Attempts to Create a Counter-Culture

The third chapter of Swami Anand Thirth: Untouchability, Gandhian Solution on Trial examines Swami Anand Thirth’s efforts to challenge caste through educational, social and cultural initiatives. Rather than viewing the eradication of untouchability as solely a matter of legislation or political reform, A. M. A. Ayrookuzhiel argues that it also required a transformation of social attitudes and the creation of alternative institutions capable of fostering democratic values.

The chapter opens with an autobiographical account of a former student of Sri Narayana Vidyalaya, established by Swami Anand Thirth at Payyanur in 1931 for children from Scheduled Caste communities. Ayrookuzhiel uses the institution as a case study to illustrate the Swami’s wider efforts to promote social equality, expand educational opportunity and foster cultural change within a deeply stratified society.

The text of the “Attempts to Create a Counter-Culture” section is reproduced below. Note: Obvious OCR recognition errors and a small number of clear typographical errors affecting names and readability have been silently corrected. Historical spellings, transliterations and terminology used in the original publication have otherwise been preserved.

Contents

  1. Sri Narayana Vidyalaya
  2. Jati Nasini Sabha—An Association for the Abolition of Caste
  3. Labour Schools and Harijan Children
  4. Sannyasa Sangham Not Free from Caste
  5. Notes

Sri Narayana Vidyalaya

I was a boy of about eight years, innocently unaware of the dark side of my society. One evening my mother took me along with her, and we proceeded to the quarters of the higher castes. She wanted to sell the big fishes of her day’s laborious catch. It was as though the best part of her catch was for other people to eat. I was walking ahead of her, whistling and throwing stones at the birds as a carefree child.

At a distance we saw a young man in saffron clothes coming toward us. At once my mother shouted “Cheya, Cheya.” The slave castes had to call out “Cheya” if they encountered people of higher castes on the way. If in reply came the shout “Ho, Ho,” they were expected to move out of their path. But the man who was coming toward us remained silent. My mother in her anxiety again shouted “Cheya, Cheya.” By this time he came close to us. With a broad smile he lifted me up in his arms in close embrace. My mother could not believe her eyes. Was she dreaming or seeing a vision, she must have wondered! Wiping the tears of joy rolling down her cheeks, she again looked at him standing in front of her. With a godly smile, carrying me in his arms he asked her “Shall I take your little son with me?” My mother nodded her head in a kind of half-hearted consent. This is how I joined Sri Narayana Vidyalaya of Swami Anand Thirth in the following year in May 1934.1

To build a democratic community out of a caste-ridden society is an historic task. It requires a full-scale religio-cultural revolution in the consciousness of the Indian people. This is not a one man’s task: Some of the steps Swamiji had taken in his early life reveal his desire to build a democratic culture against the prevailing values of the caste society.

In the last chapter we referred to the establishment of separate labour schools by the British government in view of the caste Hindu opposition of Scheduled Caste children attending common schools. Swamiji felt that it was no solution to the problem of untouchability.2 The caste Hindus had to be helped to get rid of their attitude of superiority. The economically poor and ignorant Harijans had to be enabled to overcome their feelings of inferiority.3

The Sri Narayana Vidyalaya in Payyanur, to which the boy mentioned above came, was started by Swami Anand Thirth in 1931 as a home for children of Scheduled Caste origin. He wanted to nurture them educationally and spiritually so that they would be able to attend common schools with other children.

Payyanur was chosen by Swami Anand Thirth to start his work of Harijan education not because people there were sympathetic to the cause but because it was one of the most conservative centres of orthodox Hinduism in Kerala. “It was in 1931,” wrote Swami Anand Thirth, “that a procession of Harijans was mercilessly assaulted on a public road in Payyanur. Harijans were not permitted to use footpaths or roads. Their children were not admitted to common schools. They were victims of severe social oppression and suppression. I therefore thought that silent constructive work was necessary and I accordingly started a free Boarding House for their children who were, so to say, adopted by us.”4 It was after the incident narrated above that he chose Payyanur for his constructive work.

The irony of the situation comes out sharply when we remember that Payyanur was a centre of Congress activities. The fourth State Congress session was held in Payyanur in May 1928. Presiding over the convention, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said:

We must abandon the harmful traditions which have taken possession of us. We have to create conditions for the welfare of every man and woman in this country. We must oppose social evils like untouchability, exploitation of the workers by their employers, of peasants by the landed feudal lords, which are real obstacles in the establishment of a democratic state.5

It was again in Payyanur that Kelappan, the great Congress leader in Kerala, organised the Salt Satyagraha of Gandhiji, lasting a month from 19th April 1930. C.H. Govindan Nambiar had established a Khadi Centre in Payyanur. Despite all this apparent nationalism, Payyanur continued to be a conservative centre. Even as late as 1937, we read that a Congress Jatha which was planned to march through the caste Hindu quarters in Payyanur had to be cancelled by the Congress Committee when it came to be known that there would be Harijans among them. Swamiji sent a report on the incident to Gandhiji on which Gandhi wrote a comment in the Harijan with the caption “Shameful, if true.”6

It was in a place like this Swami Anand Thirth started his work of Harijan seva by renting a house near the Subramanya temple in Payyanur, which belonged to an engineer, Krishna Menon. The house was named Sri Narayana Vidyalaya after his revered Guru. It was inaugurated with half a dozen children on 21 November 1931.

The Basel Mission School in Payyanur was the scene of Swamiji’s first attempt to break down caste prejudices observed in public schools at the time. The headmaster of this Mission school himself was a Pulaya converted to Christianity. Swamiji took one of his hostel children for admission there. The headmaster refused as he was afraid of public opposition. Swamiji represented the matter to Mr. Carlstone, Sub-Collector of Tellicherry. Mr. Carlstone ordered the admission of the child to the school and assured the headmaster that government grant-in-aid for the school would continue even if all other children boycotted the school. He also instructed that no leaving certificate should be issued to those who wanted to leave the school. The other children did indeed boycott the school, but only for a few days.7 This initial success Swamiji wanted to develop, into a movement. In this he had the support of a number of youthful social radicals.8

Sri Narayana hostels were opened in four other places, namely Pazhayangadi, Cannanore, Tellicherry and Kalliassery. Children from these hostels were all admitted to common schools. In some places the movement under Swamiji helped children to go to common schools from their own homes.

It proved difficult to find a permanent place in Payyanur to house the children. No one was willing to sell land for a Harijan hostel. In the end, Swami Anand Thirth had to engage a Muslim to acquire some land in his name and later transfer it to Swamiji. This was how the present hostel land near Murikovil cemetery was bought from a Nambudiri. There Swamiji built a small house with dormitories and prayer room, with the money he received from his father as his share of ancestral property.

The school at Madayi, near Pazhangadi, which belonged to the Royal Palace in Chirakal, refused to admit Harijan children. The management obtained permission from the Department of Education to close down the school for three months and later shifted it to another place. At Varanamkode, near Payyanur, the caste Hindu resistance was so much that Harijan children had to be given police protection to go to school. In a school near Payyanur temple, human excreta and other dirt were found in classrooms following the admission of Harijan children. The next day when Swamiji himself led the children to school he was assaulted by the caste Hindus near the temple.9

In the early years, the boys of Sri Narayana Vidyalaya were often abused and at times even beaten up for walking on the public roads. Prabhakar Sarma, who was among the very first batch of children at the hostel, narrated how he was chased and abused in the Chatiya street in Payyanur in 1932 when he was returning to the hostel after distributing the newspaper, Matrubhumi. Prabhakar Sarma later became a distinguished and respected teacher and won the National Award as a model teacher. In some places like Otayamadam, the Harijans were so afraid that they refused to take their children to common schools. To give them courage, Swamiji got two of his children from the Vidyalaya admitted there and arranged for their stay near the school. One of these two students later became the Joint Labour Commissioner.10

Swami Anand Thirth used to visit the Harijan settlements and persuade parents to send their children to the Vidyalaya. Often small amounts had to be given to parents to compensate for the loss of income children used to bring from their work. It was in the course of one such visit, Swamiji met Sri Swaminathan and his mother, referred to earlier in the chapter. Swamiji’s association with the Congress also scared the Harijans who had a more favourable impression of the British government. They did not want to join “an anti-government Congress institution.” In certain cases this fear resulted in parents taking their children away from the Vidyalaya.

The ability of Swami Anand Thirth to defy the caste Hindu opposition was in no small measure due to the visible support he received from Sub-Collector Carlstone. The police who ignored Swamiji’s petitions in the beginning, had to give him necessary support under the firm orders of the Collector. Carlstone’s attitude to Swamiji’s work can be gathered from what he recorded in the Visitors’ Book in Sri Narayana Vidyalaya on 17 March 1933 during a visit there.11

I have just paid a brief but pleasant visit to the Sri Narayana Vidyalaya. There are at present six boys and four girls, all from depressed classes who looked very neat and very happy. They go to the high school in Payyanur and apparently do very well. It is a very good idea on the part of Swami Anand Thirth and well carried out, and much can be done in this way to remove the disabilities of the depressed classes and improve their condition. I wish the institution every success.12

On 12 January 1934 Mahatma Gandhi, during his all-India tour to collect funds for the Harijan Seva Sangh visited Sri Narayana Guru Vidyalaya. Gandhiji exhorted the children to “keep your mind, body and soul pure.” Swamiji reminisces that Gandhiji became very curious to know his caste. As Swamiji was the disciple of Sri Narayana Guru, whose bidding was “Think not of caste, tell not your caste, ask no another’s caste,” he asked Swami Anand Thirth in a roundabout way, “What is the community to which your father is supposed to belong?” Swamiji too answered the question in the same roundabout way.

During this visit, Gandhiji planted a mango sapling in the compound which is now known under the name “Gandhi Mango.”13 In the Visitors’ Book Gandhiji wrote, “I hope that this institution will do Harijan work and produce earnest Harijan Sevaks.”14

The testimonies of the first batches of children of the hostel reveal that, by and large, it was more their own little initiative and enthusiasm, and the encouragement given by teachers of some labour schools in the locality that brought them to the hostel in Payyanur. In the early years girls were admitted to the boarding home and were placed under the special care of a matron, but they were later shifted to an exclusive girls’ hostel in Calicut. After Gandhiji’s visit, the Harijan Seva Sangh started its office in Calicut under whose auspices Harijan hostels were opened in many places, with which Swamiji co-operated.15

The financial burden of running several hostels was far beyond the capacity of Swamiji and his young enthusiastic friends. One of the inmates of Sri Narayana Mandiram in Tavakara, Cannanore, narrates the following incident: “One day there was nothing in the hostel to feed the children. I was sent by Swamiji to his mother with a letter. The kind lady fed me and sent Rs. 200 in an envelope, which was a windfall in those days.”16 The Swamiji wrote to his friends and acquaintances requesting them to become patrons of the Vidyalaya by contributing Rs. 25 per annum. The Gandhi Ashram, Tiruchengoda, in the initial stages,17 and later the Harijan Seva Sangh used to send small amounts. The Labour Department also contributed Rs. 60 per month. These small contributions were too little to meet the needs of the hostels and in the end all the hostels except the one in Payyanur had to be closed. The local support was so meagre that all he could collect from Cannanore, Tellicherry and Calicut amounted to Rs. 10 to 12 a month.18

The local people were, in fact, against the existence of a Harijan hostel, but tolerated it, out of fear of the authorities. They refused to associate themselves with Sri Narayana Vidyalaya and those who did were punished. A.V. Srikantapoduval, a resident of Payyanur, narrates how he, along with four other boys, were charged by the management of the Subramanyam Temple in Payyanur for taking meals from Sri Narayana Vidyalaya. The notice he received from the management read:

It has come to our notice that along with Murikuvil Thuruthu Parambil Anandathirthan, a Konkani Brahmin, you have taken meals with Pulaya children. This act is against the established tradition of the community. It has been decided to conduct a trial in front of the Western Gate of the temple. You are requested to be present.19

As years passed, the financial burden increased, and it was his strong trust in God which sustained him in work. This becomes clear from the letter Swamiji wrote to Rajaji;

The repetition of Ram Nam keeps me up. Our Ashram is going on smoothly. The financial position is very unsatisfactory. I have now a deficit of Rs. 3000 of which Rs. 2000 is a loan from various sources. The balance of 1000 is personal amount received from my father… I am aware of the blessings of my guru and I do not worry about myself and my future… This service satisfies my soul though my mind feels worried and the body weak.20

The hostel life is described by one of the early inmates as follows:

We rose at 4 in the morning. Our first task was to clean the house and the surroundings. We then had to take bath and go for prayer. Prayer was made up of readings from the Gita, recitation of Gayatri Japam and singing of songs composed by Sri Narayana Guru: After prayer it was study time till 8.34 a.m. when we had our breakfast. The boys in batches of four used to take turns to help in the kitchen. Another batch would wash plates. On Saturdays Swamiji took special classes on religious and moral subjects from 9 to 12 in the morning. We had to learn Hindi too. Training in gardening, spinning thread on charka, making small furniture, and hair-cutting were part of our routine in life. We were made to look upon work as something dignified. We were also given practice in what Swamiji called Sahana Samara - non-violent resistance. One group would act as Satyagrahis while others would pose as policemen. The training was in fact put into some practical use when we joined in programmes of picketing temples.21

The atmosphere of cleanliness and godliness caught the attention of many early visitors. Sri V.V. Giri, who was Minister for Labour and Industries in Madras, wrote in the Visitors’ Book: “I had the greatest pleasure in visiting this Ashram. I was struck by the ideal of cleanliness prevailing in the place. The inmates are wonderfully clean. The institution is very useful in removing untouchability. I wish it all success.”22

The children were sent to a government school in Payyanur under the District Board. They wore a uniform of white shirt and blue trousers made of hand-woven cloth. In addition, they had the Gandhi cap on their shaven heads giving them the perfect appearance of satyagrahis.

Swami Anand Thirth was keen to introduce the boys to a wider cultural life. Whenever possible, he would take them to nearby ashrams and festival places so that they might enjoy the company of others. He also started the observance of the birthday of Narayana Guru in the Vidyalaya which has since become a great annual event in the hostel. He always took as inmates a small number of caste Hindu boys. Children of Scheduled Caste Christians were also admitted to the hostel. Swami Anand Thirth had a Christian companion, Jacob Master, for some years, who acted as warden of the hostel. He taught many Christian hymns to children which were used in their common prayer.

In the early period, Swami Anand Thirth named Harijan boys with surnames of caste Hindus like Sharma, Nair, Nambiar, Shenoy - to prove that there was no magic about these names. He also introduced the thread-ceremony and Surya Namaskar. These practices were later given up as they created technical difficulties in the way of boys getting the benefit of scholarships and reservations in jobs from the government.

The letters of Swami Anand Thirth to his friends speak of the tremendous concern he had for the well-being of the boys. In them we see him describe the progress of the boys in studies and in getting jobs in government or armed services and that too with the joy of a father whose children do well. I give here, for example, a letter he wrote to one Vittal Rao:

Our work here is getting on quite well. Two more of our boys passed the SSLC this year, bringing the total to six; of these six, two are reading for the Intermediate, one is undergoing Secondary Training, two are temporary clerks in the South Indian Railway, and one has recently been recruited in the Royal Navy. There is not yet a single Harijan in Malabar who passed the Intermediate. We started our work of Harijan education rather late, and so Malabar is backward in this respect. I am glad to report that recently one Harijan (SSLC) from Palghat has been selected for the (post of) Sub-Inspector of Police.23

Many of the students of the hostel came to occupy high positions in society.24 Swami Anand Thirth continued to take personal interest in his former pupils even after they had been employed in well-paid jobs. For instance, we find him writing in 1970 to Sri C. Achutha Menon, Chief Minister of Kerala, about an old student of the hostel. “The upgraded post would have gone to a Harijan who is now a District Labour Officer at Trivandrum. The said D.L.O. Sri K.V. Vishwanathan, is an old student of our institution and is one of the Harijans of Malabar who have come up.”25

However, academic excellence was difficult for the majority of students who were the first generation to go to school from their community. Swami Anand Thirth therefore wanted to establish a technical training centre in the hostel. “My collections in Bombay” he wrote, “have saved me for the time being. But I don’t desire to spend them uselessly. It is my desire to start a technical section in weaving and carpentry attached to our institution.” This dream of Swami remained unfulfilled. So much for the public support for this noble work.

Disappointment also came from the children he was so fond of serving. The demands of study, discipline, and perhaps vegetarian food, proved too much for some boys who grew up in all freedom. Discontinuance and even running away from the hostel were not infrequent happenings.

Jati Nasini Sabha—An Association for the Abolition of Caste

In 1933 an organisation for the abolition of caste was founded in Cannanore by Sri Kelappan and Swami Anand Thirth as president and secretary, respectively. Its members had to abjure their caste before joining the association. One of their specific concerns was to promote inter-caste dining and inter-caste marriage. “The destruction of caste” was proclaimed as the Dharma of the New Age (Jatinasanam Nava Yuga dharmam) at public meetings and through leaflets.26 The movement argued that age-old religious beliefs should be modified according to the demands of modern times; that a social revolution is imperative to build a modern India; that people had to be liberated from caste mentality; that a national ethos based upon love for the country had to be built up to avoid disunity among Hindus.27 The movement appealed to young people not to marry within their own caste whenever circumstances permitted. They should refuse to declare jati in schools, registers, offices, and other places, and abjure all caste practices at home and in public places. Nothing less than the courage to stand for reform for the welfare of the country would make true human beings.28

Jati Nasini Sabha organised several inter-caste marriages throughout the state of Kerala. Swami Anand Thirth continued his active interest in the work even as late as 1977 when he was president of the Inter-Caste Association of Cannanore District. In view of the sociological theory that caste exists mainly as a function of kinship practice—exchange of women within a basic unit,29 the attempts to break it on the part of the Jati Nasini Sabha, though symbolic up to now, are praiseworthy.

On 26th June 1934, Swami Anand Thirth was formally admitted as a member of the Theosophical Society.30 The speeches he made during this period reveal his attitude to Hinduism, and may be summed up as follows:

If belief in Hinduism means that Varnasrama dharma was based on birth, Hinduism itself has to be reformed. People are leaving the Hindu religion on the ground that it nurtures casteism. If the caste Hindus want them to remain Hindus, it has to be shown that caste is not part of Hinduism. Caste has destroyed the rationality and humanity of the caste Hindus.31 Caste dehumanises people. It makes them worse than animals. As long as caste consciousness and caste discrimination remain, the nation will never attain freedom and progress. Social change in India has reached a critical stage. If untouchability has no place in our midst, caste has no place amidst us either. As the spirit of God dwells in human beings there cannot be anything wrong if a man touches another or has close contact with him. Based on these principles we affirm that there is nothing wrong if people, regardless of their religion, language and dress, inter-dine and inter-marry. We work for that freedom for human beings. Ambedkar’s call to leave Hinduism has awakened Hindu thinkers and leaders. Hindu Mahasabha has resolved to abandon Jati. Practical steps have to be taken. Only if the caste structure is destroyed will Hindus become one community and disunity will come to an end. Work for social revolution.32

Labour Schools and Harijan Children

Reference was earlier made to the Labour Schools established by the British Government to cater specifically to the educational needs of the children of Scheduled Caste origin. We have also seen that Swamiji started the hostel, Sri Narayana Vidyalaya, to enable Harijan children to attend common schools.

Following Independence in 1947, when Sri Kelappan became the president of the District Board of Education in Malabar, Swami Anand Thirth was made Honorary Inspector of Labour Schools there. Swamiji discovered that many of the schools were Labour Schools in name only. According to government order, the number of non-Harijans in a Labour School should not have exceeded 30% of the total strength. But in practice that was an exception rather than the rule. Swamiji found that the money spent on Labour Schools for Harijan welfare in the form of free midday meals, books and slates was actually benefiting non-Harijans. In one school he found there were only two Harijan girls. The headmaster frequently closed the school by noon without serving the noon meals, though he claimed money for it.33 In another school there was not a single Scheduled Caste child.34

Even in the Labour School, discrimination was practised against Scheduled Caste children. They were seated separately. They were provided with coconut shells while others were given cups.35 In some schools, the teachers divided the Scheduled Castes into sub-castes like Parayas, Pulayas and Kanakars. On the pretext that Paraya children refuse to take meat cooked by a Pulaya, they employed a Nair youth as cook.36 He also found teachers explaining to the untouchable children their sub-caste differences.37

Armed with these facts, Swami Anand Thirth made several representations to the government. He argued that Labour Schools, where the majority of the children were of caste origin, should be transferred from the Labour Department to the Education Department. The money spent on such schools should be used for granting individual scholarships to a greater number of Scheduled Caste children. With detailed statistics he showed that the schools in Matool, Wallayea, Feroke, Kannapuram did not benefit Scheduled Caste children.

In areas where there were a sufficient number of general schools, the Labour Schools should be closed down and Scheduled Caste children should be admitted in general schools. The poor, ignorant Scheduled Caste parents were misguided by people with vested interests, like managers and teachers, into thinking that the government desired them to send their children only to Labour Schools. He argued that the caste Hindu opposition had weakened because of the temple entry movement, and the time had come to scrap Labour Schools altogether, except in isolated and remote places where there were no other general schools for Scheduled Caste children, or where caste prejudices were so high that the local Harijans could not withstand it. He pleaded that the government should open residential middle schools for Harijans and should increase the number of boarders in labour hostels. As there were no Scheduled Caste graduates, scholarships for college education should be given. In the appointment of teachers in Labour Schools, statutory preference should be given by the Labour Department to Scheduled Caste teachers. Government should also withdraw grant and recognition from Caste Hindu management schools which refused to admit Harijans. The existence of four such schools was brought to the attention of the government. One of them, the Devi Vilasam Elementary School in Thavam, near Cherukunnu, was started to cater to caste Hindus when the local school at Punnacherry admitted Harijans. Swami Anand Thirth gave much publicity to these representations to government with letters to the editor and short reports in newspapers.

Sannyasa Sangham Not Free from Caste

Shortly before his death on 3rd August 1928, Sri Narayana Guru initiated Swami Anand Thirth into the order of monks38 — the Sri Narayana Dharma Sangham — which he had founded. Ever since, it was his Guru’s vision of “one people, one religion and one God” which spiritually sustained Swamiji. In his daily life he developed the habit of meditating on his Guru’s spiritual presence. He often mentally pictured the Guru standing in front of him repeating the same old parting words “Do not fear, there is plenty of work to do.” As his work was concentrated in Malabar at that time, his contacts with the Dharma Sangham were limited to occasional visits to Sivagiri, the headquarters of the Sangham and correspondence with some of the members.

In 1924 the president of the Sannyasa Sangham, Swami Achutananda nominated Swami Anand Thirth to succeed him as the head of the Sangham. It was a time when there was a major dispute and a court case between the two organisations founded by Sri Narayana Guru, namely Narayana Dharma Sangham of the monks and Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), the latter an association of the lay disciples of the Guru. While the Sannyasa Sangham was a small congregation whose members belonged to different castes before they took sannyasa under the Guru, the SNDP had become a socio-political movement of the Ezhava-community in which the Guru was born. There was a genuine fear on the part of some monks that the control of the religious and educational institutions and properties by the SNDP Yogam would convert the movement of the Guru into a communal and caste organisation, going against his vision of a casteless society.

The SNDP Yogam also claimed a decisive voice in the election of the president of the Sannyasa Sangham who would also be the Mathadhipati (Abbot) of the central Mutt in Shivagiri. They demanded that the Sannyasa Sangham should elect its president only from a panel of five names of the members of the Sangham proposed by the Yogam. Some of the monks, led by its secretary Sri Narayana Thirth, supported the move of the Yogin and reached a compromise with the SNDP. This group of monks and the SNDP opposed the nomination of Swami Anand Thirth who had also challenged the compromise agreement in court. The rival group of monks led by Sri Narayana Thirth told the ailing and bed-ridden president, Swami Achutananda, that a Brahmin, meaning Swami Anand Thirth, would not at any cost be permitted by them to become the head of the Mutt. Swami Achutananda resisted their demand and even appointed a new secretary for the Sangham in the place of Sri Narayana Thirth. But a group of Swamis under the leadership of Sri Narayana Thirth suddenly made their appearance at Shivagiri and compelled him to cancel the nomination of Swami Anand Thirth. They broke into the room of Swami Anand Thirth, dragged him out and tried to snatch from him the records pertaining to the nomination. The old, helpless Swami was unable to protect Swami Anand Thirth and nominated another monk, Swami Sugunanda, to succeed him. Even this name was not acceptable to the opposition.

Soon afterwards, Swami Achuthananda died. Sri Narayana Thirth and his group elected Swami Sankarananda as the new president. After years of litigation, Swami Anand Thirth became the president in April 1959 by court order: The religious and educational institutions and other properties were to be administered by him as president under a newly created Scheme of Public Trust called Sri Narayana Dharma Sangham Trust. However, Swami Anand Thirth resigned in December 1959 as president of the Trust, since he felt that some of the monks and SNDP did not have confidence in him. They did not also share his zeal in the programme of eradicating untouchability as he later found during his work around Shivagiri, the headquarters of the movement of Sri Narayana Guru. The gradual estrangement from them led him to resign, his membership of the Sri Narayana Dharma Sangham Trust on 26th June 1974. The Dharma Sangham Trust Board accepted his resignation on 28th June 1974. Thus came to an end his dream of belonging to a spiritual community cutting across caste boundaries.

Notes

  1. M. Swaminath, 60th Birthday Souvenir of Swami Anand Thirth, 1965, p. 78. Translated from Malayalam by the author. ↩
  2. Memoir, p. 21. ↩
  3. SAT to Narayana Pai, 27 December 1938. ↩
  4. SAT, letter of 14 August 1938, Memoir, pp. 20-21. ↩
  5. Damodaran, The Freedom Struggle in Kerala, pp. 36-37. ↩
  6. Memoir, pp. 27-28, The report in the Harijan appeared on 27 March, 1937. ↩
  7. Memoir, pp. 21-22; Personal interview 1 January 1980. ↩
  8. They were K.P. Gopalan, K.A. Keraliyan, T.G. Narayan Nambiar, P. Krishna Pillai, V.M. Vishnu Bharatiyan. All of them started their public careers in the Congress but later joined the Left movement in Kerala. ↩
  9. Notes dictated by SAT, to Venugopal Kokken in 1980, and Memoir, pp. 22-23. ↩
  10. K.K. Vishwanathan. ↩
  11. Memoir, p. 23. ↩
  12. H.H. Carlstone, I.C.S. Sub-Collector Tellicherry, notings in the Visitors' Book, 17 March 1933. ↩
  13. Memoir, p. 27. ↩
  14. Visitors' Book, 12 January 1934. ↩
  15. Memoir, SAT, p. 31. ↩
  16. Memoir, SAT, p. 31. ↩
  17. M.P. Prakasam, Golden Jubilee Souvenir of Sri Narayana Vidyalaya, Payyanur (Malayalam), 1982, p. 141. ↩
  18. Letter of Manager, Gandhi Ashram, Tiruchengode to SAT, 13 May, 1934. ↩
  19. Interview with the author, January 1980. The record of the excommunication is kept in the Subramanyam temple. ↩
  20. SAT to Rajaji, 14 November 1949. ↩
  21. Interview with old students of the Vidyalaya. ↩
  22. Visitors' Book, V.V. Giri, Minister for Labour and Industries, Madras, 6 October 1937. ↩
  23. SAT to Vittal Rao, undated. ↩
  24. A list is given in the Golden Jubilee Souvenir of the Sri Narayana Vidyalaya. ↩
  25. SAT, to C. Achutha Menon, dated 6 June 1970. ↩
  26. Leaflet No. 2, Jati Nasanam Nava Yuga Dharmam. Reprint dated 15 April 1936. ↩
  27. Ibid. ↩
  28. Ibid., p. 4 ↩
  29. Gail Omvedt, "Caste and Class (Part II)," Samata, 2/1983, p.59. ↩
  30. Diploma No. 27164. The Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras. ↩
  31. Text of a speech given by SAT around 1935, in Malayalam. ↩
  32. Ibid. ↩
  33. School at Valayanchathnur, SAT to the Collector, 22 January 1947. ↩
  34. School at Pottassery, SAT 1949. ↩
  35. School at Chunagad, Thayacode, SAT to Commissioner of Labour, 1948. ↩
  36. School at Nammada, SAT to Collector, 1949, cf. also Memoir, p. 26. ↩
  37. SAT to Collector, 1948. ↩
  38. Memoir, pp. 13-14. ↩

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