The making of the Constitution of India has been one of the toughest struggles of Indian history for many known and unknown reasons, notwithstanding a truth that this sacred document has been able to prevent an invasion of religious and caste orthodoxy to Parliament and decimate the nation like our unfortunate divided neighbour. The political brass of today may discredit or misunderstand those who waded through those testing times and took many decisions which are disliked today, but their contribution cannot be forgotten and erased from history. One such fascinating personality in the Constituent Assembly was Dakshayani Velayudhan, a Dalit woman, coming from an untouchable family, much admired by the 14 other upper caste, privileged and Western-educated women with her in the Assembly for her intellectual interventions against social injustices and towards inclusive governance in the assembly debates.
Dakshayani Velayudhan
Recollecting the date, 26 November 1949, when the Constituent Assembly after an arduous hard work for three years adopted the Constitution of India, which came into force two months later on 26 January 1950. The Constitution can largely be called the voice of men. Women representatives were a minuscule 15 in number out of 389 people in the Constituent Assembly and were brilliant in every way. Dakshayani Velayudhan was the only Dalit woman amongst them who hailed from Kerala. Her birthday in 1912 matched the making of the American Republic on 4th July in a community of Pulayas, one of the lowest in caste hierarchy of Kerala, a state where untouchability was an accepted social norm. Pulayas were ostracised and excluded from basic human rights of dignity and access to even the fundamental resources of food, clothes, transportation, roads, education or even cutting of hair. Many Pulayas had to live covered with grasses or roam half naked. The Kings of Ernakulam prohibited their entry over roads where the upper caste walked and they were forbidden to use even a corner of public land for even a temporary purpose of festival, marriage or a gathering.
Kerala’s depressed classes launched the historic movement against this evil practice of untouchability but since the resources were with the upper caste Hindus, Pulayas were denied any land to converge and congregate upon. However, this did not prevent them from raising their voice against untouchability as they converged on the backwaters in an indomitable spirit of resurgence. They joined several boats together to create a land for themselves to stand upon to declare a historic Kayala Sammelan of the Cochin Pulaya Mahajana Sabha led by the legendary K.P. Karuppan and family members of Dakshayani’s family namely, Kunjan, Krishnethi and K.P. Vallon. Most of the historic heart-rending episodes of this struggle which should put the casteist Hindus to shame are found in the writings of K.P. Kuruppan and recently in the collection of Dakshayani’s daughter Meera Velayudhan, Cherayi Ramdas’s book Ayyankalikku Aadarathode (In homage to Ayyankalikku). Meera has been a scholar of repute in a leading research institution in Thiruvananthapuram.
Dakshayani’s Sanskritised name was a problem for her family as girls and boys of the Pulaya community could only keep names such as Pullamma, Pomalla, Kunju or Chakki which made no sense or connect with the sacred Hindu scriptures. She mentions how the Ezhavas who occupied a higher than Pulaya position in caste hierarchy, mostly small cultivators, toddy tappers and weavers used to openly mock her as she went out of her home. Strangely, even the Latin Christian community acquired the Hindu caste behaviour on untouchability and scorned her presence in public places. This reflects upon the surreptitious nature of caste practices which work in the interest of the privileged rather than the religion itself. Every effort was made by the upper caste to prevent any advancement of Dakshayini nonetheless it did not prevent her mother’s determination to take her forward. Failing to withstand such insidious marginalisation and overt ostracisation despite the changing times, her mother converted to Christianity with elder siblings and Dakshayani’s uncle Krisnethi but she did not convert Dakshayani and her younger brother K.K. Madhavan.
Conversion helped the mother of Dakshayani to be able to support her daughter through her struggles in procuring basic life requirements otherwise denied to her even when she struggled her way to become a teacher in a government school in Peringottukara in Thrissur and Thripunithura. Only those ignorant of the bane of caste despise converts to other religions which offers them a status of equality and fraternity. Dakshayini, who later reached the Constituent Assembly, was once upon a time not even allowed to draw water from public wells, walk on public roads and visit public markets despite her education and job in a government school. This sentiment digs deep into Dakshayani’s sensibilities when she desired that her biography be titled as The Sea has no Caste (‘but a well does’ as she added). Most memoirs about Dakshayani are found in the collections of her daughter Meera Veludhan in the Centre for Development Studies at Kerala and in the Cherayi Ramadas’s book Ayyankalikku Aadarathode (In homage to Ayyankalikku).
Dakshayani married a Dalit leader Velayudhan in 1940 who was the uncle of K.R. Narayanan, the first Dalit President of India. It also paved the way for Dakshayani to think of stronger platforms to voice the concerns of depressed communities. She was nominated to the reserved Scheduled Caste seat to the Cochin Legislative Council in 1945. Here begins her unstoppable journey towards giving India an inclusive Constitution which would have no place for caste-based discrimination or dehumanising practices such as untouchability.
Her contributions to the Constitution are many. She vouched for proportionate reservation of Dalits in Panchayats and Municipal Bodies. Even though ‘proportionate reservation’ could not be structured in the Constituent Assembly debates nonetheless, Article 14 of the Constitution, read with Article 16 of Indian Constitution, guarantees not only equality before law but also an equal protection of law to Indian citizens who have been historically oppressed and the state will be allowed to make special provisions for them under Article 16. We find Dakshayani’s campaign close to her dreams in 1992 when the 73rd-74th Amendments were carried out for Panchayats and Municipal Bodies respectively.
She strongly spoke about the criminality which goes with the practice of untouchability. Her debates and insightful arguments in favour of Article 11 of the Draft Constitution which abolished untouchability goes on record. This became Article 17 of the Constitution which inscribed, ‘Abolition of untouchability, The enforcement of any disability arising out of Untouchability shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law’.
Her arguments and speeches against the gubernatorial powers of Governors and its subsequent impact upon the character of federalism were prophetic. She was fairly clear that the Centre-state relations may definitely take a nosedive with such an arrangement of institutional powers with the governors.
Decentralisation was a dominant and most impactful campaign that one can find in her debates. She believed that the Constitution ought to be kept free of any form of centralisation of authority. Her undying faith in inclusive governance is expressed in her campaigning for the spirit of freedom, equality and protection of rights as enshrined in the Constitution.
As Modi government prepares to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Independence in 2022, eradication of Dalit oppression in India should be placed as an important goal to achieve. Even in the vision document which the NITI Aayog has prepared for 2024, it should be a priority to make India free of untouchability and caste discrimination. The vision document’s objectives of eradication of poverty and corruption may only create groups of upper caste beneficiaries if laws and institutions which eradicate caste-related discriminatory and heinous practices are not strengthened. This Republic Day let us pay our obeisance to this Dalit woman warrior of the Constitution Assembly of India.
The writer is a professor (retired), Administrative Reforms & Emergency Governance, JNU, and president of NAPSIPAG Disaster Research Group. The views expressed are personal.
Kerala’s depressed classes launched the historic movement against this evil practice of untouchability but since the resources were with the upper caste Hindus, Pulayas were denied any land to converge and congregate upon.