image source: google
The magical land of Travancore in the 1800s, present in the State of Kerala now, in India, where lower caste women had to pay a small tax to the Kingdom of Travancore to cover their Breasts. To show their bosoms were the ‘Sign of Respect’ that they had to give the upper caste folks. So, basically, if you are in the lowest caste hierarchy, you have to be naked all the time. And the Namboodiri Brahmins, the highest in the caste ladder, barred their chests only to the images of the deities.
Should we revise again for who can show their Breast to whom?
For your easy understanding, the women had to uncover their breasts to the folks, who belonged to higher castes than them. So, to cover their breast in public, the lower caste and Dalit women were expected to pay the government a tax called the Mulakkaram or Mula-Karam.
First of all, the state officials had to maintain records of those girls who would be attaining puberty shortly. After attaining puberty, the ‘Breast Tax’ was in effect as soon as they started developing breasts. To not sound creepier, the tax imposed on women was evaluated by the ‘Tax Collectors’ depending on the ‘Size of their Breasts‘. So it was expensive if you were poor and have big breasts.
A lower-caste community called ‘Nadar’, who had to stay naked in front of higher-caste folks, embraced Christianity and started to wear “long cloths,” strengthened by their new belief system, which offered equal rights to all men and women. Seeing their Christian sisters covering their Breasts, the Hindu Nadar women started covering their upper body, with a cloth piece, that looked similar to the cloth being used by the upper caste women.
Boom! The upper caste people were offended and revolts started against the ‘Breast Tax’ and allow them to cover their own bodies. Again, many state officials got offended because they thought that allowing lower-caste women to cover their breasts would blur the very line of caste differences and make everyone seem equal. The year was 1859 when two Nadar women were stripped of their clothes and hung on a tree in public to cover their breasts. The Nadar community revolted and extreme forms of murders and looting were committed. The Kingdom was forced to accept the right of lower caste women to cover their Breasts to bring peace to its reign.
‘You can cover your Breasts but do not copy the upper caste women.’ This was a statement that the Nadar women had to follow but of course, they didn’t care.
A woman named Nangeli protested against this tax and was forced to pay an even larger amount as to why she denied the tax unlike everybody else. You got Breasts. You have to pay us to cover them.’ The state officials told her. When she denied paying them, the officer went to her house to collect them.
She elegantly cut off her breasts to protest against the caste-based Breast tax. To help you make the scene more graphical, she amputated her bosoms with a sickle and presented them on a ‘Banana Leaf’ to the official.
