Breast Tax: Difference between revisions

The '''Breast Tax''' (''Mulakkaram'' or ''mula-karam'' in [[Malayalam]]) was a tax imposed on the [[Lower Caste|lower caste]] and [[Untouchables (caste)|untouchable]] Hindu women by the [[Travancore|Kingdom of Tranvancore]] (in present-day [[Kerala]] state of India) if they wanted to cover their breasts in public, until 1924.<ref name=":1">{{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=2019-11-13}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36891356|title=The woman who cut off her breasts to protest a tax|date=2016-07-28|access-date=2019-11-13|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nation-world/nine-weird-taxes-from-around-the-world/window-tax/slideshow/56516226.cms|title=Nine weird taxes from around the world – Really absurd|website=The Economic Times|access-date=2019-11-13}}</ref> The lower caste and untouchable women were expected to pay the government a tax on their [[breast]]s, as soon as they started developing breasts.<ref>{{Cite journal |author=K.S. Manilal |date=15 November 2012 |title=Sikhism in Kerala: Forgotten Chapter in the Social History of the State |url= https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxjcmlrc2NzYW1hZ3JhfGd4OjE5OTc0YzhhNWRlN2Y2MDM |journal= Samagra |issn=0973-3906 |volume=8  |pages=3–4 |quote= One such infamous law that was in force in Travancore until as late as the first quarter of the 20th century was known as Mulakkaram, i.e., the law of breast tax. According to this law the avarna women, were to pay tax to the government for their breasts from the very time of their girlhood, when they start developing breasts }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=R. N. Yesudas |title=The History of the London Missionary Society in Travancore, 1806–1908 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0oscAAAAMAAJ |year=1980 |publisher=Kerala Historical Society |page=19 |quote=The lower classes were to pay tax for the hair they grew, and for the breasts of ladies called breast-tax. }}</ref> The lower caste men had to pay a similar tax, called ''tala-karam'', on their heads.<ref name="Jacob_1990">{{cite book |author=Jacob Kattackal |title=Comparative Religion |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=O_MnAAAAYAAJ |year=1990 |publisher=Oriental Institute of Religious Studies |page=144 |quote=In South India, until the 19th century, the 'low caste' men had to pay the 'head tax, and the 'low caste' women had to pay a 'breast tax' ('tala-karam' and 'mula-karam') to the government treasury. The still more shameful truth is that these women were not allowed to wear upper garments in public.}}</ref> Travancore tax collectors would visit every house to collect the Breast Tax from any lower caste women who passed the age of puberty.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ststworld.com/breast-tax/|title=Breast Tax and the Revolt of Lower Cast Women in 19th Century Travancore|date=2019-05-17|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-11-14}}</ref> The tax was evaluated by the tax collectors depending on the size of their breasts.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pathak-Shelat|first=Manisha|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=X6ohEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38&dq=mulakkaram+breast+size&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj63vHJr4HyAhWVxGEKHcNQDpc4HhDoATAEegQIBBAD#v=onepage&q=mulakkaram%20breast%20size&f=false|title=Raising a Humanist: Conscious Parenting in an Increasingly Fragmented World|last2=Bhatia|first2=Kiran|date=2021|publisher=SAGE Publishing India|year=2021|isbn=978-93-5388-777-3|language=en}}</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|page=285|oclc=1012741451}}</ref><ref name="Gupta2019">{{cite book|author=Archana Garodia Gupta|title=The Women Who Ruled India: Leaders. Warriors. Icons.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4XuLDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT155|access-date=13 May 2020|date=20 April 2019|publisher=Hachette India|isbn=978-93-5195-153-7|pages=155–}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=http://ourheritagejournals.com/images/short_pdf/1580374996_926.pdf | title=Dress as a tool of Empowerment: The Channar Revolt | author=Keerthana Santhosh | journal=Our Heritage Journal | year=2020 | volume=22 | pages=533 | access-date=15 May 2020 | archive-date=3 July 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200703144357/http://ourheritagejournals.com/images/short_pdf/1580374996_926.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.homesciencejournal.com/archives/2017/vol3issue3/PartF/3-3-84-673.pdf | title=Rani Gowry Lakshmi Bai: Abolition of slavery in Travancore | author=Renjini P and Dr. C Natarajan | journal=International Journal of Home Science | year=2017 | pages=337}}</ref><ref>[...body of reference...]</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/culture/nangeli-first-documented-pati-sahagamanam | title=Nangeli and the first documented ‘Pati Sahagamanam’ | publisher=Sunday Guardian | work=Souhardya De | date=31  October 2020 | accessdate=27 July 2021}}</ref>

The [[Kingdom of Travancore]] was known for its rigid and oppressive caste system and hence [[Swami  Vivekananda]] called Travancore a "lunatic asylum" <ref>{{cite web | url=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/kerala-secularism-hindus-christians-5506515/ | title=God’s own challenge | publisher=The Indian Express | date=24 December 2018 | accessdate=27 July 2021}}</ref><ref name="VanamamalaiVān̲amāmalai1981">{{cite book|author1=N. Vanamamalai|author2=Nā Vān̲amāmalai|title=Interpretation of Tamil Folk Creations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDnaAAAAMAAJ|year=1981|publisher=Dravidian Linguistics Association}}</ref><ref name="Radhakrishnan2002">{{cite book|author=P. Radhakrishnan|title=India, the Perfidies of Power: A Social Critique|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RQpuAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=27 July 2021|year=2002|publisher=Vedam ebooks|isbn=978-81-7936-003-3|page=245}}</ref>.The breast tax was levied by the Kingdom of Travancore on lower caste Hindu women, which was to be paid if they wanted to cover their breasts and was further assessed in proportion to the size of their breasts.<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":2"/><ref name=":0"/> This was seen as a sign of respect towards the upper caste and the lower castes including [[Nadar (caste)|Nadar]] and [[Ezhava]] women had to pay the "breast tax"<ref name=":1"/> Dr Sheeba KM, Professor of gender ecology and Dalit studies says the very purpose of the breast tax was to maintain the [[Caste system in India|caste hierarchy]].<ref name=":2"/>  

The law resulted from [[Travancore]]'s tradition, in which the breast was bared as a symbol of respect to higher-status people.<ref name="Jacob_1990" />Attingal Rani once had a lower caste ladies breast cut off as a punishment as she wore upper cloth.<ref name="Pre">{{cite journal | url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422185251id_/http://ijrcs.rcsjournals.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/201708019.pdf | title=CONDITION OF WOMEN IN PRE-MODERN TRAVANCORE | author=Keerthana Santhosh}}</ref>For example, the [[Nair]] women were not allowed to cover their bosoms while in front of the [[Nambudiri|Namboodiri]] Brahmins or entering the temples, while the Brahmins bared their breasts only to the images of the deities. The women of the even lower castes, such as Nadars, Ezhavars and [[Untouchables (caste)|untouchables]] castes, were not allowed to cover their breasts at all.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Judge |first1=Paramjit |last2=Bal |first2=Gurpreet |title=Strategies of Social Change in India |date=1996 |publisher=MD Publications |isbn=9788175330061 |page=167 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Social_History_of_India/Be3PCvzf-BYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Nadars,+Ezhavas+,+were+not+allowed+to+cover+their+breasts&pg=PA375&printsec=frontcover |access-date=11 July 2021}}</ref> With the spread of [[Christianity]] in the 19th century, the Christian converts among the Nadar women started covering their upper body, and gradually, even the Hindu Nadar women adopted this practice.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/nadarsoftamilnad0000hard|url-access=registration|title=The Nadars of Tamilnad|author=Robert L. Hardgrave|publisher=University of California Press|year=1969|pages=[https://archive.org/details/nadarsoftamilnad0000hard/page/59 59]–62|oclc=12064}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr.|year=1968|title=The Breast-Cloth Controversy: Caste Consciousness and Social Change in Southern Travancore|journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review|volume=5|issue=2|pages=171–187|doi=10.1177/001946466800500205|s2cid=143287605}}</ref> After a [[Channar revolt|series of protests]], the Nadar women were granted the right to cover their breasts in 1859.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Women at the Intersection of Caste and Sex: History of Breast Tax|url=https://in.makers.yahoo.com/women-at-the-intersection-of-caste-and-sex-history-of-breast-tax-030006956.html|access-date=2021-07-10|website=in.makers.yahoo.com|language=en-IN}}</ref>

The village-legend Nangeli is about a 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.<ref name=":2"/><ref name=":0"/><ref name="manu">{{Cite book |title=The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin: Tales from Indian History |last=Pillai |first=Manu S. |publisher=Westland Publications |year=2019 |isbn=9789388689786 |location=Chennai |chapter=The woman with no breasts |via=The Hindu |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> According to the legend, she cut off her breasts and presented them to the tax collector in a [[plantain leaf]],<ref name="TH">{{cite news|url=http://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|last=Surendranath|first=Nidhi|date=21 October 2013|newspaper=The Hindu|access-date=15 April 2017}}</ref><ref name=":122">{{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" /> then died of blood loss.<ref name="manu" /> Following the death of Nangeli, a series of people's movements were set off. Soon the place where she lived had come to be called as ''Mulachiparambu'' (meaning ''place of the breasted woman'').<ref name=":2"/>

However, the story is not officially recognized in any of India's historical accounts and its authenticity is debatable.<ref name=":2"/><ref name="manu" /> Historian [[Manu S. Pillai|Manu Pillai]] argues that covering breasts was not the norm in Kerala's matrilineal society during Nangeli's life-span. Victorian standards of morality penetrated into the society decades later under British colonial influence, which led to subsequent class-struggles for the right to wear upper cloth.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news|last=Pillai|first=Manu S.|date=2017-02-18|title=The woman who cut off her breasts|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/the-woman-who-cut-off-her-breasts/article17324549.ece|access-date=2021-01-15|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> 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=":6" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite web|date=2019-11-03|title=Revisiting Nangeli, the Woman with No Breasts|url=https://www.newsclick.in/Nangeli-Basava-Manu-Pillai-Indian-History-Travancore-breast-tax|access-date=2021-01-15|website=NewsClick|language=en}}</ref>