The story of how Kerala was introduced to Sikhism and how K.C. Kuttan and other leaders joined the Khalsa under the Sarb Hind Mission.
Rattan Singh (Sir Pentapotamia)
The history of Sikhs in Kerala is believed to start from Guru Nanak’s travels to Pallipuram and Kotayyam and is recorded again when Sikh mercenaries are alleged to serve under a Travancore kingdom warding off colonial powers. The history of the native community of Ezhava Sikhs stems from the Vaikom Satyagraha, an agitation that took place for traditionally lower-caste people to access the Sri Vaikom Mahadev Mandir and this was strictly enforced by the police of Travancore state.
Whilst also agitating against British in Punjab, the Akali Sikhs sent a delegation to the Vaikom Satyagraha, where they had set up a langar for the protestors. Even though this langar had lasted for only a few months, the resultant effect was long-lasting; culminating in a community of native Sikh converts from the Ezhava community.
The Ezhavas
The Ezhavas, also sometimes known as the Thiyyas, are a large community found in Kerala; traditionally considered avarna. They continually sought to improve their standing within the traditional social hierarchy of Kerala. In 1896, this eventually culminated with Padmanabhan Palpu, the chief medical officer of Mysore state, organizing a petition for the right of admission at government schools and ease of access to public service jobs for the Ezhava community.
In 1900, he tried to unite the Ezhavas of Kerala by creating the Ezhava Mahasabha but this was an unsuccessful endeavour. Eventually, in 1903, this led to the formation of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP Yogam), an organisation that worked towards improving social equality in Kerala. Compared to the previous Ezhava Mahasabha, the SNDP Yogam’s ideology was heavily based on Sree Narayana Guru, an influential social reformer and philosopher. He was known for installing an idol during the festival of Mahashivratri, which was worshipped by many devotees but a group of Brahmins were against this and said only Brahmins may install idols; his reply was ‘This is not a Brahmin Shiva but an Ezhava Shiva.’ The SNDP Yogam’s ideology was personified by Sree Narayan Guru’s popular quote: ‘One caste, one religion, and one god for all human beings.’
In 1924, the Vaikom Satyagraha occurred and during a time of turmoil for Ezhavas, many contemplating converting from Hinduism to other religions, including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and even Sikhism. Mithavaadi Krishnan, a publisher of the pro-reform Mithavaadi magazine, became a Buddhist and Dr K.P. Thaiyil became Kamal Pasha Thaiyil and formally converted to Islam.
E. Madhavan, the secretary of the SNDP Yogam, had even written a book to claim that Ezhavas were not Hindu and that they should consider themselves as an independent community.
Sikhism among the Ezhavas
As previously mentioned, a group of Akalis, including Master Tara Singh, had come to the Vaikom Satyagraha to set up langar but this lasted for only a few months; this was the first introduction of Sikhs to the Ezhava community.
Since the Vaikom Satyagraha had made the local Ezhavas more amicable to Sikhs, Sikh organizations like the Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) would attempt to build a relationship within Kerala. On the 6th of April, 1936, Sardar Kartar Singh led a delegation of Sikhs to Kerala, where they were greeted by the Thiyya Political Congress and spent a night at the aforementioned Dr. Thaiyil’s house, with the chief motive of propagating Sikhism within the Ezhava community.
After this development, an influential Ezhava leader named K.C. Kuttan, affectionally known as Kuttachan, had converted to Sikhism, alongside a few families. As opposed to the leaders around him, he saw Sikhism’s willingness to carry arms as a benefit to the Ezhavas. Others like E. Madhavan were in favour of an independent Ezhava religion, similar to the current situation of modern-day Lingayats in Karnataka whereas many like Sahodran Ayyappan and Mithavadi Krishnan had become Buddhist revivalists.
On the Vaisakhi of 1936, K.C. Kuttan and alongside a few other individuals became Sikh and he changed his name to Jaya Singh. They were welcomed by the Maharaja of Patiala and were given full economic support by him and SGPC. Alongside this, a few Ezhavas took the opportunity to learn about Sikhism by going Punjab; including Bhupender Singh and Teja Singh.
On the 11th of May, K.C. Kuttan alongside a few other converts and the Akalis walked along the streets of the Vaikom Mandir. The district magistrate reported that many of the newly converted Sikhs had allegedly attempted to come to the Mandir and walk around the attached roads, which was closed to Ezhavas as they were avarnas.¹⁵ However, the police did not prohibit the Ezhava Sikhs that walked down the roads; this was a personal order given by the Maharaja of Travancore. Despite this, in certain places, the Travancore police interrogated and tortured the Sikhs for having arms, including the aforementioned Teja Singh.
In the aftermath of the situation, the private secretary to the Maharaja of Travancore would try push for the roads to be declared open to all lower-caste Hindus, alongside Muslims and Christians and nullify the purpose of entry by Ezhava Sikhs. However, this had not been done yet and the Sikhs would continue to gain more converts amongst the Ezhavas.
The SGPC had announced the foundation of the Sarb Hind Sikh Mission for propagation of Sikhism throughout India. At the conference, Master Tara Singh, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Udham Singh Nagoke, Sundar Singh Majithia and the Namdhari guru, Partap Singh, were all present. This initiative was also bankrolled by the committee of Sri Harmandir Sahib and Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. In Kerala, they set up two missionary centres: Ernakulam and Ranni. Master Tara Singh along with his Akali Dal contingent had promised to build gurudwaras all over Malabar.
On the 15th of June, in a ceremony conducted at K.C. Kuttan’s house, 25 more people would become Sikh. Around this time, the numbers of potential Ezhava Sikhs are estimated to be around 300 to 800 people.
However, on the 12th of November, the Temple Entry Proclamation was put into effect by the Maharaja of Travancore, this abolished the ban of any communities who weren’t allowed to use the nearby roads and come to the Vaikom Mandir but this political decision also led to the decimation of the Ezhava Sikh community.
Decline of the Ezhava Sikhs and aftermath
As the Maharaja of Travancore was aware of the importance that K.C. Kuttan had among the Ezhavas, he brought K.C. Kuttan in and gave them the assurance that he would allow lower-castes and other marginalised communities to access the mandir and nearby roads. With this, K.C. Kuttan had agreed to remove his turban and cut his beard and hair. After this proclamation, many of the existing Ezhava Sikh community including the leader K.C. Kuttan had left Sikhism and went back to Hinduism. As a result, the approximately 800-strong Ezhava Sikh community had become relegated to a couple of families.
As the SGPC and the Akali Dal had invested time and resources into Kerala to help Ezhavas without any benefit, they had most likely developed similar sour feelings for other political activists. It was quite apparent that K.C. Kuttan merely used Sikhism as a means to protest against existing Hindu practices instead of genuinely believing in it. K.C. Kuttan’s return to Hinduism gives credence to the fact why Master Tara Singh may have been quite indifferent to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s conversion to Sikhism with his followers as he probably foresaw that a similar fate to that of the Ezhavas.
However, that being said, many Ezhavas did continue to observe Sikhism. In 1937, gurudwaras established coir factories and other manufacturing compounds for the economic benefit of Ezhava Sikhs.
Teja Singh and his wife Uttam Kaur moved to Punjab but later moved back to Alappuzha, where they had started a coir factory, named Guru Ramdas Coir Works. However, WW2 had impacted the market for coir as Teja Singh was exporting coir abroad to the US and thus Guru Ramdas Coir Works had sunk into debt. However, the Kerala govt. had later allocated land for cardamom cultivation and Teja Singh later came in possession of 50 acres in Idukki; moving from coastal Kerala to the inland forest parts. He built a small house and a makeshift gurudwara in his land. Eventually, arguments with local landlords led to the land being repossessed and sold. This eventually became a village named Singhkumuthala, later renamed Sinkkukandam.
Similarly, Kirpal Singh started a company called Kirpal Singh & Co, dealing in dry fruits, barley and ayurvedic medicines. In Kerala, he worked as a block-president of the Congress Party.
However, the Ezhava Sikh population was further reduced in 1984, following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. As anti-Sikh pogroms occurred all over India, Kerala was no exception. The aforementioned Kirpal Singh was captured and beaten by a mob. The Congress supporters of Kerala were instrumental in organising pogroms against the local Ezhava Sikhs. In Kayamkulam, Congress supporters attempted to kill Bhupender Singh but were repelled by some of the locals who assisted him.
Due to these incidents and lack of Sikh leadership in Kerala, the Ezhava Sikhs’ descendants either reverted back to Hinduism, mostly through joining the SNDP Yogam, or they married outside the state in South Indian areas where Sikh population was higher like Chennai, Hyderabad, Mysore or even Kochi where a gurudwara still exists to this day.
Read: The forgotten Kalyan Das Temple
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Courtesy: Khalsa Chronicle
