Manusmriti and Subaltern Politics

Reforms and resistence in Kerala

“Amedya Sava Chandaala |
Madhya Maamsaathi Dooshitha||

The history of politics and order traces back to the beginning

of organised society. India, where the first civilisation in
South Asia existed , the country with the largest written
constitution, has immense history in legal studies and political
thought. The Indian Political thought was drowned in the
eurocentric world eventhough many of the texts found in
Indian Political thought precedes European ones
The history of legal texts in India is not complete without
referring ancient hindu law books among them Manu Dharma
Shastra which is believed to be the first legal and
constitutional work in Ancient India is having immense
importance . Manu Dharma sasthra otherwise known as Manu
Smriti considered as the authoritative philosophical guide for
the
With 2,694 stanzas and 12 chapters it discuss about dharmas
of each set of varnas. The immense significance of
manusmriti lies on it’s comprehensive character. For
establishing a social order Manu used norms of
religion ,economics , moral principles apart from legal
provision. He used these principles to provide a consistent
justification for social theory. Manu as a law maker tried to
prescribe code of social conduct to enforce as a social
structure which was based on the authority of veda and
tradition.
For manu world is the creation of a self born (Swayambhu)
Brahman and after creating the world he also made certain
code of conduct which Manu justifies with his law code.
It’s influence on all aspects of hindu thought, particularly the
justification of the cast system has been profound
“Adhyapanam Adhyayanam yajanam yaachanam thatha|
Dhaanam prathigraham cha eva brahmanaanam akalpayath ||
To Brahmanas he assigned teaching and studying (veda),
Sacrificing for their own benefit and for others giving and
accepting (of Alms)
Prajaanaam Rakshanam dhaanam ijya adhyayanam eva cha |
Visheyeshva aprasakthish cha Kshatriyasya samasathaha ||
The Kshetriya he commanded to protect the people, to bestow
gifts , to offer sacrifices , to study ( the vedas) , and to abstain
from attatching himself to sensual pleasures
Pashoonaam rakshanam dhaanam ijya adhyayanam eva cha|
Vaanikpadham kuseedham cha vaishasya krisheem eva cha ||
The Vaishya to tend cattle , to bestow gifts , to offer sacrifices
, to study (Veda), to trade , to lend money , and to cultivate
land
Ekam Eva tu shoodrasya prabhu karmam Samaadishath
Ethesham eva varnaanaam shushurushaam anasooyaya||
One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudra ,to serve
meekly even these other three varnas
Eventhough India was the centre of Oreintal political thought
but the inception of modern study of Ancient Indian social
order traces back to the efforts made by the British East India
company, as a colonial power they couldn’t govern a society
which is far backward than Europe because of the lack of
enlightenment, they had to study the history of the institutions
and social order. What they wanted was a smooth governance
of the country,so they had to accomodate the institutions and
practices for establishing strong territorial establishment in
Bengal and also for commercial purposes. It is evident in
preface of A code of Gentoo Laws. The british went on
making efforts to eradicate the primary contradiction between
them and people. It acted like a lubricant to avoid friction
between the modern european enlightened society and
outdated Indian society but at the end of the day it was for the
benefit of British interests. According to Sir William John’s
preface of translation of Manu smriti adds that policy like this
can largely add to the wealth of Britain. Based on this the
most comprehensive early work on Indian institution was
born, Colebrook’s essay on on the “Enumeration of Indian
classes”. For Colebrook it was one of the distinguishing factor
of Indian society. Following Colebrook’s path Mill tried to
describe the caste system in History of India. From this
moment onwards the social subordination became a topic of
debate and the came to the conclusion that vices of caste
subordination had a destructive side among hinduism and
continued to practice at that time.
Coming back to the topic Kerala , one of the socially
progressed state in India, was also subjected to the traditional
caste system of India. People belongs to the lower strata of the
society, that is the people from lower caste was deprived of
social, political,economical rights, as it was forbidden for
them since the emergence of caste system in deep south of
India. The long history of oppression provided soil for the
social reform movements which was a reflection of what
happened around all over the country. the latter part of 19th
century and early 20th century were the period of social
enlightenment and reforms in Kerala. Charismatic leaders and
ideologies and modern outlook of society were started to
penetrate into the minds of the deprived classes. The spark of
enlightenment which was carried out by the charismatic
leaders like Sree Narayana Guru, the early communist leaders
of Kerala had the potentiality to ignite into wild fire. This
lead to the introduction of radical thought among the people
and they rushed like a swarm of bees and rallied around for
getting the legitimate position in the society, the notion of
progressiveness gave them the courage to question the vedic
practises and for them equality was the first thing that all
must get and without equality there was no liberty. The
catalysts of social reform movements were able to put an
effort to erase the secondary contradiction (which was
proposed by the Marxists) existed in the society and most of
their aspirations and goals were implemented by the first
communist party government of Kerala,this is where we could
see the influence of Marxism in questioning tradtional vedic
practises and Manusmriti. This is where Kerala is different
from the other parts of the country, they were able to deal
with the secondary contradicitions which is the soul
oppressive factor of the country, it is through these social
reforms Kerala was able to attain comparatively a higher
social security and progress. All the provisions brought for
the betterment of the society had blood and sweat of millions
of people who fought against the vedic caste system.

An overview of history of social order in Kerala

The Keralite society was a part of ancient Dravidian culture,
which is considered as one of the least explored culture in
India. The prehistoric India was inhabited by negritos later
added to by the Proto Austroloids then by Dravidians and
Mongloids then finally vedic aryans,who are racially
considered Nordics. The proto Austroloids came from
Palestine. The kadars,irulas Jarawas of Deccan and andaman
hills are today’s representatives of the Negritos. The Mundas ,
Santhals, kols and Bhils of central India hills represent the
Austroloids. The Mongloid family is represented by North
Eastern hill tribes.
The largest and the most populous race that occupied the
entire prehistoric India,barring the north east was the
Dravidians who extended from Sindh to Cheranadu (present
day Kerala). Munshi, Nehru, Nigam, sagar and others point to
the advanced Dravidian civilization, language and culture in
Northern India
The vedic Aryans migrated from Eranvej(the present Russian
Turkestan) via Iran and Afghanistan into Punjab around 1400
BCE and exterminated or enslaved Dravidians and other
inhabitants, it was evident in the report of Sir Robert Eric
Mortimer Wheeler, he was observing a skull which was
obtained from the Harappan excavation site. There was a
knife pierced in the skull and when he observed it closely
there was the symbol of Puranthaka (Indra) who is the
supreme god of Aryans. The rig veda gives the chronicle of
this conquest. These aryans are related to the Acheans and
Dorians and the racial stock of German north of Europe
Many authorities on the Indus valley Civilization point out the
black Dravidians were exterminated by the aryans. Those who
were not killed were made as slaves. The stratification by
colour of the conquered race marks the first step in the
development of Indian caste system. According to Zend
Avestha, the pre vedic Aryan in Iran had a formof three fold
clan division , divided by occupation. This was similar to the
clan and trade guild groupings in any other civilization around
the world, and must not be confused with caste gradation in
India
The foundation of caste gradation in India was the division of
the conquered slave(Dasa) race from Aryan race, the black
Dravidians(slave castes)were called Dasa Varna and the
conqureors Arya varna. These terms are used in all
contemporary Aryan scriptures( as pointed out by scholars
like B.R Ambedkar). This division and degradation of the
Indian slave from his aryan master is similar to that of
Hebrews from Egyptians, serfs of Germany etc. The
uniqueness of Indian Slavery was the divine seal on slavery.
This was not challenged for 3 millenia. When the slave trade
was and slave system was abolished in India by Slavery
Abolition Act of 1843 there were about 20 million slaves. In
Kerala the state of travancore itself had about 200,000 slaves..
Aryan invasion, subsequent Sankritisation process ( the term
was coined by one of the pioneers of Sociology in India
Professor Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas) and with the
legitimacy of Manusmriti the element of caste came to the
stage of the most flourished culture in India. The practice of
untouchability was also legitimized by it’s claimed existence
in South India even during the ancient period. The
untouchables or Dalits have a long history of their origin in
South India. On the basis of Ambedkar’s thesis of the
untouchability, 4th century A.D witnessed the evolution of
untouchability in south Indian society. (The deep you go to
the history of Kerala or Dravidian culture you could
understand how aryan culture penetrated and transformed the
society.) Slavery was a deep rooted social evil existed in
Kerala.It was institutionalized in Tamilnadu and other parts of
South Indian society during the period of Raja Raja 1( 985
A.D to 1016 A.D), the Chola ruler . In Kerala , Pulayas,
Parayas, Kuravas, Vedas, Nayadis were the important
untouchables castes and they were denied all kind of
fundamental rights. There were many slave castes in kerala
and they were owned and sold like any commodity by their
masters. We can relate this to Karl Marx’s theory of
commodification of labour. Slavery was a heriditery system in
kerala like all the other parts of the country and the caste
immobility made them not to upgrade themselves to higher
strata. The system of slavery had close connections with the
caste system. It is evident in the different manuscripts,
inscriptions, foreign records etc. One of the earliest record on
slavery were found in the inscription of 849 AD. It was
related to the privileges given to Tarisa church at Quilon the
present day Kollam and it also mentions about the prices of
slaves. The term adima was repeatedly used in ancient
malayalam texts. The system of control and ownership of
adimas was with the upper class people. The untouchable
class which was later referred as Dalits were relegated to the
status of adimas and had to perform arduos physical labour in
agriculture. Untouchable slaves were part and parcel of the
agricultural field they were born into.
The concept of Purity and pollution played a crucial role in
maintaining the social distance between different castes. The
pollution distance varied from caste to caste and place to
place. The hierarchy of caste was decided according to degree
of purity and pollution. In Kerala , the concept of pollution
was refined to unique complexity and was capable of being
transmitted, but from a distance. It was practiced in a 3 way
manner- untouchability , unapproachability,
unseeability(practised especially in Travancore). The first one
as the word suggests was practised to prevent touch from
another person and second one was for keeping a certain
distance from lower caste people and the final one swept away
lower caste from interacting with mainstream society, it was
used by the upper caste people to sweep away lower class
people from public roads. Another interesting factor about
caste system in Kerala was the lower caste also practised
pollution among themselves . The different castes of slaves
always kept a distance from themselves and never practised
exogamy and didn’t even tried to organize at first. This
elaborate and almost perfect system of keeping man away
from man and caste away from caste prevented the birth of
any kind of solidarity among slave castes
One of the demonic factor that existed in the society of Kerala
was the discriminative legal system which ensured the
maintenance of upper class hegemony. Law of justice which
meant to be the instrument of actuating justice in the society
closed it’s eyes towards the lower class people. It is evident
in the different punishments given to upper caste people and
lower caste people for the same offense. The severity of
punishments which is prescribed in the legal system varied
from caste to caste. For example the untouchables had to put
their hand inside a pot which is filled with poisonous snakes.
If the snake didn’t bite him/her then they will be proved not
guilty another example is the slave castes were forced to lick a
red hot sword if it didn’t burn then he or she is not guilty. But
coming to the case of Brahmin community of Kerala , the
intensity of the punishment was very low, for example if they
commited a crime it will be written on a manuscript and the
authorities will put it in one side of a weighing machine and
the accused Brahmin will sit in the other side of weighing
machine, if the manuscript found to be heavy then he is
guilty,but that won’t happen. That much discriminative the
system was. Even the court of justice which followed the
principle of lady of justice which symbolizes fair and equal
administration of law without corruption,favour,greed or
prejudice was blindfolded with dark veil of casteism. The
lower caste people had to shout from appointed distance and
take his chance of being heard and receiving attention. So
there was no chance for getting justice for lower class people.
In short we can say that the ruling class the savarna class
monopolized resources,social status and power while the
enslaved castes were having life of deprivation and
marginalization. As manusmriti says their life was dedicated
to serve the upper class.

The dominant class of Kerala and their

superiority
As Manusmriti says Brahmins were in the top most position
of the varna system in Kerala too. Brahmins in Kerala was
known as Nambudiris had the ritual superiority, they drew
their power from Manusmriti and their ritual superiority gave
them authoritative power in all spheres (Economically,
politically and socially). They were considered as holy people
and representative of god and they possesed the sole right to
for interpreting sacred laws and rituals. For the king it was
mandatory to serve the Brahmins and with the state’s funding
they gave gifts and food which is free of cost to Brahmins.
Brahmin seva was considered as one of the most pure thing
and feeding them was like a sacred duty for the kings.
Originally Brahmins were the ruling class people of Kerala.
They were in power from 11th to 16th century. This seems like
a contradicition as Kshatriyas were the people who are
entitled to ruling power according to Manusmriti. Brahmins
soon became powerful land owners after feudal lords divided
land among their close allies and it sealed their dominance. As
education was limited to them naturally Brahmins excelled in
arts , literature, culture science and medicine
Next to Brahmins there was Nairs. They were the martial
class of Kerala ( The Nair brigade later became 9th battalion
Madras regiment). They excelled in the art of warfare and had
a respectable position in the society( but in many earlier texts
they were referred as Sudras). Their relation with Brahmins
increased their influence and it helped them to be the
custodian of Brahmin’s property. Their primary role was to
protect the land and people and they also had to raise army for
the king at the time of war. Technically Brahmins were the
owners of land but the power of control was with the nair
community. At many points of time in history nairs took the
power of ownership from brahmins. While talking about Nairs
we can’t go forward without mentioning their family system,
which was very unique in the Indian society, their system was
known as Marumakkathayam which is a matrilineal system of
inheritence where female line determined the descent of a
family ( But practically the family system was patriarchal). As
mentioned before Nairs were martial class and were seen as
saviours they totally became a protector in all sense.

The Vanquished classes

After the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Nairs it was Ezhavas and
nadars. Ezhavas are the most widespread caste in Kerala(even
now). They were spread all over Kerala, in Travancore,
Cochin and Malabar which was coming under Madras
presidency. They had no fixed occupation- they used to do
agriculture , weaving, coir making etc. A few of them
engaged in business, trade and many of them practised
medicine too. And ezhavas were one of the castes which
practised sanskritisation according to Mysore Narasimhachar
Srinivas. But even though they were in majority ezhavas
considered as lower caste,but one interesting fact about
Ezhavas is though they were in the lower strata of caste
system they were not untouchables and was above outcastes.
Subsequently the master class imposed many restrictions on
them. They were not allowed to use public facilities, they
were restrained from taking formal education, their women
could not cover their breasts. Just like other lower castes they
were not allowed to enter into temple moreover they were not
able to use the roads that surrounds a temple( The vaikkom
satygraha was a movement against this). They were forced to
render free service to government and with different public
controls and restraints the upper caste people were able to
silence them.
Next to them were the nadars. Nadars can be found in Kerala
and Tamilnadu. A large proportion of their population was
concentrated in Travancore ( An Intersting piece of
information about them is you can see Nadars in the all 3 most
important religions of Kerala that is Hinduism, Christianity
and Islam). They were also placed in lower caste strata but
was above untouchables. But they were the victims of cruel
oppression. The most horrendous fact about them was they
were subjcted to severe social as well as economic oppression.
Oppressive taxes were collected through oppressive methods
from them, they even had to pay taxes for deceased memebrs
of their family.