Remembering Mahatma Ayyankali on his 79th death anniversary
June 18 happens to be the death anniversary of Mahatma Ayyankali. We try to remember him at a historic moment when protests are raging globally to uninstall statues of cultural icons who may have had a hand in the institution of slavery; though it may be unfair to judge the legacy of someone who was a product of their times with the much more nuanced and egalitarian moral compass of the day. But those icons who continue to be exemplary for the democratic sensibilities of today will have an enduring legacy eluding the trappings of the time or the era we live in.
In a similar vein, I attempt a reappraisal of the legacy of Mahatma Ayyankali – the first organic Dalit leader of Kerala who lived through the fag end of late 19th century and early 20th century in Southern Kerala, whose legacy had to strenuously enter the hallowed portals of History after the social historians of his own downtrodden community had to venture into the art of history writing and retrieve the icon in him. I ascertain that there are two major reasons for this.
Firstly, unlike his fellow renaissance man Naanu Asan (more popularly known as SreeNarayana Guru) there was a dearth of educated disciples to theorize, contextualize and record in written script his words and deeds. For Naanu Asan , there was Mithavathi C Krishnan(who had earned a law degree), Kumaran Asan (one of the foremost poets of Malayalam language), Sahodaran Ayyappan( a rationalist ,poet and one of the major proponents of Ambedkarite-thought in Kerala) where as Mahatma Ayyankali had none. Both birth and death anniversary of Naanu Asan are state government holidays while those of Mahatma Ayyankali are commemorated only in Dalit countercultural spaces. The first book-length biography of this champion of the downtrodden was published only in the year 1979 by THP Chentharashery. Secondly Marxists/Left learning social and academic historians had a dispositional eye for overlooking anti-caste struggles of Kerala and failed to deliberate on Mahatma Ayyankali’s brave initiatives to organize one of the first ever worker’s strike in recorded history. There is even a heinous evidence of Mr. EMS feigning his ignorance of Mahatma Ayyankali on the eve of his book on Kerala history. The students of history await a much more comprehensive intellectual biography of Mahatma Ayyankali, not to forget that such readings have to ascertain and construct legacies for Poykayil Appachan, KP Vallon, Dakshayini Velayudhan and yet to be discovered icons from cultural geography of Northern Kerala.
There are many aspects of Mahatma Ayyankali’s praxis that are exemplary to this day’s evolved sensibility when compared to that of another “Mahatma” ; Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.-whose is under criticism for his alleged racist viewpoints in South Africa and other African countries.
Firstly he protested the lack of access to public roads for Dalits . Borrowing a phrase from a reputed Bahujan poet PJ Benoy-“he was the light from the dynamo of his body” when he drove a bullock cart to yoke us through a path of renaissance.
Secondly transcended the notion of sub-castes and worked towards a “community-formation” within what is today known as Dalit. This has not been achieved by many subaltern political organizers to this day. Most Dalit organizations today have their cadres drawn from a single major Dalit caste and is not inclusive with respect to lesser organized sub-castes of Dalit communities. Mahatma Ayyankali’s organization was named Sadhu Jana Pariapala Sangham (SJPS)
He stoked the flames of protest demanding school-entry to toddlers of erstwhile untouchables when scorching un-touchability was prevalent in those times. This brave act of protest extended for about a year and the demand was not for separate schools for Dalit students, but unhindered entry into state owned schools. This Mahatma had the foresight to ensure that Dalits do not miss the train of modernity.
Recently the Kerala state government had renamed VJT Hall after Mahatma Ayyankali though most of his emancipator vision has been brushed under the carpet like land for Dalits, access to public education for Dalit, Dalit-Bahujans and others who had been denied till now,
Though statues and public institutions are nerve centers of our society and civilization and it was only after a massive movement that many public institutions and landmarks were re-named after subaltern icons and there is a flip-side to a mere renaming.
When the demands raised by Mahatma Ayyankali have not met their fruition, a mere renaming of a public hall at the heart of the state capital could result in a “safety-valve” to dampen the urgency for various human rights demands of the erstwhile untouchables. There are only a handful of aided-educational institutions owned or privately managed by Ambedkarite or Dalit caste organizations, , extreme “land-hunger” that Dalits and Tribals endure and accentuated by the failure of coordinated protests at Chengara, Arippa etc and none of the universities of Kerala ever had a Dalit Vice-Chancellor even when there were innumerable qualified academicians from this downtrodden community. Lets hope a new normal post all theses social struggles
