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Revision as of 05:26, 28 April 2018
The Breast Tax (or Mulakkaram) was charged when a lower caste girl attained puberty (age>14) and became a wage earning adult in the Kingdom of Travancore, now apart of Kerala, India. Similarly, a lower caste boy had to pay a head tax or Thalakkaram when he joined the working class (age>14) of men. The Breast Tax certainly had nothing to do with the size or shape or attractiveness of her breasts, nor did it have anything to do with covering of a woman’s breasts. The Thalakkaram and Mulakkaram were basically one and the same thing and was a revenue term only differentiated with gender.
There were around 120 categories of taxes existed in the Kingdom of Travancore which include kuppakazcha (taxes for living in a hut), meniponnu (ornament tax), Ezhaputchi (toddy tapping tax), meeshakarram (moustache tax), Tariyira (cess on handloom), Mechikkaram (cattle rearing), Meenpattam (fishing tax), chakkira (oil pressing tax), Kusakkaram (earthenware making tax), vivahakkaram (marriage tax). Of the 120 taxes, some 110 were particularly applicable and extortionary to the poorer communities.
See also
References
- Travancore tribes and castes Vol 1, L. Aanatha Krishna Ayyar
- A Voyage to the East Indies – John Henry Grose
- Protestant Christianity and people's movements in Kerala - J W Gladstone
- A People's Revolt in Travancore – R N Yesudasan
- The History of the London Missionary Society in Travancore - R N Yesudasan
- Colonialism and its forms of knowledge: the British in India – BS Cohen
- Freedom from want -Edward Gresser
- Let the hills rejoice: the conversion of the Hill Arrians of Kerala and its effect on evangelism – K G Daniel
- The Nadars of Tamilnad; the political culture of a community in change - Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr.
- Colonial connections of Protestant missionaries in Travancore – P Chandrmohan
- The Breast-Cloth Controversy: Caste Consciousness and Social Change in Southern Travancore Robert L Hardgrave