The contribution of an unsung leader to the Vaikom Satyagraha Premium

The centenary year of Vaikom Satyagraha, the celebrations of which will be inaugurated by the Kerala and Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers in Kerala on Saturday, provides an opportunity to recall the importance of the struggle and the role played by various leaders and volunteers.

The centenary year of Vaikom Satyagraha, the celebrations of which will be inaugurated by the Kerala and Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers in Kerala on Saturday, April 1, 2023 provides an opportunity to recall the importance of the struggle and the role played by various leaders and volunteers.

Extending invitation to his Tamil Nadu counterpart M.K. Stalin, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan highlighted the support from the present-day Tamil Nadu to the landmark struggle, especially that of social reformer ‘Periyar’ E.V. Ramasamy, who earned the name ‘ Vaikkom Veerar’ for his role in the struggle.

Periyar’s prominent role in the struggle, which was perhaps the first time when Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of satyagraha were deployed in India for fighting caste discrimination, has been well acknowledged in Tamil Nadu, especially after the publication of Pazha. Athiyaman’s book Vaikom Porattam three years ago.

However, a person who contributed to the struggle, but has largely been pushed out of popular memory, is Barrister George Joseph. He was born in Kerala, but spent a major part of 50 years of his life in Madurai, where he died in 1938. His brief leadership of the struggle was crucial. For, it was he who anticipated the arrest of the remaining leaders and invited Periyar to Vaikom to lead the struggle.

After weeks of preparation, the Vaikom Satyagraha began on Sunday, March 30, 1924, demanding the opening of streets surrounding the Sri Mahadeva Temple to those then treated as “untouchables” by the caste Hindu society. The Hindu’s report two days later recorded that at 7.30 a.m. on the first day, a message from Gandhi was read out at the camp set up by the struggle committee to the large crowd assembled.

A group of leaders and volunteers from the committee then proceeded towards one of the prohibited streets, while the rest stopped 50 metres away where a ‘ theendal palaka’, a board announcing prohibition of the “untouchable” castes beyond the point, was kept.

Three youngsters in khadi clothes and cap, who had volunteered to be arrested that day, proceeded further to the point where the police had erected barricades, courteously demanding that they be allowed to pass along. The three were arrested. The routine continued every day until the police changed their tactic on April 10 and decided not to arrest. By then, prominent local leaders, including K.P. Kesava Menon and T.K. Madhavan, had been jailed and Joseph had taken up the leadership.