The Mulakaram or ‘breast-tax’ was paidby lowercaste and untouchable women to cover their breasts.
Yes, it was real and was one of the ugliest by-products of the heinous caste system prevalent in India in the early 1800s.
The “breast-tax” system was imposed by the king of the erstwhile State of Travancore, one of the 550 princely states that existed in the British ruled India.
Women from lower castes were not allowed to cover their breasts and were taxed heavily if they did so.
The royal officials of the king would travel door to door, collecting this breast tax from lower caste women who had passed puberty. The amount of tax collected would depend on the size of the breasts.
The tax collector would examine it by touching it with bare hands and calculate the tax depend upon the size.
And the purpose of this tax collection was only to humiliate the lower castes. The upper-class women were allowed to cover their breasts and no such restrictions were imposed on them. These were the times, during which a person’s social status was decided based on their caste and this required a clear identification of the person basely on their way of dressing.
As Dr. Sheeba KM, an associate Professor of Gender Ecology and Dalit studies at the Shri Shankaracharya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya in Kerala, India tells us,
“The purpose of the breast-tax was to maintain the caste structure and nothing else. Clothing was considered a sign of wealth and prosperity and the poor and the lower-castes were simply not entitled to it.”
And in his book, ‘Native Life in Travancore’, author Samuel Mateer talks about a list of almost 110 extra taxes imposed only on lower castes by the princely state. It was a system that ensured that the lower castes remain always at the lowest rung of the ladder while the upper castes thrived. The “breast-tax”, he says was one of the worst of these taxes.
The Rebellion of the Lower Castes
The discontent against this continuous injustice was already brewing for quite some time and it reached a crescendo in 1859 when two lower caste women were stripped in public by Travancore officials for wearing upper body clothes. The two women were then hung on a tree in front of everyone as a lesson.
“Enough is enough”, said a brave woman called Nangeli who decided to stop this injustice, once and for all. Nangeli belonged to the Ezhava caste in Kerala whose people were one of the victims of this heinous tax.
It is said that, when the tax collector arrived at her house to collect money, instead of placing the money, she cut off her breasts with a sickle knife and presented it to him on a plantain leaf.
Her body succumbed to the excessive bleeding and she died the same day. Her distraught husband also committed suicide by jumping into her funeral pyre.
The death of Nangeli instigated the brewing revolt like wildfire and resulted in huge protests by locals in Travancore kingdom against the king. The king fearing for his life, and under the pressure of governor of Madras presidency, was forced to grant rights for all women to wear upper body clothes in 1924.
Her selfless act finally, brought a century-old brutal tradition to an end. The place in which she protested and cut her breasts is now called Mulachiparambu meaning ‘the breast woman’s plot’.
As Maniyan Velu, her cousin’s great-grand-son, rightly says
“Her act was selfless, a sacrifice to benefit all the women of Travancore, and ultimately forced the King to roll back the breast-tax".
Nangeli’s Legacy Still Lives On
The story of Nangeli is again being brought back to life by a local artist Murali.
Five years ago, when he was flipping through an in-house magazine of a local bank, he stumbled on a small report about Nangeli, written by a native from her area.
Fascinated by the story, he made his way to the small sleepy town called Mulachhipuram or ‘the land of the woman with breasts’. He was so moved by Nangeli’s story he decided toimmortalize her by his paintings.
His three paintings of Nangeli have now been published in the book, Amana — The Hidden Pictures of History and he has also held 15 exhibitions of his paintings across Kerala and other parts of India.
As Murali proudly says about his mission,
“If I can get the people to take notice, that may help convince the government to include this important act as part of our official history.”
Yes, such women are rare, an aberration, whose path-breaking acts are never ever approved by society at large. But thanks to such women and their brave acts only, the women of today are reaping the benefits of gender equality to a large extent. The sacrifice of women like Nangeli should neither be forgotten nor ever downplayed in the years to come.
As Joan of Arc has rightly said,
“A strong woman stands up for herself. A stronger woman stands up for everybody else.”
