Opinion » Op-Ed
November 12, 2011
When God's doors were thrown open to all
A. Srivathsan
Today, November 12, 2011, marks the 75th anniversary of the momentous
Temple Entry Proclamation in Travancore that enabled Dalits to enter
temples in the State.
On this day 75 years ago, on November 12, 1936, the Maharajah of
Travancore signed the historic Temple Entry Proclamation, and "in one
bold stroke, the age long injustice of barring lower castes from
entering temple was removed." And, a "tidal wave of joy and rejoicing
passed through every nook and corner" of Travancore. The action
attracted attention and admiration from the whole country.
Travancore may not have been the first State, nor its Maharaja the
first person, to throw open temples for Dalits. The northern and
western parts of India had made a small beginning earlier. But, as the
Manchester Guardian observed then, such a concession had never been
made on such a large scale before. Today marks the 75th anniversary of
this key moment in the struggle for the rights of the socially
marginalised.
The impact of the Temple Entry Proclamation was immediate and
far-reaching. Not only were temples under the control of the
Travancore Maharaja thrown open, but even private temples heeded the
call for change. Outside of Travancore, temples in Malabar and the
rest of the Madras Presidency felt the cascading effects.
Such an 'epoch making' event was the culmination of two decades of
struggle. In 1919, T.K. Madhavan, a prominent social reformer and the
Editor of Deshabhimani, the Malayalam newspaper, took up the issue of
temple entry with the Travancore government. So did Kunju Panicker in
1920, and again Madhavan in 1921. But none of this had any effect on
the government.
Gandhiji, who was anguished by the 'very feeble response' of south
Indian temples to reform efforts, agreed with Madhavan, during a
meeting in 1921, that Kerala was ripe for a temple entry agitation. He
insisted on peaceful protest and found there is "no swifter remedy
than a real satyagraha properly handled."
Precursors
Before Trivandrum became the epicentre of the temple entry campaign,
protests had begun in Vaikom, in the northern part of Travancore, in
1924. Though this struggle did not succeed in lifting the bar to
avarnas, or lower castes, entering the Mahadeva Temple in the town, it
managed to open the roads around the temple for their use. The temple
entry movement gained momentum after this.
The action then shifted to Trivandrum. The temple entry agitation was
formally launched in the city on April 3, 1926. However, before the
campaign could move on to the next stage, the Guruvayur Satyagraha
started.
On November 1, 1931, a large number of Dalits and upper caste Hindus
assembled in Guruvayur to demand that the avarnas be allowed inside
the temple. The 10-month-long protest, and fasting by K. Kelappan,
popularly known as 'Kerala Gandhi' (which he dropped on Gandhiji's
advice on October 2, 1932), drew national attention to the temple
entry movement. The call to open temples for Dalits grew louder.
Shortly afterwards, in November 1932, the Travancore Government
appointed a Temple Entry Enquiry Committee. The committee, which
submitted its report after a year, did not recommend the opening of
temples, but suggested roads and tanks could be opened for all. The
reformers rejected the report as it "did not meet the present need."
They insisted that appropriate action alone would meet 'the test of
the hour.'
On May 9, 1936, an All Kerala Temple Entry conference was held in New
Theatre Hall near the Trivandrum Central Railway Station, and it
resolved to step up the agitation. Speakers at the conference pointed
out that of the nearly 30 lakh Hindus living in the State, as many as
about 20 lakh were being prevented from entering temples. They decided
to convert "all the passive good-will in the State" into an
"irresistible demand," and simultaneously appointed a committee to
take up the issue with the Maharaja.
The people of Travancore did not have to wait much longer for the
historic change. Five months after the conference was held, on
November 12, 1936, a 'Gazette Extraordinary' was published. In it,
"profoundly convinced of the truth," the Maharaja proclaimed that the
temples under his administration would be opened to all Hindus and
that no restrictions would be placed on those who wanted to worship at
the temple.
In the words of M. Govindan of the All-Kerala Ezhawa Temple-Entry
Celebration Committee, the proclamation was received with feelings of
"inexpressible delight, unbounded joy and jubilation." The roles of
Sree Narayana Guru and K. Madhavan, the key people who had initiated
the movement, were duly remembered on that momentous day.
Predictably, perhaps, there was some resistance. For instance, the
trustees of the Koodalmanickam temple at Irinjalakuda were agitated at
the prospect of the temple being used by everyone.
The Travancore Proclamation, as Dr. B.R. Ambedkar cautioned, was "not
the be-all and end-all of social reforms." Nor did things dramatically
change for the better for Dalits immediately after 1936. But there is
no doubt that the Proclamation indeed was a big step in establishing
the rights of the lower castes in Kerala, and indeed the nation as a
whole.
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