User:LordKingOfWiki/sandbox/Breast Tax

The breast tax or mulakkaram was the tax to be paid by the lower caste hindu women to the Kingdom of Tranvancore if they wanted to cover their breasts in public. Lower caste hindu women were not allowed to cover their bosoms, and were taxed heavily if they did so. The tax is evaluated by the tax collectors depending on the size of their breasts.

Background
The breast tax or mulakkaram was supposedly forced by the landowning Brahmin king on lower caste Hindu women, which was to be paid if they wanted to cover their breasts in public and was further assessed in proportion to the size of their breasts. . This was perceived as a sign of respect towards the ‘upper’ castes, and the lower castes including Nadar and Ezhava women had to pay a mulakkaram or ‘breast tax’ if they chose to cover themselves. Dr Sheeba KM, an associate Professor of gender ecology and Dalit studies says the purpose of the breast-tax was to maintain the caste structure.

Multiple historians have documented that uncovering one's breasts was revered as a symbolic token of homage from the lower castes towards the upper castes in the state of Travancore and a state-law prevented this covering which served to demarcate the caste hierarchy in a prominent manner and often served as the core locus of spontaneous rebellions by lower castes.

Nadar Revolt
During the time of Kingdom of Travancore, lower-caste women were not allowed to wear clothes that covered their breasts. Baring of chest to higher caste members was considered a sign of respect, by both males and females from the lower castes. Higher-class women covered both breasts and shoulders, whereas lower castes including Nadar and Ezhava women were not permitted to cover their breasts, to show their low status. They had to pay thr mulakkaram or a breast tax if they chose to cover themselves depending on the proportion to the size of their breasts.

Uneasy with their social status, a large number of Nadars embraced Christianity, and started to wear long cloths. When many more Nadar women turned to Christianity, many Hindu Nadar women also started to wear the Nair breast cloth.

In 1813, A British dewan in the Travancore court, issued an order permitting women converted to Christianity to wear upper cloth. The order was withdrawn when members of the Raja's council argued that this right would obliterate caste-differences, and lead to widespread pollution in the state. This led to increasing violence in the 1820s against Nadar women, and also the burning of schools and churches.

On 1859, under pressure from the Madras Governor, the king issued the right for all Nadar women to cover their breasts Yet they were still not allowed in the style of the higher-class women which the nadar women did not follow and it offended some higher caste Hindus. The code was still discriminatory until 1915–1916

The story of Nangeli
Nangeli is an Ezhava woman who lived in the early 19th century at Cherthala in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore in India and supposedly, cut off her breasts in an effort to protest against the caste-based breast tax.

The village officer of Travancore, came to her home to survey her breasts and collect the breast tax. Nangeli revolted against the harassment; chopping off her breasts and presenting them to him in a plantain leaf. She died soon from loss of blood. Nangeli's husband, Chirukandan, seeing her mutilated body was overcome by grief and jumped into her funeral pyre - in what was supposedly the first male sati.

Following the death of Nangeli, a series of people's movements were set off. The breast tax system was ultimately annulled in Travancore, soon afterwards and the place she lived had came to be known as Mulachiparambu (meaning land of the breasted woman).