The caste system in India has long been considered as “the most resilient and adaptive system of inequality and oppression ever invented, the most inhuman too, even excluding sections of people from the very domain of the human, of the moral and the spiritual, of socialite, fraternity, etc.” … Ayyankali’s brilliant understanding of the oppressive system under which the Dalits lived and the unique capabilities they possessed enabled and empowered him to design effective and innovative strategies to resist the oppression, these were innovative and unlike those of most social reformers, including Ambedkar and Sree Narayana Guru. Actually, he was far more than a social reformer, he was a true revolutionary. Ayyankali was a unique, exceptional personality, proud and courageous with an unusually high degree of self-confidence and self-respect, a man who boldly and defiantly refused to accept his status as untouchable and boldly threw off the shackles of servitude and bondage. Ayyankali was the first Dalit revolutionary organizer of the first successful agriculture labour strike in Kerala, the first leader to launch a successful strike to get admission for the Dalits in schools, and the first Dalit representative in the Sreemoolam legislative assembly demanding and obtaining for the downtrodden many concessions and social support measures from the government. … Ayyankali had seen freedom as not something to be gifted by someone, but something to be exercised and asserted in the act. … Ayyankali’s struggles were unique in the long history of anti-caste movements—from Buddhist/Jain times, from the Bhakti movements to modern ones …Mahatma Ayyankali: Trailblazer Of Dalit Emancipation: K.M. Seethihttps://www.justicenews.co.in/mahatma-ayyankali-trailblazer-of-dalit-emancipation/
