Gandhian nonviolent struggle and untouchability in South India : the 1924-25 Vykom Satyagraha and the mechanisms of change

In the 1920s, in the south Indian village of Vykom, a nonviolent struggle sought to open to everyone the roads surrounding the Brahmin temple there. For centuries, any person or animal could walk those roads but not the so-called untouchable Hindus, whose use of the roads would "pollute" the high castes. From April 1924 to November 1925, Gandhi waged a satyagraha to put an end to this blatant discrimination. Gandhi believed that the Vykom struggle would eliminate severe practices of untouchability, unapproachability, and unseeability, as the nonviolent activists would "convert" the high castes "by sheer force of character and suffering." Within a decade of the Vykom campaign, a narrative emerged that corroborated Gandhi's beliefs and cited the success of the satyagraha as testimony to his methods. This mythic narrative has persisted to this day; yet fresh evidence presented by King shows that Gandhi's confidence was misguided, and the volunteers' suffering was ineffective in "converting" the upper-caste orthodoxy. This book for the first time explores what actually happened at Vykom, including its controversial settlement. Correcting misunderstandings, it addresses the rarity of conversion as a mechanism of change, and evaluates shortcomings of Gandhi's leadership. Through An Analysis Of The Twenty-month Long Gandhian Satyagraha (non-violent Resistance) Against Untouchability At Vykom, Kerala, In The Mid-1920s, This Book Explores New Approaches To The Understanding And Practice Of Non-violence As A Means Of Civil Protest. Contesting The Notion That The Movement Was Directed At The 'conversion' Of Upper Castes To Accommodate The Lower Sections Of The Society, The Author Argues That It Was Modern India's First Important Social Struggle Whereby People Took Action To Protest The Caste System And The Practice Of Untouchability. The Role Of Gandhi And The Dilemmas That He Faced Are Interlaced With Analysis Of The Stages Of The Satyagraha. The Author Also Broadens The Scope To Analyse The Impact Of Vykom On The Concept And Workings Of Civil Resistance On A Global Level. With An Examination Of Archival Sources, Newspapers And Oral Narratives, This Work Reconstructs The History Of Colonial Travancore, And Placing The Vykom Satyagraha In This Context, Traces The Dynamics Of Civil Resistance During This Movement.