Ayyankali

Ayyankali (1863 to 1941), known as 'Mahatma' Ayyankali, was a reformer whose social interventions were radical, secular and fundamental. His aim was to win dignity, social justice and economic equality for Dalits, and this biography follows his life and work.

The book corrects some common impressions. His well-known call to Dalits to leave the fields fallow, for instance, was not a bid for better wages, as many assume. It was meant to secure their right to education. It also shows his shrewd and practical political sense in the way he engineered the events that ended the kallayum malayum, the symbols of the enslavement of Dalit women.

M.R. Renukumar first published this biography in Malayalam in 2017. Catherine Thankamma's translation now brings it to readers around the world.