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Breast tax

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The Breast Tax (or Mulakkaram) was a tax imposed on lower caste Hindu women if they wanted to cover their chests, including their breasts in public after attaining puberty, 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 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

  1. Journal of Kerala Studies. University of Kerala. 2011. p. 93. Retrieved 13 October 2017. One of the many social ills that is worth mentioning to high- light the plight of a person in those times is the breast tax or 'Mulakkaram". The lower caste women were proscribed by their high caste masters from covering their upper part of the …
  2. Kattackal, Jacob (1990). Comparative Religion. Oriental Institute of Religious Studies, India. p. 144. 'low-caste' men had to pay a 'head-tax', and the 'low-caste women' had to pay a 'breast tax' ('tala-karam' and 'mula-karam') to the government treasury.
  3. Renjini P and Dr. C Natarajan (2017). "Rani Gowry Lakshmi Bai: Abolition of slavery in Travancore" (PDF). International Journal of Home Science.
  4. "Nine weird taxes from around the world". The Economic Times. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  5. "Remembering One Woman's Ultimate Tax Protest On International Women's Day". Kelly Phillips Erb. Forbes. 8 March 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  6. DR. A. VANAJA (February 2015). "ROLE OF MISSIONARIES IN UPPER CLOTH RIOT IN KANYAKUMARI DISTRICT". Paripex - Indian Journal Of Research. 4 (2).
  7. "History of women's caste struggle removed by CBSE". India Today. 27 December 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  8. K. G. Daniel (1 January 1998). Let the Hills Rejoice: The Conversion of the Hill Arrians of Kerala and Its Effect on Evangelism. ISPCK. p. 10. ISBN 978-81-7214-416-6. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  9. Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr. (1968). "The Breast-Cloth Controversy: Caste Consciousness and Social Change in Southern Travancore". The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 5 (2): 176.
  10. R. N. Yesudas (1980). The History of the London Missionary Society in Travancore, 1806-1908. Kerala Historical Society. p. 10. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
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