100 years after anti-caste satyagraha, caste is colour-coded at Vaikom temple

On the fourth day of the 12-day Ashtami festival at Kerala’s Vaikom Mahadeva Temple, what appeared as a typical temple celebration took a surprising turn. On November 28, 2023, a procession of four groups of women, each distinguished by the colours of their blouses – red, yellow, blue, and orange – made an entrance through the west door, accompanied by the resonant beats of chenda melam. These colours were not merely for aesthetics; they symbolised caste distinctions, raising eyebrows at the continuation of such practices in a Kerala temple under the supposedly progressive Travancore Devaswom Board. It surprised many, particularly considering Vaikom's historical significance as the site of the Vaikom Satyagraha, a non-violent movement fighting for access to Dalits and other lowered castes to the roads around the Vaikom temple in the erstwhile Travancore kingdom..To an outsider attending the Ashtami festival for the first time, the different coloured attire worn by the four groups of women may not seem significant. But conversations with the women, and the men accompanying them, will tell you how the colours are a display of their distinct caste identities. The women participating in the procession that is part of a ritual called ‘poothalam’ belong to four different castes that fall under Other Backward Classes (OBC), and the colours of their blouses represent their respective castes. While yellow is the uniform of the Vishwakarma Mahasabha, orange is the uniform of the Veerashaiva Mahasabha, blue of the Velar community, and red of the Ganaka community. Before the 1920s, caste groups such as Pulayas, Cherumas, Parayas, Paravars, and other oppressed castes, particularly Dalits, were prohibited from entering the roads surrounding the temple. The fight against this discrimination spanned 604 days, from March 30, 1924 to November 23, 1925. During the centenary year of the Vaikom Satyagraha, the same road where thousands had fought the oppressive caste system, leading to the historic temple entry proclamation in Kerala, witnessed a different form of caste discrimination. The new form it has taken — caste-based separation in the performance of rituals, particularly poothalam. “Nowadays, people say they do not discriminate on the basis of caste or religion, but caste is deeply ingrained in everyone’s minds. This festival, particularly the poothalam ritual, serves as proof for that,” said Ambika Dileep, a member of the Kerala Pulaya Maha Sabha (KPMS), a Scheduled Caste (SC) community in Kerala. TNM met her at the KPMS office, which is almost 2 km away from the Vaikom temple, where she had come to participate in the poothalam. Even though Ambika has been a regular participant in the poothalam since the last eight years, she said that she does not agree with the caste-based separations involved in it. “Why are we still separating people by their caste? We want a desa thalappoli (organised jointly by members of all castes, as a single ritual) instead of this caste-wise poothalam,” she said..It is important to explore how the practice of caste-based poothalams came to be in Vaikom. How the festival turned into a platform for caste discriminationVaikom Ashtami is a prestigious 12-day celebration at the Mahadeva Temple in Vaikom town, occurring annually between days 8 and 20 of the Malayalam month Vrishchikam (from mid-November to mid-December). In 2023, the festival took place from November 24 to December 6.On the day preceding the commencement of the festival, the temple hosts a ritual called kulavazhapurappad or kulavazhaveppu, which involves the decoration of the temple with plantain and coconut palm fronds. Nair Service Society (NSS), the organisation of the dominant Nair caste that wields much cultural and political capital in Kerala, has been overseeing the conduct of this ritual for several generations.According to local residents in Vaikom, around three decades ago, a few lowered caste organisations are said to have expressed interest in participating in the conduct of the temple festival. In order to incorporate them, the temple authorities introduced a new ritual known as 'poothalam’, which requires women to walk barefoot to the temple carrying plates filled with flowers. Traditionally, temple processions, such as poothalam (poo meaning flower, thalam meaning plate, holding of plates adorned with flowers and lights) are conducted by girls and women. Later, other caste organisations also applied for permission to conduct this ritual on various days of the festival. As the number of applicants increased, around four or five caste organisations began conducting poothalam on the same day. The different castes do not, however, conduct it together..According to the 2023 festival notice, the first two days of the festival were sponsored by the NSS, and the third day by Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), the organisation of the Ezhava caste, an OBC community. Both NSS and SNDP hold significant political, social, and financial influence in present day Kerala. On the fourth day, the festival witnesses the poothalams conducted by Vishwakarma Mahasabha, Pattaryaja Samacham, Ganaka, Veerashaiva Mahasabha and Vollar Service Society (all categorised as OBC). On the fifth day, the Dalit communities, including KPMS, Ullada Mahasabha, Kerala Paravar Service Society, and Oorukoottam (council of tribes) conduct the poothalam. Oftentimes, teenage girls participating in poothalam do not adhere to any colour codes in their attire. Instead, it is mostly only adult women who follow the colour codes. Customs involved in the performance of the poothalam ritual require the women participants to fast (vratham) for five days before the festival..Poothalam or caste thalam?When TNM enquired about the origins of poothalam to the temple authorities, they could not point us to a particular year. “Nothing can be said about the origin of poothalam, it has been there since long ago, and we are new here. We do not know more details,” they said."I have known kulavazhaveppu, the temple decoration ceremony, since I was a child, but this poothalam is something new. After the kulavazhaveppu, the first two days of the festival are sponsored by NSS. Then after some point, SNDP started to sponsor a day of the festival, but I do not remember the exact year," said Gireesh G Nair (53), a native of Vaikom. Gireesh has served as a member of the Vaikom Temple Advisory Committee in the years 2001, 2008, and 2013. He continued, “It was the caste communities that currently take part in poothalam that demanded participation. These days, all wealthy communities participate in the ritual. The number of caste communities participating in poothalam increased around three decades ago.”“The kulavazhaveppu ceremony has been performed by the Nair community since pre-Independence times. Nairs, who were the stewards of the Namboothiris (the caste of temple priests) were told to decorate the temple one day ahead of the festival. That is how it started, and they are continuing it,” said Suresh R (56), a native of Vaikom and an active member of Yuva Kala Sahithi, a progressive literary movement in Kerala.According to Sivadas Narayanan, the Kottayam district president of the Dheevara Sabha, the OBC Dheevara community started participating in the poothalam after 2000. Like the KPMS member Ambika, Sivadas also believed that the caste-separations are discriminatory. “Despite claiming that there are no caste distinctions in Kerala, it still persists in our society. That a single ritual with the representation of all castes is not possible in the temple is itself evidence. We are the descendants of Pandit Karuppan who fought the caste system, and are against these separate poothalam rituals,” he said. So why do they continue to partake in a discriminatory ritual? “We are participating in this because we believe that a show of our representation is necessary. Until some time ago, only the dominant castes participated in the rituals, while we remained spectators. We too live in this society and have the right to participate in rituals. That is why we applied to participate around 20 years ago. Otherwise, it would have been an event of the dominant castes," he explained.When TNM met her, Sakunthala, a member of the Vishwakarma Mahasabha, sported a yellow blouse along with hundreds of other women. She said, “This is the uniform of our caste community,” elaborating, “If you ask why there is a caste-wise poothalam, I do not know. In my knowledge, it has been like that here for ages.” She has been participating in the ritual for the past four years.Sasidharan Amballur, state treasurer of Ganaka Sabha, said, “The caste-based poothalam has been held here for years, and we have been actively participating in this ritual for the past decade. We applied to the temple authority, and they gave a date for us to conduct our poothalam ritual like every other caste does.” The Ganaka community is classified as OBC. Sasaidharan and other members of the community had travelled from Kannur in north Kerala to Vaikom to participate in the ritual.The participants from the Ganaka community said that the red blouses they wear are only intended to maintain uniformity and that the colour does not indicate anything else. But for some other caste communities, the colours held more significance. .The various caste organisations in Kerala have their own uniform colours, with some communities sharing similar colours. These were decided by the state committees of the respective communities. The Dheevara Sabha representative Sivadas Narayanan explained, “We decided sky blue as our uniform colour because it is the colour of our community flag. The decision was made in 1975 when we officially registered as a community. Women wear a white saree with a sky blue blouse. There is no specific uniform for men, even though white is commonly worn during functions.” .Representatives from KPMS also said that it was their state committee that selected green as their uniform colour. In their community, women wear a saree with a green blouse; men wear a white shirt and white mundu for functions. “We are wearing the KPMS uniform because we are representing the KPMS organisation here. If the ritual became unified, we would not prefer to wear this uniform,” said Pankajavalli, a member of the KPMS. Although a participant in the ritual, she too voiced strong objection to the caste separation in it. During the conversation, she shared her thoughts on how the new generation perceives the caste-wise thalam. “I have two daughters. While they enjoy participating in the ritual, they express hesitation due to the separation. They consistently advocate for a single, inclusive ritual,” she said.Kerala Paravar Service Society (KPSS), the community organisation of Paravars (OBC), also stated that they are against a caste-based poothalam. However, they are not actively demanding a change but expressing a wish for it.“Years ago, Vaikom Satyagraha created a space where every community could come together. We also wish for a similar space like that, one that includes all communities together, without excluding Dalits like us,” says Premadasan, the Vaikom taluk joint secretary of KPSS.“We used to be left out of everything because of our caste. It is not like that anymore. We all want to take the thalam together. If a decision came like that, we would certainly cooperate with it,” said Devarajan, KPSS Vaikom taluk president. Representatives of most communities expressed objection to the caste-based ritual and said that their participation was more a show of representation and not a sign of approval of the caste-separation. Yet, there were some participants who didn't see any fault in the way the ritual was held. Consequently, their response to the caste separation was quite vague. Some of them said the separation was to reduce and manage the crowds. “We have 10 days of festival. Each day, different communities participate in the ritual. If it is conducted in one day, what will we do for the rest of the days? This is also good because the crowd can be controlled,” said Mani Sunil, a representative of the Vishwakarma Mahasabha. .No change despite campaignsWhile Vaikom residents and members of various caste organisations say that the caste-based poothalam has been in practice for around three decades, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), under the purview of which the Vaikom temple falls, claimed ignorance. PS Prasanth, the president of the TDB, said that he is not aware of a caste-wise poothalam. The TDB president stated, "Such a practice discriminating based on caste has not come to notice of TDB. We have not received any complaints either. If such a practice is still going on, we will look into it." The ignorance claimed by Prasanth is no doubt questionable, as Vaikom has witnessed a few protests against the practice. A decade ago in 2014, a campaign was organised in Vaikom by Yuvakala Sahithi and the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) against the practice of caste-based poothalam. In attendance at the programme was CPI(M) veteran VS Achuthanandan, who was the then leader of Opposition. “We printed around 5,000 copies of a notice about the Vaikom Satyagraha and raised points against the caste-wise poothalam, and distributed them in Vaikom,” IPTA member Muraleedharan said.However, no notable change has come about in the years that followed. “We are not expecting an immediate change in society. People must come to the realisation that this is not good practice,” Suresh added.Hari, a KPMS member, said that in 2016, they had raised this issue with the High Commission appointed by the Kerala High Court to investigate irregularities in the Vaikom temple. “I suggested that we conduct the poothalam as four groups, from the four directions of the temple. But no action was taken,” he said. According to Ganaka Sabha representative Sasidharan, the temple authorities had said that soon the caste-based poothalam will be replaced by a single ritual. “Most caste organisations have asked for a single, inclusive ritual. We also wish for that. Each year, we hope that the inclusive ritual will be put in place, but nothing has happened in that direction yet,” he added.

100 years after anti-caste satyagraha, caste is colour-coded at Vaikom temple

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