Name Nangeli Nangeli | ||
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Nangeli is believed to have been an Ezhava woman who lived in the early 19th century at Cherthala in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore in India who is known for having cut off her breasts in an effort to protest caste-based "breast tax".
Contents
- the history of nangeli documentary history epi 05
- Methil Devika as Nangeli Sthree Sakthi 2018
- Story
- References
The tale is not officially recognised as a historical account.
the history of nangeli documentary history epi 05
Methil Devika as Nangeli | Sthree Sakthi 2018
Story
Historically, the monarchies of what is now the Indian state of Kerala had kept lower caste people in conditions of slavery. As a part of this, these people had to pay a range of taxes on items such as wealth, property, jewellery, the right to grow a moustache, wear footwear, or cover their breasts when in public.
At this time, in the early years of the 19th century, Nangeli, a poor Ezhava woman from Cherthala in the erstwhile Kingdom of Travancore, protested the mulakkaram (breast tax system). She refused to both uncover her bosom and pay the breast tax. When the pravathiyar (village officer) of Travancore, came to her home repeatedly asking her to pay tax, she became frustrated at the unjustness of her harassment. To make her protest known, she chopped off her breasts and presented them to him in a plantain leaf. She died the same day from loss of blood.
Nangeli's husband, Chirukandan, seeing her mutilated body, overcome by grief, jumped into her funeral pyre committing suicide. Following the death of Nangeli, a series of people's movements were set off and the breast tax system was ultimately annulled in Travancore. The place she lived came to be known later as Mulachiparambu (meaning land of the breasted woman).