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2022-01-03T18:29:30Z

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{{Use Indian English|date=May 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}
The village-legend of '''Nangeli''' is about 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 a caste-based "[[Breast Tax|breast tax]]".

Widely viewed as an urban legend among scholarly circles, the story of Nangeli has gained widespread attention since the publication of a 2016 BBC Asia article on it.<ref name="bbc">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36891356|title=The woman who cut off her breasts to protest a tax|date=28 July 2016|website=BBC News}}</ref><ref name="newsminute">{{Cite news|work=The News Minute|url=https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/dress-code-repression-keralas-history-breast-tax-avarna-women-48982|title=Dress code repression: Kerala's history of breast tax for Avarna women}}</ref>

Many historians have registered this incident and India's [[Central Board of Secondary Education]] has treated this incident in a syllabus intended for class IX students in social sciences, in a section entitled ''Caste, Conflict and Dress Change''.. The article was later removed on account of an order by the [[Madras High Court]] judging it "misinterpreted historical authenticity arising from a fictional work based on the subject" in addition to falling under "objectionable content" and "hate speech" against persons of certain states and certain [[Caste system in India|communities]].<ref name="bbc"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thewire.in/education/cbse-removed-history-womens-caste-struggle|title=The CBSE Just Removed an Entire History of Women's Caste Struggle|website=The Wire|access-date=2019-08-10}}</ref><ref name="manu">{{Cite book|title=The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin: Tales from Indian History|last=S. Pillai|first=Manu|publisher=Westland Publications Private Limited|year=2019|isbn=9789388689786|location=Chennai|chapter=The woman with no breasts|author-link=Manu S. Pillai|chapter-url=http://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/the-woman-who-cut-off-her-breasts/article17324549.ece}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qutzDQAAQBAJ|title=Coromandel : A personal history of South India|last=Allen|first=Charles|publisher=Little, Brown|year=2017|isbn=9781408705391|location=London|pages=285|oclc=1012741451}}</ref>

==Legend==
According to the popular narrative, in the early years of the 19th century, the ''pravathiyar'' (village officer) of Travancore came to Nangeli's home to survey her breasts and collect the breast tax.<ref name="manu" /> Nangeli revolted against the harassment; chopping off her breasts and presenting them to him in a [[plantain leaf]].<ref name="TH">{{cite news|title=200 years on, her sacrifice only a fading memory|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/200-years-on-nangelis-sacrifice-only-a-fading-memory/article5255026.ece|newspaper=The Hindu|date=21 October 2013|first=Nidhi|last=Surendranath|access-date=15 April 2017}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/She-died-fighting-breast-tax-her-name-lives-on/articleshow/51283819.cms|title=She died fighting 'breast tax', her name lives on|last=Singh|first=Vijay|date=7 March 2016|website=Times of India|access-date=15 April 2017}}</ref><ref name="manu" /> She died soon from loss of blood<ref name="manu" /> and her husband Chirukandan, seeing her mutilated body was overcome by grief and [[sati (practice)|jumped into her]] funeral [[pyre]] - in what was supposedly the first male [[Sati (practice)|sati]].<ref name="bbc" /> The couple was childless.<ref name="manu" />

Following the death of Nangeli, a series of people's movements apparently set off and similar folk-lores have been noted.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cBcwAQAAIAAJ|title=The encyclopaedia of Dravidian tribes|publisher=[[International School of Dravidian Linguistics]]|year=1996|volume=2|pages=198|isbn=9788185692166|language=en}}</ref> The breast tax system was supposedly annulled in Travancore, soon afterwards and the place she lived had come to be known as ''Mulachiparambu'' (meaning ''land of the breasted woman'') is located in [[Cherthala]] ,[[Kerala]].<ref name="bbc" /><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/200-years-on-nangelis-sacrifice-only-a-fading-memory/article5255026.ece | title=200 years on, Nangeli's sacrifice only a fading memory | work=The Hindu | date=21 October 2013 | accessdate=11 October 2021 | author=Nidhi Surendranath}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2016/03/08/remembering-one-womans-ultimate-tax-protest-on-international-womens-day/?sh=879ac4d124f8 | title=Remembering One Woman's Ultimate Tax Protest On International Women's Day | publisher=Forbes | work=Kelly Phillips Erb | date=8 March 2016 | accessdate=11 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kozhikode/cherthala-seeks-nangeli-memorial/articleshow/57547822.cms | title=Cherthala seeks Nangeli memorial | publisher=[[The Times of India]] | work=Sajimon P S | date=9 March 2017 | accessdate=11 October 2021}}</ref>

=== Scholarly reception ===
The tale is not recognized in any of India's historical accounts.<ref name="bbc" />

[[Manu S. Pillai]] rejects the narrative in entirety and argues that covering breasts was not a fashion in Kerala's radically liberal and matriarchal society during Nangeli's life-span. Victorian standards of morality penetrated into the society decades later via the British invaders, which led to subsequent class-struggles for the right to wear upper cloth.<ref name="manu" /> He believes Nangeli to have protested against an oppressive tax regime that was imposed upon all lower castes, which got appropriated with the passage of time, in pursuit of a different patriarchal fight for the preservation of female dignity.<ref name="manu" />

== Popular culture ==
A film on her has been proposed by [[Vinayan]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/malayalam/movies/news/vinayan-to-make-film-on-discarded-revolutionary-nangeli/articleshow/64260214.cms|title=Vinayan to make film on discarded revolutionary Nangeli - Times of India|website=The Times of India|language=en|access-date=2019-08-10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://malayalam.indianexpress.com/entertainment/nangeli-film-director-vinayan/|title=മാറുമറയ്ക്കൽ സമരനായിക നങ്ങേലിയുടെ കഥയുമായി വിനയന്‍|date=2018-12-30|website=Indian Express Malayalam|language=ml|access-date=2019-08-10|trans-title=Vinayan with the story of Marumarakkal Samaranayaka Nageli}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Channar revolt]]
* [[Kannagi]]
* [[List of Ezhavas]]

== References ==
{{reflist|40em}}

[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:1803 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian tax resisters]]
[[Category:Indian women activists]]
[[Category:Activists from Kerala]]
[[Category:Women of the Kingdom of Travancore]]
[[Category:People of the Kingdom of Travancore]]
[[Category:People from Alappuzha district]]

Nangeli - Revision history

>Cyfal: spelling (WP:Typo Team)