Vaikom Satyagraha

Vaikom Satyagraha, from 30 March 1924 to 23 November 1925, was a nonviolent agitation for access to the prohibited public environs of the Vaikom Temple in the Kingdom of Travancore. Kingdom of Travancore was known for its rigid and oppressive caste system. The campaign, led by Congress leaders T. K. Madhavan, K. Kelappan K. P. Kesava Menon, George Joseph, E. V. Ramasamy "Periyar" and was noted for the active support and participation offered by different communities and a variety of activists. Most of the great temples in the princely state of Travancore had for years forbidden lower castes (untouchables) not just from entering, but also from walking on the surrounding roads. The agitation was conceived by the Ezhava Congress leader and a follower of Sri Narayana Guru, T. K. Madhavan. It demanded the right of the Ezhavas and 'untouchables' to use roads around the Vaikom Temple. Mahatma Gandhi himself visited Vaikom in March, 1925. Travancore government eventually constructed new roads near the temple for the use of lower castes. The roads, however, kept the lower castes adequately away from the near environs of the Vaikom Temple and the temple remained closed to the lower castes. After the intervention of Mahatma Gandhi, a compromise was reached with Regent Sethu Lakshmi Bayi who released all those arrested and opened the north, south and west public roads leading to Vaikom Mahadeva Temple to all castes. Bayi refused to open the eastern road. The compromise was criticized by E. V. Ramasamy "Periyar" and some others. Only in 1936, after the Temple Entry Proclamation, was access to the eastern road and entry into the temple allowed to the lower castes. Vaikom Satyagraha markedly brought the method of nonviolent public protest to Kerala. T. K. Madhavan, an Ezhava leader, first advanced the question of temple entry of lower castes in an editorial in Deshabhimani newspaper in December, 1917. Temple entry of lower castes was discussed and resolutions were introduced at meetings of S N D P Yogam and the Travancore Assembly between 1917 and 1920.