Ayyaynkali : A dalit Leader of Organic Protest - By M. Nisar & Meena Kandasamy - Foreword by Kancha Ilaiah

The research work of Ayyankali is a very important works as there is hardly nay reading material on Ayyankaali  in English. The auther has put tremendous effort to collect lot of information on the struggles of Ayyankali against the most brutal form of untouchables that existed in Kerala. The Kerala society was the most caste ridden and had produced extreme from of Hindu fundamentalist thinkers like Aadi Sankara and also the Namboodiri Brahminism that rigidified caste and untouchability  in much worst forms than what it was in other parts of India. It had a practice of no only untouchability bu also had unseability.

The first ever reformer that Kerala society produced from the Dalit society was Ayyankali. He was the first revolutionary who organised the untouchables masses and fought for their human dignity and rights. Having been born in mid-nineteenth century slightly later the Mahatma Jotirao Phule he took up hte cause of abolition of untouchability. As a youth he started his rebellion against ban on the entry into public streets by the Dalits. From there he moved on to physically organizing the untouchables masses.

He succeeded in facing   the wrath of the Kerala upper castes and in achieving at least some basic rights of the poor and untouchables masses that society. Today he is the cult figure among Kerala Dalits and this small book certainly helps the readers all over the country to know his work and deeds.

The author deserves appreciation for doing a very useful work.

Kancha Ilaiah
Hyderabad
27 September 2007

M.Nisar M A and M Phil from department of History, University of Calicut. He has submitted a thesis on the topic Social Exclusion and Social Mobility of Dalits in Kerala: A study on Ayyankali Movement in the University of Calicut. Presently teaches history in Maldivers.

Meena Kandasamy is a post graduate in English language and literature. She has served as the editor of The Dalit a bimonthly, alternative Tamil magazine. Meena has translated five Tamil works in to English, Presently enrolled for Ph.D

The book is published by Other Books, Calicut.
Email:otherbooks@post.com
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