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Breast tax

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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

  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. Travancore tribes and castes Vol 1, L. Aanatha Krishna Ayyar
  8. A Voyage to the East Indies – John Henry Grose
  9. Protestant Christianity and people's movements in Kerala - J W Gladstone
  10. A People's Revolt in Travancore – R N Yesudasan
  11. The History of the London Missionary Society in Travancore - R N Yesudasan
  12. Colonialism and its forms of knowledge: the British in India – BS Cohen
  13. Freedom from want -Edward Gresser
  14. Let the hills rejoice: the conversion of the Hill Arrians of Kerala and its effect on evangelism – K G Daniel
  15. The Nadars of Tamilnad; the political culture of a community in change - Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr.
  16. Colonial connections of Protestant missionaries in Travancore – P Chandrmohan
  17. The Breast-Cloth Controversy: Caste Consciousness and Social Change in Southern Travancore Robert L Hardgrave
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