive structures.
Prathyakshata is a concept capahle of resolving the crisis that individuals and
qociety faced in the contcxt of sl;lvery. As this was not available in baptism and
suddhi, lower castes remainec as permanent outsiders. Learning of the
scriptures too did not open-up the terrain of knowledge to them hence the
Prathyakshatha and the act of l~eing'horn in the skin of the slave' was an
authentic portrayal of the way of salvation for those who were subjected to
domination, estrangement and ol~pressionby slavery, caste, spirit-cult and sixty
six books.'"

The fact that lower castes did not have books and textual knowledge
occupied the concern of the moTrement and in the new era it was felt necessary
to acquire such alternatives. It is important to observe here that acquisition of
knowledge was thought to be !Inportant in the period that lay ahead for the
descendents of salves. It was felt necessary to pierce Ajnanam (ignorance)
through the sword of knowledg:. The acquisition of knowledge was important
as it was considered as the true liberator that will eventually lead to equality.
This will enable 'rajya vazhch,~'(reign) worship of God and priesthood that
were considered as essential fo!. establishing equality. In the course of Raksha
Nirnayam he wanted to affirm the people in the path of the Raksha. Raksha
Nirnayam (ritual for determining salvation) is the most significant life cycle
ritual of the PRDS community. l'he first convention of Raksha Nirnayam was
held at Kulathurkunnu in 190'9 that lasted for several days. There are
differences of opinion regarding the duration of the convention. Some recent
writings by the organic intellectu~ilsof the movement argue that it lasted for 41
days while some others make it a month and still some others refer to it as
seven days.") 1n the course of :he filed work I was informed that the first
Raksha Nirnayam lasted for a mcnth while today the duration of the convention
is for a week.

In the course of my fieldwork I participated in a Raksha Nirnayam

convention to understand the .ransformation that people undergo as they
participate in this convention. Tt~isconvention lasted for seven days and on the
sixth night that the particular discourses on slavery were delivered and slave
trade performed as 'ritual remernory'. The concept of rememory refers to the
fact that people who have not actually experienced slavery recollect the
experience of slavery through narratives and experience the pain and sufferings
through such construclions. In a sense the somatic effect of slavery is
experienced through its ritual re~~dering."On the seventh day is the ritual that
is named as 'Sabhayode Cherkk.al' or initiation in to the Sabha, which is the
occasion of recognising someone formally as a member of the PRDS. Today on
the final day of Raksha Nirnayam, the portrait of Kumara Gurudevan
(Yohannan) is unveiled in front of the young children and youth who had been
fervently observing the rituals ;nd fast abstaining from close interaction with
others, as their saviour and they rush to the stage where the portrait is installed
and fall in front of the portrait 5iving their obeisance. This is the culminating
moment of the weeklong observances in which they learn generally about
religions and the PRDS in parti(:ular. The nightlong discourse on the sixth day

,,I
V V. Swami. 'Vyavasthayude Path ~pusthakarn'in S o o c l ~ u k u ~Monthly
~r. Magazine. Fehruary.
2002. p. 20.
I'
I hnvc discussed this in greater detzil in chapter live.
on slavery is the most irnportart moment when partaking in the ritual re-
enactment of slave trade and c r ~ ~ eseparation
l of families people experience
trauma of slavery and break down4'

The liberation, which is an ;~dmixtureof the material and the spiritual, are
conditioned by the above practict:~.Otherwise it comprises of divine visibility
or 'Divya Prathyakshatha', R~sksha or salvation and thothu yogam or
convention of measurement and plan kettidam or planned building. These are
very much integrated to one anotner and the progressive realisation of which is
Raksha. The privileging of the ri:ual practices for lower castes are essential as
they are able to create ;in alternative ritual space on their own rejecting the
tradition of the dominant castes. The ritual space of the dominant castes has
been a forbidden space for the lower castes. There is an element of subversion
of the ritual categories involved in it. Moreover, it may be said that the
alternative ritual spaces have been an important site for the struggle for equality
in caste determined social hierarchy.

Metaphors and myths were resorted to in the Conventions of the Trinity

right from the times of Yohannan. Convention of Trinity was the special
convention for those who were szved through Raksha Nirnayam. Similarly there
was another convention that wis known as thothuyogam or convention of
measurement. It refers to the convention in which the people were instructed on
possible strategies with which the lives of the descendents of slaves should be
ordered. In the course of Rak:ha Nirnayam Yohannan revealed his divine
powers to the people. He reco~lntedwith all details the tragic story of the
orphaned children and how he came to the earth to fulfil the promise given to
the orphaned children when he appeared to them as the female hawk. He said
that he had given refuge to t h ~souls of the ancestors who had to endure
inhuman sufferings. His discou.ses were mostly on the history of the slave

12
Participant observation of Raksha Elirnayam at Amam. September 2001. In the course of the
ritual rememory one woman fell inconscious after ;I loud scream. I have dealt with the
discourses on slavery i n dclailed InLnner in chaptcr 5 .
castes and the necessity of thei- liberation from the continuing clutches ol'
slavery. It was in the course of the first convention to determine salvation that
the particular theme of Yohanna'~that later on became famous as 'Subject of
Slavery' was introduced. Sin became a repeated metaphor along with other
categories like eternal damnation and death that were used in the discourses. He
used such concepts to explain th: causes of the befallen state of lower castes.
This particular understanding of the befallen state of the lower castes is
significant, as it necessitated strategies to negotiate unequal structures of
society. On the final day of the convention Yohannan revealed himself to be
their saviour. It has been recalled mythically that as he was addressing them, the
people found an aura around him and they were very much frightened and some
lay prostrated before him and some others ran away in fear unable to behold the
radiance and cried out him to save them and pleaded forgiveness for their sins.
One of the songs captures the spirit of the Raksha Nirnayam.

Yofc saver1 me from etvrnol rla~nnution,sin onrl ileuth

Yon r d e m ~ c r ~l n jro,11
r ull r h r w

M a d e me to hr i r ~the kingdon? of' God.

When I think of the boon to hr in heaven

Myfeet does n o t f i x to the gronnrl

When I remtzmher the holv face of God

Once the divine moments c~fmiracles were over Yohannan called them all
and told them about the purpose i f his coming. The convention of trinity filrther
solidified the faith of people in Yohannan and they became stable. The new

1%
Participnnc ohservatiun o f ritual discourses on thc occ:rsion of Rakshn Nirnaya~n.Alrl:rra on
15 Septemher.2001. For an carly wrsion of the same song set: Poyikayil Yohann;~n.Goliler~
Lyrics. (Kumbanad: BPFI. 1 1 15 MI?).pp. 17-18 (manuscript o f the original)
practice evolved by him along with his critique of 'vedas' provided them a new
spiritual life. And they began to worship him as 'Prathyaksha Daivaln' (God
revealed) and in the tradition of the movement he was referred to as Mathiyaya
Daivarn or a God that was 'enough' for their spiritual and material
requirement^.'^ It may be reiterat6:d here that the search for a redeeming God is
considered as fulfilment of desire for equality in this world although it did not
lead to structural changes in their zonditions. But it leads to the establishment of
a community that shares fervently this particular notion of equality

Spaces for negotiating social and political equality

In this section my concern is mainly to consider the programmes initiated

by the movement to acquire new resources by setting up schools, weaving
centres, places of worship and similar nascent institutions that they considered
as essential for achieving social i:quality and development. Similarly the lower
castes were demanding increasing access to public space in Travancore.
Moreover, with the coming of the missions a number of lower caste people
were engaged in mission work a:. catechists, readers, and the Bible women and
other s~nalljobs with the missiol~aries.Moreover, the lower castes were aware
of the 'social and spiritual' development brought about by the missionary
activities and the fruits of which were forbidden to themd5 it is in this larger
context that we need to place the interventions of the PRDS movement in
claiming equality in social, economic and political spaces.

These sites of negotiations were important as the movement was engaged

in developing the potentials of t t e mass of its followers by educating them. and
sending the children to schools and helping the people to acquire new skills of
reading and writing that would have enabled them to acquire symbolic capital.
In fact it has been noteti that thcir pastors were well versed in Biblical themes
and used to have critical reading of the Bihle following the interpretation of the

42
.... /I/>. 8 " X X
MS Thanknppan, SU~/I,Y~O~I
45
TCDR vol XXI June 191 1 . No 3 . p. 74.
scriptures by Yohannan. We have already seen the cxtent of the critical
interpretation of the scrip tun:^ that they delineated. These Biblical
interpretations were a source of 1:nowledge for the lower castes. In other word\
the biblical knowledge was part of both their worldview as well as knowledge.
It was in the course of the conventions that Yohannan informed his ideas to the
people. Following the prevailin: practice of nominating lower caste members
to the Sri Mulam Praja Sabha, th,: popular Legislature of Travancore, Yohannan
was nominated twice in I92 1 anc 193 1 ."'

In the debates and discu:;sions of the assembly Yohannan raised the

problems of lower castes in general and not the problems of any particular
caste. His demands included making available three acres of land per each
household along with agricultu~alcredit for starting agriculture. This would
have had an impact on the dexelopment of a peasantry from the traditional
agrarian population who were ajrestic slaves a fcw decades ago and many of
whom continued in serni-slave status even during that time. Similarly he
demanded preference for the lov~ercastes in distributing Government Puthuval
lands. Along with this request Nas made for the redistribution of the fallow
lands held as the property of the landlords. It was demanded that the cultivable
lands in the reserve forests sho~rldbe distributed among the lower castes for
cultivation for which taxes shou d be levied only after an initial tax holiday. It
was demanded that the lower ca!.te members of the legislative assembly should
be provided with the list of avai1;lble cultivable lands for distribution."

In the sphere of educaticn, Yohannan demanded that depressed class

children should be given admissit~nin schools and arrangements should be made
to give them noon meals and dress. He demanded that they should not be
detained on account of their beirg backward in studies but be promoted so that
they would be encouraged to opt for education. Similarly in order to resolve the
problem of the lack of proper drc:ss to go to school he demanded that depressed

40
Vi,jayan K n n p z h a , Sree Ktonum Girnrdewi,,. . .. pp. 21-29.
'' ihid.. pp. 28-29: M.S. Th~inkappan.Sathyam .... pp. 1 0 7 1 1 I
class children should be allowed tcl attend classes even in thorthus (small piece of
cloth wore around the waist) and zadgen leaf umbrella. 48 In one of his speeches
he demanded that four students f-om depressed castes should be selected from
each taluk for vernacular educat on two each from each districts for English
education and that the governm<:nt should meet the cost of their education.
Similarly it was demanded that complete fee concession should be given to
students attending class five and aJove. It was demanded that scholarships should
be granted to children studying in English schools and students studying class
four onwards in Malayalam schocl. Similarly it was demanded that grants-in-aid
should be released to the school:; managed by PRDS and also that permission
should be granted to collect buildng materials such as timber and grass to thatch
from the reserve forests in high ranges where the PRDS movement was intending
to construct schoo~s.~"~e also demanded priority for lower castes in getting
government support in starting cottage industries as well as preference in
government appointments.50 Subsecluently we find that he demanded the
recruitment of lower castes who nad studied up to classes four and seven in the
departments of registration, policc, post and telegraph and forest as clerks, police
constable, peon and guards respec:tively. Although these jobs are low paid and in
the lowest rung of the bureaucracy the fact that it was demanded show the desire
of the people to achieve occupational mobility that will help them to come out of
the agricultural labourer status. But at the same time it should be noted that when
it comes to demanding positions in the bureaucracy they very well knew their
position as they were not educati3nally advanced and they demanded jobs in the
lower rung of the bureaucracy. F owever these demands could he construed as a
claim over resources, material and symbolic, which were essential for the
development of lower castes in the first half of the twentieth century. I would
here quote from one of the news items published by the office bearers of the

I8
a , h'rona~-aG I I ~ L ~ ~ ~..I pp.
Vijayan K n n j z ~ ~ hSrrr , u I27-28
I..
1'1
Proceedings of the Sri Mulam P a j a Sahha. for the 17"' session 2-1-1921 (Trivandrum:
Governmrnl Press.1921). p. 123. 1 am thankful to Dr. James Chiriyankandath for giving
iiccess to rhesc source marcrials.
il,
Vi.jayan K a n g a ~ h a Srrr
. Krrrnrrrri G ~ r r r r d e r u pp.
~ ~ . 21-25
PRDS movement that atlvertises the products that were manufactured in thcir
~ndustrialunits."

It has been i~formerl11ereby the r~crivi.stsof r h Prrrtl~?.akshn

~
Raksho Daiva Sabha t,tar nearly 100 pir<.e.s of h i ~ hqrraliry
hornboo nrars \rove!l at ,he /nf/u.strialr~nirsot Errrvil~eroornrcir.
Tir~~vallrr
brould be av~rilohler ~ tthe inrl~r.stri~r1
erhibitiorl t o r
vrrlr rirrring Kr~rnbha Bharrrni ,fe.sri~zr~I
rrt K~rllr~pprrrasutlrl
banks. Tllese ~naftings'lave been sprciully ,,lade ro he strong
atlrl to last longer.

The report quoted above refers to the nascent industrial activity of the
PRDS movement in the first hal' of the twentieth century that tried to tide over
marginalisaton and deprivation by organising 'industries' in the modern way, but
as their skills and resources were 'traditional' they could not transcend the limits
set by the initial endowments and what they could produce was nothing but their
traditional products. But the organisation of production was in a modern way
assuring the quality of the product. I have already mentioned the efforts at
acquiring skills other than agricultural work and the most striking instance of
which was the establishment of weaving units at Amara as well as Eraviperoor,
the head quarters of the movement. In fact they brought experienced craftsmen
from Balaramapuram near Trivandrum to train the lower caste men and women
in the new skill although it t ~ r n e dout to be a short-lived affair. The most
important initiative with regard :o the institution building was the starting of the
English Medium School at Vrgalathu Kunnu which was a substantial affair
considering the fact that PRD:j movement developed it against heavy odds.
Along with the school they opened a boarding for the school children. They had
put in lots of energy to build the school as recalled by several informants.
Everyday when people come to the work site of the school they would carry
loads of sand and boultlers front the near by riverbed for construction. 1 reiterate
this to show the extent of dedication that the people showed in developing their

5 I
M;\lay;~laMi~noralna.22 February 1910.
own institutions. These institutior~alsites are important for claims of equality in
the public sphere.

Preparing to be equal: Keformil~gthe bodily practices

In this section of the chaptzr I attempt to provide an analysis of how the

new bodily practices of the loluer castes were considered as important for
claiming equality in the larger society. Using as examples the practices of the
movement of Yohannan it is argi,ed here that new bodily practices were integral
to the colonial modernity of lower castes Kerala. In fact it has precedence in the
works of protestant missionaries who wanted to reform the bodily practices of the
lower castes in Kerala that included wearing of clean clothes instead of rags and
abandonment of the practice of eating the carcases of the dead animals." One of
the universal themes of the missionaries had been the notion of cleanliness that
they wanted the new Christian: across the globe to accept. Moreover, they
developed typologies of the n a t i ~ ehuman bodies as objects to be classified and
mastered following the colonial practices." In the early years of the twentieth
century the individual reformers and the leaders of the lower caste social
movements carried forw;trd such nissionary notions. It must he reiterated that the
missionaries were instrumental in clothing the lower caste masses that had a
different notion of the bodily practices and hygiene. Missionaries supplied
clothes to their adherents who c , m e to the congregations wearing such clothes
and they appeared to the great satisfaction of the missionaries as clean. It is this
idea of cleanliness that the leader!; of the social movements worked through.54

<?
For the ~ n i dnineteenth century ob.ervations see Rev. Henry Baker Jr. The Hill Arriurls qf
Truvurrrore orrd rhe P r o ~ r e s sof Clfrisriunin. Among r/?er?l(London: Wertheiln Macintosh &
Hunt, 1862). pp. 14-35. For twentieth century example see the I.MS Report on the work in
the Attingal District, 1908. p. I I C\IIMASOAS.
" Timothy Burkes. Litebuo? Merr ,r,ril Llcr Wornerr. Cornrnodrfi<.rrrio,i, C~~nrur?zpriorr. urrd
Cleu,!linr.s.s i n Moderr1 Zimbabwe (Durham: Duke University Press. 1996). pp. 17-90. Also
see Nicholas Thomas Colorziulisn ~ r r dClclrrrre: A,~fhrr~poln~\..
Trrrvel a ~ l dGovet-rinrr~ir,
(Princeton: Princeton University Pr<:ss. 1994). pp. 105-142.
'I
I t i s interesting to see how much en~heddedwas the notion of cleanliness which i s repeated in
Inany missionary reports. For a replesentativc case see 'l'ravnncorc and Cochin Mission from
Bishop o f Travancore and Cochin t o M r . Durrant, at the Head Quarters o f CMS i n Salisbury
Square. London'. G2 I 1 5 1 0 I 9 12. Docu~nentNo. 7. C M S ABU.
 In the reform discourses ol' twentieth century one of the central themes
had been the ~rehrniof the bodi1:i practices and the re-conceptualisatio~lof the
self. The hullIan hody and self c > m eto be considered as an integral part of the
society.5' In the missionary prcject human body and the newly introduced
bodily practices are important when questions of social transformation are dealt
with. Hence any idea of social reform came to be considered as part of
reforming the bodily practices and the self. Ln one particular context a statement
alluded to Yohannan proclaims that, "I annihilated caste in my body; now you
have to realize it".5"he notion of the annihilation of caste within Yohannan's
body refers to the singular importance that body had attained as the site on
which the effect of the slavery vias felt intensely. The notion of annihilation of
caste in the body of Yohannan zctually suggests parallels to the annihilation of
sins of humanity in the body of Christ by accepting and undergoing tortures. It
refers in the case of the PRDS movement the notion of the sufferings that the
founder of the movement had mder gone to save the untouchables fro111 the
caste-slavery complex.

The above statements of Yohannan actually draw their sustenance from

the missionary language. The human body, and the way power and subjection is
attributed to it in the Indian conext was very much related to the conceptions of
caste.57 The notion of pollutio,~by touch and its removal through touch and
washing refers to the configunitions of power that operates both at the micro
and macro levels as it involves rlifferently placed individuals. At the micro level
it refers to the varieties of bodily practices specific to each castes that determine
their social position. Here the lelative social position can be understood in the
way the upper caste individuals related themselves through differences to the

55
In cnntetnporary social theory human hody assumes signific:~nce parlicularly when colonial
transformation is analysed. For details sec John & Jean Comaroff. E t h ? m ~ r t i / ~ an11
/7~
Histor;cirl Iwluginntior~.(Oxford: 'Westvicw P r e ~ s 1992).
, pp. 69-91

57
See lor a n argument on the relat~onshipholween caste and body. Parthd Chnt[erjcc. 'Caste
and Suhi~llernConsciousness' in llanajit Guha cd.. Suholtrrrr Srrrdir~.vol. VI. (Delhi: Oxford
University Press. 1999).pp. 169-::00.
lower caste people. At the macro level it refers to the macro structures of caste
fortnation that created multiple hierarchies and guarded zealously in Kerala
through the observance of di!,tance pollution. In the quoted lines, the
incarnation-Yohannan. it is argued, had destroyed caste within his body, as he
underwent the hazardous task of challenging it by accepting new ideas and
cultural practices. In fact it doe:; not refer to the destruction of caste in any
meaningful manner but to the desire expressed by Yohannan to create a
collective life out side the folds of caste. There were efforts within the
movement to go beyond the distinction of caste that continued to exist among
lower castes inspite of the fa:t that they had come together within the
movement

There is another context in which the question of untouchable human

body enters the discourses of the movement that is related to the sexuality of
women. In the contemporary di!.courses of PRDS, this is related to the fall of
the ancestors of the lower caste, who are referred to as Adi-Dravidas as their
women were lured by the strate:ies of In some of the contemporary
discourses, the fall of the motb.ers are referred to as the original sin.'"hey
develop their notion of traditior~drawing on the concept of Maharshi lineage,
which is a very significant nt~tion in the contemporary discourses of the
movement. It is argued that t t e destiny of the lower castes who had been
drowned in the abysmal slavery was to resurrect and continue their journey to
the home of the ~ a h a r i s h i s . ~ ' "

ih
According to contemp<~r;sydiscourses Aryans let loose evils spirits among the Adi-Dravidas
:~nd created enmity among the 11eople and suhsequcntly they themselves mediated the
disputes that cropped up. Adi-Dr;~vidasdisclosed their secrets to Aryans. which the latter
used to their advantage. Adi-Dra!ida women entered into reladons with Aryans that gave
hrouyht in evil descendents. The fall of Adi-Dravida women led to the eventual fall and
enslave~nentof Adi-Dravidas. This particular interpretation is circulated through hoth the
print medium as well a s oral ~ornmunication. Scc J~mnopadesa,,~ . . . p. 3 6 s e e M.S.
Thankappan. Snrhyanl ....pp. 94-90.
5'i
Participatory observation o f the discourses on the denth anniversary of thc founder. 29 June
2001.
611
They interpret the birth in the lincage o l Maharishis as taking place hecause of the union of
mind. thoughts and feelir~gsthat plegnancy takes pl;~cc.This is the strength o l hcinp horn in a
tradition. They inherit. knowlcdg: and skills. arts. sciencc and Vedas. They arc hestowed
 I t would be appropriate to ook at the new practices of evct-yday life that
Yohannan introduced. The everyday practices of people, who were saved, were
different from other communitie:;, and it was thought that they should imbibe
the original qualities of their forefathers and Yohannan advised his people
accordingly. He wanted to keep ihem away from superstitions and other social
evils. Sorcery and witchcraft, accarding to him, were against the system of faith
that their forefathers had develop,:d.

Along with spiritual cleanliness the movement laid equal emphasis on the
cleanliness of the body. He made his followers to be aware of the cleanliness of
the body as fundamental to the xoject of emancipation and the practices that
they were to follow. One particu as instance is portrayed in his biographies that
recall his insistence on cleanliness and the efforts that he was willing to under
take for that. Once he was passing through a village and he heard the repeated
cries of an infant from a hut. He went straight there consoled the child and
bathe him/ her and cleaned up th~:hut and its surroundings to the surprise of the
children in the house. Later at nij;ht Yohannan and two of his associates went to
the little hut and told the parents of the children who had returned after the days
work about salvation and how he reached there on that day.6'

Yohannan used to take his people to riverbanks in places like

Maniayattumukku, Kalluppara, Nakkada and Maraman and showed and
instructed them how to use oil a ~ soap
d to bath. They were also shown how to
clean their clothes. He wanted his followers to use white clothes instead of rags.
In Travancore society much contests had already taken place on the question of

with practices like rituals o f purificition to propitiate God. T o the great sage these are inborn
qualities. He does not learn this frcm any one. Neither he learns from the wisdom of others
nor hy reading hooks or taught by a teachcr. In one ofthe later songs i t was sung that
I (In1 ?lor r u l r ~ h r&;, cinx otre.
1 1errrnt.d wirh nr? wisdor,~
A I \viri<l h1on.s n.herl,fii,r is swrrrlg.
So those ~ r i r ho r,- rdiriorr ,~,olrlrl~ u i t z~i.er\.rhi,rgb! hirrh.
. . .. pp. 22-23
Jnrit~opadrsrri!~
I
,I
Vijayan Kangazha Sree Krrinrrlri G I rride\~ii,r.... pp. 3 1-33. Ethnographic fieldwork data.
dress as exemplified in the case of the violence that followed the Nadar women
covering their bosom in the mid 9 t h ~ e n t u r y . "Although
~ they were permitted
to wear upper clothes in the fashion of Christian or Muslim women Nadar
women wanted lo put on the upper garlnent in the fashion of Nair women that
led to open confrontation with upper casres in many parts of south
~ravancore." Lower castes were never permitted to wear proper clothes let
alone white clothes even after such wide spread agitations. Under such
circumstances insistence on whit2 clothes are significant as that subverted the
symbolic world. Similarly Yohannan forbade the use of liquor and other
intoxicants that according to t i m were the evils invented by those who
oppressed their forefathers. Yohannan made beef eating a taboo for his
followers as their forefathers wele forced to plough the fields paired along with
the oxen and buffaloes. The p e o ~ l ewere asked to use large quantities of water
and leaves for cleaning after delecation. Toilets were constructed with special
provisions of a hole on the wall ldjacent to the floor to throw away such leaves
after use."

Yohannan took exception to practices such as kanam on the occasion of

marriage. He asked his people tc, provide separate space for the married couples
and instructed them to observe racial purity. Yohannan's followers were not
permitted to wear ornaments. They were instructed not to speak while cooking.
Women were asked to cover their heads always. Those who have learned the
truth and wisdom of Yohannan's themes/subjects should wish one another by
folding hands whenever they m:t. These practices were essential to bring out a
community of people who havr: achieved proper behaviour in public and who
has learned to respect one another that they are in a position to evoke respect for
~ -

"' For details sec Robert L. Hardgra\e Jr., The Nudri,.; C)f T~lniilNodlo The Polifirrrl C'ulf~~rr
Of
( I C o m n ~ u t ~in
i r Chu,igt,
~ (Berkele): University of California Press. 1969). pp. 55-70
63
'This particular problem had been a serious mattcr in the communication of the missionarics
based in the South Trilvancore wgion. For ex~lrnplesce the letters o f Lewis E I X January
1x59 from Santhapuram: Dennis .I 21 January 1859 koin Nagarcoil and Russel J 21 January
1859 from Nagarcoil under the title Clorh Riors. Jacket I H ) Box 5 R ~ l d e No.2
r CWMASOAS.
02
(;srirdpltirr . . . pp. 11-32
Vijayan Kangazha Srre K~r~rrlrru
thelnselves in the larger society. One of his biogr;tphies claims this to bc a
great achievement that helped tlistinguish his people from the rest of the
society. The biography observes that '...thus he taught them the things to be
observed in their lives and asked :hem to live accordingly. As a result of it they
became distinct from other comnmnities, with their teeth shining without betel
stains, clean clothes and shining bright faces signifying the purity of mind.h5

The efforts of the reformer- that were concentrated both on the material
and spiritual realm had its desired effect. But as had been observed before, the
object of the cleansing activity was primarily the lower caste human body. I am
using here the term human body ;rs i t is an essential category that is deployed in
the songs of the Sabha. The hulnan body has to pass through various acts of
cleaning to emerge out of the stains and stinks. Shining bright faces proclaim
the purity of mind they have achieved. In order to reach that stage one should
begin from the body and this was thought to provide them the necessary
attributes to demand equality in the public space.

The movement tried to chlnge the food habits of the people. The lower
castes, especially Parayas and I'ulayas, used to eat whatever they could get.
This was true, as they could r~otget 'clean food' naturally. Similarly it is
difficult to say that they had developed a complex culinary taste or cuisine as it
is determined by the social conciitions of the people. For them, " a kanji, for a
day was a luxury. Their normal ood included tapioca, coffee made of the outer
husk of the coffee kernel, cucuinbers of various types". This particular menu
was considered as of inferior quality. It may he observed here that the
perceptions of the food they hat1 used played a role in degrading them. This is
more so when we consider the fict that certain food items were considered to be
unclean. There are clear indica ions of privileging of certain food items over
others." It is important to see that the structure of dominance in which they
existed made it impossible for tt e lower caste people to acquire any thing that is

hi
ihid. Fieldwork in the PRDS settlelnenls at A~nara.Vengalathkunnu. 20 Scplemher 2000.
"" Ficld date. 20 Scotemher 2000.
referred to LIS good food. Their slave status in socicty was the main reason for
the so-called loathsome food habits. But this aspect is never treated in such
manner that the power relations tlehind the process is recognised. Missionaries
have observed long ago their food habits as unclean and thought of reforming
them. For example the LMS annual report of Attingal for the year 1908
ohserved the unclean habits of the lower caste Christians and the eventual
rejection of such practices as they joined the missions. "These people used to
eat carcasses of dead animals, a : ~ dno one would approach them. They were
accustomed to wear only their old dirty clothes even to Church. But I am glad
to say that many of them have eft their old habits and come to church with
clean clothes.""

Notions of work and culture in the context of negotiations for equality

New conceptions of work and culture emerged among the lower caste
communities during the early decades of twentieth century. I have already
mentioned the reorganisation of production on modern lines and the training
imparted to people in new skills such as weaving. At the same time we find the
efforts by people during the early decades of the twentieth century to move out of
their traditional villages to places where more government lands were available for
cultivation. Although the number of people thus migrated are limited it refers to
spatial mobility as far as the lowc:r caste people are concerned. Similarly we have
examples of people going out to work in the plantations and in the history of the
Sabha the people recall how th~:ir ancestors worked in plantations of the high
ranges to pay for the lands purchased for the movement at Eraviperoor where the
headquarters of the movement i: situated. Similarly they could purchase land at
Amara and settle several families there and transform them as agriculturists. It may
be recalled that the notion of a,ork as far as the lower castes were concerned
underwent basic shifts afer the at~olitionof slavery in 1855.

117
'Report on thc work i n tllc Attingn District 1908'. p. I I,CWMASOAS
 However there were some i'orms of unfreedorn which still persisted that
lower caste people felt they could only overcome and become free by acquiring
landed property. Under slavery. il Inay be remembered that, work meant only
subjection to the lower castes or in other words the process of wealth creation
sustained their unfreedom. Lower caste people had already internalised the notion
of progress and development that they learned from the missionaries. At the
same time it is important to menion that the official proclamations during the
abolition of slavery visualised the possibility of lower castes acquiring property
and civilization that would e l e v ~ t ethem from the fallen state. This elevation
occurs largely due to the changes in the social position as they acquire property.
In the early decades of the twentieth century those lower castes who had joined
the various protestant missions were well aware of the possibilities that
development and progress were holding out for them. This is equally true in the
case of the lower castes people u.ho were mobilised in the context of the social
movements that we have discussed in the chapter on resources. Now we shall
take the example of the PRDS to see if there emerged a different notion of work
and culture in the courses of the ~novementand if so how they are related to the
notion of equality. In fact the zlbolition of slavery and the various forms of
unfree labour was the essential requirement for the realisation of equality.
Subsequently we find the use of the legal means to acquire lands even by
resorting to the legal action to reclaim the alienated lands. What was at stake
was right to property as far as the lower castes were concerned. Some of the
contemporary sources speak of the positive aspect of the land hunger shown by
lower castes in ~ravancore.'"

With regard to production we come across new perceptions among the

lower castes although such p-rceptions were not free from many other
constraints. It may he argued that productive activity came to be considered in a
new way at least among certain sections of the lower castes following the
protestant ideals. In the case of the PRDS movement, there were efforts at

hX
'I.ectrr to Mr. Hunt. Trnvancore Missionary hy CMS Secretary EHM Waller' in CMS L~rtcr-\,
T r r n u n i r ~ ~Letter
-e Book, vol. 111. 1(1031~)15,p. 462. CMSAUB.
accumulating capital out of the meagre savings of rice that each family was
supposed to save from their everyday consumption. Simil;~rlythe followers of
the movement were instructed to save a portion of their earning however
meagre that might be. Even b e f o ~ ethe emergence of the movements such as the
PRDS the missionaries have cbserved the willingness of the lower caste
congregations to contribute a por:ion of whatever they had libera~ly.~"

It is important to consid(:r if the PRDS ~novementcould make any

investment in the sphere of the culture of the lower castes. While the centrality
of slavery is accepted as the sigr ificant marker of lower castes life in Kerala in
pre-colonial and colonial times: i t is necessary to see certain aspects of the
culture of the lower castes being reinterpreted in the context of their
mobilization for achieving equ;~lity.In fact we find them reinterpreting the
cultural repertoire of the commuiity to refashion them to the new requirements.
In the contemporary ritual discourse the religious functionaries of the
movement recall an instance of 'iohannan reinterpreting the cultural resource of
the community by reversing s o n e of their folk songs and their meanings. One
of the songs is a lamentation of the decline that the primeval family ofthe lower
castes-Poovinka Tharavadu-suffered as it did not have heirs to look after the
aging mother of the primeval family. The occasion was Yohannan's visit to an
eastern remote village inhabited t y Parayas labourers. The people at the settlement
had just come there after their &ily work and were preparing for their household
chores. Women were frying the ,oiled paddy to be husked in to rice and then to
make their gruel. Children were half asleep for they have not had any food for the
whole day. And men were about to play on karu and maram, their traditional drum
and other musical instruments. It was then that Yohannan reached there and
hearing this news people assentbled there in amusement. They did not have
anything to offer him to sit upon and then some body pushed from ;I comer an
unused wooden pestle and fixed :I piece of mat on it for a seat and requested him to

h'i
'Memorandum by the Bishop upon the Parent Committee's Grant t o the Nativu Church
Councils'. 1405. p. 2 . Private an<lConfidential. B. Church Missionary Socicly Trnvancore
and Cochin Mission. CMSAUB.
sit down. Up on their request he tcld them that he was coming frorn a distant place
in search of them and that he w o ~ l dlike to spend that day with them. He had a
book with him, which he put safely beneath the thatch of the house. They all felt
happy to hear that and he asked tht:m to continue with their singing and he said that
he himself could sing. The group of men who were sitting with the musical
instruments began to play them 2nd sing and they sang one of the popular folk
songs. That song was pertaining to one of the ancient family (Tharavadu) of lower
castes the location of which was beyond r e ~ o ~ n i t i o n . ' ~ )

There is noborly in the Poovinka tharavarl,

There is nohorly in the Poovinka tharavrrrl
No cock to 1.r01.~.
in tl e drr\vn
No cock to (.row ill tl'e r1r1w11
No chirping birr1 to 1;ght u lump in the rlrlsk
No chirping bird to I;ghr a lamp in the rll~sk
No chirping birr1 to < hirp in rlr11~11
No r1e.scer1dat1t.sto li,:ht rr lrrnrp ill the ~lrrsk
No descmdrrnt.~to li,:ht u lrrrnp in the rl~rsk
No de.scenr1ant.s t o p , ck the debris from the courtyarrl
No rlescenrlants to p rk the debris,frotn the co~~rtyarrl
And the mother cun'r rlescend~ormthe ascended veru~~rlah
And the mother can't clescmdform the ascmded verandah

This particular song was later on to assume ritual significance in t h e

renderings of PRDS as it tried to capture the 'social lack' of the community that
is referred to. But to the surprise of all those who were there Yohannan
composed another one inverting the original song that displaced the 'lacks'
mentioned i n the earlier version of the song.

On hearing the song Yol-annan asked them where the tharavad was and
who were its people for w h ~ c hthey could not provide an answer. They

70
Discourses on the death anlrivcrsay o l t h z Vounder. 29 Junc 2001
definitely knew that it has been alluding to something in the past. Yohannan
interpreted it as an ;tllusion to the past when there existed the necessary
wherewithal and resources for thc community to survive. As referred to before,
it was then that he composed another song that is a complete inversion of the
traditional song 'the Poovinka Tharavadu'. In the inverted song a male heir is
born in the primeval tharavadu (tamily) who becomes instrumental in restoring
it. In contemporary discourses of the Sabha the male heir thus born is identified
as Yohannan himself who had come to renovate and redeem the family that had
gone astray due to the harsh practice of slavery.

A male chilrl is born ln Poovinka Tharavarl,

7'0 renovate the Poovirtka T ~ u ~ L I I . ~ ~
.............................( repeal)
People of religion U I I ' Icaste were m~r.se~l,firriotr.sly
...................................
All accluimrrl anrl .so~pri,scvl

H o ~ rmany
. people rlicl it hrirlg?

Where <lo yn~rgo my rrnm~el~~l."

..............................

It was through this inversion that Yohannan wanted to raise his people
from the fallen state and to stakc claims for social equality. In the inverted song
we find the complete rejection of the ideological assumptions of the previous
song that recounted the lack ol' almost every thing to the lower castes. Also
significant is the fact that in the new version the male heir is valorised
retrieving the submerged past ctf the people and reinstate them. Recasting of
the images of the past that priv leged 'lacks' was achieved by the inversion of
the song. The contemporary generation of the followers believes that Yohannan
had come to renovate the P o o v i ~ ~ kTharavad,
a which has gone in to ruins.
 There were occasions wten Yohannan reeled out the stories of
Chengannur Aadi and Malanattil Aadi who were lower caste heroes in the
course of his speeches." Today the story of Chengannur Aadi is explained in
details to the ritual community as forming one of the cultural resources of the
community. In the narrative, Chengannur Aadi comes to meet his wife whom he
married when she was seven years of age mounted on elephant to impress up on
her. There is a substantial addition to the already available oral tradition of the
lower castes once the PRIIS movement came into being if we consider different
versions of their songs that are av>ilabletoday.

Engaging the symbolic realm as a means for achieving equality.

In this part we are concerned with the new mythologies that were found as
indispensable for the so1idifica:ion of the movement after the death of
Yohannan in 1939 and the split in the movement in 1950. At the out set itself it
should be mentioned that these mythologies were foundational categories to
establish equality with other religions as the PRDS had invented their own God
who could lead them to salvatior~.The God thus conceived was referred to as
'Mathiyaya Daivam' or a God who is enough for their requirements. The divine
status attributed to Yohannan was essential for the community to establish its
independence from and equality to other religions and communities.
Subsequently these practices became part of the larger question of social
equality for which the movement strove ever since its inception. It is in this
context that we s i t ~ ~ a tthe
e prevailing myths7' that are current among the
followers of the PRDS movemellt. In order to build up our arguments further
we draw upon the oral tradition cf the PRDS. It rnay be mentioned here that the

72
Chengannur Adi and Malanattil A(li were prominent heroes o f the Southern Ballads of
Kernln.
"
The term riiyth in the text is used lollowing thc social scientific tradition in thc :~nalysis01'
~iiythologiesfollowing the traditioi of Roland Barthes. see Roland Barthes. Myrholo,~ies
(London: Paladin, 1')XY). pp. 117-1;4.
t.itual conirnunity was actually solidified on the basis of the oral tradition of the
movement. 7-1

In order to put forward the arguments I draw on the discourses of the

Religious men (Upadeshtakkal) of the PRDS on the occasion of the death
anniversary celebration of the fcunder of the movement. These were the most
eniotionally charged moments (hat help us to understand the contemporary
representation of Yohannan who has acquired divinity as Sree Kumara Guru
Devan. One of the interesting assects of the contemporary representations is to
see that the images are created in such a manner they synchronize with the
already existing mythologies. Here is one that is connected with Eraviperoor
where the head quarters of the PllDS movement is situated and which according
to popular perception is the land where divine apparitions had taken place in the
past. According to one of the speeches

" H e (Srer Ktrnzarrr (;rrrtrdervrtl) was hor.11 irr the l[rrtd of the

Pururirel~eeri.(Golderr Eruviperuor) He II.LI.S born i n the l~r1111,

which Ib,a.s r s p e c i a l l . srlecred h?. the Dirzinity ,fi)r his

~r/~penrarrce.
There II.CI.S the fitmorrs janrily of Mrtlayul~r
Brahmins knobrn CIS P,lthillathil Potris in this 01-eo.I t ivas to

this plnce that once a .iarzyusi come arlrl he askedfor l l a n i r ro

yrrerlch his thirst. The-e were rlo tnnle menrbers ill the hottse

at that rime rtnd ir w a i disrespect to the Surlyasi.~riot to give

them the rratlitionul :oft drink l l a r ~ i r(tender cocon~rt).The

elrler- bromrtr of the ho~rsehol~l
hrrnrle<l over rrrr rr.rr, rrnrl

reqrre.ste11 thcj Snnyasr to ,fl.ll rr <.ocorlrrt tree urrd to ,r~ltrck(I

tender cocot~ut,us there IVCIS 11oho~lj rhere to c l i ~ n bthe

~ O ( . O I Z L Itree.
~ The co:onut tree bent to the grorrtld f i ~ rthe

Gurtr to plrrck the coconut and qrrerlch his thir.st. This is the

lar~rlwhere God has descerlrlerl in the past arid norv at the

7.1
Certain portion of the oral traditir n has been cornmilted t ( ~printing i ~late
f hut as argued hy
the scholars on Oralily, i t .still retains the fu;ltures of i,r;ll colnposition even when i t i s
commitled to printing. For detail; on the theoretical positions on Oraliry scc Walter Ong.
Or~rlityar~dLireruq: Tile Techt~olagizingof the WOI-/(I (London: Methuen. 1982).
 tiiire of tlrr ioinirl,y of G ~ r r ~ , i l r ~ vT11c,
~ i l . .Slrr~?.ir.siiro,<er
LI,J~PLWP[I there (IRLI~II. This 1<1ru/i.v ci~lc/~rrrri~(/
(1.5 rlre lirr~il

wllrrc the Gud ile,scrrrrlt~ilh<forr u8e.s rrrrd tlrt, God rlrsi~rrr~l.\

..
<'L'e/lr i o l & ' .
7q

Myths were to become a li*ing tradition in the case of the movement and
that is evident in the ritual rendering of the life of Yohannan himself. The whole
events leading to the birth of Yohannan is recalled in a mythical manner and the
endless repetition of the story informs the followers how he was born and
suffered along with his mother. The birth of Yohannan and the circumstances
leading to it are reworked in a mj~thologiealmanner. It was recounted similar to
the Immaculate Conception, something similar to the experiences Virgin Mary.
Once Yohannan's mother was cutting reeds when she heard somebody calling
her from behind and when she looked back there was nobody to be seen. As her
name was repeatedly called out !;he looked back and saw fire burning at some
distance where she stood and cut the reeds. On seeing that she fell unconscious.
It was an hour past when she 1)ecarne conscious and was relieved from the
shock but was not i n a position 'o continue her- works and rcturned home with
her knife in a trance not sure of what had happened to her.

The vision informed her of the divine plan to make her the mother of the
divine progeny who would redeem the descendants of slaves from their
degraded condition^.^^ Nobody including her husband could believe it and
eventually it led to their separat on. This story in certain senses reminds us of
the miracles and events associaled with the birth of Jesus Christ. Yohannan's
mother left her husband and came hack to her own house and there also she was
not welcome and she was forced to stay alone and then that she gave birth to
her child. According to the bio;raphies his birth was preceded by storm and
downpour and people were all frightened. Once the torrential rain stopped

7'
Discourses o l Gurukula Upadesht~vu.Illithare Krishnaku~naron the clcath anniversary 29
June 2001 at Eraviperoor.
lb
Grnndha Rachsna Sarnithi. Srrr Kirr?r<iriiDeviiri.. .. p. 22.
suddenly the people heard an infant's scream from Lechi's hut. Thus the
Saviour was born. The plot has a11 the characteristics of the birth of a prophet.
Divine revelation and the secret ~f birth, rejection by the society, sometimes at
the time of birth sudden changes in the forces of nature determining the time of
the birth of the saviour. Prophetic messianic nature of the narrative found a
ready acceptance among his folowers. Over the decades this has been retold
endless times and made an integral part of the faith of the followers of the
PRDS.~~

According to the contemporary discourses when God was about to be

born as a slave, the earth was informed of the divine plan that shook her and she
informed her inability to accommodate such a being. God consoled the earth
that there would be some body tc bear him on the earth.

It was a low caste woman who had the fortune to bring God to the earth,
as He Himself was to take the ;;arb of a slave. In order to bring God to the
earth, the Atrdi strkthi had to inccrnate as mother of God to fulfil the promise of
salvation. The ritual discourse r~:calls it as the occasion when primeval power
that is the foundation of the Aadiyar people revealing itself to them. According
to the ritual discourse it signifies the breaking and casting away of slave chains
and the Aadiyar people take refu,;e in the God who had come to save them."

"
I t w i l l he interesting to see how t t e experiences o f Yohannan's mr~therare rccalled in thc
contemporary ritual discourses o f PIDS.'Our holy grand mother had 111 cndurc all the insults
when she was pregnant lo hear o u - promised saviour to this world. No body was ready to
accept her explanations. Sorne peol~leeven tried to k i l l her and amidst all these oppositions
she thought of the hright light that ;he saw when she went to cut reeds i n the near by foresl.
She had to take her child wherever she went to feed h i m as she was enduring hunger most o f
thc days. On certain occi~sionswhen she went ti1 work for the sankaramangalam family she
had to keep her infant boy laid on the dykes so that she could feed h i m the gruel supplied to
her. I t was under extreme forms o hunger and sufferings that she could bring up her child.
Ammachi has been observing fast when she fed the child with the food given to her and
experiencing hunger during those days u,hile engaged i n hackhreaking work'. Discourses o f
Gurukula Upadeshtaru. on the oc<asion o f the death anniversary o f the Ibundcr. 29 June
2001.
78
ihid.
 Ir is important to know hcw the contemporal-y discourses constructs the
identity of Yohannan once he was elevated as God incarnate and as Sree
Kumara Gurudevan. For this we !;hall follow the ritual discourses again

I t is known to r f s thot there are mu11y ir~carnutionsan(/ a.y

per H i n r l ~ im y t h ~ l o g y(;od took tell difjerent i r l ~ ~ a r r i a t i o rto

r.~

fitlj5ll the desired project rrrld they were u l l the incc~rrlaterl

,frrrgnr~~nfsqf Mrrhrr Vish~lu. Similrrrly ,TrlJlrt nrrn whn

them.se1ve.s were Gor1.s like Jesus Christ. Lord Burldhu unrl

several other incarnutions took place crnd in none of this

cases d i d the c w t h show her inuhility to hear them $.so. why

then i n the case o j S;ee K ~ r u r uGurudevcm alone thut the

earth shower1 her irlublity to hear h i d I t is in tlzis context

rlznr the q~iestion~vherllerPoikayil A p p ~ c l r a i/Srrr

~ Knrr~rrrrrrr

G n r ~ i d n , u nwas the incnrrlution of Muhu Vishrnr hecornes

r.rtrenzel? .signij~c(rrlt. I s Poikayil Apprrch~rri ( Yohr~rl~lon/

Knnlnru G u r ~ Devan)
f ail ir~cornrrtionof Maha V i s h n ~ r .Yo11
~

rrti.s~srr lny q~iestion. Knmrrrrr Gurn DPI'LIII 11.~15 GOO the

almighty himself' who rlc~.scenderlfrom the hern,rrl.s tu f i ~ l f i l l

the promise given to tile slrrve c h i l l r m . Grrrn~levancanze to

this earth and his original seat is heaven itself'fron~where hr

79
~veprsreirzg the reors oJFthes1ave.s.

Before the Upade.shtclvu reached any conclusion on the divinity of Sree

Ki~maraGurudevan the ritual ccmmunity answered to the question of whether
he was the incarnation Maha Vi:;hnu in the negative. This piece of information
is crucial to us as it shows the manner in which the contemporary image of
Yohannan is constructed by his followers.

The ritual discourse contit~uesby saying that the God almighty came to
this earth fulfilled the rniss on and finally returned to the primeval
powerlheavenly abode. But tl-e significant thing is that here God himself

' Raksha Nirnayam Discourses hy I lithara Krishnnkumnr. Gurukula Sreshlan. 25 Sel7temher

2001 Venkott;~.
descended on the earth as Poyikayil Appachan. Now the preacher recalls the
genealogy of the Hindu myths on incarnation in which Maha Vishnu incarnated
as the primeval fish to fight agLinst Hayagreevan who had stolen away the
Vedas underneath the seas. Maha Vishnu conquered the evil and recovered the
Vedas and returned and with that the mission was fulfilled. In the theological
exegesis of the PRDS God came lere as a family and that had a lasting impact
on those who were cast away leaving asunder familial unity. The rationale for
the coming of God as farnily is to be sought in the word and promise given to
the slave children whose parents have been sold away. It was a promise made to
them that God would come to their refuge as and when the time comes as their
father and mother. The earth c o ~ l dnot contain the power of incarnation as it
was coming as a Family to con~pletethe project of the promised salvation.
Because of this the earth looked for reprieve and then that Andi Snktlzi our Holy
Mother conceived and gave birth to our God. The PRDS discourses refer to this
family as the family of Mtrhursltis where the vibrant human sound resonated
with life that flourished for miller n i u m ~ . ~ "

When describing the event:, of Yohannan's childhood and youth some of

the biographies rework these myfhs. Once his mother went to work leaving the
sleeping child under the shade cf a tree on a spread out old cloth. When she
rushed back hearing the repeated cries of the child she found him to be covered
with a colony of black ants. She rubbed off the ants, but there was no sign of ant
bites. The unusual behaviour ccmntinued. Even as a child, Yohannan used to
have a critical attitude and he used to defy the practice untouchability that the
lower caste themselves followt,d. When he was taken to kutippallikudam
(traditional school where children are initiated into writing) for enrolment and
the teacher initiated him to writ(: on the spread out rice he insisted on writing
the word 'God' which surprisec everyone. On another occasion the touch of
Yohannan was said to have c l e ~ n e dthe mud stained body of his mother who
had just come hack from the field." God chose the earthly hody of the slave-
Yohannan-and incarnated to redeem the slaves. The hody of the slave is
elevated to a mythical category in the discourses of the Sabha.

There were other acts of 'iohannan erasing the signs of the slave past.
Once as his friends looked on he tore off the pattappala, the vessel made of the
folder of areca plants used for eating. In yet another dramatic way he once told
his friends about the sufferings o'their forefathers under slavery. The heights of
which was achieved when he himself was paired with an ox harnessed to the
yoke and drew the plough. It wls very difficult for his friends to observe the
scene of his falling repeatedly. Suddenly he rose up and broke the plough by
striking it against the ground. Hi ; friends observed him to be unusually grave.x'
The breaking of the plough is recollected today in the ritual community as a
symbolic act that would proclai~nto the world the resolve to break the barriers
operating against the slave cast1:s. It was in the same mould that most of the
articulations took place. There s an amazing stock of stories and miraculous
experiences connected with the life of Yohannnn and his disciples. It was within
this genre of the myth that past was kept alive in the collective memory of the
community and transmitted across generations.

It would be interesting at this juncture to see how a historical event took the
narrative mode of the mythical categories. Every event no matter whether it was
religious or social was re-inscibed as a myth and the explanations of the
phenomenon quite often straddled the genres. The following example will give a
very good idea of the narrative genre. We consider here the plight of the peasants
who had to vacate the land and crops at the time of harvest, which was permanently
leased to them by the govemmer~tat a place called Kozhukkuchira. The peasantry
was drawn from various castes including a suhstantial number of lower castes
belonging to Paraya and Pulaya communities. Then that Yohannan appeared there
and claimed all of them to he his people with the local revenue authorities.

8I
.... I). 28
Grantha Rachana Samithi. Srre KI I I I [ I ~ ODPWIII
ti?
ihid.. p. 3 I
Underst;~nding the situation he ~ s k e dhis people to return to their respective
villages. Surprisingly thel-e wasn't any move to regain the land. He asked them to
be alive to the fact that those who had exploited their forefathers have not all been
vanished and that they promised heaven but in actual practice they cheat the
descendants of slaves. He assured them that the future to which they are taken by
him was a future where this kind of rivalry deception did not exist."

The welcome offered to the king of Travancore by Yohannan and his people
amidst the resistance of the upper castes is also recollected in the same manner.
Seeing the white cloth clad black. people waiting for him, the king came near to
them and asked what they wanted. To that, Yohannan replied that he wanted to
convince the king that in Travan,:ore such a humanity existed without any rights
whatsoever who were once the n~lersof the same land. This surprised the king.x4
These events have been considen:d as important in the history and experiences of
the PRDS. Yohannan explained to some of his followers who felt disappointed for
not asking for any thing from the king that Adi-Dravidas were once the owners of
this land and it would have been demeaning for their descendants to put forward a
request for their legitimate claim."5

It is important to observe the merging of myths and reality. It is not our

intention to juxtapose myth to rr:ality to arrive at any validation of the former. It
is recalled in the context of the practice of faith healing which prevailed among
various Christian sects that Yohannan used it in an effective manner to reach
out to the people. Once he w : ~ spreaching at a place called Kulathur where
Yohannan is said to have cured three people including a mad man.xh All this
instances are recounted as mirac:les in the manner of the Biblical narratives.

XI
Vijay;~nKangazha, Srrekunlura Guruder,u,l . . . pp. 17-18,
*' W. S Hunt. .Mass Movcment P h e n ~ ~ m e n ein' The Hurvrsf Field. vol. XXXlX June I9 19. pp.
208-7 17.
ti<
ihid.
XO
C;r;~nthnRachena Samitlli. Sree K,lnlur<iD w n ~ ipp.
. 73-78
 These myths and miracles c3nstitute the image of the founder of PRDS as
a saviour who resolves the crisis of individual's social and spiritual life. Even
after Yohannan's time the language of myths and miracles remained as the most
powerful instrument within ths: PRDS ~novement.~'After the death of
Yohannan there occurred the new phenomenon of his spirit speaking through
some of his followers. At first it was his daughter- Sara who spoke mimicking
him. Later on many of his associates began to speak in this manner and finally
it was the turn of his second a.ife Janamma who spoke like Yohannan and
institutionalised it as she spoke from behind his grave in the headquarters of
PRDS. This phenomenon of Spirit Speech was referred to as Appachan
Srrmstrrcrm (Appachan Speech) and the leaders of the PRDS like Njaliyakuzhi
Simon Yohannan accepted it as authentic and denounced all other speeches.88In
the following decades it was through this spirit medium speech that Janamma
decided the affairs of the PRDS, till her death in 1982. The control that
Janamma could wield over the sc:ct was in a great measure owed to the exercise
of the authority of spirit speech.x" The later turbulence in the movement was
mainly on the basis of the acceltance of the spirit speech and the revelations
that came through it. This phas- in the history of the PRDS is significant as
external mediation emerged as a major trend, which is situated here in relation

87
Here is an instance of the typical \ray in which helievers rccall Yohannan's death. 'What we
need to d o now is to establish str:~nghonds with the God who was horn for us and who
suKered for us for sixty-one year: of his whole life. The generation of our parents could
establish their rclations with him a r ~ dwhen he died i t was their hreast-heatiny sound that was
cchoed in this land. It is this experience that shiiuld guide us in realking the divine that had
heen with us as he was with our parents. It was a time o f intense grief-men women and
children all were weeping and wailing-some crawled on the ground. some fell swooned and
all this grief lasted for days and obr parents klt that they lost the one who was their saviour
and who alone was therc to come in search of them to cstahlish strong ties of relationships
with them.' Iliscourses of CP. Damodaran. Gurukula Upadeshtavu. on the occasion of the
death Anniversary of Yohannanl Kamara Gurudcvan. 2 9 June 2001
For a critical understanding of the phenomenon see. Bahy and Bahu Rajan, Tl~irrivirhnmkoor
Seshari~.(Ettumanoor, 1994), pp.
Prrrrhwzkshn Dcriou Sabha Charit/?,-am,Poikrr!.il Yohurrrlurr~~
13-17: For a devotional ;Iccount sel: M.S Thankappan. Sathyam ...pp. 138.179
A collection of the spirit speeches has heen published a s :I v o l u ~ n erecently. For details see
(Ernvipcroor: PRDS Head Quarters. 20(X)).
Poikl~.vi/Sree Klrnzura G~irsdevaf rrrbhnsha~r~rrir.
Pussitri.
to dominant powers and nation ;tate. as there were efforts at redefining the
identity of the movement and its f x n d e r as necessitated by the external forces.

The biographies of Yohann in written so far show two major trends. One
of the trends is to follow the mytlical pattern where the mentality of the lower
castes that privileged millennia1 transformation acquires prominence and in
such texts emphasis is laid on the divinity of the founder of the movement."" At
the same time such histories do [lot explore the mentalities of the lower castes
in any detail. I would argue here that mythical categories in understanding the
divine were not something extel.na1 to the life of lower castes as they were
aware of various forms of black magic and other practices to worship their
Gods and to resolve the crisis of their lives. This had contributed to the
development of the particular mental structure that provided them with
categories of thought. It may he said that the new movement sometimes
activated such elements of their c.ollective thought. The biographies that deploy
mythical categories celebrate the sublime text that is uncontaminated by
material aspects of the world that leads to the recounting of those events of the
biography that alone would be legitimised later when Yohannan's personality
was reconstructed with divine 3owers as Kumara Guru Devan. This would
bring in a philosophical question of personal identity of the founder of the
movement to the later generatious of followers. But in the case of Yohannan it
is a change superimposed on him posthumously and hence the onus is on his
followers to explain how this question of personal identity is to be resolved.

At one level the questiorls of numerical and qualitative identities are

involved in the characterisation of Yohannan as Sree Kumara Guru Devan since
in the later reconstructions cf the biography of Yohannan there is an
overemphasis on his imagined 11feas Sree Kuara Gurudevan. But the fact that
such constructions have been downplaying Yohannan's real life as Yohannan,
numerical identity between Yohannan and Sree Kumara Gurudevan becomes

'*I
For an analysis of ~ncntalityand religiosity see C'nrlo Ginzhurg. T17r CIIPPIC.
L I I I ~f h WOI.IIIS:
~
T/?e Cosr~rosof n Sirrernflr Cerlfrrry Miller (London: Routledec& Keyon Paul, 1980).
very fragile in such cons~ruction!. In the case of the identity of' Sree Kumara
Guru Devan the predominant feature is that of narrative identity. The essential
physical and psychological continuity of the person of Sree Kumara Gurudevan
is constructed through discourse. In other words the personal identity of Sree
Kumara Guru Devan is accompl shed through "narrative forms of history and
fiction" in which the question o ' sameness and selthood are taken up. In this
process it is with the character o'the human person that the re-identification is
made. But in the case of Sre? Kuara Gurudevan these constructions are
a~nbivalentas the narratives tr'i to destabilise the human character of Sree
Kumara Gurudevan. It has been argued that the problem of 'identity in
narrative' shifts the focus from zxperience and memory to accounts of events.
These events would explain changes in character as the latter is considered as
resulting from the former. But in the case of the Sree Kumara Gurudevan there
is always a strong recourse to memory and experience particularly when it
comes to the ritual discourses to which we have referred to in the course of the
thesis. In that case the narrative identity here does not completely dispense with
experience and memory. '>I

There is yet another trend of writing the biography that gives the details
of personal life experiences of the founder following thc rational methods of
biography. In this genre one comes across efforts at providing a matter of fact
description of the life of the founder which is accomplished by invoking that
aspect of writing biograph!! that privileges the features of scientific
biography/history. Thc biographies are considered to be constructions that
involve power/knowledge." Such thinking is necessitatetl by a particular
circumstance that makes possible the writing of biographies and also the
context in which such individuals have been living. This is applicable in the
case of both the genres of biographies mentioned above. The texts thus

'"
For a discussion on narrative id,:ntity see Partha Chatterjee. Prirzcelv Irrrposfor (New Delhi:
Permanent Black 2003). p. 1 1 5 117
,,? .Thornas Sodertlvist
'Biography or Ethnobiography or Both? Embodied Rellexibility and the
Deconstruction of Knowledge-l'ower' in Frederick Steier (cd). Krsriirr.h (rrrd Rc:flr..;irir!.
(New Delhi: Sage 1901). pp. 141.62
produced are ;icceptable to the p e ~ p l eas they find the texts and the pre-cxisting
images of the past in their coll?ctive memory as mutually compatihle. The
strategies followed in the constru<:tion of the texts become significant here. The
site of social memory becomes the most privileged one in this process as the
texts will have to take recourse :o it or alternatively the images of Yohannan
even in its new form will have to be validated against the social memory of his
followers. It must be observed that the community made substantial
interventions in the site of social memory through repeated ritual discourses to
transform the image of Yohannan into Sree Kumara Gurudevan. The ritual
discourses made possible the construction of the new image of Yohannan by
taking recourse to rendering of the biographies1 hagiographies bordering
fiction." There is a contest ovel the meanings involved in this process in the
experience of the PRDS even during the lifetime of its founder.

In the later reformulatjors of the PRDS, Yohannan remerged in an

evidently mythical way once t h e ~ ewas a change in the iaith and the practices of
the movement. New hallowed pcrtraits of Yohannan, his mother and sons came
to be venerated and subsequenty his wife also became an object of worship
after her death. These photogral)hs came to be placed at the head quarters of
PRDS and supplied to the follo~versof PRDS signifying the Godliness that he
was bestowed with. Instead of the real life photographs such new imaginary
portraits came to be accepted. 'This is considered here as the re-inscription of
the biography. This actually brought about significant and drastic changes in the
people's perception of the image of the PRDS.

'I?
It rnay he mentioned that some biographies provide information on his life while others d o
not provide information on all aspects of his life. He was married twicc and the first marriage
took place in1907 in which he had four children. His second marriage was in 1925. in which
he had two sons. Some of his biographies down play the fact that he was married and had led
a family life as the narrative mould had shifted to mythology. It was his sccond wife
Janamma and the sons born of her who carne to the leadership of the sect atier Yohannan's
death. Not much is heard of his first wifc. Mariam. daughter of Kunfhati Poovathu Melathil
and the children born of her. Yoharman died in the year IL139. 21 the agc o f 6 1 . By the time of
his death PRDS cnme to he well estahliched with followcrh in mcrny villages of Ccnrral and
South Travancore.
 At this juncture it becomes important to see how these questions hecome
significant in the discussion of equality. The present argument is that the
intervention in the religious real11 and the structuring of the divinity o f Sree
Kumarra Gurudevan was significant to claim equal space in the religious realm.
This is considered to have pro,/ided the followers of the movement with
foundational categories to articulate themselves in the larger society.

Identity and social boundaries in the context of the struggle for equality

We have been discussing various aspects of the PRDS movement in

relation to the question of equa ity. In this part our effort is to look at the
process by which the new idenity of the followers of the movement were
constituted over a period of time ; ~ n how
d it was related to the question of social
equality in the context of colonia modernity. Before doing that we shall have a
discussion of how identities are formed It has heen argued that identities are
formed, as a result of social prclcess where people come to reject the earlier
notion or received idea\ on thrrnselves." According to this argument what
happens here is not self-discovery, but self-negation. The negation occurs, as
the effort is to reconstitute the se f by negating all the received notions on them.
It is, in other words, an effort at becoming what one was not earlier." It would
appear rather difficult to concede this particular position as we may come
across certain instances of the reinterpretation of the earlier subject position in a
given context of substantial soci;~land economic transformation. In other words
it should be emphasisetl that certain elements of the past that may appear as
despicable from one point of vi8:w would become an active constituent o f the
identity of a community or soci l l group in another context. In the example of
the PRDS movement it should be pointed out that the notion of slavery and
slave sufferings are integral to the new identity that they would ascribe to
themselves and other lower castes of Kerala. But at the same time in the public

'j.1
Jana Sawicki. 'Foucault. Feminisln and Question of identity‘. i n Gary Gutting, cd.. The
Ccrmbr~dgcC'ornpnnio~rto F o i ~ ( . i ~ r I(Cambridge:
f. Cambridge University Press. 1994). pp.
186-3 13.
" ihid. p. 2x7.
discourses of the other lower ctste organisations1 movements in Kerala we
hardly come across any reference to the slave experiences of their ancestors. 1
have mentioned in the second chapter of the thesis the experiential aspect of
slavery as me~norialisedon the occasion of the annual celebrations of CMS
during the early decades of the tvlentieth century. This memorialisation came to
an end gradually even in the case of the CMS Christians drawn from lower
castes. We hardly come across examples of the memorialisation of slavery
among lower caste Christians of other denominations. In this circumstances it
may be suggested that memorialisation of slavery is unique to the PRDS
worldview and an important element that constitutes their identity as evident in
the ritual discourses of the movement.

The above example demantis us to have a more dynamic view of identities

and identity formation and it:; significance to the ernancipatory politics.
Although it is difficult to provid~:a singular definition of emancipatory politics,
when the PRDS movement developed the central concern of the lower caste
movements in general had bet:n their liheration from the oppressive caste
structure. All these movements had articulated the grievances of the people to
the political authorities and in :he course of which they provided the crucial
self-representation. Their self-representation is evident in the speeches made in
the legislative assembly as wc:Il as in the memorandums presented to the
government. These documents f x m the materials on the basis of which we can
talk about their engagement with the question of social identity. It will be
difficult to analyse the shiftin2 sands of identity formation as an object out
there. It has to be understood as a process and engaged with, in a dynamic
manner to delineate the emancipatory politics involved in it.

According to Hall the con7emporarydiscussions of identity happens in the

theoretical context of 'discursive explosion' around the concept of identity and
at the same time it has been SL bjected to 'searching critique'. These critiques
had been ai~nedat the notion of an integrrrl, ori~irztrryand urrifi'c~dir/errlitF.""
There are similar efforts to destab~lizesorne of the claims advanced by scholars
who advocate essentialist position regarding identity formation. Of these, one of
the major trends has been the deconstructive approach that puts the key
concepts 'under erasure' because such concepts are no longer serviceable in
their originary and unreconstructed form." Identity is a concept operating
'under erasure' in the interval between reversal and emergence; an idea which
can't be thought in the old way, but without which certain questions can't be
thought at all.

Where and in relation to what sort of questions does the irreducibility of

the concept of identity arise? According to Hall the answer lies in its centrality
to the question of agency and politics. By politics he means both the
significance in modern fbrms of political rnovernent of the signifier 'identity',
its pivotal relationship to a politi:~of location-but also the manifest difficulties
and instabilities which have affected all contemporary forms of 'identity
1' X
politics'. By agency he does not mean a return to an unrnediated and
transparent notion of the subjec.t or identity as the centred author of social
practice or to restore an approach which 'places its own point of view at the
origin of all historicity-which, in short, leads to a transcendental consciousness'
What is needed is not a theor) of the knowing subject but a theory of the
discursive practice. It seems to t,e in the attempt to rearticulate the relationship
between subjects and discursive practices that the question of identity recurs-or
rather, if one prefers to stress the process o f subjectification to discursive
practices, and the politics of exclusion which all such sub.jectification appears to
entail, the question of identificat on."

'),I
Swart Hall. 'Introduction: Who bleeds 'Identity"!' in Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay. cd..
Questiotr.~of C~rltrirulI d e n t i t ~(LonJon :Sage.lYYh). p. I

"' ihid.
""hid.
',', ihid.
 According to H2i11 identificition turns out to he one of the least well-
understood concepts-almost trick4 as though preferable to identity. It draws
meanings from both discursive ant1 psychoanalytic repertoire, and without being
limited to either. In commonsense language identification is constructed on the
back of a recognition of some cammon origin or shared characteristics with
another person or group, or with an ideal, and with the natural closure of
solidarity and allegiance established on this foundation. In contrast with the
naturalism of this definition, the discursive approach sees identification as a
construction, a process never completed-always 'in process.' It is not
determinate in the sense that it can always be 'won' or 'lost' sustained or
abandoned. Though not withoi~t its determinate conditions of existence,
including the material and symbolic resources required to sustain it,
identification is in the end condi.ional, lodged in contingency. Once secured it
will not obliterate difference. The total merging it suggests is, in fact, a fantasy
of incorporation. Identification i! a process of articulation, a suturing, an over-
determination not a subsumption. There is always 'too much' or 'too little'-an
over-determination or a lack, but never a proper fit, a totality. Like all
signifying practices it is subject t3 the play of difference. 100

What demand our critical engagement are the elements with which such
identities are formed. In most c;ises, the elements of the past are appropriated
and reworked where by consti.uting one's own tradition or traditions. The
availability of such traditions ard their elements would vary at the time of the
transition of society from one stage to another. In the colonial period, as it has
been overstated by now, all !,ocial movements including the anti-colonial
movements tried to rework such categories that were available in their tradition

I,",
~. .h ~ According
d. to Hall in psycho:~nalysisit is the earliest expression of the ties with other
persons. Identitication with the pa.ental figurr. Similar to the oral phase of the organization
of lihido. in which the object that long for is assimilated hy eating. Demands co-exists with
an agency like superegr). Similarly. ego-ideal is composed of identifications with cultur;~l
ideals that arc not necessarily harn~oniousAll these need not he imported whole sale without
translation. But this is milinly to show the dit't'erent ways in which the cc~nceptis used.
along with what came to them from the repertoire of the colon~alcultural
lewurces.

th6.y seern to irlvoke o poirrt f

"Tl~orrg/~ i i in u

historical pasf with ~ h i c hthey contirzr~e to i.orres/)orid.

rri.trrrrlly irlerltities ure ~ ~ h o r frrsirlg
t re.sorrrce.s /~i.sto)?.,

I r r r l g ~ ~ ~~zrld
l g e r.rrltr~reir the proi.ess of hecomi~i,yrrzther thurl

heirlx: nor ' ~ v h iwe

) <Ire' OI- '1~11ere
we coriir,from', so nzrri'h us

~vhcrtIVL' might he<.ome how we huve heen represer~fedunrl

how thut henrv on l o w we might represent ourse1ve.s.

lrlentifies ore therefow constitrlted within, not outside

represer~mtion.They relate to inverlfion of rrudition us much

n.s to tr-urlitior~itself; 15,hich they oblige 11s to rrtrrl not us r r ~ z

end1e.s.s reiterrrtion hrit us tlze chonging .vunze: riot the so-

c u l l r i l rrtlrnl to roo's hrrt o i.orning-to-ternis-~~zith

our

rorrtr.7...They rrri.se,fron the narr~rtivizatiorzqf the self, h ~ r the

t

rlece.s.snrily fictiortal ,lrrtrrre of rlzis process in no way

rrrrrlcrmirre its ilisc~rr.siv?.muteriul or p o l i t i c r ~ cfectivify,

l ever1

if the helo~lgingness,,he '.srrtrrrirzg illto the story' throrrg/l

~ ~ . h i cirler~tities
h arise i ~ purr/\;,
, in the irnuginury (11s bvell os

the spmholic) und therefore, NIIV~IYS,

partly constr~r<.trrlin

,firntu,sy, or at leust within u,furltu.smuti~f,elcf. Ioi

This is brought in here to lighlight the dynamics of such phenomenon in

the identity formation of lower castes in Kerala in the particular example of the
PRDS movement and would see how the identity was formed along with the
deliberation of social boundary through narrativization of self that was doomed
to slavery. The fictional nature of the discourses, to which we shall refer in the
forth coming chapters of the the:is, d o not undermine the discursive, material or
political effectivity. This is acccmplished through performative self-production
to which Hall refers to particula-ly on the ritual occasions when slave suffering

I,),
ihid.. p. 1.
is ireally enacted."" In fact it is ar important aspect of the process of the subject
creation. The kind of identity thit was imagined could not have happened out
side fictional narratives that acco~nplishedthem. The 'suturing into the story' of
slave experience into the imagined self of contemporary generation of believers
is a construction that takes palace in fantasy

It is appropriate here to take up some historical examples to argue our

case. It is clear from our discussion that caste society had always maintained a
feeling of 'we' and 'they,' like rlcial boundaries for the lower castes although
they might have remained fuzzy i n the case of the upper castes across space and
time. The processes of social rej'orms in the colonial period brought in larger
caste identities sometimes after weakening sub-caste alliances. This was largely
the case of horizontal solidarities across caste groups that shared the same ritual
and social space. This phenome~ionled to the emergence of mega categories,
making invalid the earlier bountlaries understood as 'we'. Such developments
also occurred among dominant caste groups in Kerala such as Nairs and
~ z h a v a s . ' ~The
' missionary inte~facewitnessed similar differentiation evolved
between lower caste Christians and Syrian Christians within various
denominations of the Church. It can be argued that such differentiation
continued to exist in the post-cclonial times."'"t was this general milieu that
created the situation to which Stuart Hall referred to as the process of
'becoming' in the above quote. In fact among the lower castes there evolved
organizations that tried to transcend the caste and religious distinctions
particularly when serious social, political and economic cluestions were raised.
As a result we find the combin:d mobilisation of various lower caste groups
around the questions of public space, economic development and political

I,,/
For the developnients within the c ifferent conimunilies see Rohin Jeffrey. The Decli~reo j
Nuyor Dornirlunr.e: Socirry und Po'itics 1847-1908 (Dclhi: Vikas Publishing
~ I ITru&~atlrore.
House'lY76), p. 210. For an account of the developments within the Nayer comlnunity sce
Pattm G Ramachandran Nair. Nr?ur Sunrlrdnwrhirire Irliihusa~rr.(Trivandruni: Sahithy:~
Vcdi. 1987). pp. l l l - 130.
IIU
TCDR. .vol. XX. February 1910. N).I. pp. 13-15,
rights. These were made possible by the concerted efforts to surpass the limits
of their traditional worldview thal was determined by their position in the caste
hierarchy. It is in this context that the new mentality of the lower castes evolved
in the colonial period. There was substantial change in the way lower caste
people perceived the social relktions although we find the continuation of
hierarchical structure of society. This new mentality was expressed in religious
millenarianism along with expectation and desire for progress and eventual
transformation of their lives.

The socio-political and economic issues were capable of creating essential

requirements of identity. But at the same time certain constructions of the past
were integrated with it in the pro':ess that came along with modernity. They are
subject to radical historicisation ;md are constantly in the process of change and
transformation. According to Hall we need to situate the debates on identity
within all those historically spe:ific developments and practices which have
disturbed the relatively settled character of rnany populations and cultures,
above all in relation to the processes of globalisation, which he would argue as
coterminous with modernity. 105 It appears form our previous discussions that
the whole question of the new identity of the lower castes in general and the
followers of the Sabha in particular became a prohlem due to colonial
transformation which is the early phase of globalisation.

The constitutive elements of such a development were coterminous with

modernity although this particular aspect of modernity had differential impact
on different social groups. This is very clear in the case of lower caste
movements as they articulated p.oblems of modern education, entry into public
sphere, economic development etc as their principal concerns. At the same time
early twentieth century tnovemeots of the lower castes showed a preoccupation
with the past, sometimes in a mythical way that led to the process of invention
of tradition. This was very clea. in the case of the movements with the prefix

llli
Stuart Hall. ' l n t n ~ d u c ~ i o nWhu
: Ne':ds 'Iden~ity"!'. . .. p. 1
 IO b
'Acli' referring to the or-iginal illhahitants. These movements had certain
conceptions of their past and in their discourses we find the resurrection of
some imagined histories. These histories and reflections on them would go
along with elements of modernit) towards envisioning a new identity for them
in the process of which they wolld negate the social images constructed and
attributed to them by dominant di!.courses

This we would explain with the example of the history and the discourses
of the PRDS movement. Hall's conceptualisation of the concept of identity
illuminates the problem. The concept of identity that is used is not essentialist,
107
but a strategic and positional one. The concept of identity does not signal that
stable core of the self, unfold ng from beginning to end through all the
vicissitudes of history without change; bit of the self which remains always-
already 'the same,' identical tc itself across time. Nor-if we translate this
essentialising conception to the stage of cultural identity-is it that 'collective or
true self hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificially imposed
"selves" which a people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common and
which can stabilize, fix or gu;irantee an unchanging 'oneness' or cultural
belongingness underlying all other superficial differences. Identities are never
unified, and in late modern times, increasingly fragmented or fractured.; never
singular but multiply constructed across different, often intersecting and
antagonistic discourses, practice:, and positions. Precisely because identities are
constructed within, not outside, discourse, we need to understand them as
produced in specific historical and institutional sites within specific discursive
formations and practices, by sl~ecificenunciative strategies. Moreover, they
emerge within the play of specific modalities of power, and thus are more the
product of the marking of diffxence and exclusion. Above all and directly
contrary to the form in which they are constantly invoked, identities are

IiJb
Rosalind O'Hanlon. Caste. Confl ct & Ideology Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste
Protcst i n Nineteenth-Ccntury Wexern India (Hydrrahad: Orient Lc~ngmanand C;~mhridgc
University Press.lY8.S). pp. IS-811 illso sec Kenncth W. Jones. Socio-Ruligious Reforni
Movemcn~sin British India. (Catntridge: Cambridge University Press.1989). p. 195.
101
Stuart Hall. 'Introduction: Who Nc:ds 'Identity"!'. .. p. 3
constructed through, not out side, difference. Il is only through the relation to
the other, the relation to what i t is not, to precisely what it lacks, to what has
been called its constitutive outside that the 'positive' meaning of any term-and
its 'identity'-can be constructed "'"hroughout their careers identities can
function as points of identification and attachment only because of their
capacity to exclude, to leave out, to render 'outside' ahjected. Every identity has
at its 'margin', an excess. somethng more. The unity, the internal homogeneity,
which the term identity treats as bundational is not a natural hut a constructed
form of closure, every identity raming as its necessary, even if silenced and
unspoken other, that which its 'lacks'

It is productive to make use of the critical edge provided by the above

observation to analyse the new identities that have evolved among the lower
castes. In fact the practice of using specific caste names to refer to lower castes
in official and unofficial contexts continued to exist inspite of the opposition to
such representations. But at the same time there were efforts to go beyond this
by imagining new mega categories by assuming new caste names. In the case of
Pulayas they assumed the title of Cheramar signifying their relations with
historical Cheras while the title of Sambavas show its Sivaite connection. I O U In
fact for much of the lower caste theorists of early twentieth century there was
the notion of essential self. But at the same time in actual practice we come
across instance of instability of such projections. For instances when terms such
as Cheramar were used not all Pulayas of Travancore adopted this new title
although that was based on a new historical claim to the past of the ancient
Cheras. It must be reiterated here that such identities were constructed within
and not outside the discourses. T lese instances show the power of the identities
to function as identification and attachment as they had the power to exclude,
leave out and render outside ahjected, The new Cheramar and Sambava
identities had their 'margins and 2xcesses' in the critiques provided for instance

1114
C. Ahhimanyu. Ayyonknli (Trivandrum:Department o f Cultural Publications. ciovcrnmrnl of
Kernln. 1989). p. 212.
by thinkers such as Yohannan. In fact in one of the songs he wanted the
proponents of Sambavas and Cheramars to reconsider whether the Paraya's new
name of Sambavars would ever absolve them of the accusation befallen on
them. And similarly he asked the Cheramar ideologues whether the new name
of Pulayas as Cheramar would e\er remove their p o ~ l u t i o n . "It~ actually shows
the strategic and positional nat'lre of identity. Similarly it is clear in this
example that it is difficult to have a stable core self. There is nothing like a
superficial self that hides the real self of the social groups or individuals. In fact
as we have already noted it does lot happen out side the discourses.

The PRDS movement tried to break the caste fold arid tried to imagine
new social categories. Its project was oriented towards the oppressed slaves of
Travancore. Slavery was theoriied as an experiential category as against the
prevailing notions of slavery as a mere socio-economic category."' An
emphasis on caste identity wolild have broken the very fragile construct of
identity that the movement h2d formulated and this moment refers to the
emergence of a distinct social 3oundary. As Stuart Hall had pointed out as a
process identity formation operates across difference, and it entails discursive
work, the binding and marking of symbolic boundaries, and the production of
'frontier effects'. It requires what is left out of its constitutive outside to
consolidate the process. In the context of this theoretical position it needs to be
stated that the new iaentity that was imagined for the lower castes in
Travancore with the emergence of PRDS movement operated across difference.
The project of the movement was to bring together Pulayas, Parayas and similar
castes and to transcend the difi'erences, binding them through discursive work.
In certain context the binding factor was the new faith that they had derived
from the Bible. The Symbolic boundaries were maintained by invoking such
unifying notions that were available through the spread of the protestant

I I0
Fur thc complete song see Po?ikn~ilSrer Kli~niir<rGl~rtrrler,~
Geerhungul,(Eraviperoor: PRDS
Publication. 1996), p. 29.
I ,
In a subsequent chaplet- I providi: an analysis of thc discourse 01' slavery and lransformation
of slavery ;IS an experiential cate::ory.
Christianity. Varying practices of reforms including the new bodily practices to
which I have already referred to ~roducethe 'frontier effects' that demarcated
the community horn the rest of the lower castes. In the early years of the
movement its followers came to b: referred to as Poikakkuttar (people of Poika)
or as Appachan Sabhakkar (People of Appachan's ~ h u r c h ) . " ' Let us consider
the process of 'binding and marking of symbolic boundaries' by follow~ngthe
self-representation of the PRDS movement during its early phase. In a
memorandum submitted in 1926 to Morris Watts of Travancore government it
was stated that

We are a people who had been enslaved in this coroltry,fhr

quitr a lorig time, rm~lleast endower1 with erl~rcoriotl ~lrlrl
lrrrlrlerl property, belonging to Parc~yus,P~rlayasrrnd Kizhakke
Pltlrryar (et~.strr~l
Prtla\.a.s]. We h~rrewrne together in the
light i f the Holy Biblr con~prisirlgof nearly, 10,000 people
with the nrrtite P r a t h y r k s h a R a k s h a Daiva Sabha. We the
people of tl'r land wrrr etl,sla~~erlfi~r
inrli,~eno~rs long rrtlrl rrs
we rlo not l ~ n r vlrrnd )I.<, rlepenrl on othi~rcrr.vtes,fi)r.setting 1111

onr heurrh rrrirl live in o ,vretcherl <.onrlitir)n.We rrre rr poor

people, who live in t/'e .stat~ls~ frrnirnals
' with the trifling
wa,yes that bvr get front daily work. us we (10 not have crfltural
and ci~~ilizatinnnl
mdr,wments srrch CIS education and social
reform. NOW1ve have established schools and Ch~trchesin
different parts gftlre s f ~ t that
e numbers 6.7 parishes where we
crlrrj or! divine wor.sl ip unrl imprrrt pririzcr,:v educr~rionf i ~
Ili
our r;hiIdren.

We find the peculiar situ~tionof the emergence of new identity as they

have come together with the name Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha and the
persistence of certain aspects of the earlier identities. In fact the earlier

ild
Vijayan K a n g a ~ h a Sf-ee
. . . pp. 19-23
K~rnrurrrC111ude1,r11r..
Il3
Quotcd in Bahy and Bahu Rtijan. 'Chiruvithanikoor Prathyaksha Daiva Sahha Charithrarn . . .
pp. 61-62,
identities refer to the worldviews of the communities that were steeped in the
experiences of the castes from which they all 'came'. It is a matter of
speculation how far they could surmount the continuing influence of caste
inspite of the fact that they coulc come together in the light of the new world
view provided by the Biblical teachings. Similarly the need to elevate
themselves from the wretched cortdition of 'animals' have become an important
concern which would be accomplished by acquiring education, social reforms
and other civilizational qualities. It is important to observe that the fledgling
institutions such as primary schcols and Churches were institutional locations
that could destahilise the social selves of the communities and individuals that
have undergone such changes. They had identified slavery and the continuing
effects of it in the early decades ' ~ twentieth
f century as the decisive factor that
pushed them down to the wrett hed condition. These aspects of their social
experiences are considesed here as markers of symbolic boundaries that are
crucial when we consider the queition of identity formation.

In the subsequent decades he markers of boundary became prominent as

they were rooted in particular tliscourses such as that of slavery and social
development. Although there were efforts to erase the caste based self-images,
such problems continued to p l a g ~ ethe movement. In fact the caste-determined
self-image of the lower castes wzre never weakened even after they joined the
missionary churches. When we consider the later developments within the
PRDS movement after the death of the founder, we find caste-based solidarities
surging up although there were efforts to denigrate the caste differences. The
resurfaced caste identities in fact contested for new representations. Yohannan
tried to unite his followers in a new knowledge and practice by which he
thought they would annihilate caste. The new knowledge refers to the
interpretations that he gave tc the history of the lower castes in Kerala
beginning with the early history of the Adi-Dravidas and their subsequent
enslavement. According to Yohinnan there is a bright future for the enslaved
people as he was suggesting a st-ategy for their eventual liberation. In the place
of caste intimated social percertion there should evolve 3 new perception of
castc free self, which was anchor2d on a new worldview of Prathyakshata and
Raksha or visibility of God and salvation. This was further integrated with the
social and economic project of the movement. This new religious and material
orientation gave the movemen its distinctive feature. The invention of
institutional practices made them different from various Christian sects as well
as other lower castes who did not join the missions. But in government
documents the PRDS movement continued to he referred to as another Christian
denomination while there were difference in their faith and congregational from
that of the Christians.""

Before the organization of *heformal structure of the PRDS, there did not
exist any institutional space to bind the people together and it remained mostly
as an~orphousgatherings or co~~ventions
of people. The formal institutional
structure became necessary to contest the Christian denominations and to
acquire their social demands. It s in this context that the institutional structure
of the PRDS movement was forned.'15 It is important here to observe that the
movement had to define itself v s-h-vis external elements such as the state and
church denominations mediatins the constitution of their particular identity. It
was happening in the larger context of the Travancore State's policy of
objectifying communities for governmental purposes. This process of
objectification of the communities actually provided the necessary information
for the people to imagine their communities in a new manner as they evolved as
bound serialities."" Similarly in the context of social movements, these new
imaginings provided them with the elements with which they could interpret
their past and present conditions that would eventually become part of the
popular perception. This process was very important in the case of the PRDS

111 . .
~ b ~ dp.. . 12. Also see the Census ciassification i n thc Census of India vol. XXV. Travancore
Part I Report (Trivandru~n:Gover~~ment Press, 1942). p. 141. and Part 11 Tahlc (Trivandrum:
Government Press. 1942). p. 229.
11%
ihid.
I,,,
Partha Chatterjce, Andcrson's Lltoliu. Dior,itir.s 29. 4 (1999), pp .12X-34: Also see. Benedict
Anderson. Spector of Cu~nparisors: Nation:ilism. Southeast Asia and thc World. (London:
Verso. 1998). pp. 44-45.
movement fot- the formation of their identity. According to Horni Bhabha the
unities which identities proclaim are, in fact, constructed within the play of
power and exclusion, and are the result, not of natural and inevitable or
primordial totality but of the natut.alized, over determined process of closure.'"
Whether we consider bound serialities produced as part of Governmental
purposes or the constructions of identity through the discourses of the
movement or the everyday practices of the people they entail the process to
which Bhaha refers. In other words these identities are formulated within the
dynamics of power and exclusion practiced by the state or the social groups that
were variously placed in the socisl spectrum. In the new discourses that evolved
all references to lower castes bceome marks that differentiated them or they
become marked words.

During the first half of the 20-century the PRDS movement was outside
the Christian churches but withir the symbolic world of Christianity and at the
same time, it contradicted man) of the theories and practices of the church.
Generally speaking it worked within a Christian eschatology.""n our context
the unity that the PRDS movemi:nt had proclaimed was the direct result of the
play of power and exclusion that they could deploy as they became familiar
with the practices of the missionaries which they used in a deft manner. At the
same time we do not find anythiqg like a complete rejection of the elements of
primordiality but we come acros; the imaginative use of it as a resource for the
identity formation.

In fact we find the play of power in the interpretations given to Biblical

themes by Yohannan that wa5 carried forward even after his period. For
example, if we consider the twelve themes of Yohannan, it would show the
extent of its links with Christian discourses. The themes included notiorzs like
the past generation, (from the garden q f ' t h e Eden to the c~postolicchurch) ntj
generation (after the apostolrc church), the eru qf the skrverj of the

"' Homi K Bhabha, Locurio~r<:f(lelr~if-c.(London: Roulledgcl991). pp. 66-84

IIX
Jtlur~opndrsartr.Po?ikn\i/.. .. 11. 20.
a[q!Z!llaiu! JO ukewop e ,,ap!slno,, ur? JO ~ o ! l ~ n p o ~aq1,-
d a~qe~uasa~da~
aql 's![oqwKs aql 30 plag aq) ap!s ]no i(lluair?ddr, 's~oarqns paz![eu!%ieur
pup pal3a[qe JO uo!lsnpold aql pue ap!sino aAr)nl!lsuo3 e j o uo!l3nilsuos
a~!sin3s!p aqi q%no.iq] 'uo!snIsxa q 4 n o ~ q ) :le.rado sa!l!luap! 11" iallng ol
8u!pio3sv j o sa!.roaql 1r?o11!~3LUOJJ K[!AI?aq MFJP M
L I ~ ! ~iapuaz uo saieqap
Klt?iodlualuo3 aql u! ~I!M qvap ale Liguap! JO sanss! it?[!m!S .uaaq peq Kaqi
1eiawaqda .raAaMoq splag s11oqwLs Mau 8u!irai3 Lq pahagor! SEM stq~
.sa!i~lua[e!so; Mau se waql au!%owr 01 aldoad
alseo laMol aqi JOJ sa3lnosai pap!Ao~d leql K)!uiapow IE!UO~OJ JO ixa1u03
aql u! sah[oAa ~ 1 3 s ~ aqi
a u 30 u o ~ l s a n ba q L '. auueur Mau e u! aj!I aoua!iadxa
01 uo8aq 0 q pun
~ aoualiadxa aAa[s aql JO 110 auros puq O ~ M
salse3 iamol
aql JOJ UO!I!SO~SIP luaiajj!p e JO iuauru~m~r?
a) !lsarqo s11 se svq ~ e qjlas
i MaU e
aleai3 01 ~ u a w a ~ o aqi
u r j o a~1osaa'aqi ur?aur pinom lxaluo3 Jno u! M
' ~ ~ J Oaqi u!
d
13arqo ur? sr?j[as aql jo u o ! i ~ n p o ~aqL, .sa[nJ aq) u ! q , ! ~ a3eld sayu) uo!ioarqns
se s s a s o ~ daqi u! 1ue3!j!u8!s oslr? a m s a p aql 30 ~ u ! e i ) w o 3 '.uo!i3aUai
pue uo!i!u%o3ai 'uo!l3n~1suos jlas JO sa:1!13r:id aql q l ! ~8uole p l . 1 0 ~
aql u! isafqo ue sr: j p s aq) jo uo!13npo.rd alp, j o anuelsu! rrr? sr? 01 paiiajaJ
a q KRLU s ! q ~'siaMolloj s!q j o Ll!luap! aqi jc uo!1oniisuo3 a q ~u! le!sn.13 seM
%u!yetu Liepunoq 30 ssa3oid s!ql leql s! uo iualuo3 iuasaid aqL .pau~a3uoo
aiaM s1amo[[oj s!q sr, Jej sr, L ~ e p u n o qJO iayJscu d m q s aq) aure3aq azern! ~ a u
stq Ki!u!~!p paAa!qoe aq sr? qleap stq J ~ U E1118 ~1o!l3u11s!p j o JayJew iorem aqi
seM au!A!p se w!q ~o uo!lda~iad aqi aw!iaj![ s,ueuueqoh 8u!lna .a3eds [r?nl!l
4u!Z1arua aql JO s!seq aqi uo UMVJP aJaM q 3 ! q ~K I ! u ~ ( u w ~ aqj
~ j o sa!Jepunoq
a q l j o 8u!yew JO ase3 aql u! uaas aq pIno3 uo snloxa 30 a3!1se~d a q L ,,,'.ii~u!~~
,XIOH ayl 1 1 2 y.)nny., ayj 40 .(l!tin alalduro.) a,!! pun js!.1y3 paj.,arrnsaJ ayj II!
~.>
l t o ! ~ n n ~ r J x ,i ~l fi~, ! j f J U l J l ~; r) ?r ~, 7 ~ 2 1 d2 ~y j~plflJ S.SOl.> 2lfJ J?? ii!s,&) /ll,lOlii2J a l a l d w o . )
211, 0 f i 1 . t ' I J0 S I 1 1 1 7 1 0 ~ 1 7 1 i M 1 1/ J l I . ' 2 / 4 ! 8 2yl
2.~/1![21/!'112.lp/!I/.1~ 2 1 1 1 1 ~ / ~ / J 0
,fi) ~ l l ! l l . l 1 1 2~ /I I l l J~ll!l/,>l1,?l 2llirJl/j
,[0 ?I/! ' s J ~ ~ ~ I ? [ ~ . I ( I /
effects'."" -which then returns to trouhle and unsettle the foreclosures which
we prematurely call 'itlentities' She deploys this argument with effect to
sexualising and the racialising o ' the subject. But i t has been pointed out that
the argument needs to be developed if the constitution of the subject in and
through the normalising regulatory effects of racial discourse is to acquire
theoretical development hitherto reserved for gender and sexuality. One of the
criticisms to this argument i s the privileging of the seamless category of
women. In the context of the lower caste social movements in Kerala we come
across situations of racial discc~ursesthat construct abject and marginalized
subjects. They destabilise the field of the symbolic and thereby create a new
identity for them.

It is important to observr: in the context of the discussion on social

identity that Yohannan never fe t the need for converting to Hinduism, as did
one sizable section of his fo1low:rs in 1950. One possible explanation could be
the liminality of the movernerd and the peculiar social space that ir had
inhabited that made conversion to Hinduism an insufficient alternative or no
alternative at all to Yohannan. Moreover, the movement spoke a different
language of rights and mobiliration along with the creation of a different
symbolic order to which lower castes will have privileged access unlike the
system that was prevailing undzr the caste hegemony. During this phase, as
exemplified in the 1941 census report the movement used to be referred to as
another Christian sect. Simili~rly many private papers and the official
d o c ~ ~ m e nof
t s the members of the movement refer to them as PRDS Christian. It
should be remembered that the social identity of the followers of the movement
became a contested one if we follow the debates of the period.

It would have been difficult to fix a specific identity on the followers of

the movement as it had happened after 1950's with their conversion to
Hinduism. But in the post c o l ~ n i a lphase with the introduction of the new

,I,)
Judilh Butler. Getlder trorrble; ,ivni~ris~rrtr~ldrhr vrrhret-.\iotr f / e r r i t . (Nrw Ynrk:
Koo~ledpe.1993). pp. 22-23
constitution that delimited thr: benefits of scheduled caste protective
discrimination to scheduled caites within Hinduism, one section of the
leadership along with a considerable section of followers of the movement
converted to Hinduism. This si uation created irresolvable problems to the
movement jeopardising its emaneipatory potentials. This in fact led to the
fissures in the imagined identity of the movement that effected a substantial
'erasure' as the eontestatory praclice of religious affiliation was brought in. The
identity of the community wa:. thought more in relation to the material
resources that the state offered which was tagged to religious identity of the
beneficiaries. This led to a situalion of counterpoising the social selves of the
followers of the movement with the communities that have been identified as
scheduled castes. As a result of this there were sudden changes in the ideas and
practices of the PRDS movement, which by then came under the control of
Yohannan's wife, Janamma. In:,tead of Christian themes, Hindu mythology
came to be adopted as the subject of discourse. Similarly, Yohannan himself
disappeared and his biography u as reinterpreted to appear as the new identity
of Sree Kumara Gurudevan, which his wife proclaimed through spirit speech."'
It was followed by a total reconstitution of rituals, sermons, prayers dress codes
in such a manner that a sharp tjoundary was drawn between themselves and
other lower caste Christians and other PRDS sects. The members of the PRDS
assumed Hindu names instead o ' their Christians ones as revealed through the
spirit ~ p e e c h . ' ~Later
' on, in a public meeting participated by the N.S.S. leader
Mannathu Padrnananbhan and F:. Sankar, who was the leaders of the Hindu
Maha Mandalam, Janamma pro(:laimed PRDS to be a Hindu sect."' This is
significant when we consider the. strategies of the Hindu community formation
that tried to enlist all possible communities under their influence. It shows the
gradual appropriation of a protes movement by the hegemonic forces.

' I
...
Bahy and Bahu Rajan, T1iinioirhu1,rkoor Prirtkyukshrr Rciksliu Duiru Suhhn Churifhru~?~
pp. 122-123. The name Kulnara C u ~ uDevan evolves from the name-Kumaranl Komaran that
was his pet name before haptisln anJ his cvcnrual naniinp as Yohannan.
"' .. pp. I SO-lhl
M.S Thankappa", Snrlr?.o~rr..
Ili
ihid.. p. X N S S is thc ohhreviakd form of Nair Service S(icieiy. the orranilation of Nair
c o t ~ l m u n i t R.
~ . Sankar was a prolnil~entEzhava lcader.
 Before the drastic changes irl the nature of PRDS they had made efforts to
evolve as a community with a distinct identity. In 1947-48 i t was informed
through the spirit n~ediulnspeeci of Janamma that they should evolve as a
community-Yohannan communit:i: "I made you one caste, which had been
drawn from various castes, and er tablished a Sabha for you. That is the seat of
those who d o not have caste, and group rivalries. Henceforth you will he known
in a new name, that's what Yohannar community is. The sate and government
would recognise you in that name O4

A memorandum to this effe.ct was submitter to the Diwan of Travancore

Sir. C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer on 29Ih April 1947, in the memorandum they
demanded that they should be rccognised as Yohannar community instead of
referring to them in caste n a n ~ e s:ISthey have become one when they joined the
PRDS. It should be mentioned that the movement had made impressive
developments by that time in various fronts. This particular example shows the
engagement with the state in 0rde.r to negotiate the identity. Although i t became
;I real contest its eclipse too w a i very Cast once in 1950 the constitution was
adopted that guaranteed positive: discrimination for the scheduled castes and
tribes, but excluding lower caste Zhristians from it.

There were contests over the nature of the movement between Simon
Yohannan, the second in c o r m a n d , after the lifetime of Yohannan and
Janamma, Yohannan's wife. It was mainly on the question of the faith of the
Sabha and on determining whet ler they were Christians or not. This situation
emerged because of Janamma's conversion to Hinduism. Eventually the High
Court after prolonged deliberations decided in favour of Janamma saying that
'Sabha was neither Hindu nor Christian. But it was a brave effort at
constructing a casteless society of those who were oppressed by caste and who
have become socially weak.'lF Yes, it was a brave effort at constructing a

111
Rrrkshn Duirii Suhlfu ClrurirI,rc~m.. .. p.
Bahy and Bahu Rajan. Thirrn;ifhcrnkoor Prurlr!~rk.rh~r
71.
casteless society. But the legal di;course apart, it had to cross many a difficult
terrain to reach that stage. The problem of legal discourse was that it did not
have a terminology to explair the 'doubleness' characteristic of social
movements like the PRDS. The movement required legal definition and
interpretation of its social being only when disputes emerged and until then
could remain in a kind of limin;d ambiguity. It becomes important to have a
theory of the mechanisms by w h c h individuals as subjects identify (or do not
identify) with the 'positions', to vihich they are summoned; as well as how they
fashion, stylise, produce and 'perorm' these positions. This theory will have to
encompass the reasons why they never do so completely, for once and all time,
and why some never do. It will also have to deal with the constant, agnostic
process of struggling with. retisting, negotiating and accommodating the
normative or regulative rules with which members of movements confront and
regulate themselves. In the contett of the experience of the PRDS movement it
is necessary to think about the re ation of subject to discursive formations as an
articulation which is founded on particular contingencies which reactivates the
historical."' Following the contemporary debates within the movement it may
be observed that there arc several realms within the movement's ideational
world where contests still takes place.

Conclusion

In this chapter I have explored the ways in which equality was imagined
in twentieth century Kerala foregrounding the experiences of the PRDS
movement. The movement was rnalysed to show how the concept of equality
was stretched to include sites and issues that do not normally figure in the
discourse of equality. While the notion of equality is understood to be a modern
concept it is widened to address the problen~sof the lower castes in Kerala that
run hack to pre-colonial times. But when it conies to the negotiations of the
unequal social structures in the twentieth century the sites of contests are
multiplied. Contestation was extended to the religious and spiritual realm where

11,,
c r , f r w , ti,~lu(London: Vcl-so. 1990). pp. 32-33
Erncsto Laclnu . Nr.,,. re&<./ir~,i,s<,,Irl'r rr.vol,r~jo~,r
cvcn the construction of divinity became very much part of the imagining of
equality. In the following chapters of the thesis I shall concentrate on specific
discourses -of slavery ant1 history -through which the imagining of equality was
articulated.

The critique of missionary ilhristianity that the PRDS developed showed

its resolve to engage with the rdigious realm. In fact it was the desire for
equality that was instrumental : n such developments. Yohannan's personal
experiences showed the entrenched inequity that was prevalent in Church
denominations, leading to a search for alternatives outside the established
orders. This was the basis fol the foundation of the new movement. He
introduced new ritual practices for new congregations, using as examples the
practices of itinerant missionaries that he was familiar with.

As a powerful speaker l'oyikayil Yohannan produced amongst his

listeners 'intense conviction of s n and after that conviction of salvation.' He
used the power of his oratory t . win over masses of lower castes from the
established Churches. The critical language that he developed had a substantial
impact on the people and important in developing his image as a prophet. His
speeches always emphasised the need to create alternative structures for the
lower castes in Travancose.

It became widely known that he had established a path for the liberation
of the lower castes in Travancore. This path had both spiritual and material
dimensions. Those who followed the new movement and Yohannan had
millennia1 expectations, one major aspect of' which was the establishment of an
egalitarian social life. The main concern of the movement was to develop a
social space where the organisi~gprinciple would be equality. This is clear
when one looks at Yohannan':. critique of the Church denominations that
practiced caste as well as his evhortations that his movement was the realm
where "even the kings would come down and sit with the despised.""'

1?7
C ' E C ~ I < I ~. I. .~pp.
t'oik<~xil.Swr K ~ r n ~ n n rGNI?II/<'I.<I
u L I / 2. 18.
Moreover. this was a '.sphere wlere one finds heavenly h a p p i n e s s . " " ~ u c h
happiness could he found in a space where there was equality and where the
structures of domination no longer exerted their severe pressure. Yohannan also
used his power as a teacher tc introduce new ideas to his followers. He
developed a critique of the Bible and put forward an alternative reading of it.
He provided his followers with a new social imaginary the core of which were
his ideas of social equality and salvationlliberation. This social imaginary was
crucial to the popularity of the movement and its later history. It contained
multivalent ideas of salvation anc liberation and it developed rituals and a ritual
language to express them. The 2erformance of these rituals were considered
essential to attaining salvation.

Yohannan preached that the salvation of the despised lower castes was
only possible if his path was follawed. This path included new bodily practices
as part of the creation of a new sense of self amongst the his followers. They
would act as markers that would distinguish the follon,ers of the new
movement. In this chapter I have discussed this issue as a question of identity. I
show how, from the collective memory of the Adi-Dravida past the new notions
of identity develop amongst members of the movement. This was not a singular
identity. Several contesting identities emerged each one having its own peculiar
discourses. The differences were the outcome of the mediations taking place
within the movement as well as the engagement with other lower castes, nation
state and dominant castes. As far as the movement is concerned the problem of
identity still remains a central i ;sue. These issues have been articulated in the
discourses of slavery and history that 1 shall analyse in the following chapters
of the thesis.

--
""hid.. p. 217.
 CHAPTER VI

MEMORY AND EXPERIENCE: DISCOURSES OF SLAVERY

Introduction

In this chapter I analys~: the process by which memories of slave

experience of Pulayas, Parayas and similar castes are kept alive in contemporary
Kerala by the followers of Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sahha. In the preceding
chapter reference has been made to the verbal discourses developed by the PRDS
as part of their strategies to negotiate equality. In this chapter it is argued that, as
part of the imagining of equality, the movement also developed ritual discourses
on slavery through which a kind of 'analysis in practice' o f the enslavement of
the lower caste communities wcs articulated. The ritual discourses bring into
focus experiences of oppression .md suffering that are crucial for understanding
slavery. Before going into the details of the rememoryl of slave experience I will
brief discuss the ideological world of the PRDS to contextualisr its later
transformation and the introduction of the discourse of slavery.

Before the phase of the social tnovements in the twentieth century. the
protestant missionaries from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards
worked among the lower castes in Travancore and thousands of them joined the
protestant congregations. For example the Church Missionary Society in Central
Travancore, by the turn of the twentieth century, had more than 35,000 lower
caste Christians. These formed inore than half of their total memberships.' The
protestant missionary activities ,receded the lower caste social movements of

. "Remenlory ... is something which possesses (or haunts) one. rather than something which
onr: possesses." Mae Henderson a! quote i n April Lidinsky's "Prophesying Bodies: Calling
fill-a politics ol'collectivity in Toni Morrison's Beloved" in Carl Pleslr i ~ n dBetty J Ring eds.
Tlir di.sr.o~~r.~uof .slrn,e,).: Aph~-ilBe11 fo Toiri Moi-ricori (London: R(>utIcdge. 19'94). p. 191.
In the context o f the experience of the Sahha this relnerliory ol'slavery is invoked at ritually
significant contexts where. i n cour!e oftimc. they canlc to acquire signiticancc ihr exceeding
all other constructs of the Sahha.
'Travnncore ant1 Cochin Missions I'rogress and policy Rcport for thc year 1913' in K ' D R \.ol
XXIV. June 19 14. No 1. n. 5 0
twentieth century. The spread of Christianity among lower castes in Kcrala and
similar social groups elsewhere was not a passive phenomenon as is often
portrayed in conventional historiography.' Right from the start of missionary
activity among the lower castes n Kerala the latter showed an intense desire to
redefine their social selves through a variety of practices, albeit under the
influence and control of missionlries. It was exemplified in their acceptance of
changed spatio-temporal notion; and new conceptions of the body. Spaces
reorganised included their small huts or places of dwelling and there were also
the newly constituted sacred spate of the Church not to forget the 'slave school'.
These were spaces not mediated by caste hierarchy. In addition. there were new
-1
notions of time connected with caily prayers, attendance in Church and school.
Modernity was marked by serious contests in all these realms.

The lower castes were ct~nfronted by a number of contradictions: in

relation to local society they were confronted in their everyday life by their
continuing dependence on the local landed gentl-y where they were, in many
cases, no better off than before :he abolition of slavery. At the same time they
we1-e disturbed by the existence of caste distinctions within the Church which
continued inspite of missionary assurances to the contrary. These discontents
over the years acquired subvt.rsive potential within Church congregations
leading to the contests over access and proximity to sacred space and objects as
well as to the radical movements that couched their concerns in religious idioms
using them to articulate both the religious and the mundane.

' For a critique of the conventiolal historiography see Snurahh Duhc. 'Conversion to
Translation: Colonial Registers ilf : I Vernacular Christianity' i n The Sorrfh Aflur~firQ~currerl!
101.4 Fall 2002. p. 806-807. Al'.o see Webb Kcane 'Fro111 Fetishism to Sincerity: On
Agency, the speaking Subsect. and lhcir History in the Context of Rclipious Conversion' in
Con,n,pcrrrrfiveSrrrdy of Socirfy <r,,rl ifi.sror\.. vo1.39: Number4 Octoher 1997. pp. 674.693.
' Rev. Kmhi Koshi's Journal for thc Quarter ending Septemhcr 10. 1856 entry for July 22 in
C M R D , No 5. May I857 VIII XXI\'. p. 138-14 1
Religious ideologies and social critique

We find fundamental ideological ruptures occurring in the later phase of

the movement. Being a inovemelt of largely illiterate lower castes there were
no systematic written records of he early history of the movement or the ideas
of the founder or of those who w:re closely associated with the movement. But
Church Missionary Society Re':ords from 1910 onwards provide us with
valuable information regarding the activities of the Sabha and the ideas of the
founder and his close associates even though they are fragmentary.

However, another source of information is the oral tradition of the Sahha,

something that has appeared in p~.intonly very recently in any significant way.5
This oral tradition comprises n~ainly the songs sung during various ritual
occasions of the Sabha and oth,:r everyday situations in the families of the
followers. In fact these songs ha7.e a history and genealogy of their own. They
changed significantly in thc 1950's when the official Sabha and its leadership
reverted to Hinduism. All the songs that were sung, sonie of which circulated in
print before 1950, were largely on Christian themes. These songs expressed a
worldview firmly grounded in tht: Christian themes of salvation of the soul and
redemption from sins. These songs deployed Christian motifs such a s the Holy
Trinity, the cross that saved man, and the deliverance offered by the Holy
Spirit. It appears from the use of these motifs that the foundations of their faith
was belief in biblical truth thou::h it was never accepted uncritically. At the
same time i t is very difficult to ccnfine the faith and practice of the followers of
the Sabha to pure categories. This is a phenomenon that will be theoretically
probed in the course of oul- ;ma. ysis. The 'doubleness' characteristic of such
religious faith arising out of the religious radicalism is a phenomenon that is

One volurnc o l songs of ihe S;thha was published in 1996. For details see Po,ik<i,il Srpr
Kiirnoru Cur-iideru Gerfhrr~lgrrl.(Eraiiperoor: PRDS Headquarters. 1996). P o r s i ~ ~ rThcrc
. are
nlher vcrsions of the songs i n circula ion orally.
observed in the case of the rclig~osityof the lower cl;~ssesin other historical
contexts as well."

In the case of the Sahha, religious radicalism tending to the rejection of the
canons of the Church was observed during the initial phase of its formation itself.
For instance the Bishop of Travancore and Cochin reporting to the Travancore
state authorities that enquired into the alleged support of Yohannan and his
followers of the Sabha to the Ger~nansduring the first world war ohserved on the
Sabha that, " it is religious, in that he proclaims himself as the new mediator or
saviour and preaches that people can only be "saved "(whurever he rneclns by t h a t )
by coming to him. In this way he is building up a sect, and denounces all existing
Christian Churches, and calls up on all Christian converts of Pariah or Pulaya
origin to leave their Churches and join his sect."' But at the same time their self-
representation vis-a-vis their fai:h makes impossible, easy, and straightjacket
conclusions. For instance, in one of the memorandums that the followers of the
Sabhn had submitted to the Dewan of Travancore State in 1920, they represented
thcniselves as a people

" .... who hove mmr together from il~ferent c o r n ~ ~ r i ~ ~ l i r i e s

onrl castes, I-erzlizirrg witr~essof tlze Bible unrl the ,firith in
the Holy rrinitv ewpecti 1,q to reulize h e o ~ , e
and
~ ~n i s t i n g irl the

r~on~enclrrture
of Prarh!uksha Raksha Drrivr~Sabhu thur~kfirlly

r r c k r ~ o ~ v l r drhe
~ ~good
e things that have heen (lone to ir.s,fi)r (111

these rlcrys a ~ l rhc4ieve

l of
that yonr rei,yn ~rllrrksrhr hrgirrni~~,y
rr time of' relirf atid bl:,s.si~l,y.sro 113 rrnd 1r.6, ~~,i.sh
rrrrrl pr-n?- to

God,fur your enduring reign unrl eternrrl h1e.s.sir1g.sirp on ~ o i ~ r

rlesrendrnt.~,ns the minisrer holding <.erltrril positiorr ill the

( f t h r 7 rrlvancore statcj. ""

urln~ini.strc~tiot~

" Andrew (lrta. 'Syncretic suh~jectsand hody politics: douhlcness. personhood. and Aynrara
catechists' in An~ericrlrlEthnolo~isVol 26 N o 4 ( 1999). pp. 864-889.
7
Political Department. Confident~al tilc. Resident5 Ol'lice Trivandru~ii. 1915. 10R
R/21882/1 17 India Office Lihri~ryand Records. p. 3 cmphasis addcd.
S
ro DPII.UIIBahird~rrM. E:~-i.sh~rori
/l~l~l~-<~.s.s Nrri~.Deu.tr~iof T~-civrrr~~~or<-
v o l l (Trivandru~n.
Govcrnrncnt Prcss. 1920). p. 127. limphasis addcd.
 In I920 when thc above memorandum wah submitted to the Dewan
detailing the problems of lower castes and their expectations. almost all social
groups in Kerala had asserted their social and political demands and had made
significant gains. Chronological~ythe movements of the lower castes were to
follow closely the SNDP Yogam founded by Sree Narayana Guru and preceded
tJ
the social reform movements of z lmost all other castes in Kerala.

The future project of the Sabha was nothing short of the agenda of
modernity couched in religious idiom in which acquisition of landed property,
education social reform and other 'civilizational' qualities became singularly
important. It is necessary lo i'rivilege the fact that the Sabha like other
movements of the lower caste: in Travancore considered landed property,
education, social refhrnm and other civilizational qualities as supreme things to
be achieved in social life. If achizved, these social goods would make the lives
of lower castes qualitatively d fferent from their social life in nineteenth
century. The debates of the popular assembly of Travancore to which we have
already referred in the previous chapters of the thesis show the entrenched
nature of the desire for acquiring land, education and other goods. Similarly late
nineteenth century sources show several instances of the lower castes
transgressing the restricted public space in various parts of Travancore in order
to lay claim to ir.

'The agenda of reform began to touch people although in a cursory manner

ever since the abolition of slaver!, in mid nineteenth century. I have referred to
the question of reform in the previous sections and some of the questions would
be focused in the subsequent sections of the thesis. The notion of 'civilizational
qualities' is an amorphous category but given the circulation of the idea of
'civilizational quality' in the emerging discursive domain of Kerala it can be
assumed that this idea of 'civi izational qualities' encompassed education,

'
Rohin Jeffrey, The L)erlOle iv'Nuw\.ur Don~iricrr~<.<,:
Soi.ien. nrlrl Polirics irr T r ~ r r a ~ ~ r o1880-
re
I947 (Delhi: Vikas Publishing Hoise.lY76) p. 210 : Sadhujana Paripalnna Sanshani of
Ayyonkali was founded in the year 1907 see ibr detail\. T.H.P. Chmtharassery. A y y o ~ ~ k n l i
('Tr~\andrum:Prahhath Book Housc.1989). pp. 14-15.
acquisition of property, proper tlemeanour. cle;~nliness, control of mind and
body, disciplining of individuals, the introduction of proper legal guarantee for
family and inheritance and othe. institutional practices. In the course of his
speech the Maharaja of Travancore referred to Kottayam as the centre of
Civilization in Travancore and p ~ a i s e dto the Gentlemen of C M S as harbingers
of civilization. The Maharaja considered the CMS missionaries as harbingers of
civilization as they were instrum~:ntal in introducing modern western education
in the state."' According to hirn, as a result of the labours of the Church
Missionary Society in the field of education there was a substantial increase in
the number of loyal law-ahidir~g and civilized population that is the very
foundation of a good government in Travancorc.

It would be interesting in this context to explore in a detailed manner

contemporary representations of the founder of the Sabha and the worldview i t
had projected. It is essential to ~nderstandthe process of re-inscription of the
foundational categories of the rriovement in the postcolonial phase. The
missionaries consistently charac.terized Yohannan as someone invested with
superb qualities, as 'a clever spxiker, who has caused great unrest among the
backward classes, through fals~: teaching; his success being due in a great
measure to the ignorance of the people, and the lack of someone qualified to
meet him on his own ground."' The projected 'lack' of someone to meet him
on his own ground is important :ilthough they do not explain what the ground is.
The reference to the ground is actually to the ideas that Yohannan used to
convey to his people that was rooted in the peculiar social cxperience of lower
castes in Kerala and the necessity of their acquiring civilizational qualities. At
the same time the missionarie! were relieved to note that the popularity of
Yohannan was on the wane but it turned out to be a premature conclusion. As
observed i n the annual report of the ~nissionariesfor the year 1916 "it is around

,,b
Address o i the Maharaja of Travarlcore on his visit to Kottayam reproduced in thc letter. WJ
Richards. Cotlayam, dated 15 Augi~st1880. CMSALIR.
'Minutes of the Travancorc and Cochin CMS Missionary Confcrence held in the Diocesan
room Kotray;~rn'.26-28 Fchruary 1915
' T i r ~ ~ v ~that
~ l l athe effect o f Poyiklyil Johannan's false teachings ih chiefly felt "

there are signs,'' says Mr. Stephens, (one of the missionaries in charge of the
'Tiruvalla mission station) " that its popularity is on the wane." T w o out-stations
however, had to be closed, tlie people having become his disciples. To
counteract this man's influence the missionary wrote and published three
leaflets, which had a wide circulation. He also travelled about the district and
Pastorates with the same end in view"." The very fact that the missionary was
forced to write and publish thre: leaflets show the intellectual investment that
was required to counter the teachings of Yohannan that would disprove the
claims of the missionaries that tt e movement was huperficial.

But the challenge put forwrrd by the movement continued. as noted by the
perceptive missionaries

It is ( . l o i ~ n rfor
( l ir 'hrrr if is (he only way of salvation, that
its author is [he sole depository of revelation to the present
cenerotion. I o r n h r ~ - r ~ f 1r.11o
. s f o r one I.(III.W or.
rrnother left rhr p u r t j . RUVL'rr(.(.o~rr~t.\
of thr, S ~ ~ I I I O I I of'
S rlrc,

1errd~r.sn r ~ dthe r1oi1zq.s irr rhe jrrrlgle ... ithiclz is his lrerrrl
q r l ~ l . t e ' ~ \B
. r ~ t thr.ve ~ ( ~ ( ~ o l l licere
l f . ~ L I / I I . U ~r/rr.riel/
.~ h\.
Poyikrryil rr~rrllri,s,fillo~~er.s.
0ut.sirler.r (Ire Jeolorr.vlj e.x~.lrrrlr(I

from of h r i ~ r gpr-e.verrr
tlrrst, g(rtherin,qr. if nrr?. rrre .srrvp~c~terl
at the ~ I I P P ~ ~ fhe o r i.v g i r e ~on
I I R ,rnzetin,~at once di.v/~l,rrve.s ~

orthodor chrrrtrcter. /is far as can be ascertained it distorted

interpretations of Holy Scripture and introduced a kind of
r;ipturous revivalism, niixed with Animistic or some similar
rites that constitute tlie doctrine and practice of the cult. It

ctrn't h r scrirl to hove lost its arrrrrcrivr p o ~ t . r rthorr,y/z sonre

who harl beerr Ierl ul',rry refrrrtzed to the (hrrrr.h. Ir r~ttmrr.terl

other Christion.s hesitles those o f o ~ i rr.rrste origirr ~11rr1,
US h r l ~

beer1 .soid d r ~ ~tot its(,//

. the illfere.vt of Hi~r(Ir~i.v~n.
re/~r(~.sr~rtc~rI
hy the Ronrokrislrrro Mission. M r . Stepher~sc.0-oprrrrted tritlr
 rlrc P<r.ston I I / i I irr I I . IIIOXI r~ff<~.tc.il.

\I.IIIC/Ilie 1-(1rrrz~l u11or11 his .stirrior~.~

of 7 ~ 1 1 - 1 r ~ ~or-,y~~rri:,ei/
rll~r.

i n .sr,vr~rirl p/rr<.rs rrrrrr P o ~ i k c r y i l ' ss t r o r l ~ h o l r l .

(~om~(~rrriorl.s

r n ~ p l o ? r r l rr~rsredrrlrrl fo \t,ork orrror~g rllr (.orzgre~uriorrirr

/a
~ i g h r i n gt h i s t o r .

In the article published in the Diocesan Record under the title 'Concerning
the Heresies' it was poin~edout that Travancore was not the only mission field
of the C M S where they had to encounter heresies.'' The radical dimensions of
the teachings of Yohannan made the missionaries and the Church hierarchy in
Travancore to represent it as hen:sy. The C M S faced similar movements in the
Niger Mission in Western Equatarial Africa and Uganda Missions. In Nigeria
one of the members of the Churc I, Garrick Braid claimed himself to be prophet
Elijah the second and in the U:anda mission another person named Malaki
claimed himself to be a prophet. In the case of the former he 'taught faith
healing and was opposed to idolatry and was opposed to medicine and all things
European. There was a great holccaust of idols and was accon~paniedby ;i lot of
excesses and was devoid of any regular teaching'. Malaki also prohibited the
use of medicine and the movement was confined to the least educated members
of the community. He had przctised indiscriminate baptism leading to the
thinning of the congregation as people left the church. Considered in the context
of such movements the 'trial' in 'Travancore was not strange. I 5

The article exhorts the Church to be prepared to resist 'strange' heresies

that might arise among the beli,:vers. When it came to the explanation of the
phenomenon of heresy, it was c~bservedthat psychologically such phenomena
should appear where masses of primitive people have been transformed from
heathenism to Christianity. Centuries of Animism were bound to produce
certain instincts of which Anirnism is itself the product or expression. The

1:
T11e TI-crvi~ncoreiin(/ Lb~l?irrMisriorr A~irrurrl R r ~ o r t1916. Evsngclisati<in. p. ? (Iyped)
CMSAUB. Emphasis added.
I'
TCDN. r'(i1.XXVIII. Jonu:~ry 1 Y 18. No. I . pp. 19-22.
I5
711r Trin.orl<.or-eirrrd C,icl~irrMissicn Annual repclrl.. . 14 16.
transfer of an Animist people to Christianity with its totally different outlook
and implications produce mental :und emotional ferment.'" These observations
bring to the fore the question of the mentality of the people that had various
layers and it would be difficult tc isolate one from the other. The 'instincts' to
which the missionary refers as the product of animism is bound to be positive
when we bring in the question of agency of the people, particularly in the
experience of the Sahha where ,Me find the engagement with modernity. In
other words I would argue that ttie interface between Christianity and animism
in Travancore and elsewhere becomes productive introducing different
u~orldviea,~.

The heretical teachings w-re attributed to the sudden transfer uf an

'animist' people to the practice and teachings of Christianity that offered them
space for constructing their own ideological alternatives. But this is only
reluctantly admitted by the offici;~ljournal when it writes that

if
we r~eucl rtor think i t ' s r r r r n ~ e 't h e r ~ . f i ) r ( ! the ferrnerlr

irre nr ~ i t ~ l l i o,for-
.shoul~lthrrrst ant, ~ ~ , h e t i ~ r l sociril irplifi o r iri

'heresies' unrl .srlli.wrs, thorrgli we crrrl't mourn vvher~i t t ~ i k e s

p l ~ i c ethe l(itfer:fonn, ailrl w e i i o vrell t o rrsk oirrselvrs n.het11er

u l l vvus (lorir t l ~ r r niight

t h r i ~ , rheen obviute[l i f t h e n n r s p i r i t of
C h r i s t hrrd c o m p l e t e l ~ rlrrhrorirrl rin(1 rrholishrrl the 'olrl

thit1,ys' the olrl rlatlrre r r i d ir1stincr.s unrl tlze surne pro(.rss ~ v i l l

e f f r ~ .the
t c.rrrrl'

It may be noted here that the missionaries who closely observed the
movement always expected the possibility of social uplift agenda bursting out
or the possibility of new schism emerging introducing further heresies. It is
necessary to recall here the desir: for the modern social goods along with social

Thc Travancore or10 Cocliiri Dio4.e.soriRri.orrl. vol. XXVII. January I Y I X . No.1. I9

1/1
11.
(hereafter TCDR)
' ibid. p. 20
rcfornms and civilizational qualiti:~ that the followers of the Sabha expressed
through their representations to tl-e government. Similarly they feared that 'old
things' and old nature might pclse further threats. There was a fear of the
possible second coming of the things that have long been thought to be
banished from the midst of lower :astes due to the influence the spirit of Christ.

The second reason attributetl to heresy was that the Sunday Services often
seem humdrum to mass converts and Christian discipline irksome. At the same
time we find lots of materials in the missionary writings to argue that over a
period of time the missionaries could bring under control 'indisciplined' nature
of the lower castes. The other aspect is to probe the sociological attributes of
indiscipline to which they ere referring. What is termed as indiscipline is more
related to their rebellious character that owed to the centuries old oppression
that they had been suffering which was critiqued in the light of the new social
imaginary available to them. Prolestant Missionary Christianity was considered
to provide them a means of escaping from the oppression and inability to d o
that would have led to instanc,:~of indiscipline. Above all this, the more
tangible reason is that which "un(lerlies caste and race feelings to which may be
added the resentment of the 'have-nots' against 'those-who-have' that is
triumphant in Russia today." Thi:, idea of invoking the resentment of 'have-nots
against those-who-have' to undt:~-stand the ferment among the lower castes,
particularly the movement of Yohannan is important, as there is an explicit
admission of the fact that it (:an invariably take different forms and not
necessarily the one directly artic.~latingthe questions o f economic deprivation.
There are references to the triumphant movement of have-nots in Russia in the
speeches of the lower caste riember, N. John Joseph in the Travancore
Legislative ~ s s e m h l ~This
. ' ~ si;uation may be interpreted as an instance of
resolving economic and social 2roblems by taking recourse to religion. The
missionary writes that these 'poc~rsheep dimly feel that they are more likely to
get what they want by followin;: some leader of their own than by remaining

l i:
Set. the speech of N. John Joseph i l l [he Proceedings of thc Sri M u l n ~ Praia
l ~ Silhllit. datcd 28
July I93 I . (Trivmdruln: (jovernmc I( Press. I93 I ). p. 136
 Missionaries in charge of the Tiruvalla rni\.sion made all possihle efforts
to understand the teachings of Yohannan sometinles by trekking through the
intractable stretches of the jungle where their conventions used to he held.'" In
one such instance in 1916, missionaries sent three men in a clandestine manner
to the jungle where Johannan's convention was taking place. They crept up as
close as they could and listened and observed. On the third evening their
presence was detected and word was given to the preacher, who brought the
discourse to a premature close." The three therefore revealed themselves and
had an interview with him. They had observed that Johannan generally gave his
discourses on the religious themes and when suspected of outsiders he would
meddle the themes by discussing hings that would appear ohscure to those who
are not from his caste. He would refet- to the experience of slavery that the
lower castes experienced in K e r a a historically. In the latter phase of the Sabha
particularly after his death som,: of his followers derived from the themes
introduced and developed by Yohannan the notions of the slave experiences of
dalits in Travancore.

But during the early phase of the Sabha its world view was a kind of
pastiche of Christian themes and the ideas derived by the organic intellect~ials
of the movement, in particular Yohannan him self, that had a strong component
of the historical experience of slagery and oppression. Writing in the missionary
journal, The Harvester Field, in 1919 the Travancore missionary W S Hunt tried
to give a contemporary assessment and larger introduction to the movement of
Yohannan in the context of the mass movement in ~ravancore." He had
observed fundamental change! taking place among lower castes that
encompassed diverse spaces such as worship, demeanour of out caste converts,
and a passing of their old simplicities. For a good many years, indeed,

'" TCDR. vol X X l X Drcemher 19 19 140 6 . p. 95

" ihid.
-,~
W. S. Hunt. 'Muss Mo~ementPheromen;~.'Thc Harvcst Field. vol. XXXlX June 1'119. pp.
208-2 17.
cornp1;lints o f their "uppishness" have heen heard and certainly. the cotnmunity
has been displaying many of the ";lwkwardness" of adolescence."

There is a striking parallel tc lhis missionary perception in the approach of

the Travancore government to thi problems of the lower castes. Regarding the
desire for social development, the Travancore Government also felt that the
lower castes were extrernely eager and their eagerness would endanger the
status quo. In reply to the address presented to him by the Pulayas of Central
Travancore in 1914 requesting t i m to grant them puduval (fallow cultivable
lands) lands registered to them, the Dewan Bahadur M. Krishanan Nair replied

I.../ w r r y rnetrsltrr irrtrrr~led to nmeliortrte yolrr. sociol

<.or~ditiorr/?us ro he tlrorrgl~tfirlly concri~'ei1orrd (/elicrrtr,ly

c 1 1 i i l Go~'ernrnerltr rr i.orn.irr<.rtl tlirrt the herrlth! ~ct,ll-

hrirlg of'rhe strite (lrper (1s u goor1 deal rrp or7 yolrr. .so~.inlarlrl

i~<.or~oririi.
ei!fi.unclli.serirrrrr I I ivill only rorrtirrllr to

/~r.slifonvurrl the his tor:^ ofyorrr ~.oinm~rrlity

that lrrrs rrlrerrrly

heeri ~r.ritterr.Blrt I 111~:. be prrrrrittrr/ to r.er~rirl(t~ o l rrhnr it i,!

riot ill rht, irtrrrest eith1.r of the srutr or.i!f'yorrr-vrI~~r.s
tllat irr

r l ~ rhrrrry to go f i ~ r n . ~ r r r rhr
l . / ) o w of progre.s.s .shorrl(l he

~'iolrrrtly,forceil rrherl!/ orirl yorrr irrtere.st.s hro~rghr irlro

~ o l l i s i o nwith those rhe other c.omrn~~rritie.s

~vhosror.rir.r

, g ~ ~ o d - ~tvl ri ~l ld.syn~purlyure so e,\sentirrl for yorrr progress.

Yo~ri-(.omm~rr?itysho~rlili.leorly hear 1hi.s in rliir~rlurlrl rrlso

rer?renzher rliut rrrrrrr:~ (I .!tror~,yh<d(/of pr(:;~idi(.(, u17rI

'1
i.or~.srrvrlri.snicrm he st~1rn7rrlo r ~ l yIT rirnr. -

The fear of lower castes .riolently pushing forward their claim to social
advancement was felt more intensely as there were several rnass mobilizations to
claim public space, school admis>ion and similar issues in Travancore. The Dewan
was advising the lower castes to 5et the sympathy and SLIPPOI-tof the upper castes

" ihid.. p. 21 1
that are essential for any reform. In effect he cautions lower castes to wait until
such time when there is an overwh~:lmingsupport for reform. This caution was not
strange given the challenges that tl-e structure of Travancore society was fi~cingat
that time. The question of the p'-ogress of lower castes thus became a much
contested issue on which oft repeated advise to them was to go slow.

As the lower castes in Travlncore were exposed to the mediation of new

forces there were changes in their mode of worship, and presentation of
themselves in the larger society although this was not free from contests. It has
been observed that along with changes in the demeanour of out caste converts,
their old simplicities also waned. The paternalistic attitudes of the missionaries
made them immediately read meanings in the desire for social transformation in
the context of modernity that was represented as 'awkwardness of adolescence.'
It amounts to reading in to the {ocial selves of lower caste phases of human
biographical stages particularly that of adolescence which is an age of
uncertainty before attaining emot~onalmaturity.

It is important to observe tile statements of the missionary journal that is

attributed to Yohannan

ill the Olrl Testumenr. yoir,find Gorf thr F(;rrther-rlt work in the
nor/(/. God thr Son in the Gospe1.s an(/ the Holy Ghost ill the

Acts: birr here in Travur core torIcry yorr see no God working, yet

yo11 rlre .sc~rr,HP 11,0111rI not [ P C I L . ~His c.hiIdr(,r~ i ~ ~ i r l r so,nc2

~r~t
rer.c/(rtion. An rrrgnrnc., r ,fr/t- rlrr rejecrioiz o/ " t h e , 1x)ok" I6.rr.s

sorr,yht in the fuct rlrrrt tlere wrrs no I-<fererr<.eto rhc, P n l q n s unrl

Purrryns of Trrn~rrncorewho hc1~1 11ror1,sonrlsof
been .si~ffi~.r-it~gfi~r-

yrrr,:s. I n other I L . O ~ < ~there

T ivrrs no mes.\oge fi)r rhrnl irl rhrsr
hooks. A man ~ n ~be
~ sc?mrni.s.sione~l
t to r f e l i ~ v rthat nzessczge. As

God clppointed Moses, rlne ~fthenz.se1vr.sto ilelit.et- the /.sraelire.s

fronl Egyptian Bortdugy .to h~rshe rrppoinrrd him (Johru~~zun)

one of thmr.selvr.s, u ?oruyu, to rlrliver the Trirvcrrrcore o ~ ~ t

c,rr.nr.s ,from rhe hon(1,rge of the Clzri.sti~r~rCh11rc.h; f i ) r the

C . ~ / I ~ I I - ~ ~in/ Z ,his view, hc ing ~ I I I Ihy I I ~ I I - O I I ~ - ~ ~i.>

( I I.IV~ ~
I / "their
~.S,
 i.s, r/ret-efi)r(,,I/Iso,~'?I(~~o,
< I I ~ . I"~ (t11r1 I I ~ ; I I I ; ~ ~,41rO
< I / . ;f ;.\ frtrrJtlr~rt,111
tlir prst C'hrisrior~shrn.1, ~.onrr-ihrrrrrlo l m o ~ rus rrrrtr.l~r r s Hirll11r.s

rrrirl still hold rrloof:f'rori~theriz. A,quin h<>

to k r r p thrnr rlr~prr~.s.serl

scrys. Gorl fuisorrrv yorrriy el- .vorl.s r r r l ~ lr+j(.ct.\ the ~ l r l r C.S.

r Ahel.
Istrac, Jrrcoh, Joseph, Drvid, the Pri~digal,c,t<. which rr~erinsrtrcrt

the rrpprr cl~rss(rlorr-orrt <.usre)Christiutl.s irill hr rejecter/, while,

the olrt r.rrstes will he siri~rrl. Johnrinun, rlevl~irr his ~rrritrrrle

toi~~on1.s
the N u T<,st~rt~rerrt.
htrs I I r thr Brethrc,~~

(probably) to .serrrcli scriptrrres urith u kirlrl of c ~ r r i o uscrrrtiriy.

.~

Johnnrlurr .sortghr himself to he plrtced tvithin the irleologii~ul

\~,orldofthe Clic~rchh ~ rut
t the sarne tinle truri.scerrrler1 it when he

r l r r i ~ m lhis owrl critiqrrvs thrrt necessarily gnve agency to the

>'
louver crrste people it.ho ,rerc, hi.s,folloi~er.s:

The image of a deliverer like Moses and the long struggle of the Jews
under captivity was a potential imagery that was repeated endless tirnes in the
missionary observations on the position of Travancore slave castes and the
same metonymy is there even today in the discourses of thc PRDS.'" Similarly
the choice and favour that the ycunger sons receive is a potential metaphor that
reworks the notion of prefere,lce that the despised would receive in the

'' W. S. Hunt Muss Movenri,rrt P l r e r r , ~ ~ ~ ~..r11.~ r2i i1. .3 1 5 .

?(r
In the opening ceremony of the Juhilee cclchration 01 Church Missionary Society in
'I'ravancorc that was held in the village Chelakompu the missionary J.J.B. Palrner addressed
the gathering and hc del\ed into the experiences of the delivery o f Israel fro111the Egyptian
hondage. and their trials and trihulrtions in the wildernzss for 40 years heforc they attained
their full lihcrly. The narrative o f I te Bondage of Israelites in Egypt was powerful ntetonym
used to drive home the message ~f liberation from caste hondage to the lower castes in
Travsncore and the1 rernaincd par of thcir religious irnaginz~ry.The Bishop's speech was
fbllowed hy the recollcctions of th(: elders of the congregations who were t h e ~ ~ i s e l v eslavcs
s
oncc. See for details. Juhilee Celeh-ation at Chclakornpu TCDR Vol XV No.? M a y 1905. In
Ihc discourses on the occasion of ltakshanirnayam the religious men of the PRDS introduce
this theme particularly to prove the fact that Israelites hccante slaves o f Egyptians as thcy
chose to g o there and live there. This is totally against the experiences of dalits in Kerala who
hecame slaves in their own land of origin. However when i t comes to ihc rxplan;~tionof the
coming o f God to earth :is Yohanntnl Kumara Guru Devan the preachers of the Sahha today
proclaim that if God could sent M < ~ s cas s his representative to liheratc the Israelites who had
suffered slavery for four hundred a i d fifty years he would surely have heen empathetic to the
sufferings of the slstve castcs oI'Tnvancore that lasted ft)r inillennium. Discourses during the
death anniversary of the founder ol the movement 29 Junc 2001
Kingdom of God which whcn translated rneans the position that the socially
inferior lower caste Christians v ~ ~ have
~ l in
d Travancore society. T o cer-tain
passages Yohannan attaches irn nense importance. usually interpreting them
with a mixture of extreme literal less and fancifulness. The other "heresiarchs"
tend to do this too, and the tendency has spread among the out caste Christians
who reprobate Yohannan. [The list generations in Matthew I is with him a
passage of prime importance ] The term generations was to assume
extraordinary significance in the later discourses of the Sabha that introduced
notions like 'the present generation' to refer to the people who were
contemporary to Yohannan. Hunt recalls the instance of a teacher coming to
hirn in distress because he could not discuss the spiritual significance o f
Abraham not dividing the birds zs well as animals, when he sacrificed (Gen XI
10) and what the birds of pray in the next verse stood for, and the spiritual
significance of Abraham's searing them away. He further I-epolts that they indulged
in much speculative cxegesis ahou. creation and especially the creation of Eve. "Up
on Brethren teaching too our " Iteresiarchs" base much of their " ecclesiastical
polity" and their ideas, filtering thn~ughthe mass, have awakened in not a few minds
doubts about the systems they have been brought up in. Some of his teachings and
acts are frankly antino~nian."~'

Having discussed the idt:ological aspects of the movement directly

problematising the trajectories thlough which the movement passed through. we
would now concentrate on exploririg further the ideological world by focusing on the
more intirnate aspects of the religi us life of the followers of the Sabha r.epresented
in the prayer songs of that period." These prayer songs are important as they open up

27
'Some of his teachings and acls are frankly antinomian. If the ~narriagetie is fclt hy a n y to hc
galling it is declared to hc dissolvec. i n as much as it was contracted hefore the parties were "
saved" and hy an unsaved minister. and is therefore invalid: moreover. the sevcd arc free. He
turns to account the irksome one ol regular giving. so keenly felt h y the out castc Christians,
by proclaiming that. where as the CMS demand from the suhscriptions ofters. tces elc "in
order to enrich the Syrians". hy whi:h he nieans upper class Christian. hc asks for nothing. So
hc gets a great deal. At hclrvcst time and similar seasons whcn out castes arc flush. his people
give with great liherality: and indi:ed. they scldoni go to him empty hendcd)' W S Hunt.
Mass Moveirient Phenoinena. . p 2 5 .
zx
Poyikayil Yohannan, Golrleri Lyr cs. (Kumhi~nad:BPH. I 0 ~nanuhcripl copy 01' thc
original
a significant terrain for the analysis and at the same time they go in to the making of
the history of the sect. Firstly, we u,ould identify the significance of language of the
songs as these songs were composed in chaste Malayalam different from the
everyday language of' conununitiee such as Pulayas and Parayas at the time when
these songs were composed. The ute of modem language by suhordinate groups in
the context of colonial modernity and missionary Christianity has been identified as
instances of linguistic modernity h ) social scientists in other similar contexts.'" This
is different from the process referred to as creolisation in certain other contexts.
Language plays a crucial role in tile constructions of the images of slavery and it
builds primarily on social memory. At this juncture we may reflect on the
significance of language on the wkole issue that is under consideration here. In the
example of the Sabha the songs tha. are available in the om1 tradition as well as those
that are already printed and circulated (that originally oral) are in modern literary
Malayalam retaining tine lyrical qu rlities.

Social historians have alreatiy argued the fact that it is necessary to treat
'[l]imguage as an object, a resource, for historical enquiry in its own right, rather than
-
as just a window on to the past.I O S . lm~larly
it has been observed that the deployment
of 'holy tongues, especially perhap; transcendental and numind, offered small, weak
and marginal religious groups the only mode of authority they could realistically
seek to command the ~ i ~ h e s t . Yohannan
'' and subsequently his people made use of
modem Malayalam imaginatively in their composition of songs that were used as
ritual songs even though it was nct in a holy tongue. This was definitely important
when one cotisiders its significant- in the context of co11ective cultural identity and
h i ~ t o r y .As
~ has been noted in other situations in the struggles for identity,
emancipation, and mastery, lang~ageceased to he merely a medium of clear

?'J
Joel Rohhins, 'Cod Is Nothing hut Talk: Modernity. Language. and Prayer in ;I Papua New
Guinea Society' i n Anrericorr Arrrhro/ oologisf. vol.lO3. Nurnher 1,kcernher 2001, pp. 901-912.
I"
Roy Porter, Introduction in Peter E;urke and Roy Porter. ed. Ln,rgriagr, Selforld Sociutx. A
Polity Press. 1991 1. p. 2.
Sociol H i . s r o r ~ofLrrngrragr (Ca~nh-idge:

" ihid.. p. 3.
'' ihid..r,IO.
communication and became key to the collective soit1. It is at this level that the use o f
modern Malayalam by the Sabha assurnes significance. The language hecomes a
semiotic cultural field where negoti;~tionstake place.

Secondly, in order to analyse the intricacies of the worldview of the people we

consider here the songs that were in circulation among the followers of the Sabha
right from its early phase though the version that is cited here was published in 1940.
Most of these songs are on the theme of salvation. These songs pertain to a period
when the Sabha existed in a liminal space without defining itself against the agenda
of the nation state. In other wol-ds it occupied a position of not being either
HinddChristian in the coriventionr-l sense of the term while stretching the Christian
teachings to its limits. But at the same time some of the practices of the Sabha made
~nissionaries to think that they were not Christians and that their teachings
contradicted the Bible. Missionari,:~could not understand the doubleness that was
characteristic to the movement.

These songs are significant as they deal with Christian themes that have been
co~npletelyerased in the latter phase of the history of the ~abha." The foundational
category here is Jesus Christ and ihe faith reposed in him rts the saviour. But these
arc expressed in a variety of tropes that were deployed to create a world of its own
giving then1 control over languag~:and imagination. Its significance lies in the fact
that these were people who wer? slowly becoming literate and able to use the
modem language in a competent ]wanner. The text begins with the song recounting
the creation of the earth followed ,y that of Adam and Eve drawing up on the book
of genesis. The song further devel2ps their life and the eventual fall that leads to the

,l
This is a much-contested prohle~ni n the history of the Sahha pnrticularly in the context ol'the
internal fissures after the death of thc foundcr. The rationalist critique of thc changcs in the
theme of the songs has hcen articulated in the most forccful manner hy Vijaya Kumar (Bahy)
son of P. John Paul popularly kno\in a s Chengalan~Achayan in the community in the course
of extended interviews in Septernter 2001. This particular problem is rniscd in his hook on
the history of the Sahhn after thc death of the founder. For details see Bahy and Bahu Rajan.
Tl?ir~t~~irhrmrcourrirncoor Prafhyukslro 1 l ~ k . sDairir
~ Scrhlrn Charirhronr Po?.kuyil Y~I/TUI~IIU,ILI
.Se.rliunr.(Ettumancx)r: 1994) In a similar v;~in.the history of the early phase o f t h e Sahha was
rendered hy I. John son of Njaliyc k u ~ h iSimon Yohannan who w;w second in command of
the Sahha during the lifetimc o f Yohannan hitnselC Interviews in Septcmher 2001. Their
arguments point to the prohlem of rhc delihcnltc changes that werc intrtduced in i h r therncs
o f t h e song that Icd to the decline rfchristinn thcrnec in tlre songs.
expulsion of Adam ;~ndEvc front the Garden of Eden forever introducing the
concepts such as sin. redemption a ~ eternal
d salvation." This story is familiar and
because of familiarity has lost its elloteric character. But what should have been the
irnpact of such a story on the lower caste Christians who came under the missionllry
instruction'? The contention here is that for the first time the notions of 'sin',
salvation etc percolated in to their minds with the learning of such stories. As we
have seen in chapter two the notions of sin, salvation and similar tropes became part
of their life world that began to provide them a measure to m a n g e their everyday life
and social validation." The PRDS in fact carried fonvard this tradition mllking sin
and redemption fundamental tropes

This has a direct bearing up on the validation of the social selves of the
people that is evident in one of t t e songs that they used to sing.

Oh! L ~ r i irr
l the High! Yuir rrre Greirt!

Up on tlrrs rirrth I a m s r r ~ ~ r l l

Yorr r,itrl do on\. f ' l i r ~ go r 1 yoirr- oirrr

Though rest of the song is on creation every stanza of the song recalls the
position of manlwomen vis-i-vis .he power of God. What is significant for us is the
category with which the image of man is constructed in these lines. While i t can be

il
l.yri<.i....p 1
Poyiki~yilYohannan. (;O/~L.II
11
In the context of scventrcnth-centi~ryEng1;lnd Christopher Hill speaks of the sipnilicance of
the notion of sin, hell. salvation and other concepts across social groups and how they
pcrceived it differently. In the days of revolutionary inillenarianism popular classes rejected
the notion of sin as it was consideled as a delimiting category. The notion of sir1 was used to
keep the subordinate classes i n oh*.dience. Rut i n the era of restoration there was a revival of
the concept of sin as rnillenarian expectations slowly faded and i t hecame part of the faith of
the Anglican Church. For details !.ec Christopher Hill. Tlre Collected Es.su?i of Chrismpher-
Hill Vollintr Tivo Reli~ionurrd Politic irr 17"' Cerrrrir-\. Errglu,id. (Brighton: The Harvester
Press. 19x6). pp. 117-140, Thc Cl~urchMissionaries i n Travancore introduced thc notion of
sin. redemption. salvation, oripin;~lsin and similar concepts among 'sla\'e Christi;~ns'that
rnade them to understand their actions i n a new ethical way with its own inherent problems.
There are innumerahlc instances when lower i'irstcs Christians understand their actions in
ternms sin and salvation irom i t .
gcncralizcd as the condition of nlanlwoman in general in the context of their
agency it can he suggested that it .efracted the condition of the people who sang
such songs. When the might of God is narrated in the song the position of man is
posited as equivalent to thc insigni~icanceof 'Adam's son'. God is depicted in the
song as, the one who owns the wbole universe, the Holy Being sans sins, eternal
and the strongest where as the corr~:spondingposition of man is that of a slave, the
sinner, finite, and finally ecluivalenl to earthly dust. There is no doubt about the fact
that these songs were composed fdlowing the rules of the genre current among
other Christian congregations. But what is significant for our analysis is that these
songs had evidently provided some categories of thought to the people, the fullest
extent of which became evident in course of time.

o n e recurrent theme of the songs is the sufferings of Jesus Christ who

died for the sins of all human beings and the salvation offered by the risen
~ h r i s t . " The songs celebrate the fact that even if people arc suffering in this
world there i s space for them in h-aven where they will enjoy eternal happiness.
Here we may identify the introduction of significant categories such as
sufferings and salvation that a s s ~ m e ddeeper meaning in the vocabulary of the
Sabha ;is well as in the project of Johannan. When describing the birth of Jesus
Christ the songs depict it as the coming of the Lord 'in the garb of the
wretched' leaving behind the legion of trumpet blowing angels. The 'garb of the
wretched' went on to assume inportance as an icon that evoked memories of
slavery when the discourse of sllvery was introduced in the later phase of the
Sabha and then the phrase was transformed as the 'garb of the slave.' The
image of the suffering human being is superimposed on the physic of Christ
who had undergone torture and died on the cross. There are certain other songs
that are concerned more with t l e eternal joy that accrue out of divine love
which is a blessing of the Holy spirit. Similarly the songs characterise the
cternal blessings that God gives to the poor, lowly, widows and orphans and

17
~ h l d pp.
. 4-5
they came to occupy central position in the discourses o f the Sabha. The
axiomatic representation of rhe o-phaned sl;ive children and their sufferings as
their parents were sold to differeit landlords is foundational to the faith of the
Sabha today which elevates the tliscourses of sufferings to a higher plain. The
concept of sufferings has a surplus meaning when read in the context of the
social sufferings of the lower castes in Kerala. It is this particular aspect of
suffering that is deployeti in the songs when sung in the exclusive lower caste
~on~regations.~'"

Some of the songs in the volume referred to here are on the theme of
salvation. It portrays the salvaticn that is offered by the "son of salvation who
has spread the decorated drapery of salvation" for every body in the world and
has opened the door of salvation for every one and admits those who are saved
in to it.'" Those who are sa\.ed are in the ecstasy of joy and they sing
hallelujah. He brings together pe:)ple from the four corners of the world. And in
the abode of Trinity they will inter-dine. Death is there no more. No more is
sorrow and wailing and he woul,l wipe out tears with his merciful hands."' The
intertextuality that the text quoted here generates is a matter of consideration in
the present context. While the theme is familiar. the reprieve that salvation
offers to the despised lower castes of Travancore is the problem that we
confront here. Significant thing is that they realize happiness that is other wise
denied to them in the prevailing structure of the society. They are hopeful of the
inter-dining that awaits them ir the heavenly ahode. Its political significance
becomes clear when one recalls the fact that inter-dining was a matter of
concern in the programme of nalionalists in the Gandhian phase.

T o the despised lower casles the escape from the wale of tears was when
they reach the heavenly home m d then the merciful hands would wipe away
their tears. Songs that are woven around the theme of salvation, in certain ways

'"hid.. pp. 6-8

is>
ihid.. p. I I
I0
ihid.. p. 12.
celebrate salvation that conres to people as a grace of God. Only those who are
saved could know the true meaning of salvation. All those who are saved are
made members of the Sabha and t ~ e ybuild it together with the Holy Spirit. The
full meaning of salvation is revealed only in the end and it is preserved without
being tainted and dried. The re~lizationof it comes only when the saviour
comes on the clouds in the sky. The song actually reaffirnis the faith in
salvation and the patient waiting for it. The notion of God, and Son and the
Holy Spirit coming in search of the despised human beings leaving the heaven
is introduced subsequently. God has removed the sins, the eternal damnation
and the wrath of God towards the human beings. This is the God who does not
forsake them, this is the son wha does not forsake them and this is the Holy
Spirit who does not forsake t h e n . And the final pronouncement is that they
should not forget the God.

Closely following the notion of salvation is the concept of cleanliness.4 I

As we have already seen in chapter two and subsequently in chapter four,
cleanliness was one of the centrll tropes deployed in the missionary discourse
that has been subjected to sociitl scientific analysis in other contexts. In the
context of Kerala its significance lies in the fact that the idea and practice of
cleanliness here takes on the unclean mind and body of the untouchable lower.
castes. The concept of cleanliness is fundamental to the project of salvation.
The Christian thought on salvation is here interwoven with the presumption of
cleanliness. The God is the embodiment of justice and purity and he is the one
who purifies hutnans. Living in the communion of the saints and being clean.
one enters the communion of th? sacred saints. And this is ultimately the great
message of salvation that wortls fail to explain. This song shows complete

I,
It is important to sce th;~tin thc cctntcxt 11f Kerala the movements r r l dalits during the early
twentieth century raiscd ihc questir)n of cleanliness as a inajor social project arid elsc whcre I
have argued that olcanlinebs itself was modernity to the~ii.For details scc. Sanol Mohan. Dnli!
rlircnvr~errtirl !he r ~ n e r , i n gIIW self. rnnfes! U I I .srrrrrryirs.
~ Lateral Studies. School of Social
Sciences. Mahatina Candhi Unibcrsity, Kottayaiii. 1994. p. 8. Also sce Timothy Burke.
Lifehito? MCN LILI WOIIZ~II: C~,n~~?zodifir~uri(~i~,C O I I . S , ~ ~ I&C/~<III/;II(.~,S
~ ~ ~ ~ O I I ?,I M O ~ C I ~
Zbnbnhwe (Durham: Iluhc Univer! it? Press. 19Oh). pp. 17-63,
refuge in the powers of the C;od uho saves lower caste humanity. There is an
inadvertent allusion to the cle:tnlirless of mind and hody in the song referred to
here. Yohannan had devised several practices to keep the mind and hody of the
people clean that the followers of the Sabha still consider as important.'"

Another song empathically proclaims that they are saved when God hears
their tragic final cry. In the next stanza the question is raised as to what one
should pay as a price to the salva'.ion that is offered and if not a price what else
one should offer'? The singer realizes that slhe is saved without being asked for
it and without being paid for it. Then the song continues by proclaiming to the
Lord that they could never forget His love for them. The Lord took them in His
hands when every one forsook them. And this love of God was unexpected."
There is an imbrication of the s ~ i r i t u a lquest and the material everyday reality
of the lower castes i n Tr;rvancort: in this song. The redeeming love of the Lord
takes into account the despised a! valuable human beings.

And what is the condition of the people who realize the lovc of the Lord'!
And this is what the song tells us on this probleln. The Lord's love has
redeemed them from sin, eternal damnation and death and rewarded them with
heaven. What happens to the one who remembers the eternal bliss in heaven?
Hislher foot does not stick to the ground! When they behold the holy face of
God their feet d o not stick to thc: ground! Similarly when reminded of the holy
face of Jesus they feel the burder~of their sufferings reduced. The thought of the
power of the Holy Spirit fills their heart with tranquillity.i4 And the thought of
the Kingdom of God makes them forget their life in this world. In these songs
the theme of salvation is endles!.ly repeated as happening through Jesus Christ.
The great expectation is that wliatever be the condition up on this earth, they
would resurrect like Christ, le;~vingthis earthly body and enter the eternal
kingdom that the Lord has prepared for them.

Poyikayil Yohannan. G o l d e , ~L.jr-ir.;.. .. pp. 11- 15

4i
ihid., p. 16.
II
ihid.. pp. 17- I X .
 In another song there is explicit mention of the caste distinctions that ore
waning away leading to the merger of various castes. There is a reference to a
purified caste from which the clar of priests emerges. Some songs validates this
21s a practical necessity. This son; is titled as 'eternal priesthood'. It begins by
stating that Jesus is the high priest and hence we all belong to the clan of
priests. And it further says that w.ith purity any body could be in the lineage of
priesthood." In a different contert Christopher Hill had argued that the doctrine
of priesthood for all believers. of the sovereignty of informed consciences,
become subversive when taken o ter hy groups normillly excluded from political
life." In the case of the PRDS this subversive element was present as there was
a body of religious men and worrlen who were engaged in propagating 'the truth
of the founder, Yohannan.' In the later phase of the Sabha they continued to
have a great influence on the people and were instrumental in transforming it
into a dialogic interpretive comnrunity. In such a context lower castes that were
excluded from political life began to construct alternative structures of power
by following this.

The following stanzas of the song develop on the contrast between the
priesthood of the Old Testanlent and the New Testament. It recalls the
processes by which Christ liberated priesthood from ritilals of the Old
Testament and proclaimed priesthood as open to every one who has a pure and
saintly heart. This notion of priesthood is important as it refers to the priesthood
that must have been developing from among the lower castes as they remained
:IS a separate congregation ard. moreover, they were despised as unclean
objects. But the validation of the priesthood is sought in the lineage and
practices of Christ himself. Thc new priesthood can he authentic, as Christ had
united them, and henceforth they do not require myrrh and frankincense as their
prayers bear fragrance and the) illuminate the world making lamp and olive oil
a surplus. In the later phase of the movement the legitimacy of their priesthood

85
ihid.. p. 3
1(1
Hill . . . p. 126
Christopher Hill. Tllr Collecfrd E~\ii?.,\i!f(7~r.i~foplrrr-
is sought in the Adi-Dravida past that is discussed i n the forthcoming parts of
the chapter.

In the context of affirming he faith, another stanza speaks of the decline

of caste differences and distincti~nso f groups and the evolving possibility of
living united with great happines:; in one God. In a song titled 'Praise to Jesus'
the wretchedness of the lower caste self is read in the image of Son of God, who
was born in a stable in the garb cf the wretched. Describing the second coming
of Christ another song alludes to the fact that they can go to that Kingdom
where there is no caste distinction and group rivalry. They expect to reign in a
place where there is no sorrow and loud cry." The notion of cleanliness is
carried further forward to the extent of equating it with the cleanliness of the
soul that find its final refuge in the communion of saints. The gender dimension
is surprisingly worked out in a song titled as 'a song of Christian sisters'. The
term 'Christian sisters' refers to the Christian sisters of low caste origin who
experience spaces of equality in tlomains least tho~lghtitbout.

But in herrrzrtl rqrrol to rrr1gr1.s

Thr srcre1.s of htaverr ~~.irholrr

distirlr.tio~l

,: Poyikayil Yohannnn. Golr/err I.,,-;< ...

i. p. 3')
 It was a blissful thing for them to have experienced the heavenly blessings
as she rejoices in the Lord. While she continues to be a woman living the
ordinary life in the lower caste :,ocial world, she is hopeful of achieving the
status of angels once she reache:; heaven. She was equally endowed with the
heavenly secrets that would give her insights in to the ways of the lord. God
willed this without any consideration of the gender and caste distinctions. It
may be considered here that the new religious subjectivity had provided some
kind of agency to lower caste w o n e n in Kerala. As a corollary to this it may he
added that right from the very beginning of the Sahha there were several
women activists with the S a b h ; ~and they were equally instrumental in the
spread of the Sabha like their n ~ a l ecounterparts. In fact in the contemporary
accounts we come across how l;~rgenumbers of wornen were attracted by the
teachings of Yohannan. In fact i t has an antecedent in the role of Bible women
in the missionary organisations. These bible women played crucial role in the
spread of Gospel.'"

The theme of last judgmenl and the second coming of Christ is significant
as we find the theme of second corning assuming canonical status in the later
history of the Sabha when the r~otionof second corning is adapted to suit the
scheme of the image of Yohanran as Sree Kumarn Gurudevan constructed by
the Sabha. But he comes to off:r salvation to the souls of the descendents of
slaves who escape from the thmldom of slavery and sufferings. That is a time
when all the powers of the world shall be shaken but what remains without
being shaken will be the "plan Kettidam" (planned building) that is built

IS
ihid.. p. 12
1')
For details 111 the hignificancc of the Bihle women i n the ~nissionsscc Mrinulini Sehastiarr.
'Rendinx Archives liotn a Polcolonial 1;elninist Pcrspeclive: "Nntive" Bihle Wolnnn and lhc
Missionary Ideal' in Journal 01FL'Iliili.~/
\ - f ~ ~ din VIII10. No.1. 2003. pp. 5 - 2 5
i ~Religio~~.
.s
according to the plan o f ~ohannan.'" Its importance lies in the f'tct that
Yohannan himself was claiming certain kind of revelation for his own people
that combined the elements of prophetic revelations with pragmatic social
intervention. While it contradicted some of the teachings of the Bible i t squarely
reworked the Biblical notions to s:ake claim over the minds of the people. In all
these songs we hear the voice of the saviour who calls up on his people. It must
be reiterated that he was deployin: the prophetic power that the people believed
to transform their self-perception m d the way they perceived him.

T h e Cod w h o ha5 q r e u t kno\rlc.dge

The No!,.S p i r i t n a s i ( l e si l l f n r

I n t h i s e t ~ r t h\re o r e h o ~ r g l r ~
t f r r sl o l r l l i k e citrifnr~l.\

T h e mrrzer h a d w i l l e d

Let u s 1 r n 1 e r f i ) r g r t t h e 1m.e ofthr o i r f r e r

We r w r e uccil.ser' 11,s l v r r r c h n l

117 t h i s e a r t h by t ' l r e l i t e

T h e G o d f r o m t h ? heavens n ~ i l l e r l

it,
Rev. PC Joseph. Poyikuyil Srrr Klma,-ir (;I(,-rrdc,rir,i Jrn.ir11in.rr111Drrr.shuniii.r,rr! (Tiru\,all:~:
Malaynlnrn Christian Literature So:icty. 1993). p. 64.
II
Poyikayil Y o h a n n ; ~ nGoldetr
. Lyri(.s . . , pp 54-55.cznphahis i~dded
 It is important to see that the ahove song is different from the genre of
songs that have been discussed sc far. Here we find the theme of slavery being
introduced as the experience of tlie lower castes in Kerala but i t is textualised
along with other themes that w ~ :have already discussed. The distinction is
sharply brought out when we read that despite being the abode of the lord, the
song laments that, they were bought and sold like cattle until 'the owner' willed
to remove slavery out of his love for them." While many of the sources cited in
the second chapter of the thesis p ~ o v i d eclues to the fact that slavery as the lived
experience of low castes of Keraia were there even during the early decades of
twentieth century, it was difficul: to find such themes articulated in the songs.
But the oral tradition of the Sabha as well as testimonies given by a number of
informants refer to the prevalence of the theme of slavery in the discourses of
Yohannan h i m s e ~ f . ~But
' the cen:ral question here is the foundational character
that discourse of slavery achievei in the later phase of the Sabha by displacing
the foundational categories of thi discoul.ses and songs that dominated till 1950.
It is at this point in time that the social mernory o f slavery was actively
reconstituted to serve a diffet-ent purpose. This phase stands out uniquely as the
phase of narrativising the history of slave suffering.

Modes of narrativising the hist'ory of slave suffering.

In this part of the thesis \ve intend to analyse in a detailed manner the
process and discourses by which slavery was theorized by the followers of the
Sabha. We d o this by drawing u p on the insight5 t'r-om contemporary social
theory on similar contexts. Paul Gilroy in his influential work, the Black
Atlantic, theorizes the question of slavery and slave sufferings in the context of
theoretical reflections on ethnic ty and resistance movements." Gilroy situates
the problem of slavery in the: context of modernity where it remains as
unconscious. He considers the t -ax-Atlantic experiential world of black slaves

'' ihid.
5I
1'i.jayakurnar interview np.cit.
5J
For details sec Paul Gilroy. The Rliirk Arlii~ir;(.. ,hIoi/e~~~ritv C~JIIS(~I(IIISII<,.\S
I I ~ L)o~~/?/e
I ~
(Verso. London. 1991). pp.187.223.
as counter-culture of modernity. The rnost significant aspect of his intervention
is the foregrounding of slavel-y a , a problem that rr~odernsocial theory has to
deal with. In fact he suggests a radical recasting of the modernity debate and the
project of cultural studies to engage with the question of slavery.

He argues that black slavery and resistance to it had produced distinctive

counter cultures to modernity that could evolve a critique of capitalist social
relations also. Black musical c ~ l t u r eis identified as one of the prominent
artifacts that was libertarian and at the same time offering 'great deal of courage
required to g o on living in the present.''5 The philosophical inner dynamics of
the counter culture is identifie~land the connection between its normative
character and its utopian aspirattons that put forward a 'politics of fulfilment'
which is simultaneously cultural and political economic is visualized. I t puts
forward a notion that 'a future s~jcietywill be able to realize the social political
promise that pr-esent society has left unfinished.' Reflecting on the foundational
semantic position of the Bible, this is a discursive mode of communication.
Though hy no means literal it :an be grasped through what is said, shouted,
screamed or sung.'"

Equally significant is the notion of the 'politics of transfiguration'. It

refers to the emergence of qualij.atively new desires, social relations, and modes
of association with in racial ctmmunities of interpretation and resistance and
between that group and its eritwhile oppressors. This politics, according to
Gilroy, exists on a lower freque icy where it is played, danced, and acted as well
as sung and sung about, would express the conspicuous power of the slave
sublime. The failures or fulfi1m:nt of promises are located in the bourgeois civil
society that has to live up to its promises." This particular interpretation is
significant for understanding h e shouts, screams and songs that have been
uttered and sung by the fo1lowt:rs of the PRDS in Travancore. As 1 have argued

5<
ihid., p. 7 6 .
<,I
ihid.. emphasis :~ddrd
" ihid.
in the previous sections of the th'sis the prograrnrncs of the movements were
permeated by the problems of civil society. Tht: movement was demanding
equal access to public space, reiources and taking up other questions like
citizenship. It is in this context that we need to situate the particular expressions
of the followers of the movement in their own special congregations. Listening
to the preaching of Yohannan and other preachers of the movement people
sometimes cry out of their repentance of the sin and the eagerness for salvation.
Similarly as it happens in revit.ilization movement the bodily movement of
people become uncontrollable and there were instances of people running and
jumping in ecstasy and even, occasionally, hanging from trees like bats. In the
case of the PRDS the shouts, screams and songs run back to the very early days
of its history starting from 1909-10 when conventions and prayers that was
followed by repentance of sins were important. The evidence of the politics of
transfiguration is expressed in .he wilfully damaged signs as interpreted by
Gilroy that transcends modern~ty and 'constructs both an imaginary anti-
modern p a t and the post modern yet-to-come.' He considers this as a counter
culture and not a counter d i s c o ~ r s ethat defiantly reconstructs its own critical,
intellectual, and moral genealog) in a partially hidden public sphere.'x

It would be difficult to argJe that this 'politics of fulfilment' and 'politics

of transfiguration' are fully di.;cernable in the context that we speak of in
Travancore, Kerala, but the contention here is that we come across new desires,
social relations and modes of ;~ssociationthat we identify in the case of the
lower caste political and social irticulation in Travancore occurring both in the
I-eligious and social spheres bearing the markings of 'fulfilment' and
'transfiguration'. Further the poitics of fulfilment plays occidental rationality at
its own game. It necessitates a hermeneutic orientation that can assimilate the
semiotic, the verbal, and the tcxtual. The politics of transfiguration strives in
pursuit of the sublime, struggling to repeat the unrepeatable, to present the
unpresentable. Its rather different hermeneutic focus pushes towards the

ix
ihid.. p. 37
nlimetic. dramatic and pcrformative.i'i According to Gilroy. the memory o f
slavery is actively preserved as a iving intel1ectu;tl resourcc in their expressive
political culture by blacks. It helps them to answer the problems that they face
in western m ~ d e r n i t y . ~It" is at :his level that we find Gilroy's theorization
helpful in unpacking the dimensitms of the agenda of social transformation in
Kerala in relation to the history of the S;lbha that we deal with here. Slavery
itself and its memory helped them to enter in to the domain of enquiries on the
foundational aspects of modern :ocial thought and critically engage with it.h'
Even though not comparable in terms of the refinement of the intellectual
production we find in the case of black critical thinking the PRDS had a critical
engagement with sl;~verywhile the main strearn social sciences and literature
downplays such themes in Kerala

Gilroy argues that black crilical thinking is above all other critical theories
on society particularly Marxism bcca~lseof the primacy the former gives to
lived crisis even when the choici. is hctween lived crisis and systemic crisis. It
is due to the fact that the p-occss of self-creation is accomplished not
exclusively thorough labour. For the descendents of slaves, work signifies only
servitude, misery and subordin:~tion."' In Travancore the natul-e of work in
relation to the lower caste slaves also under went transformation even though
there is a civilizational dislike shown by dominant castes towards manual
labour in the caste society. But at the same time i t is interesting to observe that
when the modern proletariat erne.rged it was structured on the basis of caste re-
inscribing the traditional notion c~fworklleis~~re.

It is interesting to see how this theoretical position will be of relevance in

understanding the social situat1:dness of the lower caste slave labourers in
Kerala in the nineteenth century and their descendents in the first half of the

50
ihid.. p. 38.
N>
ihid.. 11. 19.
"I ihid.
,I?
ihid.. p. 40.
twentieth century. As far as the lived crisis is concerned the memory of slavery
was available to the erstwhile slaves to a limited extent only. It was due to the
fact that there was no recalling cf the memory so as to make i t a resource for
resistance. A s we have noted in chapter two. collective memory of slavery was
very much there even during the early decades of the twentieth century. In the
discourses of the Sabha we finc the rendering of the memory of slavery on
countless occasions s o that it enters the minds of the descendents of slaves and
creates somatic effects. This is carried on even today and the ritual renderings
enable the present generation, thlt has not experienced slavery, to undergo the
traumatic experience through the ritual discourses. The narrativisalion of
oppression is accomplished by the deployment of chronotopes that were used in
the construction of the past.63 In the analysis of the notion of slavery and the
discourses on slavery we would rnake use of the notion of chronotope as slavery
emerges in the songs ant1 discou.ses of the Sabha as singular and decisive with
which we can read significant moments in the history of the lower castes in
Kerala. It appears that the notion of slavery and sufferings emanating from it
'constitutes a unit of analysis fol studying texts according to the rational nature
of the temporal and spatial categories represented."?he notion of Chronotope
is used here 'as a means of studjing the relation between any text and its times,
ant1 thus a fundamental tool for a broader social and historical analysis .... It is
at this level that chronotope's contribution to a historical poetics may best be
seen.'" Chronotope has been dcfined 'as the total matrix that is comprised by
both the story and the plot of kny particular narrative'.""n the texts that we
analyse in the following parts o f the thesis we would identify slavery as the
central organizing theme. In the case of the narratives analysed here the notion
of slavery provides the total matrix. This particular feature of the notion of

(1 I
M.M. Bnkhtin. The Dinlogic. Inra~.,~otiori.
(Austin: The University oTTcxas Press.19XI). pp.
84-85.
(4
ihid.. p. 425.
iwi
Michael Holquist Dir~lqyisn~.
Bnlhfbl ~ r ~ l/?is
d n.c~r/d.(London: Routlcdge. 1990). p. 113.
Emphasis in the orifinnl.
(*/
ihid. E m p h a i s in the original
sl;lvery becomcs clear when i t r:aches thc realm of performative ritual and
religious discourses in the practic:~of the PRDS. The rituals are significant as
they were instrumental in defining the social world of the ritual1 religious
conirnunity by providing them or;:anizational myths. This will be further taken
up when we consider the ways hy which the images of slavery were constructed
and circulated. Roland Barthes says that myth is a semiotic system that
generates its language.h7 This payticular insight is significant as it helps us to
decode the semiotic language t l a t the ritual discourses and practices have
introduced.

In the Indian context G. Aloysius has examined the significance of the

religious discourses among the lcswer castes in the colonial context focusing on
the emancipatory potentials of th: lower caste religious ideology.hx The process
of narrativising history is accomplished by invoking memories of oppression in a
dramatic manner that touches llpon the inner space of the people. To the
oppressed, 'the 'oppression' itsell'becornes central to the cognitive-volitional life
of the excluded and non privileged sections of the ~ o c i e t y . ' ~It' has been further
observed that the consciousness of oppression first of all leads to an
epistemological shift. All things social appear to the oppressed under a new light;
they themselves become a homogeneous collectivity, unjustly subordinated and
subjugated; the various social phenomena hitherto accepted as neutral, given, or
having a thing-like quality, now appear as emanations of exploitative social
relations; the society itself is viewed as constitutive of two groups, the oppressed
and the oppressor locked in co~tflicts.~"
With the consciousness of oppression
fr~rtherthere develops a different social praxis that enables a critique of the

(37
The inhights given by Roland Barthes are very significant in underst;lnding the mythologies
that are i n circulation i n the ritual community of the Sabh;~. It helps us to unpack the
w~~rldview generated by thc ritual <li.scoursesthat wc refer ro in the coming parts ol'the paper.
For details see Roland Barthcs, Mythologies. (London: Paladin. 1989) particularly the
Chaptcr Myth Today pp. 1 1 7 174.
11h
G. Aloysius. R e l i ~ i o ra~s Etilu,~cil,ilror\.Idrr~rir?: A Brfdrlhist Mor.e,rierrr ritrrotrg r/rr i u n ~ i l s
~rriilerCi~lotiiillisni.(New Delhi: N:u Age Publishers. 19YX).
ha,
ihicl.. 11. 7.
70
ihi~l.
historical and contemporary expel.iences. 'This finds further at-ticulation in the
formation the religion of the oppressed that is contingent up on the overall life
situation, as a new interpretation, or selective appropriation or modification or
even total rejection of old beliefs. 'The notion of oppression is stretched funher to
include problems that fall beyond the pale of social classes and economic sphere
but extended imaginatively to include contlicts arising out of language, territory,
ethnicity, race and religion. In other words economic oppression sometimes
71
manifests itself in certain cultural forms.

My intention is to further build on these insights to explore the notions of

oppression and sufferings that ce:rtain forms of lower caste religiosity tried to
develop in colonial and post-coionial eral la." In order to accomplish it we
intend to look at oppression in the larger context that includes oppressions in
the non-econon~icsphere that happen at the realm of c u l t ~ ~ r practices.
al But it
does not mean that the cultural practices are taken out to a space
uncontaminated by the economic structure. The mutuality of both the economic
and the cultural are taken care in the context of the arguments on oppression
that forays themselves into t h cultural field. The notion of oppression is
worked out in the context of the rise of the consciousness of oppression. This
leads to the realization of the e,.istence of the cleavages existing in society in
terms of culture, religion and other aspects of social life. It has been observed
that in times of substantial socio-economic changes this cleavages surge forth in
society. In our analysis of the theorisation of oppression we refer to the process
by which the different individuals and groups become conscious and this
process, which is observed to be necessarily non-linear, sporadic and even
haphazard. It leads to the non-uniform and uneven nature of the consciousness
of oppression at a given historic:~ltime."

ihid
7?
For 3 dctililed study on the thcorrtical prohlcms ol.sufterings. see Arthur Klcinrnnn. Vcena
D;Is. M a r ~ u r eLock.
t (edi SocLrl S l f l e r i ~ l(Dclhi:
~ Oxford University Press. 2000).
..
8 9
ihicl.. n. <I.
 The memories of oppression necessarily huild on the notion o f the
suffering body of the untouchable contrary to the pre-colonial notions on the
body of the untouchable as the site of evil and pollution. By the time discourses
of oppression became prominen: the idea of the suffering body had gained
acceptance. It is evident in the wr.itings of the missionaries that they assumed a
sanitized body of the untouchable as a precondition for salvation. The elaborate
treatment of the untouchable body and the conditions of living of the lower
caste untouchables that were ur~dergoingtransformation show the extent of
importance that the missionaries attributed to the uniouchable human body." A
memorandum, submitted by missionaries in Travancore to the HH Maharaja on
March 29, 1847, demands the abolition of slavery:

I hrrrl recr~r~tly
Irud rome c.orzvervrtiorr ir,ith o ricir S(~<irlrcr
who po.s.ses.s 11 rrrllch rr~rruher?f.~l<rvrs.He infor-nrerl rile thrrt the

highest pri1.r f i i r ivhich sluve c o ~ r lhe

~ l solrl mr 60 Fcrr~rrmsrr

.srrnr rlhorrr cc/~rnlto 20 rhillirtgs sterlb~x.He snys thirr ire ir ut

1ihr1-tyto let or rrcrn,yfir this .servcrnr.v us hr plrrr.se.s; to seprrr-rrtc

the put-ents, crrlrl the iv;j%fiorir the ir~r.sl~rrrrrl:

the ~.hiLirenjiro~ir to

give then7 crs prrserrtc to Iris frierrrk, or ollot rhern crs the ~ v r r l r l b ~ g

rlowr:~of his drru,qhter; to crssigrz thrrn o,,er us pnvrrzent f b r I1i.s

(1ebr.s ond in slrort ns he c,,vpressed it to hinr they ore "us crrtrle".

IN n n fir.st intt,rvie~vwith this rnnrl he wus r z e ncornmrrnicutive

orld stuterl r n a q purtic~rlarsuf the destitution unrl igr~ornnceof

.d<~r.ea
it? gerrrral n'r!cluting tlurt n ~ c r r i ~ ferrrl?
~ l l virrinrs to,frvrr,

rrrrrl other :li.serrse.s ~ r r z e l thrrt L,rr:v , f e ~liver1 to olrl

rl~err~~~ertisri~
~ r x e : fhot t/~ey e r e o r I I . s t i I l t / l , Iverr
rrotoriorrsfi~rclrrrnkenn~~,ss
disl?orre,styL I I I ~~ i ' ipu.s.si~n~.
l Whctr 1

crrgrrerl it is his rhrh to ullrr~t.therrr to receir.r C'hristirrrr

'' 'The Slaves of Travancore: Treir Pitiahlc Condition' in Tlrr Church Missio,l<rr\
I,rtelligr~~c~rr:
A r~rnrrthlv. l o ~ m ~ u 1855, pp. 22-23. Also see
ofl Missionurs. 111fo1-r~rution.
Trivandrum District Report of London Missilin Society. CWMASOAS. J o u r ~ ~ aofl Rcv.
Georgc Mntthan for the quarter eldiny December 31. 1840. CMSAUB. In Tact thc nativc
~nission:~rieslike Rev. Gcorze Ma than had made extensive reports on thc conditions of the
lower cables. They arc rich i n cthnc graphic infi~rtnation.
 ir~.\trrrcri~rr,
Irr, tr.it~1to r,,.rr(lt, I I I ~l~~-<~/)o,srrl
11y .sr~yirr,qtlrlrt rlrr~y

lr>verl tlrc, ~w~r.ship

~~frlr,vi,.\ ~f
r~rrcl\1,01rlr1regut-11hi111I I . ~i r r r c,rzr,~~ry

Ire permitter1 wry orre to t e c h then1 rrrrother. "~t.rrj." H e

qflrm.or-r/.\ ber~rrnrt~
rrror-t r.orr,sr.i(j~r.sill orls~rrt-ir1,yPI!\. y~rc,.\riorrs

rrrrrl ~ ' o l ~ r n t a r i lstrrterl

y 1,lorry t11it1g1 which I lruve t-elr.soru to

hr1in.e ~ v r r e f n r f i o mhrrrrg truth. Hc gave otlutter.\. rlrsl.ril?tiorr

of'rlle conlforr.~thej ur~jcyedrrtlrl rho curt, bvith \vlzir.h they were

rreatrrl o.s.sertirr!: t h r ~ t t ~ . ~pi rl -r ~ e r l tc o r ~ d i t i ~

i.5l prt:fi~rrrhlo
~ 111 r r

srrrre of liberr!,. IVhen I a.skei1 him ubirlrt the i l l treatnrerlr

srrstrrinrd by s1cn~e.s.he smiled unrl said" they corrlrf !lot he i l l

trer~tedas ir >i,rrsf o r the interest of their proprietor.^ t o rrsr them

\rell. r r s o nrurl ~torrlrlhi.; bullock o r hor.ses that they might work

h e f t ~ r .'' T ~ U in
S ever). i ~ / r l c er/oe.s s r z / f irltere.st blind tnerl to the

erlortnitirs of their ivicted proUr.tire.s. Here rrs irr 11rher 1urlrl.s.

.sla~vr).hnk~,evrri t 1n~1.v5e pollirrrrrl irr 11 so1rrt.e ofn,re~l.lrerlness

and o system of ir~iyuity We carlrrot c.ulc111orehmv rr1011y~ f t l r e s e

sorr.\ r?f bonrIu,ye ore ppematrrrely r-emoverl ,f).on~ this n.orlrl irz

r.hililltoor1 L I I I ~yorrth
~ f?r ~ ~ ~ qf
1 1 .s~!ffir.ierlt
1 r~o~rri~lrrnerir
r111r1

c . l o t h i n ~ .Those who rirrr.h nrrrrltritv uru i k o o ~ n ~/(I

r l 1c.or.k like

heu.st.v r$ brrr~len,to lrre ;TI n.rerclzed hor'els to err/ the r~ro.\r

r?ffensive anininls, rei~t;le.rutld to he rreirrc,d rrs our <.rrstr.s 11y

their fkllon. ~.rcJLrtlrre.sTheir rvirlence i.s not urlmitrt~rlrr,yrrirrsr

tlleir rnrrstrr.s rrrlrl ifthe:, meet ufree per.sor1 1111 the rood. rhc~yrrr-r,

hoimd to ntrl frorn hit? lest they pollrrte him. They < / r r r ~o~~. r 0
t

rniset-rrble et~i.\tetzce~ 1 1 1 1or<' qfterl irfi ill old r r ~ eti1 hefi f b r tlrrir
slrpport o r to perish ~ i t h
hrmger By fi.11. rrre they r ~ ~ ~ ~ r i f i r t r d .

pifierl o r rrlirvetl; tlor~useek to remove their r1i.stres.se.s rrrrrl 110

nrun car-e.s f o r their SOLI~S.

These rrre some of rhr rnutly II,OP.~

conrrectt,rl ~ v i t hsluvery i n rhis lrmrl. Brrt to the rtrirlrl /$ n

h r t i thr, grrutr.!! evil ~ . s . ~ o ~ i r z fwith

ed s 1 1 LI .srrrte i f

.subjection is the dificrrlty qfhringing those lrnder i t to heur rllr

7~

C~.~,,PI."

71
John Abhs. ' O n slavery i n 'Srsvan.:ore'. Neyoor. 29 March 1847. L.MS Box numhcr 3 Foldcr
Nurnher I Packet c. CWkfASOAS. Ernphasis added.
 This particular docunlent is important ihr us in understanding the notion
of suffering body at three levels. Firstly it talks about the harshness of slave
trade that we have already dealt with in Chapter two of the thesis. Secondly i t
deals with the problems of slaves such as destitution, ignorance and how they
fell early victims to fever, rheumatism and other diseases and that very few
lived to old age. Further it talks about how they were poorly fed and scantily
clothed, but notorious for drunker~nessdishonesty and evil passions. Thirdly the
document talks about the impossil,ility of calculating how many of these sons of
bondage are prematurely removeli from this world in childhood and youth for
want of sufficient nourishment ind clothing. Those who reach maturity are
doomed to work like beasts of bu -den, to live in wretched hovels to eat the most
offensive animals, reptiles and to be treated us out castes by the upper castes. In
all these levels we find the prcblem of untouchahle slave hody that passes
through various stages such as childhood, youth and maturity coming up as a
prominent presence.

I am using the temm untouchahle body with the specific purpose of

identifying it as a suffering obj,:ct. It does not mean that I am divesting the
untouchable of the self that conhines the body and the soul. The argument is
that the caste structure in fact denied spiritual dimension of life to the
untouchables and they were reduced to the toiling body. My intention is to
focus on the toiling body as the object of suffering. Moreover, in the case of the
oral tradition of the PRDS niovement the slave hody is deployed us a category
to understand the experience of suffering. It is in this context that 1 consider
missionary documents that refer specifically to the bodily sufferings which d o
not mean that 1 cast away a holistic approach to the question of sufferings. This
situation continued to he a big problem although the missionaries could not
resolve them completely. Modetn education was suggested as a possible policy
alternative to bring about changes in the lower caste society.

The CMS missionaries in Travancore were still confronted with almost

similar conditions of thc ninetecnth century when they confronted the demands
o f the mass movement phase in he early twentieth century. They felt that ir~

ordel- to rtrise the co~rvert.~

no g f f i 1-1 i.s ,nore powerfir1 flzurr the hotrrding .sc~hool.
7i-trrrsfer the childr~v~
,fro111 their nii.~enrhle, in.srr~~itrrr~
rrnd qftc,rr viciolts
srirrounding.~und educ~trterhenr bl ( I Christitrri environment und ~vithC/rristiurr
discipline und instructio~~
bofh h.)y.s ~rndgirls vvhich is the gHrctive mecms of

rnorcrl and spiritnu1 e/evt~tion.Vlrried rnririing included rechnic~rrl~grirultur~il

trs well us intellectricil."' It may be observed that what makes the boarding
school environment Christian are clean surroundings, discipline and the general
presence of moral alertness and spiritual upbringing that are considered as
distinct from their conditions back home.

Another important source that tries to theorize the notion of the suffering
body and oppression was the lower caste oral tradition that talks of the social
contradictions in an intimate ntanncr." It has been observed that in most
religions the spoken word functions integrally in cere~nonialand devotional
life.7x It holds true for the practice of the Sabha too as it evolved over the
decades emotionally charged di;courses of slavery and similar other themes
from their oral tradition. In some of the songs sung in Travancore we find the
elaborate rendering of the sufferings and pains of the untouchable agricultural
labourers.

70
'Mass Move~nents' lettcr from ttte Bishop of Travancore and Cochin to Mr. Durrant.
Travancore and Cochin Mission f i 2 I I 5 1 0 1912.Docurnent N o . 7 ( e~uphasisadded )
CMSAUB.
77
An important recent volume has brought togcrher the oral composition that is drawn from the
repertoire of the cocinl memory of lower castes i n Travancorc. See Mariamma John.
Ma~~ikkunr Perirrrr. (Chnnganassery: M;1nusham.l998).
78
Walter I. Ong. Orrrlip irnd L.irrrzr<:?.
Tlre 7i~c~hrrolojiCing
i / f f / r ~1Vc,r(/, (I.<,ndon: Methucn.
1988). p. 74.
 \Vl> Lrll l l . i ~ / ?...tl1il1ll~~rl-rl.'
I

Molher 1.5 .so/</.... ~ / I ~ I I / / ~ L ~ I - ~ I !

W e i ~ . e p ~t l i , s c o r ~ . s o ~ r r...
r ethirzthar~r!
/y

T h e e l d e r o n e i s 1.lrlighr...thinthur<r!

C o v e r e d w i t h rlriecl lerrrrs a n d set on f i r e ...thinthuro!'"

And the children who saw these cruelties ran into the forest crying out to
escape from the enveloping cruelty around them. They asked the Goddesses of
forests about their parents and no answer was forth coming. When the young
suckling child cried out for milk (he elder children sang

W r hrrvr rrohorly

To feed hreusr rnrlk

7'0 g i v e sheltet i l , rr c.orner

To g i v e a .s/)ooI</~I/o f ' g n l e I

W e h u r e n o b o r h ... thinthuvrr!

Here we find the interplay .)f two distinct streams of theorizing oppression
of which the fist draws upon tile missionary worldview of equality while the
latter is pre -colonial and draws upon the 'common sense' or 'the traditional
conception of the world' held by the oppressed m a ~ s e s . ~We
' have already
mentioned how the missionarifs have noted in a detailed manner the living

7,)
Mariamm;~John, ~ i l u ~ r i k k n rPnn i ~ l r....
r pp. 33-31.
*" ihid.
XI
Thc notion of colnrnon sense i s usccl hrrc following Gramscian usapc. I41r details sec
Antonio Glarnsci. Srlectiorrs fiorl, rlre Privo11 Notebooks. Edited and translated hy Quintin
H w r e and Geolfiey Nowell Smith ( N e u Y o r k : 1nternation;ll Puhlishcrs. 1087). p 197.
conditions of the lower caste rnas!.es that pel-petuated their sufferings-the lack of
adequate food, dress, shelter and their emaciated body vulnerable to diseases-
making their everyday living anc survival a great prohlern.X' The nlissionaries
tried to cultivate a strong sense of hygiene among the lower caste masses that
was the rationale for their initiatives in the field of health care that came to be
referred to as medical mission. T i e r e are instances of the missionaries recalling
the positive effect of the new practices of hygiene on the lower caste Christians.

T h e narrativisation of oppressions by lower castes go further back in time

but in the context of social movements they resorted to this register to rnobilize
people against the prevailing: practices of dominance. Later on the
representatives of various lower castes in the Sree Mulam Praja Sabha
(Travancore Popular Assembly) while placing before the government the
problems of their people som<,times provided graphic presentations of the
everyday sufferings of their ccmm~rnities.~'
These oppressions span a large
segment of social life from the particu1;lr role of the untouchable lahourer ill the
processes of production to the u!e of public space. and the consu~nptionof food
iterns that are considered as ilncl-an, to mention a few.

Ritual discourse and rememor:v of sufferings

In the present study I intend to bring together information on varied aspects

of social life in order to understa~ldhow the social experiences were articulated in
different contexts. The rnost emotionally recalled experience happens to he the
oppressions inflicted on the per$on of the slaves and their sufferings due to the
harsh practice of slavery. The prsachers of the Sabha create the real life effect of
the oppressions of the past, thrc'ugh the imaginative use of particular tropes, in

"'
George Mattban Journal fix the qtlarler ending Drccmbrr 31. 1x49. CMSAUB. also bee the
Missionrr,\. J u u r ~ ~ n lc,fs Rev. Koch? Ko.rh?.. Rev 00111eri M L ~ ~ ~ r1I 8 IS O ' h to /X70'.~.
ji~
CMSAUB. Also see John Ahhs. 01slavery i n Travancore . . . CWMASOAS.
H ' For details scc the speeches of ihu represcnratives of lower castes such as Pulnyas and
Rlrayas through out 1920's 30's ~ I I 40's
I ~ i n the popular nsscmhly of Travancore puhlihhed in
the Sree Mulam;ln Praja Subha Proceedings t?)r various years (Triv;lndruni: Trav;~ncore
Governnient Puhlicntion I
their representations and discour:.es of slavery. imaginative and performative
ritual renderings of slavery durinj; occasions such as 'rtlk,shorrir~~ntry~~l,
' death

anniversary and the annual feast of the founder emphatically proclaim the
significance of the concept of slatery in the worldview of the ~ a b h a . ' Here
~ the
centrality offered to the body and soul of the untouchable slave becomes explicit
and we encounter the gendered ur touchable hody that undergoes \evere pain. In
the following narrative we have the extreme form of physical torture that the
female body had to undergo in t'le traditional caste centric agrarian society in
which the process of production had already been transformed in the colonial
way. Let us have a close look at the elaborate ritual renderings of the religious
men of the PRDS.'~

According to the ritual di!course there are \o many stories that smell
blood and sweat that are to be ~ecountedlest we forget the sufferings of the
past. Here is one such that portrays the intense sufferings of the mother who
was asked to work next day aftel the childbirth. The slave women were forced
to work fbr hours together even without any respite immediately after the
childbirth. Within a day or two after the delivery the landlord comes to the hut
of the untouchable labourer and asks the woman go to the field for transplanting
paddy or weeding, which ever tile case may be, that involves severe physical
strain. The woman labourer wil have to keep herself bent for long hours in
knee-deep mud and water withot~tproper rest. When the landlord came to call
her for the special task of transplanting paddy in Kanjikkandam (particular
paddy field) the husband of the woman pleaded to the landlord that she might
be excused this time as she had been resting after childbirth and physically unfit

Yt
Rakshanirnayarn is the crucial ritual hy which childrcn are formally initiated into the Sahha.
Today the ritual lasts for a week th; t includes graduated discourses on the history of dalits in
which thc slave experience remain < entral. Similarly on the clay (1filnnual feast (February 17)
and the death anniversary (June?!) of Y ~ ~ h a n n a n I K u m a rGuru
a Devan discourses on thc
theme of slavery and the history of dalits are delivered. On the death anniversary of the
founder the discourses i;rsts for the entire night till early morning 5.30 the time of thc
departure o f the hody (so~irrri ~ r a f f n i oi'the
~ ~ ) foundcr.
X i
Inlbr~nationgenerated in the courst of participant ohscrvation of Rakshanirnayam and other
ritual occasions like thu death an1 iversary of the h u n d r r June 2') 2001. Eraviperoor. thc
S;lhh:r head quarter\.
for work. Her bleeding had not r.uhsided and the child is not properly nurscd
after being delivered". The ritual community is exhorted to think how cruel the
system is that demanded the work of women who are to rest after childbirth.
The ritual community is called ~p on to recollect how Inany days of rest is
normally needed for women afte'. delivery and also the pains that they have to
endure on account of it and the care, both physical and mental, needed for
women immediately after child birth. Such rest and postnatal care are denied to
the women of the lower caste communities who were agricultural labourers.

When she ,~.entout t o bvork ,for the l u n ~ l l i ~ rshe

i I t r ~ o kthe

rrr~tcbonlbaby bvirh her orld seeing thut the elrler children told

r l ~ r ~ i~r n
- o t h r rthut they ~ r o i r l dtukr (:ore of the chilrl anrl thrrt

slrc car, leave the c h i l , l w i t h t h e ~ n .Hetrri~rgthis the rrrotl~er

ir.sk the elrlev chilrlrer' as t o / r o ~ v,r~ill they teed liinr br-errst

~ r i i l k if the infirnr is l,fr w i t h thenr? She 11.ss~rrcr1

the r1rlr1-

c.hildren thrrt they i.oul(l cure for- the ~ ( J L I I I ,one

~: i ~ rrlre n:errirrg
, v h r ~ islrc ~ P I L I ~ I I~ij'ter
S work. F i ~ r i r l l y.she t ~ o kfire i n f ~ r ~ r1~it11
t

her u ~ r r rrpon
l r.eui.hin:: the ,fielrl she rnrrtle (I i.rnrlle fro171 the

I I R uf fht rrpr rrsing the rugs tlrut s/ro kept h~t-

I I L I I I ~ ~hr-rrnrh
tllat purpose. Anrl shc, 111Iled the baby t o sleep i r r r r l before

leor'ing the c h i l d she kissed him/lrer on the f o r e herrd. Before

1ru1.ing the cliilrl i n its crurlle she ea-utni~rerlthe brunch of thi,

i ~ - r , ( f~o r ants thnt a r e rrsuully seen there rrnrl m r d e sure that

~rorleqf the171 n ~ r ethere. She IL,L~.S .still blrerling. F r o i n the

<lyke o f t h e ,f1e/d .stre coirlrl .see the l ~ i ~ r ~ l ~l b~~t r-r i~t ilthere
t~~g ,fo~-
the worken\ t o u,s.ser~rblef i ~ r work. A rlay'\ Irrrr(1 lrrhorrr
orhrr~r.sr.sher ~ m r she
l herrrs a t o distrrncr the lorrrl i.r-y q f ' t h r
tlzur
I I ~ I ~ ~ O ~ I h
I u . ~become o ,faint .~(~bhin,q.
She hu.s beerr

~ 1 1 g ~ g eC iO1~ ~ ~ I I U O L I Si n~ Ji v ~ r k.since reu~.ltirzgthere. I t hrrrl

girvrl hczr enrluring p o i ~ r .BLII she could not rhirlk of her pair1

i n f/?er o r ~ n e ~ r t i n~gv o r ,Bi u t IIOLV she begun l o feel the j ~ u i l ?0 1 1

her- hreusts os they s'cirtetl t o ~ ~ r i r lwgi t h milk. This grrve her

the rhorrghts qf h r r ir?fa~rtarirl she wished t o rlrsh to hindher.

M u s t r ~ r i n gc,ol~rcrgesEr / ~ l r a r l e rtl o the lrr~rdlortlt o pertnit her

 to f i r v l t l i ~ir~firrrthrtt ttir-rre0 ~ 1 0 1 1 ~ her.
ri rr,pecrt<,c/ /-r,qtrfi3.\t.s.

Tlrc .st!-rrirz or1 t l ~ ho(1y

, urirl rrritrrl ut1r1the, truttntuti<~
r~~rl~c~rieiir~~~

\crts .sot7rerhir1y that she \I.N.S~rnuhlet o ht,rrr miid pi(,kirig rip (I

hrrrrch of parlrly str-r\crl ( r r o t r t ~ r l f i t,rttzspl~trrtitig

~r .\Irr,fre~l.sher
hreost tirilk to the terirlrr n?o.s.sy roots of pnrlrly Ictnierilitig the

firte of her- ~ . l i i l r thut

l cr.11'1,get the hretrst tnilk r!f thr~tilother.

She crier1 thlrt her child rlid !not hm.e the gootlfit-trtrrr to ,feed

oti the hreu.st niilk ofhi.:/het- mother. All the drty irr the c.ortr-.sc

~f the work she heurrl /lie injunt crying utrrl a l l the tirile it
filled her minrl with nrrgnish and whet^ the cry trrrnerl irito

sohs cmd later into .still~~e.s.s

she thought that the ir!firrit \~.orrl(l

hove slept. Oticr ortr c?f thf~fielrl ufier the rl<rys \cork, she

rrrsherl to the ir!firnt intc rlditlg to 17rrr.se hirrl/lier (rr~d,fi'e(l,irhrrr

mcrrirerl her were the (rtrt eaten mortal rc>tnnitrs of the chilrl

t h ~ i t\1.(1.s .stillerl. Lornen 'irlg the rlearh of h c , ~(.hilrl she took the

tiiortrrl wrrruiws of the <hi/<l;!I the rag thnr zc(r.r its cr~rrllerrrirl

rrt.vIr~~rl
to thu lzrtt whrr.? the elder chilrlr.etr rr\~,rtitedto hrnv (I

look o f the yorir~gOIIY. Btit t h ~~) ~ o t lh~-~rrk.\

~ i ~ r <Io\rir ~ i i r gi~'e.s
l

u\tvry the rleu(1 borly c : / ' the it~furrtto hi,/lier hrothrr.sLsi.srer-s.

Their e r p ~ ~ c t u t i o ntu:ned
r into nightmor-e rrrirl they wept
irrce.s.st~trt!,..

I t is this story of the corrntle,s.s purcvit.\, <~hilrireri,

hrorhers und .sisters who slept with terrrs thot they recull urirl

reqffirrii. I t is this t~,~-(.r,tciatir~,q

poiti thrrr the r-itirrrl ~.orntt7rtnity
renirtirorise.s nrrrl they are exliorterl to thirrk ahorrr it. This
leo~l,sto the .sitourion of complett, erwr~tioriolbretrk0o~c.11
r//'

those \rho rer.otrnt the story us well us tlro.sr brlro partukr iri

the rirtral re~uleringan? herrring it.'s6

While narrating the story :he ritual community is reminded of the pains
and sufferings inflicted on their rncestors by the exploitative system. It is at this
moment that they recall various categories of pain ritually. The ritual narrative
~.ecallsthe pains in a tonching manner. This i s narrated through the experience
of the woman who recalls the pain. She recalled the endless pains inflicted upon
het- body hy the whiplashes of the landlord, and the pains of body that does not
know any rest after the childbirth. Along with this the pains of the infant that is
separated from its mother is ritually recalled. The pain of a hungry stomach
after a day's hard work in the field is also recalled.

Equally important is the recollection of the cruel punishments meted out to

the erring slaves. According to the ritual discourse there were occasions when
erring lower caste slaves were takcn out to the wilderness where they were buried
neck deep in pits that were then c:ompletely covered with soil head pop up. The
slave cries aloud to his master t~ show him mercy and his wife and children
follow him till some distance pleading the master to set their father and her
husband free. But the recalcitrant landlord is all determined to take revenge upon
the erring slave. What awaited him was the cruel death after being buried up to
the head and coconut oil poured 'wer his head that invites an army of black ants
that will eventually eat up the slave. There were other forms of punishments that
were meted out to the slaves. Sometimes they were taken in country boats to the
deeper recess of rivers or back waters and drowned in the waters by hanging
stones around their necks s o that they never came up. Here again the wife and
children follow to witness the murderous orgy in vain as they are no more in a
position to take revenge upon the landlords and their men.""

Another occasion of sufferi ~g and oppression is related to the harsh work in

the field. It is recalled in a touching manner so as to create intense emotional
unsettlement. This is created sotnetimes by enacting the scenes of harsh labour
through verbal constructions if not through performance. For example there are
songs that depict the harsh labou. of lower castelslave men being forced to plough
the field yoked along with oxen Narrating the physical strain of the person thus
forced to yoke creates a mood o i intense grief. He is unable to carry and draw the
plough keeping apace with the bullock. Unable to move fast in the splashing

%'
Participant ohscrviition o f Ralish:irlimay;iln disci~urscsat Alri;irn I5 Scptcmhcr. 2001
 muddy field he t'i~llsdown and then he hears the whiplashes that leave mol-tal pains
on his body. This pain is well reco:nired in the collective memory, and i t also finds
mention in the folk songs and eventually in the songs of the Sabha..X X

Similarly the collective rnen~ory" recalls the harsh labour that was involved
in the reclamation of the backwaters akin to an agrarian revolution in colonial
Travancore. Reclamation of bacl:waters required tremendous labour power and
large numbers of labourers to carry out the task of reclamation. In the absence of
modern hydraulic management they were forced to depend on sheer human
labour to do all the works related to water management that made untouchable
labour indispensable even before the reclamation of the backwaters. But with the
reclamation the already entrenchtd dependence on untouchable labour power
became more ingrained and the latlour was made available through both coercion
and consent. The soil for reclamat on work was to he mined out from the depths
of the backwaters and transported 3n country boats to the work sites. Pulaya and
pa ray;^ laboul-ers did much of ttiis work. It is this particular work and the
harshness of i t that finds elaborate treatment in the discourses of the Sabha. For
instance the songs depict the everylay aspects of the labour like swimming down
in to the bed of the backwaters for \)locks of mud and the continuous performance
90
of it challenging the ravages of timc: and climate.

Sometimes the emhankmen~s are destroyed in the floods that require

round the clock work of several slaves to rebuild them by laying continuously
laying the materials for reconstruction without their getting washed away by the
swift currents of the monsoon waters swirling into the back waters. For
building up the bund, trunks of coconut trees are piled down to the water hed,
and using materials such as plate3 coconut leaves along with hanlhoo poles
fixed horizontally as support to it l'rorn both sides of the embankment and then

Kn ihid.
h'J
For sijciological treatise o n social me nory rce Maurice Halbwachs 01,('i,lle<.rii.e ,hfe,~tory
ed. trans. hy l.cwis A Coscr. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.l')92). pp. 53-1 19.
I,' I
Discussion with Illithal-a Kri\hnakunr;t;- Gurukula Upadeshlavu ofPralhy;~kshaRnksh;~Daiva
Sahhn at his residence in Chcngalnm i n August 2001
the space in between is filled with a mixture of illud mined out of the backwater
bed and s ~ n a l lbranches and hundles of twigs and leaves. This particular work
sometimes lasts for days lo securc: control over the floods and finally to repair
the breached embankments. Somt:times the gushing of water will be s o strong
that no effort will succeed to r e ~ a i rand rebuild the breached embankments.
Such instances have been considered in popular belief as the handiwork of evil
sprits that will not be satisfied unless they are properly propitiated.

During one strch occrrsiorr of breach ~ f e m h o n k r n r n ttlzerc,

crime a P~rloyu/ P a r a j a lirhourer to the hou.seholr1 of Iris

rrlutive who 1r.orker1jipr the irpper caste lunrllor-rl. Hr t v ~

irlso srrpposed to join ,fi)r work thr rrmt drry. I / ivos rherr thar
the hwuch of the etnhrrrrknzent rook i11~r.e.'Ilzerr the, c~n/ir-c,

~ ~ . o rforce
k there I rrlerred i ~ r t o actio~r rrnrl r,l,err the

~ o n t i ~ ~ r r owork
r r s ,fo~-horrr.s c.o~rlrlrro/ ,sir/vagr the ~irl(1.s
fronr

the ,floods. The11 rile lrrndlorrl ap/~r.oo(.llrcl the loc'~rl

.sooth,srryer ~ v l r or/iagn.).sed the prohli,~~rto hc the rt~r(r111

of

spirits who arc to he l,ro/~iriuterl. Arvrrr.e firlly rvrll qf t l ~ c

/>lun.s of the londloro, the hosr lubonrer asker1 rhe other-

person ~ v h ocurnu fro,n sorne r1isranc.e r r s guest to l o i n the

~ v o r k .The latter 1vn.s xiyen the 117ostorrlrro~r.siohof fillirrg r h ~

breached h~rnksrb,ith rn~rrl blocks by rliving dr11vr7 irrto /he

vpac.e f o r emhunkmen/ and 11s soon us the lirhorrrer rlivrd

(lo\r.n irr the rvrrter there came rlowrr rrp or^ Irirrr loads of nr~rrl

blocks anrl other nri.rr~rre.sthrrt,fortijierI the h~rndrrlorr,y bvitlr

the live holly of /he rrr~torrch~rhle

worker.. Snch lanr1.s rvrr-c

drenched in the h l o o ~ lrrrl<l tror., of orrr- urrcesrors urril tlrcir

,flr.sh rlc~crryeil rherr. The rluys lahoirr- II,U.S o l v r urirl the

~ s o r k e r retsrrnerl
.~ hori P and the ne.rr rluy they woke 1111 to see

f h f~l o u f i ~ zh~r!\.
~ Of the rlrler qf the workers who killed

h i m s ~ l f d r r eto griefa~l(lgs~ilt.feelin,y.u'
 According to the lipadeshiavu, in the last two thousand years in two
thousand ways their parents haw been oppressed. Thus came into being place
names in Kerala with the names of the their forefathers as prefixes like, Ratnan
Chira, Kannan Chira and similar Chiras that were places where the ancestors of
the slaves were brutally killec. It was during such times of the brutal
oppressions that according to the Upadeshtavu, their God, Yohannan
(Gurudevan), descended on the earth to relieve the slaves from suffetings. The
Upadeshtavu continues that their God descended to the earth with the well-
documented history of such kil1,ngs and mutilations under slavery. The ritual
discourse further says that the Gcd Almighty came to the earth with experiential
history of the descendents of slrves not with promises of heaven or material
riches like land grants.

The ritual re-memory thus nvoked creates o total identification with those
who were oppressed in the past. There is an element of naturalism or 'a
recognition of some common ori::in or shared characteristics with another person
or group, or with an ideal, a r d with the natural closure of solidarity and
allegiance established on this fokndation' when I refer to the term identification.
This is much more complex when the notion of identification is considered in the
context of the contemporary dekates on the question of identity. This notion is
important in the case of PRDS a; the question of the identity of the lower castes
have been very much part of its tliscourses. Stuart Hall considers identification as
a construction, a process never completed -always 'in process.' He furthel- says
that identification is a process of articulation, a suturing, an over determination
not a subsumption ... Like all signifying practiccs it is subject to the 'play' of
difference. And since as a p r x e s s i t operates across difference, it entails
discursive work, the binding and marking of symbolic boundaries, the production
of 'frontier effects.'" It require! what is left outside, its constitutive outside, to
consolidate the process. In the example of the PRDS the play of difference

'12
Stuarl Hall. Introduction: Who Netds Identity'? In Sluarl Hall and Paul Du Gay. cd. C)eesrio,is
ofC~tlrrrrirlI i l r ~ ~ r(New
i r ~ Dellii: S;ir.e. 1996). p. 7.
through ritual discourses is very much central to thcir practices. These 'discursive
wol-ks' are singularly important as ;hey mark the sylnbolic boundaries that tend to
produce 'frontier effects'. It may t e argued that it is through ritual discourses on
slavery and sufferings of the lower castes that symbolic boundaries are created
that produce 'frontier effects.' The ritual community passes through traumatic
transformation in the course of such renderings. As soon as they hear the
narrative of suffering and oppre:ision they break into tears and intense grief
overtakes the ritual community.

Leaving the structural features of oppression let us consider certain

aspectsoof everyday life that are depicted in the songs sung during the important
ritual occasions of the Sabha. On,: such song graphically describes the details of
everyday work of untouchable 1;tbourers. Untouchable labourers were the real
force behind the clearing of the forests without caring for the heavy rain, biting
cold and scorching heat they worked and i t was their labour that turned forests
i n to agricultural lands. The sclng repeatedly intimates that no other castes
would have ever done'that. The:{ have been narrated as a people clad in worn
out clothes searching hither and hither for work with sickle hanging around the
waist and the Puttile, vessel for keeping grain and such things and Pala plate
rnade of the broad stem of areca leaf to eat from. They are engaged in collecting
grass, green manure, fodder, firt:wood and twigs and carry bundles of them on
their heads and g o house after house to supply it for practically nothing.
Describing the kind of food they take the song reminds the hearers of the gruel
of the previoi~snight sorneti~nesfermenting, which is mixed with curry made of
leaves found around that is neither tasty nor nutritious. Further they eat tender
leaves of Chembu (colacasia). tl~akara,(a wild leafy plant) manthal, madanthal,
(wild roots eaten by lower castes) nooron, chakon, nathu, (varieties of birds)
crab and fishes like kari, koori and champu (the refuses of meat). They alone
are the people on earth who use it much against their will." Reflecting on
themselves, the songs recall the degrading names that they were known by such
as Azhakan. Poovan, Malan. Mailan, Chathan. Chadaynn, Lxchi. Maani. Thaali.
'J4
Kuliri. Neeli, and Poliya to mention a few.

Now we shall explore how the notion of suffering wab re-interpreted to

create a new category with which social experiences could he va~orised."~
For
instance in the course of the discourses they deploy the concept and practice of
fasting to interpret the sufferings of Yohannan himself and his wife mother and
two sctns as they had achieved divine status. The concept of five sacred bodies
o r five Gods refers to the family of Yohannan and their sufferings are recalled
as fasting. The notion of fasting is introduced to understand the experiences of
the slave castes that had historic.illy lived without food and other necessities of
life. The poverty and depriv;ition that slave castes had undergone and that was
suffered by Yohannan's mother and Yohannan himself was interpreted as
'tst~ngand considered as important moments in their lives. According to them
f.:

Upavasam means to stay with (iod. Their ancestors observed fast throughout
their lives because they were delied of food, water, rest and other co~nfortsof
life due to the prevailing caste domination. Today it is emphasized in the course
of the discourses that observance of fasting make the followers of the PRDS to
stay in close proximity with (;ads. Eraviperoor, which was the Centre of
Yohannan's activities and later cln the headquarters of the Sabha was according
to them, a place where extreme forms of slavery were practiced when compared
to other parts of Kerala and even India. It is important to retrieve the Mannikkal
family9?hat was cast away as they were sold to different directions in slave
transaction. Once Yohannan bad achieved divine status 21s Sree Kumara
Gurudevan the questions asked began to change. One of the prominent
q ~ ~ e s t i o nthat
s has been asked in the contemporary time is about the reason for

i-1
ihid. Also participant observation )I' ritual renderings o n 29 June 2001 Eraviperoor. These
names h a \ e heen considered as derogatory and discarded in the context of r e h r l n s when thc
new gcnoration was named.
,3
The arguments presentecl hcrc arc rnade on the hasis ill analysing Ihc discourse of C P
Darnodaran. Gurukuln Up:rdeshta\.~,.
',O
M;~nnikkalfamily i \ the ihnrily ol'l'ohannnn
the corning of 'heavenly king' t o Mannikkal. According to the contemporary
mythology that is ascribed to Srce Ku~naraGurudevan, it was at Eraviperoor
that the family that was separated in slavery lived and hence the same land had
to be transformed into a heaven. If a mother is sold there the retrieval has to
take place there itself through the return of another mother. In fact in
Ponnirevery (Golden Eraviperoor, Eraviperoor being the headquarters of the
movement) the children of slaves who never experienced the warmth of family
were fortunate to have a holy fanlily or Daiva Bhavanam that gives divine love
to the descendents of slaves. 'Five Gods' should be consecrated in a place
where there were five Gods. The God should be born through a mother and then
he would get rid of the body and speak through another mother (alluding to the
practice of spirit speech)."

It was in order to fitlfil thew tasks that God descended to earth hearing the
fatal cry of the abandoned slave children and decided to take hirth as human
being. It was then that our ancestzrs and slave children wept due to original sin,
sinful acts and the curse of G u u . Seeing the sufferings of the people God
realized the fact that they are to be redeemed from the fallen state. The fasting
has acquired a canonical status in the discourses of the PRDS as it refers to a
variety of observances and not necessarily the observance of ritualistic fast
alone. This interpretation raises sufferings of lower castes to a ritual category
that would evoke furthel- memories of oppression. In the constructions of the
Sabha that are circulated on the ritually significant occasions today they
visualize a time before slavery when there were priests, gurus and scholars in

'" ..In Muthalclprs he had told our fa hers that the fraction 01 the power that part5 from him
would land 103 miles i n the south giving birth to a girl child i n South Travancorc with whom
he shall complete his project. And vhen he met A r r l ~ n i ~ ca1
h i Kulathur Mount he askcd her i f
shc would consent to he mother to the multitude ofhlack slavc descendents and she agreed to
it. When Appachan (Yohannanl Kirnara Guru Devan) himself was separated l i o ~ n them, he
returned to them as God and Amma:hi became the manifcst power i f that God". According l o
the teacl~ingso f the Sahha i n order to remove the stains on the descendants o f slaves it was
necessary to have God himself horn as the rnother who i n turn would gib'e hirth to the God
who eventually co~npletesthe projc:ct o f salvation. It was through this mother that we were
pivcn Acharya Guru and Va/.hchaiadhipan for us the children o f sln\cs to preparc us for
evcnlual lihcration'. Discourses of C.P Da~nodaranon (lie death anniversary of the founder
200 I
their community and truth and dh;trma reigned as supreme. It is lor a transition
from the slave status to that of tne Maharshi (pre-slavery era) that the ritual
community is exhorted to undertak fasting.""

The recurrence of fasting i r compared with the repetitive act of eating.

Man has a visible body and invi:,ible body. Sound means that which can't be
seen but heard only. In other wolds it is equal to Veda and Sastra that means,
that which is heard and practiced. It is spiritual food that is required for the
macro hody, which spiritual guru! provide. There was a society here that lacked
the spiritual food. The hody requires both the foods and in their absence life
becomes imbalanced. The notion and practice of fasting thus constructed has
the power to transform humans in to Gods following the interpretation of the
Sabha. It was because of the f;tll of their mothers that they lost the status
21scribed to the Maharshih ant1 thus were cast into slavery.

It was then that oul- ancestcrs and slave children wept due to original sin,
sinful acts and the curse of the Ciurus. Seeing the sufferings of the people God
decided to redeem them from their fallen state. The fasting has acquired a
canonical status in the discour5es of the Sabha a s it refers to a variety of
observances and not necessarily .he observance of ritual fast alone. It was from
this point that the conception and practice of fasting arise in the Sabha. It was in

UX
ihid.. "With wllotn d o \vc sit i n close proximity when we ohser\e fasting? I t is with
Appachan and H o l y inother ;~nrJthe heloved disciples o f Appechan ;lnd the community o f the
faithful children that we sit logethtr with. W e are here to share thc agooy of thc lliarl who
came hcre to share our hurdens anJ g r i c f to clevatc us f r o m the 111uddy p i t o f slavery. H e
descended to this earth wearing the garb o f n slave to relieve thc slave children from the
depths o f slavery to lihcrnte then1 a i d to give to them who werc without n divinity the divine
power and blessings to make them he with h i m . I t was through this process that the inasrer
God possessed them s o t h a ~they Jo not continue to he slaves. I t was the time when the
descendents and God sitting together“
110
ihid. I n the course o f the ritual discourses they cnplnin the CJII of the A d i D r a v i d a s that
hccame one o f the central themes c f the Sahha. ' W e required a supreme Guru to takc us and
deliver uz from our sin? that alone w i l l take us to our frecdorn. Aryans came here and
enslaved us and we were fhrced to ohscrve what they wanted us to ohscrve. W e werc forced
111 wear what rhcy asked us to wear eat what they ordered to eat: n m i e whatever they thought
tit for us. N o w it is their rcign and we are forced to f o l l o w them. Thus we lost our G o d and
we hecame slaves ; ~ n dfell i n t u the nether world o f slavery. L i k e the ripe mango falling from
the tree. G o d Ie11 us ibr h e w e n and we hccame enslaved hcre i n thc ahscnce o f our G o d ' .
the period of slavery that. ;tccording to the teachings o f the Sahha. their
ancestors had to lead a life without food water and proper shelter and any
possibility of giving their children any security. This interpretation raises
sufferings to that of a ritual catr,gory that would evoke further memories of
oppression. IOii

The stories of sufferings as? considered as inalienable facts of the lives

Yohannanl Sree Kumara Gurude\ an himself as the ritual com~nunityrecalls his
biography. His mother took him to the fields when she went for work and she
did not have anything even breas: milk to feed him. The child was laid on rags
spread on the dykes and was covered with rags and the crying child slept out of
fatigue. This hunger and sufferin8:s are referred to as another instance of fasting
that he undertook in the discourses of the Sabha. Similarly the holy Grand
mother gave birth to Gurudevan a d he travelled all over Kerala and prophesied
the coming of the holy mother who gave birth to two sons and all of them
continued the tradition of fasting. Gurudevan continued his fasting for three and
a half years and then that his b o i y was removed. It was followed hy the forty
days fasting by 'Holy Mother' and it was continued for another forty years that
was followed by the fasting of 'Kochu Thirumeni' and 'Vazhchayadhipan'. It is
when all these fasting are considered together that the fasting of the Sabha
becomes complete. The ritual community should accept the five divine powers
and thus become be a community of people that is linked together in love,
brotherhood, truth and faith and it is to accomplish this that our God the
almighty came to this world. The preacher who delivers the discourse reminds

liYl
ihid.. "Gurudevan estahli\hed lastirg honds with the descendents ol'slavcs. wiped their tears.
told them their histories and prom sed to remain a s their Cod. It was this relationship that
determined thc everitual following that Appachnn won and our ancestors folliiwcd him. He
revealed himself to them through miracles and offered them to hring back the separated
mothers and children. And when the appointed hour came he prepared the land and hornc for
us here bringing h i s k thc lost ones. He carne to shoulder slavery. our sins. and to resolve
eternal curses. Curudevnn carrle to ,ake over our hurdens to he shackled by thc lock and chain
that kept us in bondage and to led us to l i c e d o ~ n This
. freedom cnablcs the dcscendcnts 01'
slaves to retrieve the losl glnry-reign. letters and knowledge-that enahlec the scarch for the
esscnce of the conlnrunily. This neccssitatcd the active intervention of the divinity 01' our
Curudevnn who lone could delivtr us frorrr sufferings imp{iscd by ctrrnol sin. dcltlh and
wrath 01' God"
thc ritual conimunity as they wail for the lnorlient of the departure of our God
not to forget God. power, soul, truth, and salvation.

The first fasting is that of the slave and the second is that of the tears and
the third one is that of the g e ~ ~ e s iofs new creation. In the course of the
discourses a different image of the God evolves as the ritual community is
asked to consider the fasting of slave body. The interpretation given is that God
is ;I slave of the believer or he is slaveldasa of the devotee. The incarnation of
God as man is the first state of being a slave. In other words in the context of
the Sahha God is the one who weeps in the Heavenly abode seeing the slave
tears and then he himself wears the slave body as a garb. This is the cardinal
is searching for
reason behind the observation of fasting. In fact the cot~~rnunity
the divine master through fasting. It was in order to show the master body that
the new garment of the slave is laken away. In order to show the master body
we find the slave body undertaking fast. 1 0 1

According to the ritual discourse it was in the context of the harshness of

slavery that fasting was undertaken i n 11 14 (1939) where as today there is no
master here who puts us to yoke, who sells us and who kills us for propitiating
the spirits to solidify the embankments and force us to pull the plough. He
reminds the people that it was their Lord who had defined slavery as a state of
not having masters. It is argued that when they d o not have a master they
become slaves. If the youth who goes out of the house returns home in the
evening heavily drunk walking on four legs one can say that he has become an
animal for animals alone walk Jn four legs. Similarly i t has been argued that
although they have been free frcm the yokes of the past they still continue to be
slaves; slaves to religion, maya :;akthi (The destruction of Babri Masjid is given
as an example.) liquor, narcotic$, women, land and superstitious beliefs.

The second fasting shoultl be the fasting of tears. The preacher reminds
the people to understand the te:irs of 1 I 14 (1939) of their ancestors who wept

/I//
Acctrrdinf to the discourse lheir G ,d. hi\ \bile xrd disciples. c o n l i n ~ c dI l l i s (rlhting
ll~e
seeing the tears of the one who calne to save them by calling them from their
IILI~S alluding to the tireless search of Yohannan tor their ancestors. This
recollection is followed by I-itu;lly invoking the n~emoriesof the tears of
Yohannan's wife and children and the leaders of the Sabha who were their
102
ancestors. How d o we have tears? The fact that the one who promised to be
with the c o m ~ n u n i t ytill the last judgment left then1 made the people to cry. Thi\
departure created in the community somatic minds and body. Today, according
to the preacher, they d o not cry a> they are far removed from the incident of the
death of their Lord. Unless that piin i \ felt even today they will not evolve as n
new creation. According to tht: preacher it was the black body of their
Appachan (Yohannan) that hid ir him the God for them. In Kulathur, the place
where Appachan attained divinity they were the ones who bore witness to the
divinity of their Lord the God that was adequate for them or Mathiyaya
Daivam. Like the colourful butt~rflythat flies out of its cocoon, he radiated
divinity. Referring to Yohannan's wife the discourse continues that Yohannan
showed them their mother and she in turn showed them their lord. He further
refers to the institutional structltres that have been developed for the future
generations of slaves. 101

Reiterating the notion c~f suffering the Upaheshtavu affirms that

Gurudevan established lasting bc~ndswith the descendents of slaves, wiped their
tears, told them their histories a r d promised to remain as their God. It was this
relationship that determined the eventual following that YohannanISree Kumara

102
Discourses of C. p. Damodaran. . 'he tears of Akkachi and sons along with the te;~rs(11' a11
who came hearing the cirll of Poy~kayilAppachan leaving their Churches their Kin group.
teaching johs. are called upon. (When John of Njaliyakuzhi was asked to go with him they
made people believe Poyikayil A p p c h a n to he the God of the descendents of slaves.) Hov.
could John of Njaliyaku~hireturn 1.) Njaliyaku7Iii'?Has he not left every thing there? Similar
thoughts tortured the minds of K~~narakathasan Anaparamhan and several other leaders of
the Sahha.
I(/'
ihid. "After I 1 14 we habe our h o m e gurukkalari which has fnur doors with a height ol61fi.ct
height. five storics. as our home. TVe have to clean our hales of sin in front of our lord. He
came as father and mother to us. V'e were witness to God i n the Kulathur Mount. After I I I 4
we were able to create ;I Sankcth; m. a secure structure, that is ;I testirnony to our faith. He
was the one who showcd the ~nirnclesand the one who cured the diseases and hhowed
divinity 111 us".
Guru Devan won and according the preacher theil- ancestors followed him. This
necessitated the active intervention of the divinity ol' Yohannan who alone
could deliver them from suffer in),^ imposed by eternal sin, death and wrath of
God. Yohannan carrjed on his o ~ self
n all their faults and sins until it became
possible for them to relive themselves of the cumulative burden of the faults
and sins.

The ritual rendering develops the narrative of oppression with the

observation that Gurudevan acceped the tortures on his own body that wrecked
him for three and a half years thab form the period of his fasting"". He endured
these ordeals for breaking slavery from within. Only this would enable the
coming of a new age, the nea, reign, and establishment of the family of
Maharshis in future. When d e s c e ~ ~ d a nof
t s evil were horn of sin, Gurudevan had
to be born to resolve it. Whatever that befell on human body has to be resolved
by body, advice by advice, life l ~ ylife, and Karmam by Karrilam (act by act).
The retrieval takes place only if there is sacrifice and it is spread through out
the life of our Gurudevan and this is observed in our lives through fasting that
might be for a year or sometime: observing for the past five or six decades and
i t is this fasting that we shoilld consider as significant. Our Gurudevan
sacrificed his body for the retrieval of our slave bodies through such a fasting. It
is through this practice that h t was forced to endure sufferings. And he
promised to return to them after the 40th day through the Holy mother and came
on the 4 0 day as promised to the community of believers and thus began the
turn of the community fasting and waiting for the return of our Gurudevan
through the Holy mother.

The divine project was to take the descendents of slaves to eternal reign
and Yohannan has removed the constraints in realizing it. In order to achieve
this they were given command~nentsand asked them to abstain from impure
things that would malign their t ~ o d yand mind. They began their worship and
fasting that would sustain them on the path of righteousness and just life. There
--
111-1
711is was tlie pcriod uhen Yohannnn was hcdriddcn as hc had a paralytic strokc.
are things that the corumunity of lollowers should observc to keep therii o n the
path of righteousness and to help them lead a pure life to reach the Supreme
I05
Being. It is this Jeevatrna that con1,erses with the paramatma. The dark clouds
on our atman should be removed i n order to reach paramatma. The community
of believers is exhorted to keep themselves away from sins that degrade their
lives. God will turn His wrath against the sinners and His curse will fall on
them where as God answers to the prayers of the righteous.

The miraculous stories of Yohannan IGurudevan saving people from

diseases and death are recalled although they could not determine the exact date
of the event and the persons but tbrough the repeated rendering it assumed ritual
significance. In one such occasion one of the preachers has recollected the event
of seeing Gurudevan when the bzholder was a small boy. He saw Gurudevan
when the latter came to his village Kulathur for addressing the descendents of
slaves and for some reason he was angry and the disciples were ready at his
beck and call. He narrated how :;pel1 bound the people were when they heard
him. He appeared to them majestic with his 'fine facial features although black'
that they recall reminding the ritual community of the incarnation of God
leaving all material comforts to be born in the family of slaves and under going
sufferings.

According to the ritual discourse Gurudevan never happened to be a slave.

As God he incarnated hirnself as a slave with the black burnt body of the slave
with the marking of yoke on the :;boulders. This is the matter of the macro body
with which the forefathers of the ritual community could establish relationships.
But it is important to consider the micro status of his being 21s God. According
to the preacher Gurudevan referred to them as Jeevatmakkal and not as different
jatis God is referred to as paramatma.
 It is difficult to make a distinction hetween the narratives of oppression
and narratives of sufferings as both feed on each other. In the experiences of
lower castes. sufferings have a lo lger history just as direct oppression has. We
can speak of sufferings as a maJor experience only when the idea of the
suffering body becomes prominent as a result of the emergence of the modern
notion of the human body. In the twentieth-century narratives we come across
definite recollections of the suffxings that have been the result at' structural
constraints of society as well as the problems that affect the everyday life. It is
theoretically significant to understand how social memories of slave sufferings
were available for the lower ca!.te in the early twentieth century when these
discourses evolved. We should not lose sight of the fact that even after the
formal abolition of slavery in Travancore in 1855 the slave experience remained
live in the minds of the people. hloreover, large segments of lower caste people
continued to live under similar conditions. In other words slavery was very
rnuch part of the social memory and experience of the lower caste people when
the movement of Yohannan bellan in 1909-10. For instance, The Travancore
and Cochin Diocesan Record f o ~the month of May 1905, the official journal of
the Anglican Diocese, carried ths testimonies given by people who were slaves
in the report of the Jubilee Celebration at Chelakkompu, which was held on 13
December 1904."'?hese testin~onicsspeak of the harsh practices of slavery
that people who were still alive in the early twentieth century experienced. The
testimony included inforn~ationon men yoked with buffaloes, sales of people,
severe punishment such as beheading for stealing a yarn and many others that
have been dealt with in n detailei manner in the second chapter of the thesis.

The sufferings were part of the overall structure of stratification that had
developed in the pre-colonial pcriod. But it continued in different forms well in
to the post -colonial times. Here we may recall how in the post-colonial times
new narratives created new obj-cts of theorization in the form of the narrative
of sufferings. In fact we may not be able to make a hard and fast distinction
hetween both oppression and suffering as already mentioned. The ultimate

li)h
TCDR. VoI XV. May 1905. N o 3 pp. 12-11
cause for the sufferings of lowcr crstes. according to the narrativcs of the Sahha
has been their fall from the higher position that they had occupied once. They
fell from the higher position as their mothers were lured by the Aryans. This
eventually led to their being ens,aved by the conquering Aryans or dominant
ciistes leading to the beginning of the lower castes journey into the abysmal
world of sufferings. The Sabha u o r k s out the notion of sufferings as located in
the space of family. The slave trade that separated children from parents and
parents from each other has been the root cause of the sufferings that
destabilized the Fdmily life and brought about anomie and alienation to people.

Clluirle<l ~lnrldr~r::,qrrlthen1 mr,ny

Orl>ho~ted
chilrlrc,~rrocrinerl

( 1 1 1 \ one ro help.
111 the ~ r i l ~ l e n r ~w.itho~lt
.s.s

They didn't see ciny orle.

These lines refer to the central precept of the Sabha that provides the
essential legitimacy to the Sahh:.. In the forth-coming section 1 intend to explore
the transformation that the notion of slavery undergoes in the discourses of the
Sabha. And si~nilarlyit forms essential part of the notion of history that the
Sabha wants the conternporary generation of its followers to recollect as the
authentic experience of lower c;.stes.

The sufferings of slaves that lasted for millennia arc rec;llled ;IS an
intimate experience and sonlething that can't be forgotten. The slave transaction
was comparable to that of the trade and transaction of cattle. It was like the
quotes from the documents of slave trade that proclaims the authority of the
masters either to sell or kill the slaves.

If sold ir is .s~rlrrhl.~
rr,qoirl

Parrrd u rth hrrllo,.Lr atid h~rffuloe\

Foi-ced to plo~rghrhe fie/rl.\

Oh! Gorl h o c/o

~ irefi~rgetthe it~terisrKriqf.'j"'"

These experiences should b~:considered as figuring out the social being of

the unto~lchablelabourers. In the discourses of the Sabha i t assumes canonical
status as several other conceptions of slavery derive out of i t that adds on to the
centrality that the discourse of s1;lvery possesses in the scheme of the Sabha. In
fact in the teachings of the Sabha today they refer to seven types of slavery that
are derivatives of the foundatioral concept of slavery that include slavery of
God, religion, caste, spirit cult, c ifferent paths of life, nations and slavery that
denies freedom to life ant1 body.

Transformation of slavery as imagery

Slavery as a social experierice undergoes a tremendous transformation in

the discourses of the Sabha and it becomes an axiomatic foundationalist
category. The notion of the past thus constructed enables analysis and
explanation of the past, present ;tnd future. When it is recalled as a historical
experience what w e encounter is mst, and when the slave memory is recalled to
negotiate the inner realm of the p?ople the project is oriented to the present and
the linearity of the narrative posit, liberation in future that tantamount to critical
engagement with a possible f u t ~ ~ r eThis
. transformation is facilitated by the

10s
ihid.
invention of categories that prod.~ce specific en~otionaleffects on [he people
when they recall the historical memory of slavery. Now let us briefly look at the
invented categories with which t t e emotional effects are created. They include
categories such as adimakkannee~.(slave tears), adima yugam (age of slavery),
adima sariram, (the slave body) adima nukam (yoke of slaves), adimachangala
(chain of slaves), adimayola (palm leaf document on slave trade), and adima
bhavanam (slave family). There are similar categories that have been employed
to create the emotional transforn~ationlike Adimamakkal (children of slaves),
adima vargam (slave class), and adima rakshakan/vimochakan (emancipator of
slaves). Categories of people u,ho hear the marks of the above-mentioned
constructs are often referred to as Adi-Dravidas, and in certain instances Adiyar
meaning original inhabitants. Of late, there are other objective signs that have
come to achieve significance lik? adima sthambham the column of slaves that
reminds the people of the sufferir~gsof the historical slavery.

It is of significance in thi:, context to probe further what the notion of

adimakkannir o r the tears of s l a ~ ~ communicate.
es It obviously means the tears
of ancestors who have experieni:ed the harshness of slavery and the tears that
rolled down from their sunken eyes. Similarly it recalls the image of the
orphaned children-narrated in the songs that actually predate the history of the
Sabha-who wandered in the wilderness as their parents were sold away. This
is an image that is often repeated in the discourses of the Sabha. In the course
of the fieldwork I heard it from Yaramyavu who was 105 years old at the time
I met him. He was a lower cas:e labourer, sold to a European planter by his
father when he was a boy and s 3ent more than fifteen years in a tea plantation
in Cheenthalar in the high ranges of Travancore. Yaramyavu and his parents
were in the CMS church and h i d been receiving the catechism of the church
but still he recalls with interne emotions the experiences of children who
became orphans due to slave trasactions and how they were sold. He recalled
the songs sung by the slaves viho look back to have a glimpse of their low
lying country sides when they t limb the rocky terrain to the high ranges. This
bong narrates the tragic story of lhe slave labout-er who looks hack to hcrlhis
own village from afar and cries. Cbbviously nohody consoles hi~n/her.""'

Thc point to be emphasiz,t:d here is that the Sabha in its discourses

imaginatively used the slave experience that remained as a latent rnemory
available even to those who jtined the missionary churches in the early
decades of twentieth century. The notion of the tears of slaves in other
contexts is powerful enough to create the feeling of intense sufferings and
pain as observed in the conlext of ritually significant occasions like
Rakshanirnayam. The recountinf of the slave experiences is enough to create
emotionally charged environment that makes the people breakdown into tears
reminding them of the sufferings of their ancestors under historical slavery.
This particular experience is plrt of the untold miseries that the oppressed
lower castes had to suffer through five millenniums. It is at this point that
discussion on the age of slavery ,r adim;~yugam is introduced.

When they recollect the history of the lower caste communities i t is

located in an imaginary h o m e l ~ n d-1ndus Valley or ancient Tamilakam-and
the people are referred to as A~li-Dravidaso r Adiyar. Certain songs identify
the land they had ruled as the g:ographical territory of Kerala. However, it is
a nagging menlory that their an,:estors who were proficient in arts and crafts,
science, political administration, statecraft, poetry and philosophy were
enslaved' "'.

In the discourses of the Sabha there is room for a popular history of

Ancient India with invariable rel'erences to scholars like Mortimer Wheeler and
Sir John Marshall who conducled the early archaeological researches on the
Indus Valley Civilization. It has been widely believed and recalled in the ritual
renderings that the founder of the Sabha had prophesied the existence and

lil,,
Oral t r s l i ~ n ~ ~given
n y hy Ycramya\u o n 13-4-2001 ;!I his rcsidrncc in Pulhuppalli. Ki,ltxyam.
110
De1.il11.(Trichur: 2001 ). pp.
For detail5 on lliesc scr K.M. Ann:unma. K ~ ~ r f i k i i l dSrc~krr~rrnru
r
85-93.
everit~~aleclipse o f Dravidian ,:ivilizatjon much ahe;ld of the latter day
researchers who unearthed the Indus sites. This is foregrounded as an example
o f the cultural achievement of the Adi-Dravidas from which position they
declined due to the "cunning of the invading Aryans". It may be observed here
that it had sel in motion the process that finally led to the decline of the Adi-
Dravidas from their historical glo .y and was thus reduced to the status of slaves.
The other part of the story is built around the popular history of ancient
Tamilakam which is other wise known as the Sangam Age during which period
the predecessors of the Adi-Dravidas led a highly developed social life without
class /caste stratification and that the condition of women too were appreciable
as there did not exist gender divi:;ions as to be found in later centuries. But then
that the idyllic society under went the catastrophic effect and churning of the
world by the invading Aryan:, who destroyed all their achievements by
111
subjugating their women who were 'as radiant as sun' .

In certain songs they refer to the particular fate of their women being
infatuated by the Aryans and g i ~ ~ i nbirth
g to what they cc~ll'evil descendents.'
That is how the eventual fall tlkes place. This fall led to adima yugam the
'age of slavery' that was to lasi for millennii~mstogether. The representation
here provides a clear case of decline that is brought in by women that refers to
female sexuality and the need t o control i t . The idea of a sharp decline of Adi-
Dravidas is important as i t provides the room for their eventual salvation from
the horrors of slavery. From thc heights of glory they were all banished to the
wilderness and if not they were forced to work for the aliens who established
their power here. Many songs lament the fact that there was no one to write
down the history of these experiences. It refers to a lack of history that forms
the major existential and epistt~mologicalconcern of the people of the Sahha
that is developed elsewhere in the text.

Slave body o r adima sariram, is a powerful construct that is

imaginatively deployecl by tht, Sabha and interpreted by its Upadeshtakkal

"' Kitu;rl discourses (rn the death ;inn v c n n r y o l t h c h u n d c r . 29 Junc 2001

(religious men) in the course of their discourses. At one level it I-efers to the
body of the sl:~vecaste wornen, men and children who had to under go severe
sufferings in the past. In that sense it is a genre introduced to convey the
trauma of suffering that slavery inflicted on the body, which could be
sometimes gendered a s well. Secondly it refers to the hody of the founder of
the Sabha, Yohannanl Kumara Guru Devan who had to undergo severe
sufferings to redeem the descentlents of salves who were steeped in slavery.
Moreover. slave hotly is elevated as a site of memory. In the latter phase of
the Sabha the notion of his takin; human form in the garb of a slave becomes
prominent and thus the notion 3f slave body achieved the centrality of an
essentialised core that was severed from the here and now.'" The process of
deification of the slave body is visible in the semiotic practices of the Sahha
today and the active moments of such a practice include the adoration of the
column of slaves as a 'site of memory' and also the appearance of the
religious men of Sabha in the dress of the slave agricultural labourers. 113
Moreover, in the songs of the Szbha there are references to the suffering slave
body across time and space creating a case for a particular theorization of the
somatic slave body. At this point the slave body becomes trans-historical but
with its own particular history and sociology of construction.

The images like the adim.1 changal~to r slaves' chain; adima nukam or
yoke of slaves and adinlayola or palm leaf document of slave transaction are
powerful Icons that symbolize tlie dreadful practrces of slaver-y. The 'chain of
slaves' that found expression in the logo of the Sabha depicts the hands of the
slaves with broken chains. Moreover, in the descriptions of the conditions of
slavery the chained parents cf the orphaned children act 21s a powerful
metaphor. Similarly when the image of God is recalled He is construed as the

11: 'The ~norningprayer services on the: death anniversary o i t h c founder the religious men 01' the
Sahhii appear in the dress of the twditional ;~gr~cultural labourers sporting the cap ~ n a d cof
tender iolder of areca frond and klchathorthu (\mall bath towel type of cloth which is very
popular in Kemla) E t h n o ~ r a p h i cti<:ld work data.
one who had undergone sufferings as he was chained as n slave. "Adinla
nukam" o r yoke of slave has a peculiar significance as i t refers to the slave
labour in the course of which the lower caste labourers were forced to plough
the fields harnessed to the yoke zlong with draught animals. There were times
in the course of the ritual perfo-mance of the discourses when the religious
men of the Sabha used to describe graphically hard forms of labour involving
Dalit labourers including plougl-ing the fields. This is narrated in a detailed
manner to invoke the memories of hard labour. The entire scene of labour is
graphically recreated s o that it i i recalled with all its gravity. The artifact of
labour is gradually catapulted into something that is capable of invoking
historical memories. This undergoes a transformation hy which a different
icon of history is created. Silnilarly on the occasions of the annual feast of the
founder they present theatrical performances enacting the scenes of slave
labour. Various aspects of sli~ve sufferings are thus represented in the
theatrical performative nlode.

The category adimayol;~also achieves a potential that is comparable to the

semiotic potential of other icons. The Sabha in its publications often quotes
from historical documents ti-at describe slave transactions. Sometimes
documents that contain references to the sufferings of slaves or details of slaves
held by landlord families or state that are familiar to academic historians are
reproduced for the benefit of thf contemporary generation that d o not have any
first hand knowledge of slav2ry. Sometimes individual followers of the
movement reprint and circulatc: slave transaction documents as well as the
official proclamation of the Trlvancore Government abolishing slavery with
some comments of their own However. the function of such writings is
fundamentally different in s o far as their aim is to foreground the fact that
historically slavery existed in Kerala and they are bent up on providing a
powerful documentary proof f o ~it lest any one suspects. Adimayola is a much-
repeated phrase that is able to provide a rational justification for the critique of
caste and slavery that the S a b h : ~indulges in. Another very important aspect of
S L I C ~documentation is that lower caste labourers enter the domain of
representation mainly due the \.iolencc of the systcni. hoth physical and
epistemological. Physical violenct: is easily evidenced hecause the documents
refer to separation of families and groups. Episte~nicviolence refers to the fact
that the events pertaining to the lives of the lower caste labourers enter the
recording machinery as something that helps the violent transmutation of the
knowledge they constitute as a soc:ial unit. And why did they find entry in to the
documents? It is mainly to affirm the fact that such individual slaves have been
the property of this o r that lantllord and that the ownership right has been
transferred to another landlortl. Such documents d o not yield further
information on the life and conditions of the slave castes. But they are relied
upon in the altered context to highlight the violence that the system had
perpetrated on the lower castes. This emphasis on the documents of slavery
provides the necessary ground fclr the theorization of history for the subaltern
lower castes. In other words, doc ulnents on slave transactions are used here to
evolve a powerful critique of sla.iery itself and where by radically rephrasing a
possible history. It will be difficult here to argue that such a project of history is
absolutely emancipatory as the categories and modes of thinking of such
histories are not entirely free front the dominant conceptions of histot-y.

The notion of 'adimabhavanam' or slave home is used to mean three

distinct but related identities. As a category constructed in the ritual usage at a
primary level it refers to a s l ~ v efamily that includes father, mother and
children. It is such a family that is dismembered due the sale of family
members. This is referred to in he ritual language of the Sabha as 'three type
separations' i.e. the separation of father, mother and children. Secondly it
refers to macro identity of all lower castes who had undergone the slave
experience and in the specific cc ntext it refers to the congregation of the Sabha
or the people who have been lble to experience 'the truth' of Yohannan 1
Gurudevan in the course of 'rakshanirnayam'. It is through the ritually
significant practice of the rak;hanirnayarn that an individual becomes the
rnember of the Sabha. Those viho have received the truth of the Sabha and
Gurudevan eventually rncrge in the larger family of the faithful that may be
referred to as adirnahhavanam albeit in a transforrned form. Here. it no longer
refers to the dismembered f;~rnil)under slavery; on the contrary i t refers t o the
merging of the liberated souls w t ~ ohave come together in the ritual community.
Thirdly it refers to the family of .he founder of the Sabha that includes himself,
his mother, his wife and two sons who are referred to as the sons of 'the era of
reign.' This is the promised family that metaphorically stands for the
reinstallation of all the families that have been erased from memory due to the
onslaught of slavery, which according to the teachings of the Sabha is the
project that it has to fulfil.

It is necessary at this juncture to refer to the category called Adima

Santhathi or descendents of sllves. This refers to the present and future
generations of those who are tht: progenies of the slaves. In the discourses of
Yohannan himself we have this categories mentioned 21s Santhathi Vishayam,
the theme of the descendants. Later on i t is interpreted to refer to the project of
salvation through his sons, as tht:y became central figures in the new pantheon
that the Sabha had developed. In course of time one of the sons became
'Vazhchayadhipan'-'the king of the era of reign'

Adimarnakkal and adima~,argam are the categories that are usually

employed to refer to the lower cajte communities that have experienced slavery.
The former stands for the macro identity of the descendents of slaves for whom
the era of reign is predestined. Smilarly adimavargam is the collectivity that is
constructed out of the emancipatory discourse of the Sabha. Both the categories
are rooted in social and political praxis. The former category refers to the
acceptance of the hitherto neglected lower castes as the children of the incarnate
who has come with a special message to redeem them frorn the thraldom of
slavery. In both the invented categories. the prefix adima, slave/slavery is
reinterpreted in a radical manner like the other instances of the use of the prefix
adima. Similarly the notion of ag:ency bestowed upon the founder of the Sabha
as 'adimaviniochakan / rakshakan' or saviour of slaves draws upon the multiple
rneanings that experience of s l a ~ e r ycame to achieve later on. This discursive
domain opens up possihilitics of developing and s sing categories like Adi-
Dravida and the derivative Adiy;.r which necessarily poses the possibilities of
bringing together the separated ; ~ n ddismembered jatis that otherwise should
have been intimately connected with one another.

Slavery as a foundationalist category

It may be observed here that because of the peculiar practice and the
theological derivatives of the Sabha, slavery came to acquire canonical
significance to the Sabha. In this part we intend to analyse how slavery became
a foundationalist axiomatic categcry in the discourses of the Sabha. It is argued
that the everyday discourses of slavery made possible its transformation as a
foundational category. Similarly it was introduced as an esset~tialistcategory
when there was a gradual break Iron1 the earlier Christian cosmology that the
Sabha had been sharing with. In other words there was a processes of
displacement and erasure of the Christian worldview that led to the introduction
of the category of 'slavery' as fou~dational.The foundational status ascribed to
the category of slavery leaves open strategies that were not otherwise available
to agents in the field. For instance even during the lifetime of the founder of the
Sabha notions like the Adi-Dra\idas and the prohlem of slavery etc were
referred to in the songs of the Sabha that ~ ~ s etod he sung during their
congregational meetings. But it was marooned in the enveloping Christian
themes as the songs of that tinie tt:stify. In the aftermath of the break with the
Christian cosn~ologyi t still requi .ed powerful concepts that would substitute
and hold people together by offerir~gthem a possibility of rationalizing the past,
engaging with the present and viscalizing a possible future. Here we may bring
in the notion of religion as a me:ns by which people rationalize the external
world. This is more so in the case of the religiosity of the oppressed. And in the
context of colonial Kerala it was rjligion that opened up an early site of social
and political praxis tor the oppreised lower castes that helped negotiate the
structures of dominance.
 In the case of lower castes who joined the Christian missions f r o n ~the mid
19th century onwards the experiences as slaves were a powerful source of
memory for recollection that was corroborated by the nlission;~ry sources that
speak of the popularity of the s ~ o r yof the Egyptian captivity of the Israelites
under the Pharaohs. The stori~:s of the Exodus provided the most suited
examples to compare the condi:ion of lower castes labourers in Travancore.
Similarly the activities of missionaries were liherative to the exploited masses.
This remained significant marker of the past as far as lower castes were
concerned and they made selecti.ie use of it as evident in the quotations that the
discourses of the Sabha still carry. The argument to be put forward here is that
there was a sort of identificatioii with the slave experience even if it was far
removed in time and space, which is reflected in the writings on slavery by the
ideologues of the Sabha.

As pointed our in the preceding parts of the chapter it was through various
strategies that slavery became a foundational category and the experience of
which is used to legitimise the n:w claims on the resources of the state as well
as to contest the reigning structures of power. Identity of the historical slave is
made out using the foundational category and deployed to evoke memories of
the social experience that slavery was. The invented category of slavery and
several other derivatives to which we have already referred produce the mental
image of slavery. For example today the theologians of the Sabha speak of
seven types of slavery and five types of original sin."' The seven types of
slavery include slavery of caste, {pisit cults, nation, slavery in the name of God,
slavery of other religious paths and religion, slavery that denies freedom to soul
and body, and slavery of the power of maya. The concept of five types of sin
includes original sin, sin of Karrna, advice (by which the secrets of the society
was lost), sin of worshipping the Gods of the Other (Aryans) and the sin of
desire for other tnen.(which the Adi-dravida women felt). Along with this is the

I,,
Thcsc are major theological concepts c e n t r ~ ~ l tlle Rnksha N i r n a y a n ~discourses.
notion of the three types of separation of relation5 viz father. mother and
children due to slave trade.

In other words it refers to th.3 self of the people that was constructed using
many of the elements drawn from history. It is in this context that we need to
place the significance of the hum;~nbody in the discourse of the Sabha which is
1-elated to certain commemorative rituals of the Sabha. The notion of ritual here
stands for the thoughts and actions that constitute the entirety that are referred
to as ritual. Moreover, it is necessary to consider the semiotic order and the
different layers of meaning that r~tualis capable of producing. What we find in
the present example is that t h ~ o u g hthe practice of peculiar rituals in an
everyday manner a particular historical validation is created that in turn helps
the reinforcement of the articulated notion of slavery. We shall have a slightly
more elaborate analysis of the en~rironmentthat gave rise to the new rituals.

In the early 1950's when the Sabha moved away from Christian practices
i t took to the resources of thr: community itself instead of the Christian
theological resources that gave L reprieve to the people. This particular phase
was wrought with ;I lot of tensions and internal schisms on the fundamental
tenets of the Sabha. It was u n d x such circumstnnces that the reinvention of
categories took place. In order t c ~foreground the argument I would concentrate
first of all on the central rituals of the Sabha without which the initiation into
the congregation never takes place. The central ritual that is indispensable for
the membership in the Sabha wailis Rakshanirnayam. It used to last for months
during the early phase of the Sabha and in course of time was reduced to a
week. It was during this phase that the faith and the teachings of the Sabha are
intensely communicated to the ysung people. As suggested before, the ritual of
Rakshanirnaya~n during the C'hristian phase of the Sabha was akin to
confirmation of one's fiiith in t l e resurrected Christ who will redeem people
from sins and will lead them to the path of salvation. But in the later phase
when the Christian spirituality and practices were erased and the new
conception of the founder of thc Sabha, himself as God-God who h ~ i scome to
redeem the orphaned children of the enslaved parenth emerged-the central
precept of the Sabha also underwent transformation. It was during this period
that in the course of Rakshanir~ayarnthe theme of slavery as the essential
marker of identity came to be art culated. It may be recalled that the practice of
Rakshaniryam was resorted to i s the confirmation of faith in Jesus Christ
during the early phase of the !iabha and during that time the prayers and
preaching were mainly centred around biblical themes starting from the creation
of man hislher fall and the endless search for salvation with the eventual
coming of Jesus his crucifixion 2nd resurrection. Finally salvation is sought in
the faith in the resurrected Christ. The whole story is narrated in the course of
the meetings that used to be held in secluded places lest they should be attacked
by the upper castes. In the course of such meetings that led to the initiation of
large numbers of people to the Sabha the founder of the Sabha used to give
exposition of his own ideas tha: sometimes contradicted the teachings of the
Churches. Even at that time accc~rdingto some informants he used to relate the
Biblical events with the lives of the lower caste people in Travancore. In other
words there was a curious mixture of Christian teachings with the perceptions
of lower castes such as Pulayas, Parayas, Kuravas etc in terms of their
experience as slaves. This used to be a major element of the prayers of
Rakshnanirnayam. As mentiorled earlier, the period after the death of the
founder of the Sabha the process of Rakshanirnayam was also changed radically
with the introduction of new theme\ in the discourses in the weeklong prayers
and preaching. It was during thi:; timc that the new notion of slavery entered in
the discourse as a major theme. Today it has undergone many changes due to
the refinements that the discursive notion of slavery has achieved. It is in the
course of the ritual occasion oi' Rakshanirnayam that the history of the Adi-
Dravidas is recounted in the form of prayers."' The construction of slave

ili
Long sermons are givcn on the hi!.torical past of the Adi-Dravidas that cut across tinre and
space to provide a neat picture (I' their cultural achievement ac either the Indus Vallcy
civilization o r the culturt: of thc allcient Tamils. In other wonls it is prc enslavc~nentphssc
that expcrienced unrestrained cutural ilchicvement when the Adi -Dravidas possessed
everything that they were dcniet of in the suhsequent historical periods as they were
conquered hy the invading Aryan.. This is ho\* the despicable soci;tl expericnce of slavcry
C \ olvcd.
experience and the linguistic skill; that makes it possible develops i t in such a
manner that it has a pounding eff-ct on the selves of the people who listen to
such deliberations. In the course 2C such theological discourses that slavery is
identified as the central problem of lower caste communities.

We d o not intend to go into the details of the above concepts here for the
time being. Rather we intend to c,,nsider the process by which slavery becomes
a foundational category. This transformation of slavery a s a foundational
concept has two dimensions. T t e ritual enactment of slavery at the time of
Rakshanirnayam is the most decisive moment that informs the believers of the
slave past. From this it follows that the ritual enactrrlent of slavery in everyday
life creates the necessary conditims for the rememory of the slave experience.
It is through these twin processes that the reified concept of slavery is
articulated as part of the ideolo;:y of the Sabha. After detailing the historical
achievements of the ancestors ol' Adi-Dravidas we hear the recounting of their
eventual decline due to the fall of their mothers to the influence of Aryans that
gave birth to the evil descendents that ultimately led to the enslavement. At the
risk of being repetitive i t is reitcrated here because of the reason that it is this
theme that is endlessly reproduced to impress upon the people of their history.
The most crucial point for our present consideration is the re-enactment of the
slave trade that leads to the dkmemberment of the families. The story of the
transaction of parents to different land lords and the separation of their children
from them arc PI-esented in a theatrical manner cl-eating highly charged
emotional environment that informs the people of the horrors of slavery. In the
course of the Rakshanirnayam discourse the Upadeshtavu renders the
experiences of Jews and how they were freed from the captivity of Pharaohs.
According to him God has a well-laid plan ant1 he has a pre-determined
mission. It was during such times of sufferings for 430 years that God Almighty
appeared to Moses and asked lim to lead his people from Egypt to 'the land
where milk and honey flowed.' as he saw the tears of the slaves. If God could
come down seeing the tears of -.he enslaved Jews for 430 years then God is sure
to see the slave tears of the l o ~ v e rcastes in Travancore for the last 2000 years.
Ciod himself could not withstand t ie experience of the ancestors of lowei- ci~stes
running back to millenniums and he came to the earth to resolve it. Thus i t
hecame a necessity fol- God to come and to redeem the slaves from the
sufferings of several millenniums.

God has decided to take bir.h as a man upon the earth and his coming is
determined by a plan, which is well laid out. This event of the birth of God as
man necessitates intervention in hurnan affairs, which according to the
discourses of the Sabha unfolds in the experiences of two households that are
part of the scheme. The families ~f both landlord and slave are involved in the
process as agents. In the disc our st:^ of the Sabha this is referred to as three types
of separation of relationships, i.e. father, mother and children.

In the course of the exegesi!, of the teachings of the Sabha on the occasion
of Rakshanirnayarn the Upades2shtavu who conducts the ceremony in the
course of the sermon holds an irfant close to his body. This is the infant who
became orphan as hislher parent; were sold. From the ritual com~nunitythere
come a male and female to act, is the father and mother and along with them
two children aged I I and 8 whc are to act their respective roles. T w o elderly
people act the role of the landlords who have come to purchase the slaves and
there will he another person to cnact the role of the original slave owner. The
Upadeshtavu initiates the performance of the tragic story of the dismemberment
of the slave family through slave trade in an emotionally charged manner.

The family of slaves, with father, mother and three children has been
leading a normal life. They work for a landlord who owns them as his property
and it is to such a household of slaves and landlords that a landlord from the
North arrives who wanted to buq a slave. The landlord from the North comes to
the household of the landlord tnat God had chosen to be the landlord house
where he had to fulfil his plans of redeeming the slaves. Accordingly the
landlord came there to purchase the male slave who happens to be the head of
the slave family. The landlord'! house was on the verge of decline as he had
lost his land and he wanted to sell his slaves to realize at least sornc money
through the sale of the slave fan~il!~.

When the landlord from the North wanted to buy the slaves the owner of
the slaves told him that they had .I family of slaves consisting a father, mother
and three children. On hearing :his, the one who came to purchase slaves
informed the owner of the slaves that he wanted only the male slave. At that
time the male slave was working n the field and he was asked to appear before
the master immediately. A shock passed through his body on hearing this,
because he knew that when a slave is suddenly called from the work site it
meant that the landlord was had tecided either to sell him o r kill him. He came
t thoughts of his wife and children who
prepared to meet the everituality ~ u the
are going to he orphaned hauntt:d him but he consoled himself invoking the
names of Gods and ancestors. H: feared that the landlord was either going to
kill him o r sell him.

The male slave asks the l ~ n d l o r dvery politely why hc was summoned.
The rnaster ruthlessly informs him his decision to sell him to the landlord who
has come from the North. The sl.lve is directed to g o immediately with the new
master. The slave pleads to the r a s t e r to spare him and to have mercy upon him
as his wife and children will be left in the lurch without any body to take care
and feed them. The master shows his dislike towards the pleading slave by
ordering his immediate removal from the vicinity of the house. The custom has
it that when a slave is sold and .he sale is effected a small measurc of coconut
oil is given to the slave to snleac it upon his head and to take his last bath there.
Then the slave is given his c ~ s t o m a r ylast meal of rice before the actual
transaction takes pace. It was h s last oil bath and last meal. But he could not
even taste the meals that were given to him as he was overwhelmed by
emotions. Tears welled up his eyes as he hugged his three children to give them
his parting kisses and he knew cery well that they will never meet again in their
whole lives. This is the parting inoment of the small family of father mother and
three children. When the decision was made to sell the father the mother has
been away working in the field cxnpletely unaware of the heart rcntinf dr;uiia
unfolding in their household.

The Father hugs his three children taking the younger one from the
shoulders of the elder child and carrying the youngest child in hands he told the
elder son to take care of him as tre was forced to go away and never to he seen
again. The father feeds his dear c.hildren the last hand-full of rice that he could
feed them. He gives this by sayijlg that thenceforth he will not be able to give
them any more balls of rice and he tells his dear children that the fate is grim
and that the gods alone will be th':re to take care of them.

Beloved elrler sor8rnuy Ipcrrt bvirh rlwc oil.

CVortlrl y o ~ rcrrl-e r're y o ~ ~ nones,

g 111y child:)

Wor~lrlyo11 crlrr the yorrrlfi one.s, I child:)

I I ~

Wor~lrlyorr clrr? rhr yorrrlg ones. irry r.hiirl:)

Hclvr, your lrrsr inorvel, lny SOII'''

When parting from the chiltren he told them that he was forced to go as cast
away by the master and that the) will not see one another again. Amidst wailing
and tears he left the innocent and lielpless children. When the mother returned from
her work the children told her of the fatal event of their father being sold and taken
away forcibly by the landlord who came from the North. They all wailed and wept
recounting their family life that was lost for ever and then that the second visitation
took place. The master came a g ~ i nand this time with a new landlord who has
come from the south to buy a slzve. When the female slave and her children saw
the stranger with their master she understood what was in store for her and she
pleaded to the master to let her be there to take care of the children who have not
grown yet to take care of themselves. She asked the master whether he intended to
kill her or sell her to which he replied that he intends to sell her. Suddenly she

Il,?
Ethnograph~cfield w o r k at Arn;lra Jated 17 N o v e m h e ~ .2001
t h o ~ ~ g hoft the severe pains of the children who are left in the wilciel-new without
any body to take care of them and to feed them as their fathel- has already been
solti. Wailing and lamenting she prayed to the master to let her be with the children
till they are able to do something c'n their own. But all her cry fell on the deaf ears.
The recalcitrant Master was not r d y to listen to the woes of the slave woman and
he told her that she should go with the new master as she has been sold to him. She
was given coconut oil for the c u s t m a r y after-sale bath and was also given meals,
but she could not eat anything a:. she was broken and completely overtaken by
emotions. She embraced the younxer child and fed him her breast milk asking him
to suck out the last drop of the milk as this was the last breast-feeding to him and
that he will never be able to taste the breast milk of his mother as she will no more
be with them. She asked the elder children to take care of the younger child.

Beloved clrler. s o ~ inroy Iprrr~with thee ...

Beloverl plder- son mrry I purl ir,irh thee ...

Wonlrl yon core tile yorrng olir2s,iny chilrlY

H o ~ v~ ( I L I I -last nrorsrl, fny son

M y tender yonng ?ne! srrck niy .s~ve(,tlnilk....

b j yonr nzothrr-... i t ;
This is t l ~ el r ~ br,2ast-f~rrlirig
t

The mother, as she was atout to part with the children asked the elder
child to take care of the younger Jnes and said that only gods above are there to
help them and guard them hugg.ed and kissed them and said it was her last
kisses. Crying aloud she st;~ntls motionless to be dragged away by the
recalcitrant landlord who bought her.

This narrative emotionally charged as it is, communicated to the ritual

community that undergoes severe strains even when it is recounted today.
According to them, their experier~ceis the casting away of the young ones away
from parents and vice versa.

"' ihid
 When diu-kness fell the thre,: of-phaned children had nowhere to go and
nothing to eat. The eldest boy carried the younger one on his shoulders. While
still asleep the younger child searched the body of the elder child for milk
thinking that it was his mother. Eloth the young ones hugged the elder brother
and slept while the elder was left awake thinking what he would feed them with
in the morning. Out of fear they prayed to the Goddesses of the forest to protect
them. They put a pestle in the place of their father and winnow in the place of
their mother. All living beings on the earth were resting except the elder son
who had been undergoing traumatic experiences of being orphaned overnight.
He was recalling all the sweet memories of his parents and the security of the
family and lulling his young broti-ers to sleep. It was then that he saw up in the
sky a female hawk flying. He begged to the female hawk to bless the children
with a sweet sleep. He told the .'emale hawk their tragic story and how their
parents have been sold and casr away to different directions and how they
hecame orphans without any bod:) to take care of them. When he narrated their
stories to the female hawk she iettled down with the children and consoled
them removed the guardians-pestle and winnow-from the positions of father and
mother and promised them the word that as and when the time comes she will
descend to the earth to redeem them and she fed the children very well with
milk and rice. It was in fulfilment of this promise and the word that the God
came to this earth. His mission was to redeem the broken identity of slaves who
have been cast away to distant lartds. The forsaken children sang,

We are [rlonr thintharrr ...

O ~ r r f a t h e ri s solo thinthrrrrr. . . .

O ~ rfather
r is solr, thintharrr... .

11s
Gorldrsses offor-~ststhinrhurrr....

,I8
This is thc most repeated song that recalls the experience o f slavery. Participant ohscrvation
on the death anniversary of the lbundcr of the iliovcmenl dated 29 Junc 2001
 As the day dawned upon them they rcalired their helplessness and wept.
Their fatal cry roused the Goddt.sses of the forests who canle and consoled
them. They wandered about the fcsrest and finally came out begging for food in
the nearby village but every b o d j turned down their requests. The fatal cry of
the slave children reached God almighty and he could no longer remain in the
heavens oblivious of the sufferingi of the slave children and decided to come to
the earth redeem the suffering sl.lves. The God in fact had the well-designed
plan of salvation that was designed in the heaven itself. The story of the slave
children, its interpretation and r ~ t u a lrendering function as a marker of the
unfolding drama of liberation that was to he the project of the God.

A n d it h e c o n r ~LI f l n v in the s l ~ r v ehotiir

Shackles qfcrrste irn(1 rlel~rsiorlhrrve heerr broken

Arrrl rr rreir. <.ornni~~riinn

horn irr ljfi, givitlg Poiku home

Thrrrst 111)k t l o r v l e ~ ~ gnnrl

e ri.isrlonl

Reholrl the nvonrle .,n.otider.. . ..

7'hi.r mokes .sla~'eirurne irr cerlirh of jo?

119
This rrrakes slirve llorne,fi.rt,. . . .

At this point the discourse touches on the question of abolition o f slavery

and says that it was under such circumstances that the British queen issued the
royal proclamation that abolished slavery in 1855. This particular date has
achieved ritual significance in the sacred calendar of the Sabha.

I/'>
P / q i k ~ iSrre
l Kenlor(r G~rrr,De1.o Gtetl~a,,,qul(Er;rvipcmor: PRDS Puhlicalion IYL)h).11. 21 1
 I t was to keep the word given to the orphaned slave children that God
almighty carne to the earth as a human being. And a human hody was required
to bring hiin to the earth. In cther words it was in the garb of the slave
forefathers that He came up on t l ~ i searth as father for those who did not have
father and as mother for those .who did not have mother. It was decided in
heaven itself to take the hody o f t l e slave and to descend up on the earth.

The believers of the Sabha consider it to be Yohannan the founder of the

Sabha who has attained divine status, who thus came to redeem them. In the
course of the Rakshanirnayam, it may be observed that much of this is re-
enacted along with singing of [hematic songs that make the community of
believers to undergo tremendous mental stress and strain leading to total break
down. On one such occasion in the course of the fieldwork I could observe the
loud cry of women and one of them swooned as if in fits. The woman who
swooned continued to make loud cries and then remained calm. The point to be
emphasized here is that the recoL nting and remernory of the slave experience is
still a powerful and potential theme that transforms people and their perceptions
radically. This I consider to be the most active moment when slavery is
articulated as a foundational catsgory in s o far as the entire validation of the
selves of the community and the individuals is firmly grounded on i t .

The other most important context when the notion of the slave past is
imaginatively reworked is the irnumerable occasions of everyday life ranging
from the day today conversationi to the important occasions like marriage, and
ceremonies in connection with hirth, death etc. Similarly in the course of the
prayers also the memory of slavery is invoked so that it provides sufficient
energies to the people to resist the powers of oppression and dominance in the
present social structure. It has been observed in other contexts that it is
necessary to place the identities .bus imagined in the context of the strategies of
resistance.
 It has been observed that prayers play a crucial I-ole in shaping the
ideology of the religion of the oppressed and the critical reading of the prayers
and songs of the Sahha shows that niost of these songs and prayers allude to the
slave experience. For instance evcn during the funeral services the community
of believers recount the slave experience along with the hardships that their
forefathers had to endure in ortler to sustain their lives in this world that
included slave labour in plantations and sufferings that were huilt into such a
life."" These extreme forms of sl~fferingswere necessary to the predetermined
design of redemption that the Sabha proposes for the oppressed people. Though
there is not an explicit commitnient to the life after death, these prayers and
songs assure the faithful of an era of reign, that is the time of promised
salvation becoming cvident thron';h outward manifestations.

Similarly in the ceremonies that are connected with marriage also the
message of slave past is conveycd so that they pass on this perception to their
offspring. Rather than subme~gingunder the weight of this foundational
category their perception is to make the theme of slavery part of the embodied
history of the oppressetl from .which they could search for the liberationist
potentials. The other aspects of r:veryday life refer to the innumerable contexts
when people are indeed compelled to look inwards into their own sources and
in such circumstances this theory comes to their rescue. The organic
intellectuals of the Sabha do this through the popularisation of such histories.
Such histories and their sermon-like circulation make such a change possible.
Over the years they have invented and adopted the myths and rnany others that I
have discussed as part of their life world that really draws upon the fund of
historical consciousness. All the projections on the future society would seem
like a compensation for the 'social lacks' that they historically suffered. In that
context, the past, which is the slave past, is construed as a referent to validate
the future that guarantees salvatisn in the 'era of reign'.

"" Participant ohscrvation. Neelamhara. 26 Octohcl- 1997

Essentialising slavery as a categc)ry in the religion of the oppressed

W e intend to explore the potentials of the esser~tialisingaspect of the

notion of slavery as propounded by the Sabha. Essentialisation theoretically
stands for the particular interpretation that invokes slavery (in this instance) as
the single most deciding factor of the lower caste identity that assumes the
position as the inner core. Moreover, in the contemporary discourses an
essential dalitness is tagged on to the factor of slavery. Herc we may draw
upon the contemporary debates or1 essentialism to foreground our argument. It
focuses on the dual nature of th.: debate. The first one revolves around the
question of 'the essential' in the context of the social movements. I t refers
sometimes to a fixed a historical essence such as 'woman-ness,' black-ness,'
'lesbian-ness' or 'gay-ness'. The demand is for liberation and restoration of
these essences, all of' which had t'een suppressed and colonized by the diverse
Sorces of domination."' Similarl!, in the discourses of the Sabha the essential
aspect of the lower caste/Dalit identity is suppressed and colonized by the
oppressors who subjugated them. The essential identity has to he rephrased in
such a manner that it becomes available to the collective imagination of the
ritual community. The introducrion of categories such as Adi-Dravidas /
Aadiyar is to he considered in this light. The second aspect of the
essentialising feature of the identity is the possibility of thc existence of
multiple identities beneath the apparent overarching singular identity. It is
possible to break open the categcries to bring to the fore multi-layered nature
of the identity being constituted In the empirical example that we analyse
here, the notion like Adi-Dravida / Adiyar is constituted by bringing under
control all other contending iden~itiesin terms of the further micro categories
such as jatis. In other words mcbilizations that take care of a category like
Adi-Dravida will always have tc~face the onslaught of jati identities. It has
been looming large when we c o ~ s i d e rthe simultaneous existence of several
jati organizations and allegiance!. The significant question that emerges here

!?I
Anna Marie Smith, 'Kastafari Resist;mce and the Alnbiguitics 01' Essentialisrri in the in Ncw
Social Movements‘ i n Erncsto Locl;111cd.. Tlre Mtrki!l,q ilf Polific.(rl/drrrfirir.\(London: Verso.
1994). p. 172.
is the problem of the irresistible potentials of the micl-o identitie5 like Pi~layar
or Parayar to mobilize people around essentialising categories while there
develops equally authentic projections like the Adi-Dravida that intends to
bring together subordinated cate;;ories.

It is analytically important o see that these categories were able to create

lots of contradictions as they we.e trying to negotiate with one another. These
are identities that have the divijive potentials given the history of the dalit
movements in the first half of the twentieth century. It is in this context that we
consider the possibilities that all essentialised notion of slavery offers. The
discourses around this category constitute the Sabha as a dialogic community
that conveys the new meaning to its people. It attempts to recast the history and
change the self-perception of the people on the basis of a liberative praxis. It is
impossible to have a pure and con~pletcessence and it can be located only in the
terrain of contingency rather thar~nece~sity.'~'
Privileging of slave experience
as an essential marker of identi:y could be contextualised in the terrain of
contingency brought in by the soc a1 movements under colonialism that initiated
the discourse of slavery. It is valid in the context of the Sabha to see that
argument of 'essence should always be paced in terms of their particular
context of particular strategies, s ~ c has the struggle against domination, rather
than be considered in abstraction."" Slave experience is deployed as a resource
to resist domination and to situate the 'history of the people without history' in
Kerala. It provides definiteness, concreteness and boundaries to the social
groups that claim the essentialisec identity. The essentialised notion of slavery
helps the heterogeneous experences of oppression to be strategically
reinterpreted ;IS a singular phenomenon. The circulation of these concepts and
the ideas generated by them make; the Sabha and the people following it what
Paul Gilroy calls 'interpretive comrn~nity."'~

ihid. p. 173.
'" ihid.. p. 174.
"I ihid.. p. I X I .
Conclusion

The experiences of the Sabha as a resistance rnovernent problematised

issues beyond those of nationxlist discourse. Nationalist discourse was
primarily concerned with the cor~tradictionsrelating to the colonizer and the
colonized without much concern ibr other contradictions within Indian society.
The power slructures within Indian society and the newly evolving nation were
largely left untouched by the naticnalists.

For lower caste movements the question of social equality was the most
important problem and they devc:loped their political practice around it. Such
politics had different trajectories in different parts of India. In Kerala, we find
the lower caste movements articulating equality i n various ways, arising out of
theit- encounter with missionat-y Christianity and the discourses of the
missionaries. Thus, the movement led by Yohannan considered equality and
I;~ckof it as the fundamental prcblems o f lower caste communities. When the
movements moved out of the domain of the Churches they developed different
discourses foregrounding the i d e ; ~of equality by reinterpreting the cultural past
of the community. It was in tkis context that the discourse of slavery was
introduced. The discourse of sl;~verywas an essential part of the critique of
caste inequality and a possible ;earch for equality. The discourse of equality
takes place alongside a search for the history o f the lower caste that had, until
then, been non-existent. The memory of slavery and sufferings is transformed
into a resource with which to negotiate inequality.

In understanding such mo,iements and to appreciate the complexities of

colonial modernity we should not privilege nationalist constructions. The
Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva S a t h a tried to carry forward its own particular
agenda of colonial modernity wi:hout the support of missionaries by creating its
own alternative structures. For example there were efforts to acquire land,
modern education, and also to create other structures by creating their own
congregations or communities cf believers. Yohannan himself coordinated this
community of believers during his lifetime with his associates and pastors. This
:)spec[ of rhr movernent is sign~ficantas it provided the people who were
historically oppressed and powerless with new structures and political agency.
The religious sphere was considered the major site where negotiations had to
take place and it is not simply a iite of tradition. In other words religion is one
of the sites in which the queslions of modernity and social agency were
contested by lower castes. It holds good for the missions in general hut when
we come to the case of Prathyaks la Raksha Daiva Sahha, we find new elements
emerging as they try to carve out an autonomous space. It is this process that
led to the creation of new ideas and discourses.

The politics of fulfilment and transfiguration that resulted were important

to the ritual community of the Sabha. Such 21 ritual community and 'community
of sentiments' was and is cons!ituted through the public ritual rendering of
history. Slavery and the sufferings it generated and the constant reminding of
being in pain are the resources with which the community of sentiments is
being made. Here one rnay fintl some broad parallels with the situations of
black Atlantic to which Gilroy refers~.'~'

In the discourses of the Sabha we find a new worldview emerging,

however ephemeral it is, as the movement makes recourse to 'the history of
slavery and its imaginative recovery through expressive cultural practices'. This
is an unfinished journey the history of which is in a double hind. In fact the
whole project itself was charactxized by duality. This is one of the dominant
features of the lower caste liberation endeavours in the context of colonial
modernity. The Sabha went be:iond the teachings of the missionaries, but it
remained within a fuzzy world by critically engaging with the Biblical
teachings and creatively interpreting them. At least till the 1950's this situation
continued without any explicit L vowal of the Sabha as being either Hindus or
Christians in the conventional sense. This fuzziness provided a critical space for

l?5
Paul Gilroy, The Bluck A f l ~ ~ l r i \.lod~n~ir!
c (London: Vcr,,,.
o ~ i i lDorrble C<~,~.r<.iorr\,~e.s.r.
1993). pp. 197-203.
the Sabha that ceased to exist whfn n pl-edorninant section declared themselves
Hindus in 1050. The fountlational :ategories that were deployed since then have
transformed the perceptions of the people. But it has opened up another terrain
of enquiry by problematising slave experience further and has been brought to
the active present through new ciscourses. The liberative potentials of these
transformations were never absolute as it had many internal constraints as wc
have mentioned earlier. Nonetheless, the experiences of the Sabha shows the
possibilities of returning to the sources of the community and redeploying the
past in such a manner that histolical experiences however terrible it may be,
becomes a resource for imagining a social praxis of liberation.
 CHAPTER VII

DISCOURSES OF HISTORY AND MAKING OF COMMUNITY

Introduction

In the previous chapter I a~ialysedthe discourse of slavery that the Sabha

introduced as a resource to negctiate structures of inequality. In this chapter I
discuss how the discourse of llistory introduced by Yohannan was further
developed in the wake of the struggle for equality. The discourses of history
provided by Upadeshtakkal of t t e Sabha, as well as other organic intellectuals
of the movement, deploy 'fragn~ents'of lower caste histories and make them
central to their notions of the past. Reflections on the experience of slavery in
fact initiates both a discourse ol history and a theorization of it placing lower
castes at their centre. While acct:pting the fact that there is an overlap between
the discourse of slavery and the theorization of history they are separated here
for analytical convenience. As a consequence in certain sections of this chapter
there is deliberate repetition as p u t of the argument.

The question of history th2.t the PRDS movement initiated highlighted the
problem of the absence of a history of the lower castes in Kerala, a fundamental
problem that they had to deal with. Part of this problem was the issue of
accumulating information about the past of lower caste communities. At
another level there was the problem of how to use this information
imaginatively to construct a histxy of the lower castes. In this chapter I discuss
'notions of history' introduced by the founder of the Sabha, Poyikayil
Yohannan and accepted and followed by the community of believers. The most
significant aspect of the 'notions of history' that Yohannan articulated was the
lack of an authentic history of the lower castes in Kerala.

Why do a subordinated people at certain stage of social change raise the

problem of their history? It may be argued that in the case of the PRDS
movement history became an important constituting element of the identity of
the followers of the movement. 1 :;hall explore the process by which a partic~ilar
perception o l history become an organizing principle of the com~nunityof
believers. The articulated notion of history became a major component of the
ideology of the movement around which communitas was formed.'

The concern with histoly arid the varying interpretations given to the past
were related to the question of agency that in turn would enable lower caste
subjects to emerge as distinct social actors. It is important to reflect on the
relationship between a theorization of history and the social movements that
project such a view of the past because we do not find reflections on history a
vital component in the case of other social movements of lower castes in h era la.'

We will also look at the efforts of the organic intellectuals of the Sabha to
write the history of the movement and the distinct practice of writing history that
emerges out of it. These distincti~e practices are evident in the efforts on the one
hand at writing a history of the lower castes in general, although at a rudimentary
level, and, on the other, writing t:ie history of the PRDS movement itself. In the
case of the latter there are two visible trends. The first one tries to approach it
from the angle of historical knoviledge and the second tries to mythologize the
life of the founder of the movemf,nt. Mythologizing is their most preferred genre
even when the canons of history viriting are sometimes invoked.

Equally important is the tact that, unlike the PRDS, none of the other
lower caste movements in Kerala practice the writing of history for the PRDS
the writing of history becomes part of the discourse of equality. The iniagining
of a history for the lower caste was fundamental to their project of equality.
Quoting the verses of Yohanna~i,his latter-day followers tried to develop the
theme of the slave experience of the lower castes in Kerala as their most

I
For a det;~ilrddiscussion on c<iinmunitas see Victor 'l'urner. Rifnul P~ocersrsSfnrrnrrr rr~rd
(New York: Corncll University Press. 1987). pp. 94- 165.
Atlfi-Sfnr~.f~rrr
However I do not rule out the possibility of other lower caste movements taking recourse to
ccrtain aspects of history in their sr.~rchlor self-identity.
decisive historical experience. Th,:ir oral 1r;lditiuns and I-elipiosity are crucial.
The writing of history or even ;I recalling of certain experiences of the past
would enable the lower castes to claim equality with other social groups on an
existential plane where rootednt:ss in the past is considered as essential.
Moreover, in the case of the lower castes we find a radical reinterpretation of
the past that would enable then1 to emerge as socially significant actors. The
most decisive historical experienze for the lower castes had been their slave
experience and the oppression and sufferings that accompanied it. Recalling of
such a past ultimately becomes ; resource that will enable them to provide a
critique of the past and also to stow the politics of knowledge that downplays
their history both in the understanding of history as well as the past. The
discourse of history is important in the discourse of equality. Equality is
imagined both in the social origins of the lower castes as well as in the
contemporary structuring of them vis-h-vis other social groups. Similarly
equality is perceived in the construction of the historical personality of social
groups in the process of writin;: their histories which is accomplished hy a
clairn to the written account o f th,: past

The major concern of this chapter is to analyse whether the intervention

of the Sahha to 'search for the 01.1 histories' poses any challenge to the reigning
paradigms of history. This is contextualised in terms of the genre of writings
that try to conceptualise problems of identity and consciousness along with
changing perception of the p s t . ' Historical knowledge plays a pivotal role in
the process of identity formatioll and the consciousness that evolves out of it.
Historical knowledge is perceived sometimes as embodiment of 'true'
knowledge of the past without :onsidering the process by which a particular
knowledge of the past is created. The term 'true' knowledge stands for the
perception of history as providing a true version of the past that exhausts any
other probable interpretation of the past. Moreover, such a perspective of

I
H. L. Sencviratnc. Idr~rfiryCorwr.i(,rrsrless utid rlre Pasr: Forging of i.u.\r~(ltrd C~,rrt~ri~~tir\.
ill
lrrdiir nrrd Sri Li~nkrr(Delhi: Oxforcl University Prcss. 1997). pp. 3-22.
histor-y does not col~sitle~-
histori as interpretations of past events that are
projected on the basis of sources that are read by thc historians. In the
contemporary practice of the discipline the centrality that used to be ascribed to
the totalising claims of historical knowledge steadily loses ground to fragments,
giving rise to fundamentally different reading of the power relations from the
margins. Equally significant is the situatedness of knowledge production that
problematises the very theoretical assumptions behind particular interpretations.
I draw upon the experience of t l e PRDS movement in order to reflect on a
possible engagement with these historiographical problems as the movement
showed an extreme concern with the history of the lower castes.

The place of history

It is a well-known fact that people recapitulate past in several ways and in

the context of social and political movements these different versions of the
past would be harnessed to their requirements. In such situations history
cor~stit~~tes
the knowledge that informs people about the possible course of
action. Complex societies and nation states will have elaborate mechanisms to
constnlct such histories and institutional prowess to circulate them. In the case
of the PRDS movement, Yohailnan introduced the notion of history in his
discourses to emphasize the ar,;ument that the lower castes were heir to a
historical past that was destroyetl by the conquering races and that the retrieval
of that past was the way to :;alvation. His followers believe that he had
descended to the earth to redeem the lower castes from the slave sufferings.
This particular argument was cnphasised in order to contest the claims of the
upper castes on the labour power of the lower castes and the systemic
subjection of the latter to the former.

It has been observed that 13wer caste communities in the context of social
change imagine a histol-y for tiiernselves as a resource to affirm their social
rootedness. It is imperative here to think how past itself would be available for such
an exercise. This is accomplished by the cornplex processes of the social
construction of the past. It is i~nportantto delineate the meanings of the term
history to explore the ideas expresxd by Yohannan and circulated today among his
followers. If we go by the discour:;es of the movement, the term history is used in
multiple ways but there is a pri~iilegingof the 'past' when they use the term
history. Here the term past is very cautiously used as it helps the ideologues of the
movement to historicize the experiences of the slave castes of Travancore/Kerala.
The other meaning of history, as :he actual practice of recording and interpreting
the events of the past on the basi: of cause and effects, would be marginal to the
project of the movement althou::h there are certain attempts towards writing
histories. It may be appropriate htsre to bring in the position of academic history
vis-A-vis the history that is circulat,:d by the movement.

However, it is important for the present purpose to see that organic

intellectuals of the movement tried to write the histories of the lower castes as
well as that of the lower caste sccial movements. Although academic history is
also embedded in the politics of lcnowledge it is necessary to make a distinction
between history as a discipline and history as political act that we encounter in
the case of social movements. Both of then1 aim at reclaiming past for a variety
of reasons but academic history is in certain ways determined by the 'evidential
paradigm.' But 'history as pc'litics' nerd not he bound by the evidential
paradigm although such histories would provide ethnographic data for a
historian to work out a possible history. The claims to historical knowledge of
academic history and history a:; political act could be identified in separate
realms. Academic history is guided by a set of canons that are significant in the
knowledge production on the pzst such as the availability of source materials
that are analysed as well as the need to interpret the way the sources themselves
have been embodiment of power relations. It is at this level that the question of
evidence comes up in the discussion on history. History as political act is not
much constrained by the rules or the discipline, as its aim is different from the
acadeniic discipline of history.

I t was colonial modernity that provided the context for the 'search for
history' that Yohannan had initi:~ted.The project of history that tries to retrieve
the experiences of sufferings and pains that thc ancestors or the lower castes
endured in Travancore is unthiikable outside the colonial modernity. A n
engagement with history tilade po:;sible conceptualising alternative narratives of
history that brings under focus the experiences of lower castes. Such alternative
histories make possible the notions of the self and the other. The significance of
the articulation of Yohannan lies n the fact that he begins by stating that all the
available histories of Kerala did lot contain any reference to the "story of my
race."' The new discourses of 'iohannan make the lower castes realize the
erasure they experience as a col ectivity because of complete absence of any
'valid history' of their own. The notion of valid history is significant here as it
refers to a possible authentic reprtsentation of the past. Moreover, the notion of
'valid history' refers to the authority that historical knowledge tends to acquire
and in the case of the lower caste:; it has a liheratory function as it helps them to
challenge the dominance of the )upper castes. In other words, the fundamental
question is that of the situatedness of the knowledge production which is
closely linked to the politics of 1;nowledge. History i n both senses-as past and
the knowledge of the past-coull be interrogated from this perspective. The
notion of past refers to the experiences of' the ancestors of the lower castes
rather than the textual constructions of such experiences. At the same time it is
difficult to conceptualise such experiences outside the textual constructions. It
is through deploying the possibility of textual constructions that the causes of
lack of history is traced to the harshness of slavery that the ancestors of lower
castes had experienced and which left asunder the formation of identities and
articulation of social life. Being slaves they were alienated from the material
and spiritual worlds of their own. Thus the new religious thinking in the wake
of the spread of protestant Chri:tianity and the later critique of it provided the
context for the historical irnagin;ttion in the form of writing history and specific
locatedness in the past by inveiting new social identities as significant acts.
This argument follows the fact that the preachers of the PRDS, including
Yohannan, considered the genealogies of the Old Testament (as a history of the

I
(Era\ iperoor: PRDS Publication. 19961. pp. 78-79,
Poikiiyil SI-eeK~rniurrrG a n ~ i l r r Ge~~rhufijial
~i
Jewish tribes) extremely signilicant. Accordingly they considered it as
important for the lower castes to have a genealogy of their own. Similarly a
critique of the slave past is also part of the fundamental theoretical problems
that were to be addressed.

It is important to identify and explore the process by which textual

construction of the past circulatetl by the PRDS movement is transformed into
theological exegesis. It may be suggested here that the ethnographic accounts of
slavery that is mentioned in the previous chapter enters a different life of its
own as a theological resource through 'ritual speeches'. It is through 'ritual
speeches' that religious authority and experience of the divine are created?
Recent studies in the Indian context have suggested that theology aspires to
make sense of, find meaning i r ~and determine order for living collectively
under the divine."his should b t considered along with the attempts that have
been made to search for the theological resources of subaltern communities. I
argue here the possibility of loca~ingthe interpretative exercises of the Sabha in
the theoretical context of reinterpreting the resources that evolve critical
consciousness although it involves complex strategies some of' which have
already been referred to in the :hesis. In the example that is drawn here, the
founder of the Sabha, Yohannarz himself becomes the God incarnate who has
come to save generations of sla\es from inhuman harsh exploitation and social
and cultural alienation. We fin<, here the embeddedness of history, historical
narrative of rememoration, theologising of the secular and the process of
incarnation and the fulfilment ot the project of salvation. This whole process as
I have pointed out aspires to make sense of, find meaning in and determine
order for living collectively undt:r the divine. The notion of history of the lower
castes circulated within the PRDS community becomes the critical resource that
legitimise the religious interventions of the movement

' For a siniilar argument on the indigenous religiosity i n the context ol~nissionnryChristianity
sec Matthew Enpelkc, Text and f'erft~rmancci n arr African Church: T l ~ rBook, "li\,e and
vol. 3 I , No. 31. p. 77.
direct" i n Az7reriru1r Etl~nolo~i.sf.
'
Sathianathan Clarke. Dniit, rirzd C,~ristirizlify:Szihulrerzz Reiixio~zrrzrd 1.iher~iriorlTlzrology irz
h~rlirr (Delhi: Oxford University Pz.ess. 1998). p. 180.
 As part of his theorization of history. Poyikayil Yohannan idcntified the
lack of such 11 history as the root cause of lower caste status and enslavement. In
one of his early verses he sang

Every histor). in K e r a l ~ n r~ v r .searcherlJbi,,.

s

T h e r e n.rrs n o t h i n ~wrrttrn on I I ? rrrce.

~

T h e r e wrrs rlor~eor1 the earth to ivrirr the story u f n i y rrr(.e

A r ~ dit was rlrownerl in the ahysrrrul

'
D a r k n e s s o f r h e nethe,. ~ . . o r l d .

1 shall argue that there is I deep-rooted desire for identification with a

historical 'lack' that is to be ~roblematised in the above lines that is the
projected lack of 'history' itself. I would reiterate the fact that the term history
refers to both the lived past and its textual constructions. This particular
argument regarding the textual c~nstructionof the past emerges from the fact
that in the above quoted lines \ve come across reference to written history,
which is privileged, above all fo-ms of possible histories. It may be observed
that in the early twentieth century when Yohannan made this significant
observation on the importance of written history, lower caste people already
had roughly half a century of interaction with the written word. Moreover, as
members of the missionary churches many of them had closer interaction with
the world of the literate. This deiire for the history of one's o w n sace, in this
instance, the history of slave castes, is articulated at a time when histories of
regional, national and social idenfities were already written. Administrators and
historians wrote the state manuals and histories of Travancore and other
geographical regions of colon al Kerala preceding t h i theorization by
~ohannan.~

Poika\.il Srre Kunlur<i (;urrrrlrvu G r <t h n , , ~ a I ... pp. 78-79.

"or example see Nagam Aiya. The Frin.un(.o~-eStare Mn~rrr(rl3 Vols.. (Trivan(ll-urn.1906):
Williarn Logan. Mulrrhrir Mrr~rtrirl,(hcadras: 1887).
 Can we at this junctu~.ethir~kof the implications o f Yohannan's notion of
'history"! I t seems that, the hi:.tory referred to here actually suffer from a
double. On the one hand it tries to foreground the experience of lower castes
that have been totally erased even from historical memory and on the other it
emphasises the necessity of writing a possible history of the lower castes that
privileges the written word. This can augur well for a radical agenda
considering the over all social context in which such a challenge was put
forward. This particular desire t.2 write a history of 'people without (written)
history' enables people to claim history. But it will be equally significant to ask
how the very project of writin;: such a history should proceed? It may he
suggested that, the radical intent of such a project could introduce certain
notions of the past in s o far as t t e y were necessary to engage with the present.
As a result of this, the clainling of history becomes not necessarily an
engagement with the past but an Zngagement with the present where the contest
of modernity was taking place.

The second aspect of the ergagement with history was that, in their search
for history, lower castes had to use past selectively, valorising certain moments
of the past. Quite often such valorised moments of the past exist on the
borderlines of history and fictic~n.This is mainly due to the tropes that are
deployed in the textual construction of the valorised elements of the past. In the
context of the PRDS movement the theologising of the slave experience of the
lower castes and the ritual performative rendering of them actually helps blur
the borderlines of history and fiction. The situation of the double hind becomes
more pronounced as they become caught in the dominant paradigm of history
when they attempt to write history that ultimately privileges the national
historieslelite histories. This is a mint to which we shall return later.

Social movement, religiosity and history: Recasting history

The experiences analysed here offer a few points to he encountered by

historians in the context of an alt-rnative to the existing genre of historylhistory
writing. Religion should be considered as a particular instrument to rationalize
the world in the case of the move nent of Yohannan. Through his teachings that
were theological in nature he prcjected the resolution of spiritual and ~ilaterial
alienation caused by slavery and oppression. Spiritual alienation is overcome
when people accept him as the visible God who gives salvation to the
oppressed. This is achieved through a reinterpretation of biblical themes or
through recasting i t in a radically different way. Apart from these reflections on
the power structure of the past, they were equally concerned with the structure
of the society in which they livei. In certain instances, Yohannan showed his
authority to provide revelation to the oppressed in Travancore, by rejecting the
authenticity of the revelations of' the Bible that were intended for a different
society at a different point of time.' This in fact could be considered as referring
to the emergence of a new mcr~talityamong lower castes who had become
Christians, and were bent up on resisting the structures of social power. It could
be considered as a strategic move: to claim agency through these processes and
discourses. Such reformulation of' the social structure and reordering of cultural
practices could provide authenticity to the projects of social movements. But at
the same time. it is important to bear in mind the fact that this was in fact a
highly contested project. It wa:; for the first time that an alternative was
s~~ggested
for the history of the lower castes by lower castes themselves.

A teleological project is traced that enables the enslaved people to

traverse the thraldom of slavery and achieve salvation, while it suggests the
influence of Christian teleology it was highly contested, as at some points
rejection of Christian faith was involved in it. But, by and large, the project of
Yohannan worked within the Christian life world. Here, our concern prirnarily
is to see how the projects of thi:; social movement suggest a different way of
conceptualising the past and whereby radicalising historiography itself. The
possibility of conceptualising the past and radicalising historiography refers to
the call of Yohannan to search for the 'old histories' of the enslaved ancestors
whose history was never written, as they had not reached the threshold of

" TCDR, vol. XXIV. Fch.1914: 15

writing. According to Yohannan there was no one to write the history o l his
race. The privileging of written history and the lack of class of people to write
about them is singularly importartt. Radicalisation of historiography can emerge
from the fact that there is a concern with bringing the most oppressed as the
sub.ject of history. And, moreove;., as I have already mentioned in relation to the
narratives of slavery and sufferings in the previous chapter of the thesis, the
project of history in certain sense becomes ethnographic and experiential. One
major problem that it opens up 1s that of popular religion and mentality. This
process of reinterpretation is ver:! significant, as it includes the history of lower
castes and its reinterpretation that would allow problematising the past and
present simultaneously. This pa~ticularengagement brought in new themes in
the discourses of Yohannan. F , J ~example, Yohannan considered history as
important that helps situate social groups in relation to others in the given
situation of struggle in which there were efforts to erase the history of subaltern
communities. tIe privileges written history above collective memories that are
shared intersuhjectively by the people of the community although they lived in
a society that was fast acquirir~gliteracy. This concern with written text of
history happens at a time when iteracy was slowly spreading among the lower
caste communities in ~era1a.l' They came to know and evaluate the power of
the written word as against fuzzy notion of the past held in collective memory.
But at the same time it should nJt be considered as an absolute rejection of the
collective memory that was a repository of resources for the PRDS movement
itself. Moreover, much of the re:;ources for the ritual rendering of history were/
are drawn upon the collective memory.

It should be noted that Ychannan's project was to construct their history

by taking recourse to the lower caste oral tradition. Their originary stories and
the tales of slave experiences sf sufferings and the eventual salvation were
phrased in that manner. The retrieval of history is considered here as one

"' For details on the educational devi.lopment among the lower caste5 in l'ravancorc see T.K.
Vclu Pillai. The Trururrcora Srrrr Mrrrrriul Vol. 111 Eci~nomic Affairs (Trivandrum:
Government i l l Kerala. Gazetteers Iepartnient. 1996) p. 738
strategy to claim social agency by the subaltern groups. This in turn is
importan(, ;I it subverts the structured relations of domin;mcc and
subordination at the discursive lei-el. One of the prominent issues encountered
by the movements analysed here had been the necessity of writing history or
making the lower caste presence felt in history and contemporary society. As
suggested in the beginning, it should be noted that the lower caste endeavours
to imagine a history and their ;~nguishover their inability to write history
coincides with the efforts to writ? the history of different kingdoms, political
and geographical identities i n Kerala. Similarly, well-ordered historical
information and narratives were considered important in the colonial
ethnographies and they becam? the dominant mode in which colonial
knowledge itself was created from at least nineteenth century onwards."
Without exception, these genres c'f histories considered lower castes as residual
categories. These narratives by and large reproduced the colonial
ethnographical texts, without being aware of the intricacies of the politics of
representation embedded in them. Moreover, official histories of various
political and regional identities i n Kerala did not require reflexivity of its own
categories and projects.

In the case of the Sabha w,: find an extreme concern with history as it is
phrased as a 'lack'. Here, history is called upon to validate action in the
contemporary times. This happens in the context of certain nascent institutions
that it gave rise to. The institutionally validated actions are situated in a historical
context for authenticity. For instalce the modern educational institutions that had
been established by the movement should be understood as efforts at subverting a
history of domination and dehurnanisation that caste structure had imposed on
them. Rootedness in the past-history - and various modes of its narrativization
was considered as the central problem of the movement. As lower caste
communities existed outside th~: tradition of writing, oral sources that were

/I
For colonial ethnographies sec Thurston. Edgar. C ~ r v t eo,ld ~ Tribes of South l r ~ d i u7 vols.
(Madras: Government Prchs. 1905): For a carry over o f colonial cthnographics see L A .
Krishna lyer, Socirrl Histor! of K?r-crlo. Tlrr P r r - D r ~ i v i d i o nV o l l ( Madras: Book Centrc
Publications. IYhR)
repertoire of collective memory w . ~ thought
s to provide insights into thc past. In
their efforts at creating instit~~tionally
validated action, Yohannan !reinterpreted
many of the popular stories of Pt raya oral tradition in Central Travancore. To
modern historical craft this is sigrificant as it helps highlight certain aspects of
dominance and subordination in caste society. In the process of writing the
history or imagining the history of lower castes Yohannan brings to the centre the
system of slavery, a system cen ral to their ontology. To Yohannan slavery
represents an institution that frac.tured and dehumanised the communities of
lower castes by the forcible trade in human beings with absolute disregard for
even familial relations, where by dismembering families and kin groups. This,
according to him, is the central historical problem of lower castes that explain
why they were/ are dominated by upper castes and classes. This, in fact, is a
reinterpretation of a p o p ~ ~ l ason;;
r in the Pariah oral tradition 'Father is sold
Thinthara ....' in which the narrator describes in a heartrending manner the
harshness of slave labour and slave trade.

Yokrrl with o\-err rind kr!ftirlo<,.s

IVc, \t,err2,forcerl to p / o , r g h rhe/irlrl.s

F ~ ~ r l r eisr sold thinthnrn ...

M o t h e r is solrl thirrthavrr.

Collective memory is usec here to illuminate, the historical past that

offers an entirely different readin;; of domination and subordination in the pasl.
Here dominance and subordination bore the inscription of caste hierarchy that
guaranteed its endurance. At the same time collective memory provides space
for understanding the consciousn~:ss of the lower castes who had an altogether
different perception of the power structure of the society, although it need not
be explicitly stated always. This aspect of historical imagination is important, as

" M a r i y a m m a John. Mnr/ikkn,rr Prrrnu (Chaneanasscry: Manusham. 2001 1. pp. 33-34

it is organic to the experiences of subaltern social group5 as they are socially
located as subordinated caste grorp.

It is important to observe how new symbolic orders are created by the

popular religion and the rationality it engenders. Popular religion, following
Bakhtin, is considered here as a c.ollection of attitudes and modes of behaviour,
in a word, as a dynamic, based on the inversion of values and hierarchies; the
corrosive action of laughter and derision, whereby a spontaneous and constantly
demystifying counter system is opposed to the established order and the
established religion.I3 These insights are brought in to analyse the Sabha to see
the inversion of values and hierarchies involved in it. In the example of the
Sabha we find the inversion of categories from its inception itself when the
founder himself claimed to havt: received prophetic power from the high to
which we have already referred ir the previous chapters.

Similarly their desire to create alternative syrnholic order although not an

absolute break from the missionary churches in the beginning rnay be
mentioned. All these had the p2tentials to open up the terrain of the new
mentality of the lower orders of society. The reference to the particular themes
of Yohannan and his special strategies given out to the lower castes for their
salvation actually amounts to invxsion of categories which Bakhtin speaks of.
We have already mentioned in the previous chapter how Yohannan spoke of the
preference that the young ones would receive in the kingdom of God for which
he quotes several instances from the Bible to buttress the fact that ultimately the
descendents of slaves in Travancore would receive the blessings of the almighty
although they were oppressed by the upper castes both within and without the
church. He compares the conditicn of lower castes in Travancore as similar to
that of the position of young chidren in the household and when it comes to
inheritance the young ones receive the special attention of the father. The
particular aspect of deriswn and aughter is involved in some of the instances
recollected of the public speeches of Yohannan even during his career as a

I/
Michel Vi~velle.IOlrolog~ir~~dMenraiin-.
(London: Polity Press. 1990). p. Xh
pastor with the missionaries. He i i repol-ted to have made fi~nof the Apostles
whose teachings he found as not c~mvincing.1-1 The countel- system that they had
evolved stretched to its limits the theological arguments of the Church but did
not reject it completely till the eventual split in the Sabha in 1950 which
happened more than a decade after Yohannan's death in 1939.

Today the spirit of derkion is visible even on the occasion of

Rakshanirnayam particularly wher. they talk about the relationships of the lower
castes such as Pulayas and Parayas to Christianity. 15 For instance on one such
occasion the Upadeshtavu made fun of the attitude of lower caste Christians
who proudly carried the Bible with them although according to him it did not
contain anything on them and many of them could not read the book properly.
Similarly many of the Biblical images are criticised and made fun of for heing
far removed from the lived experiences of the lower castes in Travancore. For
example on one occasion he refers to the Biblical comparison of human life
with that of crossing the desert ard says that lower castes in Travancore would
not have understood this as they hive never seen or experienced a desert. Ih

Popular religious practices cometimes become resource for emancipation

particularly in the case of the lower orders of society. It is necessary to
contextualise the notion of popular religion in order to explore this particular
aspect. It would be appropriate a1 this juncture to recall the problems involved
in the definition of popular religion considering the debates centring on the
theme. 1 may draw up on the dyr~amicmodel of popular culture to analyse the
religiosity of lower castes, that v~ouldexplain the new universe of myths and
symbols that they create in the process of making the new religion. For Michel
Vovelle popular religion is something quite plastic that undermines the notion
of the masses as passive and co~servative,or victims of a coercive, received

I4
For details see K.T. Rcjikulnnr. Sree Kumara Guru Charilhrl~ Rekhi~yil.(Vaknthanaln:
Sahodaran PubIicalion:2004). p. 14 ,\Is0 the Ritual D i ~ c o u r s c s 29
. Junc. ?(X)I
ii
Gurukula Upadcshtavu. Rakshanirnayaln Discourse at Venkottn 16 Septemhcr.2OOI
"' ihid.
message. The concept o f popular rcligion discussed liere is not one based on an
unchanging I-eality. It includes all forms of assimilation and contamination, and
which is treated here as ;t form csf specifically popular creativity." In the other
theoretical traditions, popular religion is analysed to understand the
consciousness of the masses or rather religion is considered as an important
aspect of the worldviews of the jeople. In the context of Dalit religions. it has
been argued that resistance to the domineering religious productions of the caste
communities and creative emancipatory re-symbolization of their own religious
particularities are 'weapons of tke weak' that mark the religious subjectivity of
the dalits.Ix The effort here is to make sense of the dynamism of subaltern
religiosity as distinct from the dc~minantreligious practices but at the same time
showing certain features of Dalit subjectivity and agency in the context of the
making of the religion. I n fact two significant issues emerge from this: one. 'the
new symbolic worldview in the i'ace of severe domination becomes the basis of
hope, not just for their resistance: but, more importantly, for the working out of
their common subjectivity' and two, the 'interweaving' of subaltern and
I0
dominant religious practices. l'hese reflections on popular religion in general
and Dalit religion in particular h.rve been discussed to situate myself with in the
theoretical domain that provides a vantage point to initiate a discussion on the
experiences of the Sahha to which we have already referred to. It is this
dynamism that makes the people to search for their history and make i t a
resource for the emancipatory pr3ject.

The writing of the history of such movements so far centred on several

stereotypes and today a rethinking of the history of lower castes rnakes it
necessary to theorise the recovery and narrativization of pastlhistory and the
problems involved in the proces.;es. The power of written history and historical
imagination were considered important for claiming agency fol- the

17
o,ril Mrrrrnliries ..., pp. 87-88,
M i c h e l Vovelle. 1rleulo~ir.s
IX
. .. p. 125.
Sathianarhan Clarke. Dnlir.\ nrrd Clirisria~zir?.
IY
ihid.. p. 126.
margin;rlized lower castes that is ;~ccomplishedthrough a process of retrieval in
which the memory of the cult'rral practices of the marginalized assumes
centrality. History became an im1)ortant element in the emancipatory discourse
of the Sabha and its formati011 showing the circularity of subaltern and
dominant cultural practices. It has been observed that in the context of the
Sabha there had been an excessi1.e concern with the past-the history. Often the
history or notions of history that are available to the people are reinterpreted to
claim agency in the emergent context. The in betweenness of dalits in terms of
orality and writing during the el-rly decades of twentieth century is important
when one considers the process of history writing or historicising their present.
The lower castes engagement with the present in fact leads them to have an
engagement with history. In cer~ainempirical situations they borrow ideas and
practices from the dominant religious traditions and cautiously piece together
all available symbolic resourcr:s. It would be less rewarding to consider
everything related to subaltern rdigion as reactive to the dominant religion or
social group.

Reconstituting history

In this part we would open up the project of the retrieval of the self that
was tortured and alienated by the harsh and cruel practice of slaverylcaste
complex in Kerala and the eve~tualliberation of the slaves. This retrieval is
attempted through a particular herrneneutic exercise of liistory. History, to
Yohannan was the site where ccntest over meanings and validation takes place.
He identifies this in the contett of the absence of any valid history of the
exploited and oppressed lower clstes in Kerala that we have already quoted.

In the dictum of Yohannan, history is called upon to perform certain tasks

for the present, which is political and cultural. The trajectories of such a
construction is marked hy traverses that enable recapitulation of mythical
constructions of past that remaill in the oral repertoire of the community and the
new hermeneutic exercise makes them appear as valid history. This mode of
recapitulating and writing his:ory was in fact, a powerful weapon of the
movement and which is charactc -istic of communities that have not acquired
literacy to write their history but ~ecallthe oral traditions, in which great many
varieties of historic;~l accounts were preserved. As far as lower castes were
concerned, these histories were. alternative constructions that rejected the
images created by the dominant powers. It is a process that helps to create a
new knowledge and it is that which enables them to reject the constructions of
the dominant powers.

The programme of Yohannan was to retrieve the history of lower castes,

which he thought would bring them back to the active field of the present. It
was the concern with the present that niade him think about the past. Those who
do not have any valid knowledge: of the past cannot think of a future in which
whatever they had lacked in the past could be realised. Here the term 'lack'
means a complex idea that is related to the structural constraints imposed by the
society on the lower castes and not necessarily something which the individuals
feel as ahsence of certain thing:;. Any programme for the present necessarily
involves conceptualisation of the past and orientation to the future. This was the
direction in which Yohannan's ~:onceptualisationof history that involved both
the past and the practice of textlralising it developed. Here, one would have to
think in the mode of the history of ideas in order to situate his articulations that
showed a serious concern with the probleni of historical knowledge. The
historical knowledge is though1 to be the liberator as it provides a new and
different self-perception to the oppressed. It was the practice of constructing a
narrative of the past, which was aimed at retrieving the past in a new form that
made Yohannan trans-historical as a prophet.

At the same time it is all the more promising to see the dynamics of the
myths in the snaking of a particular tradition within the Sabha that considers
historical information as a vital component. The dynamics of the myth refers to
the recalling of the experiences ~f the slave past and how they are imaginatively
recreatedlperformed to provide an understanding of the past. This is how the
particular tradition is imagined which is accomplished in great marly ways by
~tsingboth the written and oral soxces. It may hc suggested that this mythical
mould is something that is still available and present in the discour.ses of the
PRDS. The seamless past is harnc:ssed in the imagining of the history of Adi-
Dravida, the preferred nomenc1;dure for lower castes, in some of the early
statements attributed to Yohannan. The historical accounts projected by
Yohannan were subversive in nature. As he broke away from the churches on
account of the differences of opinion on the caste question, he tried to attack the
power of the caste structure by a ternative constructions of its history. At first
he conceived of a period of soci;il equality and development in the history of
the 'slave castes' of Travancorc: that was free from caste distinctions and
practices.20 He used the generic term-Adi-Dravida to designate all those who
had shared the harsh experience of slavery in ~ravancore." In mythical modes
of history the later fall is attribu:ed to the will of some superior powers or to
certain unclean practices of important personalities of the community into
which they are condemned. In certain cases it might have occurred due to the
trick played up on the bepallen pr,ople by some divine powers or some from the
77
dominant castes.-- In many SUCI stories, we find as the focal theme certain
skills that the lower castes possessed that were indispensable for the agricultural
tasks. In the case of Travancore the physical labour of lower castes and their
skills in performing tasks relatzd to wet land paddy cultivation were very
important. In order to make available the skills of the lower castes they were

20
The hiographies o f Yohannan written decades :~fter his death recall such stories. Cirandhn
(Kottayam. 1983). pp. 12-18: T H P Chentharassery
Rachana Samithi. Srer K ~ i n t o mD~,rirt~
Poykrr\il Sree Klrnrara Grinrdeorrt~(Trivandrum: Navodhanam Puhlications. 1983). p. 17: K
M Ann:~mrna. Kii~!ikril~idrSrep Ki1171<irciDCV<I~I.
(Thrissur: Upavassa~n-Bi-Montlily. ? M I ).
pp. 84-94,
21
According to the version that i s c u ~ e n today.
t tllr Aryans introduced image worship instead
o f the monotheism o f Adi-Dravida;. This was equal to destroying the hitherto achievements
o f Adi-Dravidas as their developn ents were the huon derived from their monotheisnl. The
servants of Gods who took care 01 thc spirituality o f Adi-Dvevidas were replaced hy rituals
and wcre f ~ ~ l l o w ehy
d idol worsl~ipand ancestor worship that went hand i n hand. The
repeated warnings of the servants of Gods were ignored and thus started the dcclinc of. the
Adi-Dravidas leading to their eterral fall, which had i t s own Satan and God. who were hent
upon testing each other. What cane out o f the fall was the decline o f even the ~naterial
prosperity o f Adi-Dravidas that 11cIl)ed the outsider to strike his roots deeper. Grandha
Rachana Satnithi, Sree Klrnliira Deron. pp. 17- IX.
,,
Gynn Prekash. Bnnded Ni.srorie\: (;e,~ralogi~.s of I.,rho~lr Srrvirrrile let1 Cr~lo~r;cilIrldler~.
(Camhridge: Camhridge Universit!, Prcss. 1990). pp. 48-50.
forced to remain as chattcl slave>.The way the lower castes were reduced to
chattel slavery subsumed much o l the thoughts of Yohannan. In his discourses
i t underwent a mythical transforrlation that ultimately tended to he a project
that guaranteed salvation. This interpretation contrasts the dominant theories
that explain the origin of caste or cnslavernent based on caste. This is a repeated
theme in the songs sung during tht: prayers of the PRDS.

In the contemporary discu:,sions on the agrarian slavery in South Asia

there is a renewed interest to explore the particular discourses that were
instrutilental in constructing varicus categories of agrarian population as unfree/
bonded etc.:' The thrust of the argument is to see how the varied forms of
labour appropriation that involved unfreedom were brought under the universal
category of slavery following the metropolitan notions of freedom as the
essential core of human existenc~:irrespective of the historical context. In other
words such arguments identify the universal triumph of the enlightenment
notion of freedom and its artithesis unfreedom as operative notions to
categorise people across the wo-Id. A similar phenomenon is identified in the
universal march of the capital and commodity that was instrumental in defining
the people across the world by stretching the theoretical assumptions of the
capital. As a result of this, it has been argued that the highly differentiated
forms of labour control were brought under the rubric of slavery quite often
missing the particularities of such control regimes. All the efforts at
understanding slavery in the modern context, according to Gyan Prakash, suffer
from this theoretical problem.

The oppositions freelunfree or slavery/freedom are prohlematised in order

to understand the complexities involved. How rnuch was the freelunfree
opposition valid when we con:ider the pre-colonial Kerala? Or do we find a
strict opposition between the two in the colonial c o n t e ~ t ' ? Although
'~ we do not
come across the pre-colonial sources that would provide a perspective on lower

" ibicl.
?I
ihid.. pp. 1-12
castc slaves juxtaposing slaver). and freedom the lower caste oKiI tradition
contains songs that celebrate ;I possible life 'routside the absolute control
imposed by the upper castes undsr the caste slavery complex. In this context it
is difficult to subscribe fully to the proposition of Gyan Prakash that the notion
of the opposition between freelunfree status was more a colonial constnlction
and not valid for the pre-colonial periods. The missionary writings clearly show
that they were mobilising support for the abolition of slavery through their
reports and petitions on the conciitions of lower castes that were submitted to
the local rulers as well as the British Resident. They drew upon several
categories of thought introduced >y enlightenment worldview in the process of
creating a veritable body of information on the condition of the lower castes.
These issues are valid when we consider the problem of slavery and the debates
that centred on it. The debates on the problem of abolition of slavery introduced
in Travancore the notion of frec: individual that included slaves also. The
official proclamations that grantsd liberation to lower caster slaves in fact
redefined their position in the Travancore society and visualised their evolution
as free people scaling the summits of civilization once they are granted
property.'5 The official proclama-ion considered the enjoyment and access to
property as the beginning of civlization for the lower castes in Travancore.
This was projected as a means to surmount the 'lacks' that were created by the
social structure. But in the schem,: of Yohannan a recalling of the experiences
of slavery i n its entirety was nece;sary to initiate the emancipatory programme
although he was aware of the indi:;pensable nature of property ownership in the
prqject. In other words there is an emphasis on the social memory of the slave
castes when emancipatory programmes are thought of and the political
economic dimension of the problcm is not privileged in his scheme of things.
The experiences of slavery were recounted and kept alive as a means of
achieving equality. We have already referred to in the previous chapter the story
that narrates experiences of the sal.ie children who were orphaned by the sale of

'
,-
Memo on the Condition of the Freed Slaves in Native Cochin hy Dewan Peshkhar. 16 April
1872 Quoted in K.Saradarnoni, Erner~e,rreo f u S / n ~ , e('rr.sre. Pll/o,vrr,s of K e m l u (New Delhi:
Peoples Publishing Housc, 1980). p. 106.
their parents that became a ceiitral canon that was recalled endlessly to
2h
highlight the experience of alienation and sufferings of slaves.

The separation brought about by slave transaction and its effects were
reworked to suit the new moveti1c.nt and it was undoubtedly one of the cardinal
themes of the Sabha. The images of slavery and freedom are worked out again
to constitute the discourse that the Sabha initiated. One of the themes that
dominated in the conventions of the Sabha, right from the very beginning of it
was the "subject of the descendants of slaves" and the movement itself was
prqjected as one that endeavours to bring together those who were separated by
the harsh practices of slavery." It stands for the eventual merger of identities
that were separated and dehurnanised.

Fulfilment of the prophec) that speaks of eternal salvation is eventually

affirmed through this process and this is something that takes place in the real
life due to Rakshanirnayam, T ~ o t h uand Trithua Yogams or con~entions.'~

:(I
"Landlords used to chase itwily I rphancd childreo aher the sale (11their parents. What
happens to the children thus orphaned? They w i l l he starved to death sooner or Inter or will
hecome prey to some wild ;~nitnils. Once. three young children were orphaned as the
landlord sold their parents. Thus t t e unity of the family and souls were broken. Waiting all
through, i n the ahsence o f their parents the children searched for fhod and shelter. Unahle to
find any one. the elder child tried to console the younger ones. A t last they found shelter
heneath a big tree. While the two y ~ ~ u children
ng slept out o f hunger and fatigue the elder one
prayed to Gods of the forests and told their storics to the wild animals. Far above the sky was
a female hawk flying and he rcpe~tedhis tale o f sorrow to it. After some time the female
hawk came and settled down nlon), with the children. I t was God himself. who descended i n
the form of the female hawk. I t co~isoledthe children and gave the promise and the word that
she would corm hack to redeem thc:m as and when the lime came. And then shc disappeared"
Grandha Rachana Samithi. Srct. Kurnara Devan. (Ettumanur: Srec Kulnara Dharlna
Samajarn. IY83), pp. 19-20: also see K.M. Annammn. Kuttikalude Sree Kurnara Devan. (
Trichur,2001). p. 93-94.
?7
P.C. Joseph. Po?ikujil Srre K~tnrrr~zrClrrtc Jeeriil~avur>rDursntlovlr171CThiruvalla: Malayalam
Christian Literaturc Society. 1994), pp. 60-64.
?Y
The first convention o f "Kuk.sho liir~iuymnl"was held at Parukkara. which lasted for ahout
seven days. For these seven days ihe discourses were centred on the theme o f slavery. After
lhe Raksha Nirnaya Yopam (Con,ention to determine Salvation) separate conventions were
conducted for the redeelned. Tllis special cnnvention, 'thothuyogam' (Convention o f
measurement) was convened ibr t l ~ efirst time at Marankulam. I t was in that convention that
he revealed what the thothu or nieasurelnent and plan f11r the salvation of the dcscendents o f
slaves. I t was reasonrd that they were doomed to slavery, as their fi)refathers have deviated
t.rom his path. According to Yohannan. descendents o f ihc slavc castes cannot deviate from
the institutionalised 'thnthu plan'. that arc structured for them. K.M. Annnmlna. Klrrrikallrde
Srre Klmrarn Der,rrrz. p p 67-7 1
These are the occasions of sharing the me~noriesof the hal-sh experience of
slavery in the course of which Yohannan revealed himself to be the God who
has come for redeeming them from sufferings.'"

It i\ not productive to attempt a verification of the truth of the above

narratives and statements made during Rakshanirnayam and similar occasions.
History as past in the ethnographi: mode is invoked here and the 'lacks' that the
slave castes experienced are 1:alled upon here to stake claims on the
development in the future. But, what is important is to understand that the
whole project was oriented to ths future, where in the desired social structure
would evolve. In the project of the movement particularly with regard to the
future, deified image of Yohar~nan is significant as he could mediate the
direction of the changes in future for his people. According to the contetnporary
teachings of the movement Yoh.innan is someone who stands beyond history,
who links the world of the human and the divine.

Historicising 'lacks'

According to contemporary social theory, influenced by the

psychoanalytical tradition, 'lack' is understood as incompleteness of the
structure, a result of structural dislocation. It refers not to a subject's lack of a
particular object, but to the failure of the structure to constitute a fully
structured objectivity:'" It is a substantial theoretical question whether we can
understand 'lack' to which the !;ahha refers to following this line of argument.
At a preliminary level it might appear that, the lack referred to in the discourses
of the Sabha points to the subject's lack of particular ohjects. But the moment

2'1
Today his followers helleve that 1c had come to f u l f i l the prolnisu that was p i v m to the
orphaned children when he uppearxi to them as the female hawk. Hearing this all those who
had assembled for the convention. confessed their sins, and prayed ro h i n ~10 save thern. H e
promised thern redemption from sins and eternal damnation that filled thcir hearts with
hopes. They realised that the hulnanity o f slaves were one and the suirre. who were let1
asunder and cast away due to the practice o f caste. And they were extremely happy to have
rcceived the light o f spiritual yearring. which their t?>refathcrshad lost.
a//
Jacoh Torling. Nejv T1~eorir.soJ"iIrscour.sr,: Lnclcra, il.for~Jfr. Zizek (Oxford: Blncku'ell. 1999).
1'. 102.
we consider structural deterniinar~ts01' slavery in the pre colonial and colonial
times, we might gain more insighls. The structural determinants refer to the fact
that the lower caste slaves were tlominated by the upper caste landlords to the
extent that they could not evolqe as significant social group with its own
suh,jectivity even when other sccial groups were by and large evolving as
significant social presence.

The notion of lack is used here to deal more specifically with this problem
and the sites where the lack is experienced. As social agents, who were in the
threshold of change a fundamental lack was identified in terms of history. It is
to be interpreted as a problem pertaining to the very process of constructing
knowledge about the past. If writing of history is understood as a violent and
stifling process with its own deta~ledprocedures that inscribe one version of the
past, it becomes equally compel ing to think of other alternative histories that
were erased in the process. Oncf, it has been suggested, it becomes part of the
prqject of the Sabha to retrieve the history of lower castes who have been
denied historical representation. This engagement with history led them to
problematise the history of Adi- lravidas, whom the Sabha categorically refers
to as indigenous people.2'

This history further unfc~lds in the gradual coming of Aryans and

subsequent destruction of the first Dravidian civilization - Indus Valley
civilization - leading to its eventual destruction and decline. Adi-Dravidas were
enslaved, as they were exposed to the machinations of Aryans. In this, Adi-
Dravida women had a role to p ay as they were lured by the Aryans and thus
fell from their high pedestal, which was kept intact till then because of their
vow to be truthful to their men t ~ keeping
y intact their chastity. But the fall was
to have eternal consequences that led to the eventual loss of their heritage
leading to enslavement. Enslavelnent of Adi-Dravidas has been explained as the
direct consequence of the fall of their 'mothers'. Thus the 'Sin' entered the face

" Sree Kunmru Gunrdevo ( ; e e r l ? u ~ ~(Eravipcroor:

~ol PRDS Publication. IYYh), pp. 2-89,
of the earth through women. l'hc entire history is later on woven around the
practice of slavery. In this mould of narrativising history. what comes into
prominence is a particular parad~gmwithin which the entire histories of the
Adi-Dravidas were conceptualisetl. They imagined a period when Adi-Dravidas
were rulers of this land, when they had kings and Kingdom, wealth, power and
knowledge. According to Raksharlirnayam discourse

'Arli-Dravidtrs were rr I-r11.r that re~rched the re~rith of'

material and spirir~~nl
rl~~r.rlo~~riier~t.
One remarkable aspect of'
their spirituality was monotheism. There was influr ufAryuns
who crsrcl to their ad~,untage the affrction urrd firrtenri~
shokved by the king of the Arli-Dravidrrs. Anrarrs ~rnrlr~ally
inzpln~lterltheir systems onrl Adi-Dravir1o.s were 1iirrrginu1i;ed
Iearlirrg to the fill of' the lrrrter lelrrling to the 1o.s.s of their
.srrperior position nrlrl ~ ~ ~ . s l o r ~ c ~The
~ n e ~~or~frontatiorr
~rr. took
plc~ce in e v e ~ y .sit~-.s,7irit11~~l,
inirteriol trnd c ~ ~ l f ~ ~ r a l - a ~ ~ d
eserrt~rallyo .small ,gror,p fhut r.s<.rrped.sluvery took ryfirge irr
the ,fi~re.st ~,hcrrethey led o 1 r 1 I . The! .s~rh,si,sterl0 1 1
lzirrztitrg unrl food gathering ithou hour atz?, access to the rillage
life. This was the time b .hen the i,aste .sysrmi came irrro heing.
Apart from the socrtrl .str~rct~rrethat s~rpporterl ctrstr
i:anonical tevts came to he prodr~ce~l
Iegitimisi~~g
custe. '"

Similarly, they had established priesthood and a priestly class to take care
of the spiritual domain until their fall that obliterated forever the priestly class
and their spiritual life?' In these narratives, in fact prominent position is given
to spirituality and religious practices that were n o less in importance when
considered in the context of l o v e r caste social movement's engagement with
the spiritual realm. It is i m p o r t a t to observe that along with the struggle for
rl~aterial resources, the problems of the spiritual realm were also taken up.
These aspects of social life were actually the 'lacks' which, the complex

~-

11
Rrrksl~urrirtim'u~r~
di.rmrrnr. (;rrnrkl 10 Ilpur/e.~lt.rllrir~~~r.
41nu1-rrI N Scprr,~~h~r.ZOOl
<<
ihid.
discourses of the Sahha address. These .lacks' are to be located within the
htr-uctural inconsistencies of the s ~ c i e t yrather than anywhere else. I t rnay be
observed here that, the process of transgressing the 'lack' is to be precisely
situated in the structural domain lhan at the level of individual and collective
experience. At the same time the notion of 'lack' is taken up to explain the
problems at the individual and co lective level if we follow some of the verses
current among the followers of the movement representing the tragic plight of
the slave children orphaned as their parents were sold off to different landlords.

Father i s no nzorr ... thinthura

Mother i s no mow ... rhinthar~r

We hrrvr rln one a~lvmore.Thirlrhrrrc~

This particular verse refers to the loss of the family and the emotional
security that it offers. This verse is important when we consider the fact that
the very project of the Sabha was to restol-e the lost family to the lower castes in
other words the retrieval of everything that was lost due to slave transaction.
This is a song which is repeated endless times as part of the ritual remenlory of
slavery and the subsequent orph?ning of slave children. It is, in other words, ;I

story that recalls and situates tht: experience of social alienation and rejection
that had resulted from the practice of slavery. The slave experience is in
contradiction with the immediate reality of the people who sing these songs
now. But at the same time the discourse of slavery and similar themes that are
repeated endlessly resolves the zontradiction between the binary of true/false
distinctions and reality is constructed through such continuous singing. The
people who sing such songs ant1 who participate in the discourses experience
the pain and sufferings imposec, on their ancestors by caste/slavery complex.
We need an approach that would privilege such discourses as the organizing
key of people's lives and understanding which would yield deeper rneanings in
situations where explanations an: multiple, mutually contradictory and shifting.
The present argument is that it 1)ecomes imperative here to consider the nature
of the 'lack' that is to he overccme. In the context of the PRDS movement the
ideas that are circulated regarding the slave experience emerge as central
organizing principle of the community. It may be observed that, we are
referring to a historical 'lack' that grew out of slave experience that is rooted in
the contradictions of the social structure. This extreme concern with slave
experience leads to the imaginin;; of a history of oppression that also springs
from the collective social memor) that preserves the experience of slavery.

Now, let us interrogate the notion of the history of oppressions that are
represented variously. In the teachings of the Sabha, they allude to the harsh
treatment meted out to the 'slave;'. There is graphic and emotional description
of the experiences of slaves who were yoked along with ox and buffaloes and
made to plough the fields. It is through narrative strategy that the intensity of
pain and exh;iustion is made out. The horrors of the slave labour are further
made out, explicitly, in such stories as how slaves were killed and their blood
spilt to propitiate the evil spirit$ that would cast spells that will eventually
damage the bunds of rice fields. The narratives of the everyday lives of slaves
tell us nothing but a history of oppression that the 'slave bodies' suffer, which
is unclean, that requires to be salvaged. The term 'slave body' is used to
emphasis the bodily sufferings that slaves endured on their mortified selves. In
other words the significant point here is to attempt at an understanding of the
pain that lower caste slaves endured and an exploration of it is necessary to
understand their social world..'4

The notion of history is used here in a metaphorical sense as it had

assumed great significance in the discourses of the PRDS movement. The term
history is deployed to generate dc:eper meanings and they provide elements with
which the identity of the people is constituted. The staggering question here is
what the real functions of the histories of oppl-ession that are recalled on such
'religious' occasions are? It is equally significant to ask, to what extent these
sufferings and oppressions could be described history and non-history. It is

4,
For dclails o f the narratives see chal,trr 5
history even to a conventional hisloriographer ;is at least s o n ~ eof them are well
-documented. But in our context it performs an extra function, in that it helps
achieve subjectivity and agency f ~ people
r who recall this collective memory.
In fact, such rationalized critical theorization definitely helps transgress the
'social lacks' to which we are referring. This is accomplished by reinterpreting
the slave memory in such a lnanrrer that i t becomes a resource for negotiating
with the structures of inequality in the contemporary society. It is necessary to
go beyond the questions of functions of history to see the nature of history or in
other words what one means by history. As I have argued in the earlier sections
of this chapter these ethnographic: histories provide materials for the historians
to construct a history of sufferings of the lower castes that are privileged in the
historical perspective that Yohan;~anhad developed. It provides a critical view
of the unjust sufferings that the lower castes experienced. Such a realization
would enable the lower caste movements to provide rational critique of the
power structures of the past.

Another important dimensi.~nof the whole process is the fuzzy boundary

of secular non-secular history Everyday discourse in which history is
transformed into a metaphor makes possible this valorisation of history. Such
histories and historical thinking will he far from being historical explanation or
historical practice that vouchsafe for objectivity of the knowledge thus
produced. The most significant aspect of the problem is the situatedness of
knowledge production that take:; into consideration the experiential aspect of
slavery. It may be considered as an attempt to analyse the contemporary
structures of domination. Notiols like, Adi-Dravida, and discourses of slave
experience rather than providing: well-grounded historical analysis introduce a
fragment of historical experienc':. The Adi-Dravida past is constructed here as
something that is not affected l)y the internal contradictions or stratification.
While the Adi-Dravida theorist:; speak of the great achievements of the past
they seldom remember the fact that such a society depends on classes of people
who should have been engaged in specialised economic activities that in turn
creates forms of social stratification.
 Similarly they dmw upon the repertoire of historical information that has
been generated as part of the state centric notions of history that make them feel
at home with kings, queens and .he royal reign legitinlising the ruling class.
While these contradictions are very live in the constructions of the Sabha it
serves the purpose of questioning some of the reigning paradigms of history.
For example it tries to propose a different reading of the emergence of caste
society in Kerala as against the pr1:vailing interpretations. Such an insight might
help a historian in her1 his inquires but at the same time its ultimate aim is not
historical enquiry. On the contrary it aims at claiming history by continuously
negotiating with the structures of domination in the contemporary society. It is
in this sense that it becomes a history of the present.

Historical texts that have been formulated in such contexts are used to impart
significant religious teachings to the followers of the Sabha. At the time of the
Rakshanirnayam (determination 01. salvation) young people x e initiated into the
Sahha by dramatically recounting the stories of slave experience. This is
contextualised by providing histxies of other religions-Hinduism, Islam and
Christianity-in which lower cdstes were always a dominated people. Yohannan sang:

Like orphur1.s truvt~lled

T l ~ r o r ~ rhr
g I ~peripheries of Hirld~rism.

Like orphrrr~s,L.P frrrv,,IIed

Through the peripheries of Christianity ... ''

Now, as the founder of the Sabha has achieved divine status, he would
redeem his people from eternal lamnation. He is the one who is born to fulfil
the mission of saving the descendants of slaves from the thraldom of slavery.
This representation of history ;is an unfinished journey from the horrors of
slavery to the hliss of freedom becomes an essential element of the constitution

15
Po~iku?ilSrc~rKunlc~rriGurrr Dry,[ Geerhur~gul.(Eraviperoor: PRDS Puhlicalion. 1996). p.
222.
of the identity of the community. It happens due to the trcrnendo~~s
rransformatio~~
of their worldview:, with the uprooting of their social selves.

As we are concerned with the way the people understand their past, it is
tempting to see how they constitute their past through n variety of activities. In
the example of the Sahha i t was in the context of modernity that they felt the
intense need to understand their past or to search for their past which was not
available in any of the reigning forms of history. It was in this context that the
founder of the movement sang th: verses expressing the necessity of searching
for their history. There are a number of similar verses that are repeated during the
ritual occasions of the Sabha that :alludes to the history that has been erased. This
is a powerful statement on the nec:essity of written history that is privileged over
several other forms of non-written histories. We need to examine the status of
history as an academic discipline. This question arises mainly because of the fact
that although in their discourses the preachers of PRDS use the term history it
does not refer to academic histo1.y. At the same time it strongly alludes to the
history of the oppressed lower c.lstes. Academic historians would benefit from
the discourses of the PRDS in the sense it would help them to see the way people
themselves set an agenda for imagining their history. Academic history would
make use of the 'history' provide3 by such constructions as sources for writing a
critical history. This is mainly be,:ause of the fact that academic history is bound
by the rules and methods of history writing and, moreover, it presents its
materials in a language that is current among the practitioners of the discipline.
When the historians write using the materials generated by the social movements
on the experiences of the lower clstes they can write in a more engaging manner.
This would provide an ;~ltern;~tiveconstruction of the experiences of the
oppressed that are otherwise not available. As the narratives of the lower castes
become part of the sources of the historians the search for a past becomes a
significant political act for the former. It becomes a political act as the question of
representation is involved in it.
 The songs of the Sahha that show ;I deeper concern with histol-y rckrs to
the social location of the people who have entered the threshold of 'writing
culture' that reminds them of the si::nificance of the written word as the guarantor
of truth. But at the same time the!, are aware of the epistemic violence that the
written word engenders when it practices simultaneous erasure. We know today
that for historians of all hues, trutt. is important, but their truth is determined by
the social locations and situatedness of the knowledge production. The search for
history to which we refer here was made possible roughly within fifty years of
lower caste literacy in Kerala although it was still not wide spread. It should be
reiterated here that Yohannan himself did not undergo any formal schooling. His
prqject was to retrieve the lost hi:;tory of lower castes and to show the path of
liberation1 salvation. History bec'~mesteleological, an essential aspect of the
project of salvation for the oppressed people. It actually necessitates a conception
of history that is eclectic in the smse that it draws its sustenance from various
sources. It opens up the terrtin of understanding history in a manner
contradictory to the way it has been presented in the dominant discourses of
history. Similarly the question of caste and the negation of equality assumes
significance in the schenle of things projected here.

While this is addressed here theoretically, we recall the experience of

Yohannan who had an occasion to give his bit of history to the Maharaja of
Travancore when Yohannan and his people gave a reception to the King in 19 15
;it ~hengannur:" As everybody xganised reception to the Maharaja who was
on a visit to the plantation distrizts, Yohannan also planned a reception to the
Maharaja and sought permissi~n, which was granted only after lengthy
consultations. Lengthy consultations were required, as it was felt inappropriate
for the Maharaja to meet the unt~~uchables
during his official visit. Finally they
were granted permission to re:eive the king though by that time all the
important junctions of the town had been occupied by others for erecting

ih
W.S. Hunt. 'Mass Movement Phel~ornena' i n The Hrirvesr Fielrl, vol. XXXlX Junc 19 19.
pp.208-217. Also see T.H. p. Chentharassery. Poykail Srec Kumarn Ciurudevnn.
(Trivandru~n:N~lvodhanarnPuhlicu ions. 1983). pp. 5 1-54.
reception pandals. Yohannan and his followers were given the outskirts of the
town. which was the waste dumping ground. They cleaned the place and erectetl
a reception stage spending Rs10001 and finally the king visited their pantlal and
asked Yohannan about his people and to which he replied that they were the
original inhabitants of the land an3 that some of them were actually kings and
queens and belonged to the royal lineage and that they were later on enslaved.
Similarly he told the King that some of them were Brahmins although they are
considered as untouchables. It has been reported that the king wondered on
hearing this bit of history and asked Yohannan if it was so:"

This was an important moment as far as the history of the movement is

concerned. They recall it as triurrphant moment of the strategy that Yohannan
had worked out. He articulated th': idea that the Adi-Dravidas were the original
inhabitants of the land and he tried to put to rest the critics who felt Yohannan
had squandered an opportunity to ask for some help from the King by saying
that the legal heirs to the land a ~ its
d resources should not hold out begging
bowls. What is important here is that this particular notion of history has
become entrenched in the minds of the people. It had been repeated endless
times through print as well as ritual discourse. It is to be noted here that many
who do not share the religious views of the Sabha accepted this notion of
history. Today with the rise of dalit politics this particular perception of history
finds currency among people that leave space for them to construct new
meanings. For instance in the course of the field work I listened to a person
who was a preacher of the Sat~hawho could effortlessly reproduce several
historical documents that conttiined important information on the ancient
history of Kerala particularly related to the rights, privileges and relative
positions of different castes.'" I'his concern with documents and their verbal

"
W.S. Hunt. Mrrss Mormrrwr.. .. p. 2 17
'' One of the informants. 1,lithara Rljasekharan ( I 6 Aug 2001). effortlessly repr<)duced the
cntries in the copper plate documcnt of AURJY granted lo the foreign merchant which is
popularly known as Teresa Palli copper plate. The most important aspect o f the document
pertains to thc references to the prcvailinp castc structure. For a detailed discussion on this
sce Raghva Varier and Rajan I;urukkal. Keral<r r r (Sukapuram: Vallathol
Vidyapeeth;~m.1996). pp. 107.
reproduction in the discourses is an important aspect of the ritual practices of
the Sabha. which reminds people always of the past that they had never
experienced in their lives. It is through such constant rememory that a particular
historical fact reaches the populat. imagination. The version of the past that is
handed down to the people in this manner hecomes a powerful knowledge to
them that helps them to construct alternatives to the existing discourses.

On the borderlines of history and fiction? Mythologizing slavery

Here we may take up certain specific examples that show how history was
understood as a 'lack'. This notion of history interpreted in relation to a 'lack'
becomes the major argument of the theorising of slavery which we have
referred in the previous chapter. The slave experience was considered as the
central deciding factor for the lower caste communities that lived through
agrestic slavery in Kerala. This agrestic slavery has a long history if we go by
historical documents that talk zbout the sale of the slaves hy landlords.
Similarly land grant documents also refer to the grants of slaves to work the
land and that continued well into the nineteenth century till the aholition of
slavery.". But as I have argued ir the second chapter, until the coming of the
humanitarian narratives informed by the protestant missionary worldview we
don't come across narratives on the sufferings of the slaves in the historical
documents. Similarly we d o not t o m e across the much-needed intervention of
historians to engage with this question.

Our problem here is to discover how in the context of social movements

the slave experience was recalled, and made at par with authentic histories that
contests the textual representati(3n of slavery familiar to us as academic

,,I
For dclailcd inti)rmati(in on the condition of slaves see William Adam. The Lrrn. u i ~ dCu.sronr
ofSIa~.er? it1 Brirish IndLr 111 a Series r ~ f Lerrers to Thomas F r ~ ~ ~ .Bu.rtorr
ell Esrl. B? Williai?!
Arlirni. (I..ondon: Smith Elder and Co Corn Hill, 1840) Also see Snrnuel Mateer, Native I.ili:
in Travancore (New Delhi: Asian l<ducational Foundation 1991). pp. 297-318. For an
analysis of the political economic dimension of caste for~nationthat subsu~nedslavery see
Dharma Kumar. Laiid rind Caste iri Sorrth I ~ t d i u . Agri<.ulr~rrrrl luboar br the Mudrrrs
Presidrriq Llrtring the Niitetrrnrlr Ce.rrrcr\.. (New Delhi: 1992. Manohar). pp. 34-98.
histories. This is achieved by fictionalising the history. of slave experience or
by erasing the difference between fiction and history. This was achieved
sometimes by performative rende~ingof slave experience that we have analysed
in the previous chapter. This is reflected in the discourses of the Sabha as well
as in the prayers chanted on ;~lmostall occasions of life. Through such
repetition and ritual rendering of the slave experience, it entered the
consciousness of the people, making them aware of the horrors of slavery that
existed historically. The second and a corollary act to this had been the writings
on slavery, sometimes making use of and quoting from historical documents
that refer to slave transactions. It has also helped i n normalizing this particular
discourse on slavery.40

In fact this recalling of the slave experiences raise two fundamental

questions for research. The first problem is bound up with the acceptance or
rejection of the reclaiming or n:constructing of history that take place when
slave experiences are recalled. This is done on the basis of the evidences
available from historical sources to substantiate the argument. The second
theoretical issue that is equally r1:levant to the present study is the ethnographic
nature of the data that is culled cut of these discourses and how the recalling of
experiences is effected by a people through the process of mythologizing. In the
context of the empirical examples of the discourses of the PRDS the
mythologizing of the slave experience is analogically linked to certain historical
accounts that are available in tht: missionary discourses that have been referred
to in the chapters two and five of the thesis. This analogy, in fact, motivates a
fresh look into the historical accounts of the past. It is in this domain that the
professional historian's role bec~miesexplicit. Here the professional historian is
led by the predominance of evidtsnce and ethnographic data forced to yield to it.
At this juncture it is necessary to ask the question why the historian is
compelled to use ethnographic. data. In the context of the history of the

10
. . . p. 44.;Srer K~mraruG r ~ r ~Dr1.u
M. S. Thankt~ppan.Sr~th?.ur?r r (;rrrhirrrjial . . . I996 Passim:
V.T. Rajappan. Adirna Vyupura , V i r o d l ~ a n n Vilutrrhr~rir~r,qcrlk~r
~~ (Emviperour:
O~-crnr~rkhcmr
Adiyar Deepam Publication. 198f). pp. 12-31. P R I I S Vi.srrkit.rrr~trrRrk12u IPRDS Vikasann
Ved. i 1999) p. 9.
movement ethnographic data pro,/ides information on various discourses that
open windows into the collective tnernory of slave castes in Travancore that
was not available in the written sc'urces. The historian needs to he aware of the
constructed nature of the ethnog;raphic data whenever s/he confronts them.
Similarly another question that needs attention is how to enter the ethnographic
discourse. It is argued here that references to equality, history, slavery,
liberation and salvation etc are the points of entry into the ethnographic
materials to write about the discourse on history.

In the discourses of race, ethnicity, and colonialism there is renewed

interest to theorize slavery in the ,colonial era. The understanding of slavery as a
process and the differentiated existence of slaves on the borderline of
commodity/individual have heen noted as a methodological hreak-through to
understand slavery in the modern times." We are not referring here particularly
to the forms of slavery that existzd in the Ancient World and which have been
theorized in the context of modes of production and transition debates. At the
same time, it is acknowledged here that, forms of slavery that developed as part
of colonialism were theorized drawing up on the discussions on capitalist mode
of production.

Most of the empirical materials that I draw upon are from colonial Kerala
and this might provide certain insights for comparison with other historical
contexts. One of the major differences with the agrestic slavery that was in
vogue in Kerala with that of the: New World slavery could have heen that the
slave trade of Kerala was not of a comparable magnitude. Similarly the other
fundamental feature of slavery in Kerala was that it was part of the caste
formation during the pre-colon al period and the slavc practice continued to
exist even during the colonial pc:riod. Slaves were transacted within Kerala and
occasionally sold outside, with co~npletedisregard for the self and family of the

41
lgor Kopyloff, "The cultural hio:!mphy of things: conirnoditiralion as process' in Arjun
Appadurai cd. Tllr Sociol Life of ;"hB~g.s.:Co~nmodirie\irr I'~rlrrrrcr1Per.s.lirr.rir,r(Cambridge:
Cnmhridgc University Press. 1986 . p. 65.
 -
i .s . . 4: The slaves. according to historical doculnents. werc holight and sold
like cattle along with land. It may he observed that even before the emergence
of a proper land market, slave transaction prevailed in Kerala. We are yet to
have a history of such a relations cf production that was much more than formal
relations of production as the labour process involving the out caste labourers
was not merely creating value but i t brought in worst forms of misery and
sufferings to them. As human txperience, it is deep rooted, being part of
multiple effects of caste hierarch), that the lower castes experienced. Inspite of
studies on agrarian social structure the Marxist historiography has not
adequately dealt with this aspect cf history

This absence of a history therefore becomes the starting point of our

reflection on slave experiences a:; rendered in the discourses of the Sabha that
we are analysing. It is observed here that through its teachings the Sabha was/ is
engaged in a continuous process of constructing the images of the past, which is
not in the mould of a linear n:irrative. This non-linearity is evident in the
ruptures existing in their theorizaion. At the same time it is pertinent to observe
the fact that, at one remove, certtlin textual images of past have also gone well
into the making of such histor~es.Besides these histories, it is possible to
identify 'the baggage of imagine(l histories' that has become part of the history
that they recount. It is through tlijs process of selective appropriation / erasure
and reinscription that particulai. version of the past has been created, and
circulated. This has gone too much in to the making of an identity for the
people who haven't undergone slavery in their lived experience.

In the ritual discourses of the Sabha 'slave experience' has been a

recurrent theme reminding, people always of their origins. These are definitely
memories of slavery experienc-d, but curiously not by the generation that
recalls it today. It is significan to note that there is tension involved in the

12
K. Sarndnmoni. Er7rer~e11re of a S8rn.e Cosre, Prrla!.u.s of Kerulo (Delhi: Peoples Publishing
House. 1980). p. 52: K . K. Kusurn:~n,Slcrver\. ir~Tra,'a,~ror-e,(Trivandrurn: Kt.r;rla Historical
Society. 1973). pp. lh1.173. M~chael H. Fisher. C 1 e 1 ro C ~ ~ l o r ~ i a l i oIlrdiurr r:
Trarrl1er.s r r ~ t dSenlef-s irr Bi-iriiin / I 600-lrP7.5). (Delhi: Pcrmancnt Black. 2004).
memories of individuals where. the personal life history docs not validate slave
experience, while thc collective nemory that pel-tains to the historical past
recreates images of slavery. 111 other words the situatedness of individuals in
contemporary cultural milieu, w h c h is far removed from slavery as a social
experience, challenges the historians to analyse how the visual images of
slavery are created through some kind of 'ritual rememory'. The concept of
rememory is used in other contexts to analyse slave experience. "Rememory.. .
is something which possesses (or lraunts) one, rather than something which one
possess.""i In the context of the experience of the Sabha this rememory of
slavery is invoked at ritually significant contexts and that in course of time they
came to acquire significance far exceeding all other constructs of the Sabha. It
is necessary to ask what happen; to history. As I have argued, 'history' is
imaginatively recreated, through \arious strategies. This situation throws open
fundamentally important question:; related to the practice of history. There are
basic differences between the proc:ess of imagining or recreating an account of
the past through various strategies and the practice of giving an account of this.
In the case of the PRDS movement what one comes across is fragments of
history that are akin to imagining of the past. It is argued here that there is
substantial difference between the practices of giving account of the past and
recreating what one thinks is an zccount of the past. For giving an account of
the past it is necessary that one thinks about it and put forward the claim that an
account of the past is being given. In other words there is an epistemological
disposition for giving account of something which may not proceed from,
existentially disposed to encounter something. Whatever be the manner in
which the account of the past is g.iven, it should be for this reason, treated as,
claims to historical knowledge, and rejected or accepted on the basis of
epistemological rules.

'' April Lidinisky 'Prophesying Bodies Calling for a Politics of Collectivily in Toni M(1rrison's
Beloved' in Carl Plasa and B~.lty J. Ring eds.. The Di.scutrrxes of Slavery. (London:
Routlcdge.l994). p. 193
 In the example of the PRD!;, 'past' itself is mytheme and this particular
attitude to it is existential and niythological. Following these arguments i t is
necessary to locate the twin processes involved in the notions of history
deployed by the movement. It is 3eyond doubt that such notion of history that
are circulated by the PRDS are ex~stentialas they try to create an account of the
past. It is difficult to qualify them as epistemologically determined practices of
giving an account of the past hence its claims to historical knowledge cannot be
sustained. These problems are ve-y well seen in the way different accounts of
the past are given by the people of the movement and the haphazard efforts at
writing the history of the movernznt. These include talking about the past that
helps create images of the past in such a manner that certain textualised
versions of them gain currency among the people of the Sabha. Following this
some of the members of the Sabhl have attempted to write history of the lower
caste communities in general ant1 the history of the Sabha in particular. This
practice of writing history led to the creation of icons of history invoking the
images of the past that was inlegrill to the performative rememory of the past to
which we have referred in the context of the recollection of the slave memory.

I t has been observed in African-American context that if individuals and

collectivities have been produced in discourses, it is possible to imagine
,44
discourses that will produce new ;elves. The experience that I am recounting
here produces new selves by providing a different version of their history, in
which slavery assumes centralit). If what has transpired in such contexts is
considered as bearer of testimon:! through the discourses of slavery it can be
a r g ~ ~ ethat
d the PRDS intends to (.reate a different identity for its followers that
is not merely rooted in the slave past but that is oriented towards the future
salvation that is to be experiencec in 'the era of reign'. It is this expectation of
salvation that makes possible an entry in to the past that is mired in slavery.

What is the metamorphosis that such a history is passing through? It is

beyond an iota of doubt that conventional histories do not speak of en~otional
and somatic 'feelings' as the 'p:;ycho-social history of (slavery's) impact."'
The theorizing of slavery from the existential perspective that I have already
referred to makes the history ti-us handed down appear as "history of the
present" in which the effects c~f slavery's brutality .... are acknowledged
spatially and experientially through 'I-ememory'. The spatial and experiential
dimension of slavery have been observed i n the African and African-American
context that take into account the interactive space that came to be constituted
differently in the context of sla\ery as the spatial dimensions of slaves and
slavery continuously changed. The experiential dimension of slavery is
significant as there were constant shifts in the status of individual slaves as it
shifted between the life of commodity and individual at different points of sale
and purchase. In such a situation 'history; as it is retold by the community
undergoes a processes of 'fictioning'. In other words it is through the
imaginative reproduction of the past that fictioning takes place. This might
provide the necessary condition for a 'critical revisiting' of history. The
revisiting of history takes place ntostly at the realm of the existential aspect of
'the past'. This act of revisit is characterized by collectivity rather than absolute
consensus. Through this process t l e collectivity 'reconstitutes the past, through
the practice of personall social 'narrative or story telling'.

Drawing up on the empirical details from the history of lower caste

communities as recollected in the recounting of the Sabha it may be suggested
here that certain intimate versions of the past is narrated through the 'narrative
or story telling', which is an important means through which past is
reconstituted. In the experience of the Sabha this takes place through the
process that may be referred to as narrativising oppression. This is
accomplished by the fictionalised ind performative rendering of the experiences
of oppression by the slave castes. In the course of the ritual rendering of the
oppression the ritual community undergoes the psychosomatic transformation
by revisiting the slave experienct: of the ancestors. In fact to the co~nmunity

I<
April Lidinsky. P,-ophe.ybl# Bodies ('ullir~gfor rr Politics . . . p. 192
there i.; no distinction between th,: existential and episteniological aspects of thc
'past' on the one hand and an acc.ount of i t on the other. This is simultaneously
part of the discourse of slavery and theorization of history.

Sold ~rndtaken ro djjJ'i.rmt places,

Leavirt~their kit1 ,srot,prrnrl land

Father, Mother and rlrrlrlrr~r~

rrll were forced to lrrr~,r

Leaving thrfimilv

Is it that we see!

I.\ it that or~r,/>tr.?'~

The above lines that recall the slave experience is the core of the
historical ideas that are circulated by the theorists of the Sabha which is part of
the practice of personall social 'narrativc or story telling' according to which
they analyse other aspects of t t e lives of the slaves. The personall social
'narrative or story telling' is some:hing that is repeated on an everyday basis.

Yohannanl Sree Kumara Gurudevan came to their huts during such

sufferings that lasted down to the early decades of twentieth century and
became their saviour. He came :,porting a t h o ~ ~ p i p a land
c ~ kuchrrthorthu that
were the dress of the toiling slave labourers and the same dress is used today in
the ritually significant occasion of the memorial day of the founder. During the
religious services that begin after the memorial hour of the death of the founder
the religious functionaries of th: Sabha appear in the dress of the slave
agricultural labourers. At the same time in the course of the ritual discourses
they recollect the fact that they wg:re not allowed to wear any other dress, and
worse still, they had only the barks of trees, leaves and twigs as dress. Hence

I0
Poyikayil Srrr K~r~norrr
Glrn<Deva Gtetlran~uI.(Er;~vipcnx,r:
PRDS Puhlicutions. 1996). p. 8
the act of wearing the dress of t ~ slave
e agricultural labourer becornes at the
same tirne an ob~ectof memory a. well as protest.

With the representation of Yohannan as God almighty, the discourses

changed to such an extent that there evolved a different type of biography that
transformed itself into mythical httgiography blurring the boundary between the
two. According to the versions prc~poundedby such constructions it was in 1085
ME (1910) that God almighty instituted Suddhikarmanz (purification ceremony)
Ibr his followers who did not have it t i l l then. Suddhi K(lrtirum enables the
cleansing of all the mental and bcadily impurity accumulated over the centuries
of slavery and making them part of the slave family the retrieval of which was
an integral part of the project of salvation." The caste that existed before the
introduction of the practice of Suc1,dhi Kcrrnltrttl was the Adi Dravida community
and only later according to thern, the caste configurations emerged in the
manner we understand it today. It was for the Adi-Dravida Jati that God
descended. How did the castes :ome in to being? The differentiation into
various Jatis such as Pariah, Pulayar, Vedar and Kuravar as the people who
were designated as lower castes could not understand the category of Adi-
Dravida. With the practice of S~rdhiKcrrrtrm they were liberated from the
mortal fears that afflicted them.

Grorrp rivalries also re.novrr1,

Wrath oj Got1 1112d ~larnt~af~orr

to (lr,<lthg ~re~nover?~
f

This situation came into efft:ct due to the damnation of descendents of

slaves. Through the everyday discourses the ritual community is reminded that

17 -rhe notion of slave family refcrs o the hutnaniiy of thc descendents of sla\.es and
alternatively to the mythologised leconstruction of ihe family of the founder that
~netonymicallystands for thc eniirc farlilies of the descendents o f slaves.
-1s
Poyikayil Ge~rh(rr~gal
.....p. 5 0
they werc not originally o d;~mned people but they were cast away into
damnation by the upper castes reducing them to slavery families. Thc peculiar
usage of slave family is importi~ntas i t refers to the eventual break LIP of
families of the lower caste slave: through slave trade. According to the ritual
discourses but they were destined to be the family of the Maharshis (family of
sages) that refers to the condition of being saved. According to the teachings of
PRDS to reach the status of the family of the Maharshis is the final destiny of
the lower castes.

In another context, reflectir~gon historiography, in 'History: Science and

Fiction', Michael de Certeau has observed the significance of fiction. (F)iction
in any of its modalities-mythic, li.erary, scientific or metaphorical-is a discourse
that 'informs' the 'real' without pretending either to represent it or to credit
itself with the capacity for such a representation.'" Using this argument I
consider the effects of slave nar~ativesthat the Sabha circulates as well as the
rituals and objects that pertain to slavery that they venerate. For example, the
veneration of the 'column of slaves' in the vicinity of the head quarters of the
Sabha reminds the tbllowers of the dead ancestors who died due to the harsh
practice of slavery. The logo of ;he Sabha bears the chained hands that remind
the followers of the Sabha of the harshness that their ancestors had experienced.
Similarly as I have mentioned earlier, during the ritually significant occasions
their religious functionaries appear in the dress of the slave agricultural
labourers. These and other signs definitely stand for a discourse that 'informs'
the 'real' without pretending to represent it. Similarly the procession held to
commemorate the annual day of the abolition of slavery is also significant from
this particular point of view. It tlrives home the point that, it is yet another day
in their Sacred Calendar that is to be observed. It may be observed here that
there weren't many significant c,hanges in the lives of the slaves even after the
formal abolition of slavery in 185.5.

I0
Michel de Ccrteau. 'Heterologiei: Discourse on (lie Other' in Tlret~,? cord Hirton. of
1.irerrrrio.u vol. 17. (Manrhestrr: Manche~terUniversity Press.1986). p. 202.
Making of community through history

It may be argued that the pi-ocess of identification and the emergence of

community could be rooted defini~elyin certain forms of social practices. In the
example of the Sabha its emergence as a community even if i t was fragile, takes
place at the level of practice in which history and the peculiar way of its
rendering assumes significance. It will sound strange to hear that history and its
rendition become part of a practice that contributes significantly to the making
of a community. Here the signifi~antaspect is that, because of the particular
way of theorising history as embodying sufferings, oppression and alienation,
the PRDS identifies certain historical moments as ritually significant, though
such moments sans ritual connoration could well remain important to other
genres of historiography.

The existential notion of history that is shared by the ritual community is

situated as the bedrock of practice: that makes the coillmunity possible. At the
same time, we may observe here cifferent realms of social spaces created in the
course of the existence of the Sa3ha. But the question remains as to how the
social space itself is constituted. While it is at the interactive level that we
identify the construction of social space, once constituted, it can generate its
own new spaces. It may be appropriate here to observe that with the growth of
new institutional space, the a1n:ady existing discourse of history became
entrenched. The fledgling instiiutions such as schools, weaving centre,
congregation for prayers were suddenly started functioning like the state and its
functions, for which the legitimacy was sought in history. As contests
developed over resources with t t e state ant1 dominant castes there gradually
seeped in the vocabulary used otherwise by the state. This became quite clear,
when the movement had to negotiate with development and social change. The
movement had to develop langua8;e and practice of governmentality to achieve
such programmes.

The ritual rendering of histcry, posits nation i n a certain form existing in

the past, without social contradictions. But when it comes to the retrieval of
past. as past and history, it is not the non-stratified society constructed of the
Adi-Dravida past that is recalleJ but a history when Kings. Queens and
Courtiers loomed large. What is ir! fact celebrated here is the notion of an Adi-
Dravida past that was untainted blr any kind of social differentiations but at the
same time they refer to the existence of an established polity. This peculiar
situation is, as I mentioned in the heginning the effect of the dominant paradigm
of history that ultimately privileges the national historieslelite histories. In the
ritual rendering of history the Adi-Dravida past is rendered as part of an ancient
nation peopled by the Adi-Dravida communities although the geographical
location of it might change.'" Thele is an uncritical acceptance of the traditional
notions of the past although the el'fort was to create a national space of its own
for the Adi-Dravidas. This kind o a historical thinking need not necessarily be
'

radical although such histories night appear as alternative to the existing

historical knowledge on a particular problem. In the case of the historical
writing initiated by problematising the PRDS and lower caste history they
began with the radical intent of searching for the old histories that have heen
erased and a history that was never recorded as there was not any one to record
it. This is a project that is centrei on the existential history that is in fact the
embodied history of the people. This is the possibility and limit set by the
historical thinking that was deployed by the followers of Yohannanl Sree
Kumara Gurudevan and not necessarily the potentials of the call for a search for
the erased histories. This agend~.of history propounded by Yohannan could
definitely foreground a radical pr~~granime
for alternative historical thinking in
Kerala although the immediate effect of it was not felt in the practice of
academic historians. When they wanted to create a foundationalist faith, as I
have noted in the previous chapter, the movement had to resort to a particular
notion of slavery that was rooted in the perception of their own history that is
circulated among the members of the conlmunity. The community thus emerged
become a community of people who vouchsafe for the historical lessons thus
handed down. If the historical th~nkingand practice had to be really radical it

50
O n certain occasions during thc ritual rendering the Adi-Dravida nation is referred to as lndus
valley and on certain other occasions as ancient Tamilakanr.
will have to question the categor- es deployed in the radical history itself and i n
the absence of s ~ ~ ac reflexivity
h i t can easily regress in to a caricature of itself.

History as means to negotiate the present

Now from the practice of history to which 1 have referred in the previous
section of the chapter I move on to consider how the notion of history is
overwhelmingly present in the claims that different social groups make to the
past. The strategic use of the category of culture poses fundamental questions to
the oppressed social groups to negotiate their claim to history. In many cases
access to a reified culture beco~resessential to share a historical past. In the
case of communities that do not have written history, this problem becomes
very important. It is exactly at this juncture that the question of history
resurfaces. It compels people to create their own histories that help them to be
rooted in their social locations, which in turn make possible negotiations with
the dominant powers in the societ),. We now turn to a discussion of the histories
written by the organic intellectuals of the Sabha.

It is important to see what happens to these historical notions at the level

of writing history. Here our concern mainly is with the practice of history that
takes its cue from the argument t h ~ the
t history of lower castesf dalits has been
erased in all the available histories Kerala.

Some of the organic intellectuals of the Sabha tried to write histories of

the macro category, viz. ~di- rabida as?' It is interesting to analyse the works
that have been written from the perspectives of the oppressed lower castes and
see what it offers to the practice of academic history. Those who wrote these
histories could not go beyond the ,:enerally repeated arguments that invariably
construct greater images of the plst following the colonial constructions on

<I
None of thesc writings could serious y engage with thc existing academic schol;irship on
these problems. For details see. The iissociation 111 Kerala History Publication Co~nmittee.
PRDS and Daiit Ren~~irsur~ce, trans. P. M. Ahraham. (no place. 1996). pp. 5-17: V.V.
l'hankaswamy. PRDS Chi~rithrathil.(Ilhangani~ssery:TASKH Publications: 19x3). pp. 12-
38: Grandha Rachana Samithi. Sree K~rnm~-a D ~ v n ~(Ettumanur:
r. 1983). pp. 11-32.
kingdoms and empires deploying ~ ~ o t i o nsuch
s as golden age before the e1.n of
fall leading to slavery. One aspect that is common to such histories and positive
in terms of its engagement with academic history is the construction of the
notion of Adi-Dravida past and thc singular importance given to the experience
of slavery that determined the social identity of the people. Such histories try to
provide a comparative view of slavery that existed historically in other parts of
the world and the dehunianising and alienating effect it had on the slaves.
Works on slavery1 abolition of slavery in Kerala as well as the transformation of
slave castes in modern times ough: to be placed in such a larger ont text.^'

The histories written by 'he organic intellectuals of the movement,

following the craft of historians. quote profusely from the slave transaction
sources to drive home their argunents. Some authors reproduce the historical
documents of the slave transacticns in their texts to make i t more authentic."
Moreover, the republication of the official document of abolition of slavery was a
standard practice among the intellectuals as well as the movement. Once this
aspect of slavery is written and spoken about what happens to the notion of
history that was introduced by Yohannan'? I think this question remains as a vital
one when we consider the similzr demand for history being raised for various
reasons. What we find in the ex;rmple that I have quoted here is the desire to
transcend a lack by creating certain alternative constructions even though such
alternatives are not free from the problems that were probed in the beginning.

Generally speaking such efforts at writing histories have been remarkable

for various reasons. More than 5ght decades after the search for history was
initiated by Yohannan we corn? across contemporary efforts of the organic
intellectuals of the Sabha to write the history of the movement. While in their

il
K. Saradamoni. Enrrrgent,e of u S1c.t.r Crrsrr pussin^ in^. K.K. Kusuman. Slirvrry in Trururrcorr~
Kerulu (Trivaodrum: Historical So:irty. 1973) Adoor K.K. Ralnachandran Nair. Sla~,er?ir~
Kerrrlrr (Delhi: Mittal Puhlishers. 1Q86). Pir.s.sirrz.
5,
S r c the appendix of historical doc~lrnenlsin M.S. Thankappan. S~rrh\.a,~~.(Trivandrum:
Ra\i
S r r c Puhlications,2001): Also s c r K.M. Annamma. K~rttikulrrdr St-rr Klclr~i~nrDei'irrr.
(Trichur: IJpavassam Publication. 2001). p. 136.
writings they address the questicns of caste oppression and suffer in^. their
fundamental concern is to negotiale with inotlernity. It is at this level that such
intellectual efforts are considered as efforts at negotiating the present. In many
cases the narrative mould of such histories is rooted in the models provided by
the colonial writings. It nray be cbserved that on the fringes of this historical
practice there is evidence of the influence of the debates on the alternatives
histories in South ~ s i a . ~ '

The other genre of history that is currenr among the followers of the
Sabha is to provide a completely mythical account of Yohannan that we have
referred to in the sections dealing with the question of contemporary images of
Yohannan. In the case of such hi:tories everything emerges according to a well
laid out plan that ultimately leads to the prqject of salvation. But in the process
we find the intervention of tht: divine element at each decisive moment.
Similarly since the transformation of Yohannan as Kumara Gurudevan, his real
life as Yohannan is interpreted as inauthentic or as a state of camouf1age"for
the eventual coming of age of tne image of Sree Kumara Gurudevan, which
actually demolishes the radical intent of the project.

Conclusion

In this chapter I have probieinatised the notions of history that the PRDS
movement articulated. 'The starting point of the inquiry was the famous
formulation of Yohannan in whic.h he laments the lack of written history for the
lower castes in Travancore when they were enslaved by the upper castes. The
search for the 'old histories' that he had initiated took him and his followers to
the uncharted territory of the historical past of the lower castes. He had
identified slavery as the central problem that led to the erasure of the history of

1J
'Editorial' Suorl~ukumMagazine. Fehruary 2(H)2. p. 5
<<
V.V 'rhankaswamy. PRDS Cknriikrurhil (PRDS in History) (Changanasseerry : TASKH
Publications. 1881). p. 27 also sec V.V. Swarni V\.r~~,n.sth~~\.erlr Pnda/~a.srhuku~rrin
Soorhakrir?~Maga~.ine,Fehruery 2(H)2. p. 13-21. A good example oC this genre of history is
the recent work. Thr Trrrtll (Srrtl~!.rmz) in Malayalarn that cornhines history and hiopraphy
Gurudevan in a rnytholopised manlier. For detilils see M. S . Thankeppan. Surh?.rrnz. ... / ~ ~ r . s . s b ~ ~ .
the lower castes. His mission wa:; to retrieve the past that was thus lost. His
interpretation of the history of the lower castes assumed the status of prophcric
revelations. In the contemporary discourses of the movement almost all aspects
of the lower caste past are rendered in this manner. Such a rendering is capable,
as I have observed earlier, of creating a community of sentiment.

The experience of slavery a> history is deployed to reconstitute the history

of the community. It is more often than not achieved by performative rendering
than by the academic practice of writing history. In that sense the history that
the community today refers to t~ecomesmore ethnographic in nature. These
ethnographic renderings make possible an understanding of the 'lacks' that
communities of lower castes experience as emanatirzg ,front rhe .struc.turul
problems of .soc.ier~.It may be ~eiteratedhere that through the discourses of
history the Sabha introduces the boundary between history and fiction vanishes
and the fictive representation of history hecomes a reality. This is the direct
outcome of the performative reridering that I have already discussed. At the
same time such discourses highlights the somatic experience of slavery. This
situation leads to what 1 have r e f x e d to as the 'making of community through
history.' The existential notion of history circulated by the movement becomes
prominent here.

In the specific context of .he PRDS movement the existential notions of

history actually creates and deploys icons of history by privileging certain signs
of the slave past. The attempts of the organic intellectuals to write histories of the
PRDS movement should be interpreted as a means to negotiate the present. But at
the same time it should be remembered that they follow the exhortation of ihc
founder of the tnovement to search for their old histories. It appears that history is
perceived as something which enables people to initiate a search for their
submerged past which they think would enable them to become social agents.
 CHAPTER VIlI
<:ONCLUSION

Pvly concern has been to undzrstand the social transformation of the lower
castes in Kerala from the middle c'f the nineteenth century through the first half
of the twentieth century. The mid-nineteenth century witnessed the beginning of
protestant missionary work a m o ~ gthe lower castes and, in the subsequent
decades, thousands of them join(:d missionary churches. A number of lower
caste social movements focusing on both societal modernization and problems
of cultural modernity developed in the early decades of the twentieth century.
The PRDS movement emerged w th the same goals as other such movements.

Making use of materials on contemporary debates on the cofnplex

relationships between the Christian missions and indigenous communities, the
present study focuses on the qlrestion of culture and power along with the
specific question of resistance .which is itself a part of the configuration of
power. The thesis does not fo low a linear interpretation of the impact of
European missions on iridigenol~scommunities. Rather the emphasis is on the
multiple negotiations and effecis at this interface. I have used ethnographic
history as well as the analysis of the discourses generated by the missions and
the indigenous communities. In the first, introductory, chapter of the thesis I
provide the broad theoretical context of the study including a discussion of the
developments in ethnographic history and discourse analysis. In the second
chapter the colonial transformat,on of the lower castes is analysed as it provided
the matrix for the subsequent changes. The most significant effect of
colonialism on the lower castss had been the transformation of their slave
status. This did not lead to the emergence of classic free wage labour as
suggested in traditional historiography although it was a possibility. Instead.
there emerged a situation in Jvhich the 'freed slaves' continued to he under
various regimes of extra-economic coercion exercised by the upper castes. This
extra-economic coercion was legitimised by the ideology of caste. This
ideology still determined the nillure of the work and various other aspects of the
cvel-yday lives of the lower caste:;. Thc slave owner5 were mostly Nairs and
Syrian Christians while the slave. belonged predo~r~inantly
to the Pulaya and
Paraya castes. From the late 1840'; onwards the lower caste slaves came under
the instruction of the Church Misiionary Society in substantial numbers. The
CMS activities among the lower castes led to the latter's exposure to processes
of societal and cultural modernity simultaneously. They came to have a
different perception of the idea of !he good life. This new perception was itself
contingent upon new ideas of wc'rk, time, leisure, thrift, family life and the
adoption of new practices in food clothing, and housing. Many of these new
ideas were central to the n o t i ~ n of 'cleanliness' that the missionaries
introduced. It may be argued that those who joined the missions were
introduced to the Protestant worldview and practices which were important in
the transformation of the lower castes. Protestant Christianity introduced
notions of development and progress that became central in their new social
imaginary. New ideas of freedc'm and equality were also introduced by
missionaries. The effect of such ideas was evident in the desire of the lower
castes to reorganize their everyday lives. They engaged in new forms of
validation of their social selves based on Protestant moral standards.

Members of the lower castes who learned the Bible showed remarkable
acumen in synthesizing biblical knowledge with their lived experience. Quite
often the teachers of the lower castes who came from among their own ranks
interpreted the Bible in such a manner that the aspirations of the exploited and
the oppressed became explicit k i n g the sessions of Bible reading and
preaching. Such interpretations showed their desire to be free from the
oppression and exploitation of th~:landlords, both Christian and Hindu. They
really believed in the deliverance that 'the word' could offer. During this period
the lower caste people who joined the missions also got an opportunity for
formal education. Initially their training was in the vernacular so that they could
read the scriptures. The introduction of literacy had far reaching consequences
among the lower castes, as they rvere able to read the scriptures and interpret
them in their particular context. 'This created among lower castes a group of
individuals who became well vcrsed in prayers and scriptures along with
command in the use of Malayala~nlanguage. The presence of such a cl~tsso f
people was crucial in the rise and spread of movements such as the PRDS.
Those who became well versed in the vernacular performed the tasks of readers
in the congregation and they were instrumental in spreading the message of the
Gospel among the lower castes in their locality. All of this is significant
because it signalled a creative engagement with the ideological world of the
missionaries. This idea of a creative engagement with missionary teaching goes
against the grain of the arguments of conventional historiography that denies
such a possibility.

The presence of large numbers from the lower castes within the Church
Missionary Society forced the missionaries to directly grapple with the problem
of caste. However, this does not mean that all missionaries were equally
opposed to the soci;~lsystem bas~:don caste. Some of them found it as unique to
India and thought it unwise to meddle in it. This ambivalence to the caste
question in fact continued to exiit for some time amongst missionaries. In fact,
some of these missionaries who had ambivalent feelings aboilt caste were
suspicious of their own brethren who were openly empathic towards the
sufferings of the lower castes.

are
'These q ~ ~ e s t i o n s addreised in depth in the second chapter of the thesis
through a critical reading of the missionary archive. The lower castes'
experience of slavery and their desire for deliverance from sufferings and their
quest for salvation were central to an understanding of their social world from
the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The main argument of the chapter is that
the search for social equalit) should he considered as particular fol-m of
modernity for the lower caste's who had been living as slaves for centuries.
Protestant missionaries who hid been working among the lower castes were
exposed to currents of religious ideas as part of movements such as Methodism
back in England which themselves had definite social connotations. I emphasize
this to highlight the fact that the missionary notion of equality was actually
coniplex and multi-layerctl if we consider the way such ideas were constituted.
Therefore, it was in quite a 1nrg.e context that the interaction between the
rnissionaries and the lower castes evolved in Travancore. The missionaries of
the CMS and the LMS were expoxd to the debates on the abolition of slavery,
considered to he a serious moral problem both in England and its colonial
empire at large. They tried to make a case for the e~nancipationof the Pulaya
and Paraya slave castes of Keral: by comparing their slave status with that of
the slaves in the Atlantic World. This is important because by doing this the
missionaries assimilate in theory the slavery that was organic to caste formation
with that of capitalist slavery in the Atlantic world. This was a major
comparative reading of social institutions and practices on a global scale and it
was informed by several ideological factors. In the light of the nlissionary
sources, it is possible to argue hat this exercise in comparison provided the
lower caste slaves the opportunil y to speak out as the rnissionaries engaged in
documenting the lives of the 'Trlvancore slaves. In the second chapter I have
dealt with several such documents in an effort to understand the consciousness
of the lower caste slaves who hall been influenced by these elements of colonial
modernity.

One of the documents analysed that came out of missionary engagement

with slavery is in the form of an interview of a missionary with two adult
Travancore slaves who were tlught in a missionary school. This particular
document had undergone selective printing in the missionary journals most
often highlighting the social sufferings of the slaves. Of the seventy-six
questions that the missionary had asked, and which were in the original
manuscript, the first twenty-fcur were on religion and were left out in the
printed versions. The question:; and answers left out related to the problenls
concerning biblical teachings beginning with questions about the understanding
of divinity. These questions and answers on religion reveal the mental world of
those slaves who were taught in the evening schools run by the missionaries.
They answered the questions 0.1theological issues in their own words choosing
metaphors drawn from the Bihle and also, in certain cases, drawn from their
f ~ ~ noft l common sense. This document is one examplc of the kind of recording
that took place on the intimate aipects of the lives of the Travancore slaves.
Although the missionary who int:rviewed the slaves had his own reasons for
the interview. such as using the information on the lives and sufferings of the
slaves as documentary evidence f ~ the
r cause of the abolitionists, this was also
a moment of recognition of the slaves as persons. Making use of current debates
on memory and history this and similar documents can be seen as secondary
memory, the material with which the historian works. The question of narrative
and memory are important when one is dealing with the experiential dimension
of slavery. The narrative in the document opens a window into the everyday life
of the slaves making visible the dimensions of power. The same could be said
of the other documents discussed in the third chapter that provide information
on the lives of the lower caste :,laves. In the text of the interview, the slaves
emerge with specific histories, ernotions, and pain and, above a11 else, as human
beings who were under the disf:iplinary regime of slavery. This disciplinary
regime was destabilized as many of the lower castes were brought under the
new disciplinary regime of the n~issionaries.This discipline was fundamentally
different as it transformed the inlerior realm of slave caste individuals.

I have further explored the: interior realm of the slaves in the sections on
'agency and power of the wo-d' and 'sin and repentance: disciplining the
slaves.' The 'power of the w o r i ' was significant in the transformation of the
lower castes. The phrase 'The word' i s used in both in religious and secular
senses. 1 am referring here to the transforming power of the biblical word as
well as the formal training in xernacular that was imparted to the slaves. The
mental world of the lower castes changed as they came under the influence of
the written word. At the same time they were placed in a different social time
that was mediated by new institutional structures that ascribed new roles to
individuals. The initiatives of the slaves in setting up schools following the
instructions of the missionary is significant. These activities testify to the
acquisition of agency by lower castes in the social sphere. The question of
agency has been further explort:d in relation to the new forms of discipline that
emerged in the lives of slave castes as result 01' the acceptance of Christian
notions of sin and repentance. While it could he viewed as ;r limiting Factor, the
notion of sin helped the lower ca:te individuals to view their actions in a new
light. The social consequence of this was significant for peoples who were
eschewing the practice of theft, and dedicating themselves to a 'truthful life'
and in a sense becoming acceptable even to the upper castes, if one goes by the
contemporary observations.

New notions of work and time also came to the fore in the attitude of
people who sought to be free from the compulsory Uzhiyam service rendered to
the state and the temples. Furthermore, in many places lower caste labourers
refused to work in the fields oi' the landlords on Sundays, an action which
resulted in their persecution. The problem here is to understand the
consciousness of people who had undergone fundamental change. The central
argument of this part of the the;is is that missionary labour arnong the lower
castes in Kerala went beyond the instrumentalist interpretation o f the lower
castes relationship with the missions. In the fourth chapter I had been concerned
with the struggles of the lower caste individuals and collectivities in acquiring
economic and cultural resources of modern times. These resources included
land, education, employment and in the case of the lower castes acquisition of
honour in the public domain. These resources were achieved through severe
struggles on the one hand and 1t:gislative negotiations on the other. There were
severe struggles to get access to public spaces such as roads and n~arketsas well
as the new ~nstitutionalspace of schools, hospitals, courts and other government
offices. One major feature of the struggles of the lower castes is their complete
concern with modernity. My arjyment is that the lower caste leaders were more
concerned with the resources that modernity offered than trying to acquire the
resources of the tradition that was denied to them. Although the lower castes
had only marginal success in s ~ c endeavours
h the consequences of their choices
had been far reaching. In other words their struggles and negotiations created a
situation in which lower caste masses came to value the elements of societal
and cultural modernity as their fundamental concern. These were integral to the
notion of equality that the lower castes came to internalise. Fro111this I move on
to consider different ways in which acquisition of resources were considered as
essential for achieving equality.

It is i n this context tha: I situate the experiences of the PRDS

movement that form the subject matter of the remaining parts of the thesis.
The fifth chapter problematises the particular manner in which the PRDS
movement articulated the notion of equality subsequently made it part of
their everyday discourses. The ideologues of the movement starting from
Yohannan himself stretched the notion of equality to bring under its
purview realms that are not generally considered as part of the discourses
of equality. This was quite evident in their engagement with the religious
sphere as they subsequently created a divinity of their own to achieve
liberation from the unequal stluctures of the church. This had led to the
creation of new myths of the divine, leading at a later stage to the creation
of a sacred geography for the movement. Equally important were the
creation of a new language ol' rituals and symbolic order that gradually
substituted the symbolic world of the movement. Si~nilarlythe movement
had to engage with the history of the lower castes that led to the
configuration of the notions of the slave past of the lower castes as well as
the particular discourses of bistory that privileged the experiences and
sufferings under slavery. I t is i t this critical juncture that social memories
of the lower castes emerge as a serious question.

I explore these questions in a detailed manner in the sixth Chapter

focusing on the problem of memory and experience of slavery and the
emergence of particular practice of rememoration of slavery. In this
chapter and the subsequent on: I have used ethnographic and archival data
simultaneously to explore the social memory of slavery. The critique of
the dominant society actually evolves initially out of religious ideology as
the founder of the PRDS rnobement stretched to limits Christian religious
notions. With the emergence of the discourse of slavery as the
fo~~ndationalist
c;ltegory of the movement there developed several new
categories through which the collective experience of slavery was evoked.
This process of collective ritual remenloration of slave experience led to
the essentialisation of slave exl~erienceof the lower castes in Kerala. In
other words slavery became a foundational category for the movement. The
moment of rememorialisation of slavery is the moment when the followers
of the movement actually try to go heyond the accumulated burden of
slavery. The 111ost significant thing here is the creation of the new
subjectivities through the ritual discourses of slavery which actually has
parallels in other parts of the w ~ r l d .

The absence of history for the despised slaves of Kerala comes up in

the discourses of the movement that is analysed in the seventh Chapter of
the thesis. The central concern is with the notion of history as popularised
by the founder of the movenent and the del.ivatives of i t that are in
circulation today among the followers of the movement. Poyikayil
Yohannanf Sree Kumara Gurudevan lamented the lack of written history
for the lower castes it1 Kerala whom he referred as the original inhabitants
of the land. In the s u h s e q u e ~ tdiscourses they are referred to as Adi-
Dravidas that included all the lower castes. The Adi-Dravidas who were i n
zenith of glory fell victims o f the invading Aryans and were enslaved
leading to sufferings for centu.ies. The slave sufferings emanating iron1 the
sales of slaves leading to the destruction of families and kin-groups form
the central theme of the d i s c o ~ r s e sof both history and slavery. I t is at this
point that history takes performative mode in the ritual rendering of the
movement. The sharing of such a history is crucial for the emergence o f a
community of followers of tl-e PRDS movement which I have referred as
making of community through history. The social lacks of which the lack
of history is the most crucial is the root cause of the alienation of the slave
castes in Kerala. Through the performative rendering of the past the border
line between fact and fiction :eases to exist and an alternative rendering of
history is made possible which is significant when viewed in the context of
the discussions on alternative histories in South Asia. Here the main
concern is t o s e e how through reflections on history the question of agency
is brought to the centre of the diicussion.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Ethnographic Fieldwork

1997:

Participant observation of a funeral service, Mr. Janardhanan (Member of

PRDS), Neelambara, 26 October.

Fieldwork in the PRDS settlements at Amara, Vengalathkunnu, 20Ih

September.

June

Discourses during the death anniversary of the founder of the movement

29 June.

Discourses of Gurukula Ilpadeshtavu, Illithara Krishnakumar, on the

occasion of the death anniversary of the founder, 29 June.

Discourses on the death anniversary of the founder by C. P. Damodaran

on 29 June.

Participant observation of r.ituals on 29 June, Eraviperoor.

Participant observation or1 the death anniversary of the founder of the

movement dated 29 June.
 Discussion with lllithara Krishnakurnar Gurukula Upadeshtavu of
Pruthyuksha Rcrkshtr Duivtr Subhu at his residence in Chengalam on 16
August.

Interview with lllithara RL?jashekharan on I 6 August.

Sept

Lnterview with Yeramyavu on 13-4-2001 at his residence in Puthuppalli,

Kottay~rm.

Participant observation ol' Rmkshrrrzirnayam discourses at Amara 15

September. C;urukuln Uptrdheshtuvir, Rakshnnirr~crstrnz Discourse at
Venkotta 16 September.

Participant observation of r7trkslrcr Nirr~ayurnat Amara, I8 September.

Rr~k.sht~nirr~ayum Amara 18 September.

disc ours^:, Gur-~tkulaUprrdshtrn~~c.

Ruksht~ Nirrzayanz Discourses by Illithara Krishanakumar, G~rr~ikulu

at Venkotta., on 25 Septemher.
Sresht~J~Z

No,

Ethnographic field work at Amara, dated 17 November.

11. Archival Collections

a) Church Missionary Society Archives. University o f Birrninqharn

Letters, Reports and Pamphlets

A. F. Painter To Durran. 'Travancore and Cochin Mission, Class Mark

G2 1 5/ 0 1908, D0cumer.t 26, 3 I March, 1908.
A ireport of the Trnvancorc Provincial Church Council for the yeat- 1x82.
Document No 58.

Annual Report, Madras and South India Mission Proceedings of the CMS
1856-57.

Copy of Letter from the Reg. J. Hawksworth to Secretary dated 14 June,

1853. C I 2/07/19.

Copy of the Letter from the Rev. J . Hawksworth to Secretary, 14 June

1853 (manuscript), C 1 2/07.'19.

E H Waller to Mr. W S Hunt dated 19 December,l912, Travancore Letter

Book vol. 111 1903-191.5.

George Matthan, 'Slaves ~f Travancore', Annual Report, Madras and

South Indian Proceedings of the CMS. 18.56-57.

J. Hawksworth, 'Questiors by a Missionary Answers by Travancore

Slaves Taught in a School of the C. M. Society 'dated 19 August. 18.53,
manuscript true copy of thc: original. C 12/07/24.

Letter from Bishop of Travancore and Cochin To Mr. Durrant Travancore

and Cochin Mission' G2 I I 5/ 0 1 Y 12. Document No. 7.

Letter of E. H Waller to Idr. Hunt in Travancore 19 December 1912' in

Travancore Letter Book. vol. 111 1903- 19 15.

Letter to Mr. Hunt, Travacore Missionary by CMS Secretary E. H. M.

Waller' in CMS Letters, Travancore Letter Book, vol. 111, 1903-1915.

Mass Movements' letter from the Bishop of Travancore and Cochin to

Mr. Durrant, Travancorr and Cochin Mission, G2 I 1 5 I 0 1912.
Document No. 7.
Mass Movements' letter froni the Bishop of TI-avancore and Cochin to
Mr. Durrant, Travancore and Cochin Mission. G2 I 1 5 1 0 1912.
Document No. 7.

Matthan, George 'Annual Letter to Rev. Chapman Secretary of the CM

Society'. London dated 31 January 1859'.

Memorandum by the Bishop upon the Parent Committee's Grant to the

Native Church Councils', 1905. Private and Confidential. B. Church
Missionary Society Travancore and Cochin Mission.

Minutes of the Travancore ; ~ n Cochin

d CMS Missionary Conference held
in the Diocesan Room Kottayam'. 26-28 February I9 15.

Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East
Fifty Sixth Year. 1854- 18511.

Report of the The Kottayam District Council met at the Valiya Bunglaw
at Kottayam on Wednesday the 23 of July 1890.

Report of the Henry Venn Fund Grant for the year 1886'. Durrant Sec.
CMS to The Bishop of Tral/ancore and Cochin Diocese, Document No.58.

The address of the Maharaja of Travancore on his visit to Kottayam

I-eproduced in the letter. W.1 Richards, Cottayam, dated 15 August 1880.

The annual letter of rnissicn;~ryKoshi K o s h ~dated January 2, 1857 to the

Secretary, CMS, London.

The annual letter of Rev. Cieorge Matthan, dated December 3, 1867

The CMS Mission in Travmcore and Cochin, London: Church Missionary

Society, 19 15.
The Firct Part of Cottayam Iteport, 1835, Acc No.91 0 1 12

The letter from W. A. Stephens to The Secretary Henry Venn Fund, CMS
London, Document Number 14, 19 January 1906.

The letter of Rev. George Mltthan dated, January 1857

The letter of the Bishop of l'ravancore and Cochin from Kottayarn to Mr.
Gray dated 23 January 1882.

The letter of W. A Stephens To Durrant on Technical Education, dated 16

April 1907, Class Mark Q 2 I 5 / 01.

The letter written by A F Painter to Gray dated 7-3-1884

The Proceedings of the Tfivancore Provincial Church Council, 1887'

Doculnerlt No.56.

The Pulaya Question in the Anglican Church, Kottayarn. The

Correspondence on the Subject with the Bishop, and the Church
Committee, in 1907 and 1S09, Kottayam: Malayala Manorama Press,
1910.

The Slaves of Travancore, ir the Proceedings of the Church Missionary

Society for Africa and the Ea:t: Fifty Sixth Year 1854-1855.

The Travancore and Cochin Diocesan Record, vol. XXVII, January 1918,
No. I

The Travancore and Cochin Mission Annual Report 1916

Travancore & Cochin Mission Progress Report 1915

 Travancore and Cochin Miss~onfrom Bishop oI'TI-avancore and Cochin to
Mr. Durrant, at the Head Qu;irters of CMS'. at the Head Quai-ters of CMS
in Salisbury Square, London', G2 1 I 5 1 0 1912. Document No. 7.

Travancore Letter Book, Vol. 111 1903- 19 15.

W. S. Hunt, Community Sch2ols, Manual Type of Education, Proceedings

of the Travancore and Cochin Missionary Conference, March 5, 1926,
Document No. 5, CMS Press, Kottayam. 1926.

Work among Pulayas in O l e h a , Arppookkara. Document 53. 1890.

Journals

Church Missionary Intelligel~cer,1855- 1893

Church Missionary Record, 1856- 1857

Church Missionary Register. 1856

Madras Church Missionary Itecord, 1827-1857.

Rev. George Matthan's Jour~lal,1846- 1869

Rev. Jacob Tharien's Journal, 1856-1867.

Rev. Koshi Koshi's Journal, 1856- 1874

Rev. Oomen Mamen's Jourlal, 1856- 1876.

The CMS Mission in Travancore and Cochin , London: CMS, I915

6 ) Council o f World Mission /lrchives. SOAS Universitv o f London

Letters, Reports and Pamphlets

Abbs, J. 'On Slavery in T ~ v a n c o r e ' .Box No.3. Folder No.1, Jacket C

1847.

Annual Reports of London Mission Society for Trivandrum District for

the year 19 16.

Letters of Dennis J from Nagarcoil 2 1 January 1859.

LMS Annual Report for Trijjandrum District for the year 19 16.

LMS Annual Report on Attingal 1903

LMS Annual Report on Attingal 1908

Report on the work in the Attingal District 1908

Russel J. from Nagarcoil mder the title Cloth Riots Jacket (B) Box 5
Folder No.2. 21 January 1859.

The letters of Lewis E, from Santhapuram, 18 January 1859.

The LMS Report on the work in the Attingal District. 1908

The Mass Movement' in Annual Report of the Quilon and Attingal.

Districts 1915. The letter ~f 'R. Sinclair to W. Fisher' dated 12 March
1915'.

Trivandrum District Reporl of London Mission Society, 1916

c) India Office Library and Records. London

In a Tapioca Garden: The Story o f an Outcaste Girl of Travancore.

London: CMS, 1928.

Political Department (conficential) Office of the Resident of Travancore,

Poykuil Yohunnan, dated 30 7- 19 15 IOR R/2/882/117.

d) Church Missionary Societv Colleae Archives. Kottavam

Journals and Pamplets

Travancore and Cochin Diocesan Record (TCDR), vol. XV No.3 May

1905.

TCDR vol. XVI, Septembe'. 1906. No.5,

TCDR, vol. XIX, October ' 909. No.5

TCDR vol. XXI, June 191 1, No. 3

TCDR vol. XXI, April, I 9 1, No .2,

TCDR vol. XXII, August 1912, No 4

TCDR vol. XXIII, October 1913, No. 5.

TCDR, vol. XXIV, Februzry 1914, No.2

TCDR vol. XXIV, June l(114, No 3

TCDR vol. XXI, Novemtrer.1916, No.5

TCDR, vol. XXVII, May 1917, No. 8

TCDR, vol. XXVIII, Jan1 ary 1918, No.1

 TCDR, vol. XXVII. January 1919. No. I

TCDR. vol. XXIX, December 1919 No 6

'Travancore and Cochin Missions Progress and policy Report for the year
1913'.

'Travancore and Cochin Mission Progress Report', I91 5.

e) Kerala State Archives. Trivandrum

Ayyankali's Speech in the Sri Mulam Praja Sabha on 25 February 1927.

Ayyankali's Speeches in t ~ Sri

e Mularn Praja Sabha. The Second day
Tuesday, 22 Febru;~ry192; and the Fourth day thc 22 February, 1927 in
the Proceedings of the Sri Mulam Praj;~ Sabha, 1927, Trivandrum:
Government Press, 1927.

Education Department, File No. 379 of I920 B 117

John Joseph's Speech, in the Proceedings of the Sri Mulam Praja Sabha.
Dated 28 July 193 I , Trivandrum: Government Press, 193 1.

Kandan Kumaran's Speech, in the proceedings of Sri Mulam Praja Sabha

on 14 March 1927, Trivanirum: Governrr~entPress.

Knadan Kumaran's Speech in the Proceedings of the Twenty Fourth

Session of Sri Mulam Praja Sabha for 7 Mrch1928.

Legislative Council Firs: Session 1099 Thursday I November 1923,

Trivandrum: Government Press, 1923.

Nomination of a Pulayl Member to Represent the Pulaya Interest.

Political Department Book VII, Bundle Number 497 19, I912
 Paradi A. Isaac's Speech in the Sri Mulam Praja Sahh;~on 10 March
1932. Trivandrurn: Governmtnc Press, 1932.

Proceedings of the Sri Mulan Assembly for10 March, 1932, Trivandrum:

Government Press, 1932.

Report of the Travancore Education Reforms Committee, Trivandrum:

Government Press 1933.

Thariyathu Kunjithomman':, speech and others Proceedings of The Sri

Mulam Assembly Travanccre, I" November 1923.

The Census classification in the Census of India vol. XXV, Travancore

Part I Report, Trivandrurn: Government Press, 1942. And Part 11 Table,
Trivandruru: Government Press, 1942.

Travancore Government Ncettu 1004 (ME) 1829 (CE).

f l Malavalam Newspapers

Derpiku, 1 I April 1910.

Mulrryulu Munoramrl, 2 2 February 1930

1. Books and Articles

Ahercrombie, Thomas A. Pnth )v17ys($Memory r111dPower: Ethnogrcrpl~y

trrid History Among trrl A~zdetmPeople. Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press. 1998.

Abhimanyu, C. Ayytrrlkali. Trivantlrum: Department of Cultural Publications,

Government of Kerala, 1990.

Achyuta Menon, C. Cochin Strrte ~Ma~ilrrrl.

Ernakulam: Government
Press, 191 1.

Adam, William. The Lcr~.irrld Cu.stom qfS1avery in British lnditr In tr series uf

Letters r11 Thonrcrs Fo)vell Buxtorl, Esq. London: Smith Elder and Co.
Corn Hill, 1840.

Address to Dnvun Bahrrhtr M. Kr:shntrrr Nrrir Drwcln of'Trcrvcrnc.ore vol. I

Trivandrum, Government Press, 1920.

Aiya, Nagam. The Truvnncore Sttrte Ma11ual.l Vols. Trivandrurn: Government

Press 1906.

Aloysius, G. Keligio~zrrs Enrtrncipcrtory Identity: A Buddhist Movemerzt trrnong

the Tirrnils ~trrderColo~liczli~~~r.
New Delhi: New Age Publishers, 1998.

Anderson, Benedict. Imcz~i~led

Ccmmunities: Reflections o n the Origirz trrrd
Spretrd of Nurionir[isr~r.Lontlon: Verso, 199 1.

-....
.Spector of Compcrrisor~s:Nat;o~zulisnz,Southetrst Asia arid the World
London: Verso, 1998.
Appadurai, Arjun. Moilrrrri~\trt l.trrge: Clrltirrtrl L)iriren.sioir.s qf (;loh(rli:ti~ior~.
Delhi: Oxford University Pn.ss, 1977.

Augur, C. M. C'llirrch History ($?rcivtrncore. Madras: Asian Education

Services, 1903.

Baker Jr., Henry. The Hill Arricrfis oj'Trtrvcmcore und rhe Progress o f
Christiclnity Among them. L'mdon : Wertheim Macintosh & Hunt, 1862.

Bakhtin, M. M. The Dialogic Irn~ginution.Austin: The University of Texas

Press, 198 1.

Balibar, Etienne 'The Nation F o ~ m History

: and Ideology'. In Etienne Balibar
and Immanuel Wallerstein, eds. Rtrc.e, Nrrtior~,C1ris.s Anlhig~io~r.~
Identifies. London: Verso, 996.

Rarthes, Roland. Mythologies. London: Palzidin, 1989

Bayly, Susan. Stlinrs, Goddesse.r crrzd King: Mirs1itw.s cnid Chri.vtint~sin South
lrtdicrtr Soc.ier),, 1700-1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1992.

Rhabha, Homi K. The Loccltiori oj'Cult~ire.London: Routledge, 1994

Bourdieu, Pierre. The Logic. of1'ruc.fii.e. California: Stanford University Press,

1980.

Burke, Peter. The Historicul Ai~fhropologyof Ecrrly Modern Itcrly: Esstr~.son

Percepfion urzd Conzwri~nic~uriorl.
Cambridge: New York, 1987.

Burkes, Timothy. Lifebuoy Mer and Lux Wonzer~,Commod~fictrtior~,

Consnmption, und Cleurzlrrress in Modern Zirnbuh~vr.Durham: Duke
University Press, 1996.
Butler, Judith. C;rndrr Trollhle: Frmirlisr~ir~ridS~rhver.viorrof Idrr~tit\.New
York: Routledge, 1993.

Caley, J. AII A ~ c o ~ l roift the P r ~ s t o r ~ Uiider

t e ~ The Native Churc.h Cou11ci1.s111
The Diocese Qf'Trr~vcmcore,ind Cochin. Kottayam: CMS Press, 1905.

Certeau, Michel de. 'Heterologies: Discourse on the Other'. In Theory urld

History o f ' Literature. vol. 17, Manchester: Manchester University Press,
1986.

----- . The Practice ofEveryday Ltfc. Trans. Steven Rendall. Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1998.

Chakraborty, Dipesh. H(lhitcltiorz::of'Modernity: Essriys in the Wclke of

S~~hrrltern
Stirdies. New Deli-i: Permanent Black, 2002.

----- . Provincilizing E~trope:Post (:olorzir~lTho~tght~ r r ~Hi.storic01

d Dlfj'eretzce.
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Chase-Dunn, Christopher. Glohnl Forni~tiori:Structure of the World

Economy. London: Basil Blackwell, 1989.

Chatter,jee, Partha 'Caste and Sut)altern Consciousness'. In Ranajit Guha, ed.,

Subolter~iStudies, vol. VI. D~:lhi:Oxford University Press, 1999.

----- . Princ.e!\ In~poster:The K~irntrrof Rhtnvl cC The Secret H i ~ t o r )qf111di~1

.
N~itior~trlisnz.
New Delhi: Per nanent Black, 2002.

'Two Poets of Death'. In Timothy Mitchell, ed., (2uestion.s qfModernity:

Contradictions oj'Modernity . vol. 11. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press. 2000.

...... 'Anderson's Utopias'. Diacri'ics 29, 4 ( 1999), 128- 134

Clarke, Sathianathan. Dtrlits trr1,l Chri.vlitrrrity; Sr~hirlter~~
Kel;,~iorlirnd
Lihertrtioir ?7ieolog\. ir~lrld,'ii . Delhi: Oxford University Press, I998

Collins, Richard. Missionary Enterprise in the East with E.sprc~ia1refererrce to

the Syrian Christit1n.v o f Mclabtrr crnd the Resrtlts of Modern Missions.
London: Henry S. King& Co, 1873.

Comaroff, John L and Comaroff, Jean, Etlrnogrtrph~urzd Historic~ul

Imtrgintrtior~. Boulder: Wes View Press, 1992.

.
...
. . Of Revelation and Revo1utio.q: Christianity, Colorzialism, crrzd
Con.sciousne.s.s in South Afrrcu. Vol. I . Chicago: The University ot
Chicago Press, 199 I .

- . Of' Revelation irnd Revolrttio,i: The Vialeetics o f Modernity on ( I Sorrth

Africtm Frontier. Vol. 11. Ciiicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1997.

Dalton, Eira. Fello~vWorkers with God: Beirzg the History ofthe CMS Mis.siorr
trnd An~lictrn(latterly CSI) Chr~rchin T r ~ r ~ t r ~ ~ c o r ethe
f T ~Arrival
rn of the
first CMS Mi.s.sionury in 1816. Kottayam: CMS Press, 1966.

Deliege, Robert. The World of the Untouchtrhles: Paririyrrr.~of Tamil Nudu.

Trans. David Philips. Delhi: Oxford: University Press, 1977.

Dube, Saurabh 'Conversion toTr;~nslation:Colonial Registers of a Vernacular

Christianity'. In The So~rthAtltrrltic Qncrrterly 101.4 (Fall 2002), pp.807-
837.

....., The Untorrchable Pn.rts: Kelii:ion, Identity trnd Pokcer unzong ti Centrtrl
1780-1950. Vistaar: New Delhi, 200 1.
Indian Co~nmrlr~ity,

Engelke, Matthew. 'Text and Performance in an African church: The Book,

"live and direct". In Arnericc,n Ethrzolo,qi.st Vol. 3 I (No. 2004), 76-91
Fisher, Michael H. Co~rrrter,flob~.!
to Coiorric11i.sr~r:
Ilrdirrrl 7'rt11.ell~r.s
(III(/

Settierr ill Britcrirr 1600-IXi'5. Delhi: Permanent Black. 2004.

Forrester, Duncan B. Ctrste trnd Christir~nity:Attitudes and Policies on Coste

ofAnglo Strxon Protestcrnt iMis.sions in indin. London: Curzon
Press, 1980.

Fuller, C. J. "Kerala Christians and the Caste System". In Dipanker Gupta, ed.,
Socitrl Srnrt~firarion.Delhi Oxford University Press, 1992.

Gangadharan, M. ed., Duurte B~lrbosu'sThe Lcrnd ofMulabar. Kottayam:

Mahatma Gandhi Universil y.2000.

A Str,ld~qf
George, Jose. Politicistrrion ofAyriculrlrru1 Workers irt Kor(i1~1.
Krrtttrntrd. Calcutta: KP Bagchi and Company, 1984.

Giddens, Anthony. The Con.seqrrence.s cfModernity. Stanford: Stanford

University Press, 1990.

Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atltrntic Modernity and Double Con.sc~iou.sr~e.~s

London: Verso, 1993.

Ginzburg, Carlo. The Cheese urtd The Worms: The Cosmos oj'u Si,rteentlt
Cent~rryMiller. Trans. Jokn and Annie Tedeschi. London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1980.

Gladstone, J. W. Protestunt Ch~istitrrxityand Peoples Move~~ru~lt

in Kercilo
1850-1936. Trivandrum: Ssminari Publication. 1984.

Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday L(fe. Harmondsworth :

Penguin, 1972.

Goody, Jack. Literacy in the Tr.crditionul Societies. London: Cambridge

Unlversily Press, 1975.
Gramsci, Antonio. Se1ection.v Frovr the Pri.vorr Notrhook. ed.. Trans. Quintin
Hoare and Geoffry Nowell .Smith. New York: International
Publishers. 1987.

Gross, Elizabeth. 'The Body of Significat~on'.In John Fletcher and Andrew

Benjamin, eds. Abjection: Melmcholicr and Love: The Work of Jriliu
Kristevcr. London: Routledgc, 1990.

Guha, Ranajit 'Career of an Anti God in Heaven and Earth'. In Ashok Mitra,
ed., The Truth Unites: Essa)s in Tribute to Samer Sen. Calcutta:
Subarnarekha, 1985.

----- . 'The Prose of Counter-Insurgency'. In Ranajit Guha, ed., Sribolterrz

Studies 11. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Gunder Frank, Andre. ReOrient: Global Erorzomy in the Asicrn Age. New
Delhi: Vistaar. 1998.

Gurukkal, Rajan and Varier, Raghava. Cultitral History oj'Kertrla. vol. I

(From the Earliest to the Spretrd (d Wet-rice),Trivandrum: Department of
Cultural Publications, Govt. of Kerala, 1999.

Habermas, Jurgen. Philosophica.' Di.sco~irse.son Modernity. Trans. Frederick

G Lawrence. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1993.

Halbwachs, Maurice. On Collect.'veMemory. ed., Trans. Lewis A Coser

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,1992.

Hall, Stuart. 'Introduction: Who Needs 'Identity'?'. In Stuart Hall and Paul Du
Gay, ed., Qriestions of Cult~r~aI
Identity. London: Sage, 1996.

Hardgrave, Robert L. Jr. The N,~dcrrsO f Tclmil N U ~ LThe

L : Politic.al C~rltitre
Oj'u Community in Change. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1969.
Hartman, Saidiya V. 'The Time O F Slavery' The Sorrtl~Atltrrrtii. Qrrtrrterl!
Vol. 101. 4 (Fall 2002). pp. -'57-777.

Hill, Christopher. The Collected 1l.ssny.s o f Christopher Hill Volume TILYJ

Religion crrrd Politics in 17"' Uentur! Engltrnd. Brighton: The Harvester
Press, 1986.

Holquist, Michael. Diu1ogi.srn: Bclkhtirr and his world. London: Routledge,

1990.

Hunt, W. S. 'Slavery in Kerala' in Kerala Society Papers, vols. I & 11 (

Trivandrum: Gazetteer Demrtment, 1997)

----- . The Atzglii~trnChurch it1 Trr~~:rrnc.ore

& Cochin 1816-1916 Vol. 1&2 I816
-1916, Kottayam: CMS Press 1920,

---,'Mass Movement Phenomena' in The Hurvest Field. vol. XXXIX( June

1919).

Irshik, Eugene F. Dinlogue trno' History. Constr~ictingSouth Inditi 1795-1895.

Delhi: Oxford University I'resb, 1994.

Jeffrey, Robin. The Decline qflv'uytir Dominunce: Society und P~rliticsin

Trctvclncore, 1847-1908. D':lhi: Vikas Publishing Housr'1976.

Johnson, Randal. 'Introduction'. In Pierre Bourdieu, The Field~f'Clilturtrl

Production: Essc~yson Art und L.irerclture. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1993.

Jones, Kenneth W. Soi,io-Re1igiou.sReform Movements in British India.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Joseph, P. C. The Economic and Sociul Envirunmenr of the Church in North

Travancore ond Cochin Kottayam: CMS College, 1938.
Keane, Webb. 'From Fetishist11 to Sincerity: On Agency, the Speaking Subject,
and their Historicity in the Context of Religious Convcrsion'.
Conrptrrtrtive St11die.s irr Soc,ie!\ trrrd Histor),, vol. 39 4 (October 1997).

Keleiman, Arthur, Das, Veena and Lock, Margaret. ed., Socicrl SujYerinfi
Delhi: Oxford University Pn:ss, 2000.

Kooiman, Dick. C'onversiotz and ?ociul Eq~q~iulify

in Indiu. The Londotr
Mi.ssiorrtiry Society in Soirth Trtrvtrt~c~re
in the rri~retrerzfhCetrtun. New
Delhi: Manohar. 1989.

Kopytoff, Igor. 'The Cultural Bic'graphy of Things: Commoditization as

Process'. In Arjuan A p p a d ~rai, ed., The Socitrl Life of Things:
Commodities in Cultlrrtrl P,~r.spective.Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. 1986.

Koshy, Ninan. Cctste in Kerclltr CThurc.hes.Bangalore: CISRS, 1968

Kumar, Dharma. Lund irrrd Ccrste in South Inditr: Agric~rlt~lrrrl

lohorrr in the
Mcrdm.s~r Pre.~idenc):Drrrir~,ythe Nineteenth Century. New Delhi:
Manohar, 1992.

Kurup, K. K. N. 'The Colonial Lnvestment and the Abolition of Slavery in

South India: A Case Stud!, of Kerala' Journul ofKertrlcl St~rdies,vol. 11,
(19841, pp. 187- 197.

Kusuman, K. K. Sltrvery in Ker uln. Trivandrum: Kerala Historical Society,

1973.

Krishna Iyer, L. A. Social Hi.siory of Kertrla: the Pre-Drtrviditrns, Vol. I

Madras: Books Centre Publications, 1968.

La Capra, Dominick. History rind Memory after Ausch\vrtz. London: Cornell

University Press, 1998.
Laclau, Ernesto. New K<fl~(,ti~rr
0 1 1 The Ret~olrrrior~
of' Orrr 7'irrlr. London :

Verso, 1990.

Laqueur, Thomas W. 'Bodies, Details and the Humanitarian Narrative'. In

Hunt, Lynn, ed., The New C~iltrlrulHistory. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1989.

Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. Monfaillo~i,Cuthars und Catholics in a French

Village. Trans. Barbara Bray. London: Penguin Books, 1980.

Lidinisky, April. 'Prophesying Bodies Calling for a Politics of Collectivity in

Toni Morrison's Beloved' in Carl Plasa and Betty J . Ring, eds., The
Disco~tr.resof Slavery. Londcn: Routledge, 1994.

Logan, William. Malahar 2 vols. Madras: Government Press, 1951

Mateer, Samuel. Native L(fe in Trc,vcmcore. New Delhi: Asian Educational

Services. 1991.

...... The Ltrnd ofchtrrity: A Drscr,ptivr Account of Trtrvancore rrnd its P e o l ~ l ~ .

New Delhi: Asia Education Services. 199 1.

Menon, Dilip M. Caste, Nationali.\m trrrd Commrrrrism in South Indicr :

Mnltrbor 1900-1948. Carnbrilge: Cambridge University Press, 1994

...... 'Caste And Colonial Moderni y: Reading SaraswathiVijayam'. Strndies irr

History. 13, 2 (1997), 291-3 12.

Mitchell, Timothy. Colonising E;i.;pt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1988.

...... (ed)., Q~iestionsof Modernity. Contrczdictio?lsof Modernity. vol. 11

Minneapolis: University of hlinnesota Press, 2000.
Mohan, Sanal. 'Dalit Discourse and the New evolving S e l l Contest and
Strategies' in Krvinr of'f)r~~elopr~lrrzt
trrrd C'lltrr~gr.vol. IV. 1 (1999). pp.
1-24.

-----.Dnlit discntrrsr rrnd the emer(:ing izew self. Corttest and Strtrtegies. Lateral
Studies, School of Social Scit:nces, Mahatma Gandhi University,
Kottayam. 1994,

Noyes, John. Coloniul Sl>(rce.,7~1(11icrlit~

in the Di.sco~rr~e.s
ofthe Gerrnuil South
West Afiicu 1884-1915. Philadelphia: Hardwood Academic Publishers,
1995.

O'IIanlon, Rosalind. Cclste, Conf'ic.t& Ideology Mahotmtr .lotiroo Phule crnd

Low Ccrsie Protest in Nineteenth Centrrrj Western Ittditr. Hyderahad:
Orient Longman and Ca~nbiidgeUniversity Press,1985.

Ong, Walter J. Orcrlity and Liten~c,v:TheTec.hnolo,qizirzg ofthe Word. London:

Methuen, 1982.

Orta, Andrew. 'Syncretic Subjects and Body Politics: Doubleness,

Personhood, and Aymara Catechists'. Americirrz Eth~tologistVol 26. 4
( 1999), pp. 864-889.

Padgaonkar, Dilip Parameshwar. 'On Alternative Modernities'. Public

Cult~rrevo1.11.1 (1999), pp. 1- 18.

Parayil, Sujithkumar. 'Photogr:~phyand Colonial Modernity in Keralam'. In

Manas Ray, ed., .Tf~cic.r,S~,.ruulitycrrzd Po.stc~olot~ial
C1r1tlrre.s:Ptrpersfrottr
ihe Culturul Studies Work:.hnp. Calcutta: ENRECA Occasional Paper
Series, 2003. pp. 96-120.

Parker, George. 'The Challenge: of a Mass Movement: The Problen~sit brings

to a Society'. In The Chrotirle of'1,orldon Missiorltrry Society vol. X X I V
New Series, Vol. LXXII. Old Series.2 1 1-2 12
Pillai, V. R and Panikar, P. (;. K. Ltrrrd Rrc.lrmrrrtior~i r ~Kertrltr. New York:
Asia Publishing House, 1965.

Pirtchard, E. E. Evans. The Nr~er.London : Oxford University Press. 1940

Plasa, Carl and Ring, Betty J. D i ~ c o u r s eoj'Sluverq.. London: Routledge,l994

Porter, Roy. 'Introduction' in Peter Burke and Roy Porter. ed., Lutiguc~ge,Se!f
trrzd Soc.iety: A Soc.icil Histo,:$,of Langucrge. Cambridge: Polity Press,
1991.

Prakash, Gyan. Bonded Historic,: Gerleulogies oj'Lahour Servitude irl

C'olorri(i1Irzdicr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Ramachandran Nair, Adoor K. K. Sltrverj irz Keraln . Delhi: Mittal

Publishers, 1986.

Raman, Ravi. K. 'Labour Unde'. lmper~alHegemony: The Case of Tea

Plantation in South India ' 914 -1941'. In S. Bhattacharya (ed. et.al.1. The
So~lth~1ldltll1Econornj: A,:rr~ri(irzCliunge: Iridustritrl str~rctr~re
crnd State
Policy, C.1914-1947. Deli-i: Oxford University Press, 1991.

...... 'Bondage in Freedom: Colonial Plantations in Southern India c. 1797-

1947'. Working Pnper. N3.327, Thiruvananthapurarn: Centre for
Development Studies (M rrch, 2002), 2-1 1

Rammohan, K. T and Sundaresan, R. 'Socially Embedding the Commodity

Chain: An Exercise in Relation to Coir Yarn Spinning in Southern India'.
In World Drvelopmenf v d . 3 1, 5( 2003), pp. 903-23.

Robbins, Joel 'God is Nothing, hut Talk: Modernity, Language, and Prayer in a
Papua New Guinea Socitty'. Americun Anthro/~ologi.sfvol. 103, Number
4 (December 2001), pp. 901-912.
..-..B e ( , o ~ r ~ i.Yir111ers:
~tg C,'hri,stiei~~i~~
o11c1Mor(i1 Torrlie~~t
in ( I Pti/)rio Neb\,
(;rri12~r~
Soc.iery. Berkeley : University o t California Press.2004.

Rosaldo, Renato. 'From the Door . o His Tent: The Fieldworker and the
Inquisitor' in George Marcu:, and James Clifford, eds., Writing C ~ i l t i ~ r e :
The Poetirs tind Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1986.

-----.
Cultirre crnd Truth Ramtiking of Socitil Analysis. Boston: Beacon Press,
1993.

Saradamoni, K. Emergence of a .ilc~veCaste: Pu1aya.v ofKercrla. Delhi:

Peoples Publishing House, 1980.

Sawicki, Jana. 'Foucault, Feminism and Question of Identity', in Gary Gutting,

ed., The Cambridge Compc!niort to Fr~llcnu/t.Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1994.

Scott, James C. and Tria, Benedict J . eds.. Ever?;da?;.for?~zs

of Peusttr~t

Resistcinc.e in S o ~ l t h - E ~Asiu.
I s ~ London: Frank Cass, 1986.

...... Weapons o f t h e Wecrk: Everyday form.^ oj'Peci.scirlt Resisttince. Delhi:

Oxford University Press, 1986.

Sebastian, Mrinalini. 'Reading Archives from a Postcolonial Feminist

Perspective: "Native" Bible Woman and the Missionary Ideal' in Journal
of Ferninist Studies in Religion, vol. 19, 1 , (2003). Pp.5-25

Seneviratne, H. L. Identity Cor;.sciousnr,ss und the Ptrst: Forging ofctrste cnzd

Comntunit?; in Indiu trrld Sri Lnnka. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Smith, Anna Marie. 'Rastafari Resistance and the Amhiguities of Essentialism

in the New Social Movements' in Ernesto Laclau, ed., The Making of
Politicul Identities. L.ond3n: Verso, 1994. pp. 17 1-204
Soderqvist, Thomas. 'Biogn~phyor Ethnobiography Both?
01- Embodied
Reflexihility and the Decon~tructionof Knowledge-Power' in Frederick
Steier, ed.. Resetrrch irnc/ Rqflr.k~ivity.New Delhi: Sage, 199 I .

Nair, Sunitha B. 'Social History ~f Western Medical Practice in Travancore:

An inquiry into the Adminir.trative Process'. In Deepak Kumar, ed.,
Di.serrse t~rldMedicirle in lrr,litr: A Hi.storict11Overview. New Delhi:
Tulika, 2001, pp. 2 15-32.

Taussig, Michael. T. The Devil and Comrrrodity Fetishism in Solrth America.

Chapel Hill; North Caro1in.l Press, 1980

Taylor, Charles. 'Modern Social Imaginaries' in Public Culture 14. I ( 2002),

pp.9 1 - 124.

Tharakan, Michael P. K. 'Cofti:e, Tea or Pepper'! Factors Affecting Choice of

Crops hy Agro-Entrepreneurs in Nineteenth Century South-West India'.
Working P o [ ~ e rNo.29 I , Tliruvananthapuram: Centre for Development
Studies, November. 1998.

Thomas, Nicholas. Colorziali.sm and Cultr~re:Anzhropology, Trtrvel und

Goverrrnlent. Princeton: PI inceton University Pre\s, 1994.

....., E17tirngled Ot~jectsExchange, Mtrreri~rlCulture, rr~zdColoi~iolismin the

Ptrcific Cambridge: Harv~lrdUniversity Press, 199 1.

Tharian, George K and Michael Tharakan, P. K. 'Penetration of Capital

into ;I Traditional Economy: The Case of Tea Plantations in Kerala 1880-
1950'. st it die^ irz Hrstorj vol 11, 2 (1986), pp. 119-230.

Thompson E. P. The Makirlg r'f Harmondsworth:

rhr English Workirrg Clcr.~s,
Pelican Books, 1970.
Thurston, Edgar and Rangachari, K.. Cr~.str.crrrrd 7rihr.s of Sorith lrrdirr. Val
11. V1& VII. Delhi: Cosmo Pl~blicntions.1995 originall909.

'rorfing, Jacob. New Theories of L~i.scor~r,sr:

Laclau, Moufle, Zizek. Oxford:
Blackwell, 1999.

Turner, Victor. Ritual Procrs.ses .itructure trrzd Allti-Structure. New York:

Cornell University Press, 1987.

Udayakumar. 'Self, Body and Inuer Sense: Some reflections on Sree Narayana
Guru and Kumaran Ashan'. Studies in History 13, 2 (1997). 247-271.

Vansina, Jan. Oral Traditior~:A ,itudj irl Hi,sforicul Methodology. Middlesex:

Penguin Books, 1973.

Varghese, T C. Agrcrrictrl Charrgt! trizd Er.orlonlic Coir.seqrrerrce.s: Lurld Terture.~

ill Kentltr 1850-1960. Bombay: Allied Puhlishers, 1970.

Velu Pillai, 'T K. The Trava17cor?Sttrfe Marruul vol. III, Et~onnmit~Afrri~-s

Trivandrum: Government 3f Kerala, 1996

The Trai,rmcore Stute Mar,urrl,. vol. IV. Admirri.strutioir. Trivandrum:

Government o f Kerala, 1906.

Viswanathan, Susan. The C:hri.;tirlrrityof Keralrr: History. Belief trrrd Rir~rtr1.c

Amorlg the Yakobtr. Madrls: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Vovelle, Michel. Ideology crnd Menttrlity. London: Polity Pres\, I990

11. Theses and Dissertations

Mathew, Biju. Strategies qfId?ntity: The case of the Syrian Christic2n.s of

Kerala. Unpuhlished MPlil Diss, School of Social sciences, Mahatma
Gandhi University, Kotti~yam,1993.
Michael, Tharakan P. K. 'Histor Y t1.r Drvrlopmrr~tE.t-prrierrrr L)esegregtrte
rrrrd Det~orl,strr4c./rdAr~trIj.~i.~
of Kerrrlo' Unpublished PhD Diss, School of

Social Sciences, Mahatma (;andhi University, Kottayam, 1997.

Raina, C. R . Bnsel Missiorl trnd !;orin1 Chtrrlge irz M ~ l u b u r(Unpublished

MPhil Dissertation, Univer:,ity of Calicut, 1988)

Rammohan, K T. 'Mcrtericrl Proc esses trrrd Develop~~tentnlisnz.

Irlterpreti~~g
Erorlomic. Chcmge iil Colot~ialTiruvitamkur 1800-194.5'. Unpublished
PhD Diss, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, 1996.

111. Malayalam Sources

Books
Annamma, K. M. Kuttikal~ideSree Kumcrrtr Devun. Trichur, 2001

Baby and Babu Rajan. Ttrir~tvitl~amkoor

Pruthytrk.rhtr Durvtr Sat~l~ci
Chtrrlthrcrr1z: Poiktryil Yohtrn~rtrrurSesha. Ettumanoor, 1994.

Chentharasseri, T. H. P. Ayytm!cali. Trivandrum: Prabhat Publishers, 1989

.
-.... Pumpady Johrr Joseph . Tiruvalla: BPDC. 1989.

, Pojktryil Sree K~rmtirrrG~lr~cdevnrz.

.---. Trivandrum: Navodhanam
Publications. 1983.

John, Mariamma. M ~ ~ n i k k ~ P,~rmu.

rnt Changanassery: Manusham, 2001.

Joseph, Rev. P C. Poikuyil Shri Ylimnrcr Guru Jeevithtrvum Darshcinuvunl

Tiruvalla: Malayalam Christian Literature Society, 1994.

Kamalasanan, N. K. 'Krittunrrdbin Karshaku Thozhiluli Pra.sthtmuv~irn'

Kottayam: D C Books, 1993.
Kangazha, Vijayan. Srre Klrrrrrrr-c (;urrrrlc~vtrtr;Uiogrciphj.. Trichur, 1978

Nair, Pattam G Ramachandran. Nujcrr Strrn~tdt~ytrthirltr

Ithihtrstrm
Trivandrum: Sahithya Vedi 1987, pp. 1 1 1- 130.

Rajappan, V. T. Adima Vyupuru Nirodhtmnn Vilumbtrrurlgalku Oramukham.

Eraviperoor:Adiyar Deepam Publication, 1986.

Rejikumar K. T. Sree K~imtrrcrGuru: Oru Chnrithru Roo(~trRekhcr~il

Scrhodhartln Publication: Vaakathanam, 2004.

Simon K. V . Verpudu Sabhakulu.le Churithrcrm, Thiruvllu: Suthyurn

Publicrrtions, 1999.

Swami, V. V. 'Vyavasthayude P~thapusthakam'in Soochuknnr , Monthly

Magazine. (February, 2002 r, pp. 13-21.

Thankaswamy, V. V . PRDS Charithrrlthil. Chaganassery: TASKH

Publications: 1983

Thankappan, M. S. Sathyarn . 'Trivandrum: Ravi Sree Publications, 2001

Tharakan, Michael P. K. 'Kerala Charithrathinnoru Adiyalar Veekshanam'.

J ~ I ~ L ~ ~(October
P ~ ~ I 1992).
~ ~ I Ip]).
J 5-9
I

Grandha Rachana Samithi. Sree Kumuru Devan. Ettumanoor: Sree Kumara

Dharma SamajamJ983.

Jnurlol~ade.\anz: Poikuyrl Sree Kurncrru Gnrcc Devrrrl (compilation of the

di<courses of Poikayil Yohannan). Kottayam: PRDS Publicat~on.1981
Poyikayil Yohnnnan Goldrri Lyrir..~.Kumbanad: B P H , I 1 15 ME. ( m a n ~ ~ s c r i p t
of the original)

Poyiktryil Sree Kumtrrir Grrru Delu Geetharrgul , Eraviperoor: PRDS

Publication 1996.

PRDS Visaktrsanu Rekhu , PRDS Vikasana Ved, 1999

The Association of Kerala History Publication Committee, PRDS crrzd Dulir

Renuis.~unce.Trans. P. M . Abraham, 1996.