Dakshayini Velayudhan (4 July 1912–20 July 1978)
The lone Dalit woman in India’s Constituent Assembly
“There were many firsts in my mother’s life: the first girl to wear an upper cloth, the first Dalit woman graduate in India, a science graduate, a member of the Cochin Legislative Council and of the Constituent Assembly. She also resisted by not walking with shoulders bent or making way for upper castes when walking.” (Velayudhan, 2018)
The early 20th Century saw a rigid and violent caste system in place in the princely states of Travancore and Cochin. The Pulayas, an untouchable community, were one of the lowest in this hierarchy and were subject to particularly harsh conditions. Pulayas were not permitted to cover their torsos (men, as well as women), cut their hair, or to come in close proximity to members of the upper castes.
At the same time, the period also marked the emergence of radical counter movements focused on challenging the traditional social order. The historic Kayal Sammelanam (Meeting on the Backwaters) in 1913 was an important protest against the law prohibiting Dalit groups from meeting on the king’s land. The Kayal Sammelanam, which saw the Pulayas come together in their rowboats on the water, was therefore not in direct contravention of the law, but sent out a message all the same.
It was in these times that Dakshayani Velayudhan grew up as a member of the Pulaya community, witnessing on the one hand the discrimination and violence inflicted on the lower castes, and on the other hand the movements protesting this discrimination. In fact, two of the organisers of the Sammelanam were related to her — Kallachamuri Krishnaadi Asan was Dakshayini’s uncle and K.P. Vallon was her brother. This meeting also inspired the title of Dakshayani’s memoirs, “The Sea Has No Caste”. She would later go on to become the only Dalit woman member of the Constituent Assembly of India.
Life and significance:
Dakshayani was born on 4 July, 1912, in Mulavukad, an island near the coast of Kochi. She belonged to a family that, although belonged to the depressed class, was part of the movement fighting for the empowerment of their community. Consequently, her journey was marked by the breaking of the traditional barriers of both, caste and gender.
The first girl from her community to wear a dress and cover her torso, she was also the first to receive an education at a government school. Armed with a scholarship from the Cochin state, she went on to pursue a Bachelors in Chemistry from the Maharaja’s College in Ernakulam, becoming then the first Dalit woman to earn a degree.
Throughout, Dakshayani was also on the receiving end of several instances of discrimination. During her degree, an upper caste teacher refused to let her observe the experiments in the curriculum. Undeterred, she watched from a distance and stood second in her class.
After earning her degree, when Dakshayani began to teach at a government high school in Thrissur district, she was asked to step down from the road, into the fields, to make way for a Nair woman. Dakshayani refused and eventually it was the Nair woman who walked down to the field remarking, “…the time had come when she had to walk on night soil.”
In 1940, she married the Dalit leader R. Velayudhan in a ceremony conducted by a leper priest, in the presence of Kasturba and M.K. Gandhi at Sevagram in Wardha.
Soon after, disillusioned by the institutional discrimination she faced as an educator, Dakshayani decided to contest for elections from a Scheduled Caste seat from the Cochin Legislative Council in 1942. The Council later nominated her to the Constituent Assembly in 1946, making her the only Dalit woman in the Assembly, at the age of 34.
Dakshayani’s term in the Constituent Assembly saw her making fiery speeches advocating two defining objectives — the formation of a socialist republic with a strong centre, and the eradication of untouchability. Although an ardent admirer of both, Ambedkar and Gandhi, Dakshayani’s views on the means to end untouchability were very different from both men. Rather than social, or political upliftment, she believed it was economic upliftment that was needed to empower the depressed classes. She was therefore opposed to all forms of reservation, believing instead in moral safeguards.
Once her term in the Assembly ended, Dakshayani chose not to continue with electoral politics and spent her time working with groups to empower the oppressed classes and founded the Mahila Jagriti Parishad in Delhi, a forum for Ambedkarite women. She passed away in 1978.
References
- Velayudhan, Meera. “Linking Radical Traditions and the Contemporary Dalit Women’s Movement: An Intergenerational Lens — Meera Velayudhan, 2018.”
- https://sg.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/184569/12/9_chapter4.pdf
- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/how-dakshayani-velayudhan-broke-the-iron-ceiling-of-caste-to-become-the-first-dalit-woman-graduate-of-india/articleshow/60037034.cms?from=mdr
- https://indianexpress.com/article/gender/dakshayani-velayudhan-the-first-and-only-dalit-woman-in-the-constituent-assembly-5030932/
- https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/remembering-dakshayani-velayudhan-lone-dalit-woman-constituent-assembly-92265
- https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/dLi6ZIdW6CgswZCGdOA9VM/The-women-who-helped-draft-our-constitution.html
- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/tracking-indian-communities/gandhi-adored-her-ambedkar-sought-her-advice/
- https://counterview.org/2014/01/27/hindutva-challenge-to-radical-traditions-and-little-histories-that-underlay-anti-caste-movement-in-kerala/
- http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/2019/feb/01/kerala-government-allocates-rs-2-crore-for-dakshayani-velayudhan-award--1932754.html
- https://cadindia.clpr.org.in/constitution_assembly_debates/volume/1/1946-12-19
- http://164.100.47.194/loksabha/writereaddata/cadebatefiles/C29111948.pdf
- http://164.100.47.194/loksabha/writereaddata/cadebatefiles/C29111948.pdf
Books
2. Selected Works Of Maulana Abul Kalam AzadVol. 3 Vol# 3, Volume 3
