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Breast tax

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The Breast Tax (or Mulakkaram) was a tax imposed on the untouchable caste women irrespective of the religion. It was one of the many inhumane taxes imposed on the lower caste population of Kerala. Some of the other taxes include thalakkaram(tax for head), anikkaram, thalavari, valakkaram,tharikkaram, noolkaram, thiruva, padappanam, vivahakkaram, azha, Kozha, kazhcha, pizha, ponnarippu, menipponnu, chethupattom, panthallkaram, mechilkaram, kottupattukkaram,abharanakkaram, ankakkaram, adimakkaram, vannarappattom, thallarappattom, rupavari, and rajabhogom. Women who belonged to the untouchable castes had to pay mulakkaram (breast tax). According to this law, all the avarna women were to pay tax to the Government for their breasts from the very time of their girlhood, when they start developing breasts. This infamous law that was in force in Travancore until as late as the first quarter of the 20th century. .

As per some historians, the mulakkaram had little to do with breasts other than the tenuous connection of nomenclature. It was a poll tax charged from low-caste communities, as well as other minorities. Capitation due from men was the talakkaram — head tax — and to distinguish female payees in a household, their tax was the mulakkaram — breast tax. The tax was not based on the size of the breast or its attractiveness, as Nangeli’s storytellers will claim, but was one standard rate charged from women as a certainly oppressive but very general tax.

See also

References

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  5. 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 …
  6. 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.
  7. Renjini P and Dr. C Natarajan (2017). "Rani Gowry Lakshmi Bai: Abolition of slavery in Travancore" (PDF). International Journal of Home Science.
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  13. 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.
  14. Manu S Pillai (18 February 2017). "The woman who cut off her breasts". The Hindu. Retrieved 19 February 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
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