Nadar climber

Nadar climber in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu

To the south of the Tambraparni, the Nadar climbers constituted the vast majority of the population in the palmyra forests of the Tiruchendur teris, during the 19th century. Majority of the Nadars today come from the south of Thamiraparani river. The Nadar climbers here secured a meager living from the palmyra forests of Teri. The trees and land were owned by the Nelamaikkarars , a Nadar sub-caste. Each climber, like their northern Tirunelveli counterparts, was bound to a tree traditionally. Unlike their Northern Tirunelveli counterparts, the Nadar climbers didn't suffer social disabilities as they were the most predominant caste in the regions south of Tamirabarani. Under the Nawab and earlier British, the trees assessed separately from the land, and in these southern districts alone the palmryas were taxed.[2][3]

In these areas, where the Nadar climbers usually numbered no more than a few families in a single village, and suffered social disabilities. These climbers were considered a half polluting caste in these regions where they constituted the minority population. However, they were allowed to enter the Agraharam region. They were forced to reside in separate regions. However, these regions were not as remote as the hamlet of the untouchables. The Nadar climbers were denied the use of the public well and were also refused the service of the barbers and washerman used by the caste Hindus of the village. Landless and economically dependent on the owners of the trees (the owners were mostly the Maravars and Vellalars of this region), the Nadar climbers did the vocation of toddy-tapping during the six month tapping season, from March to September, and worked as agricultural laborers during the rest of the year.[4]

Presumably the Nadars of Southern Travancore migrated to Travancore from Tirunelveli in the 16th century after the invasion of the Tirunelveli by the Raja of Travancore. Like their Tirunelveli counterparts, the climbers of Travancore were mostly palmyra climbers. However a significant number of Nadars in Travancore were subtenants to Nair landlords or Vellalar landlords. These Nadar tenants called themselves Nadans and a score of these Nadans also directly had control over the lands. These Nadans enjoyed special privileges under the Raja and claimed that they were superior to Nadar climbers. The climbers of Travancore fared a little better than their Tirunelveli counterparts, but, however, suffered severe social disabilities, unlike their Tirunelveli counterparts, under the rigid caste hierarchy of Travancore. As Swami Vivekanandha once stated, Kerala was like a mad asylum of castes. The Nadar climber women wear not allowed to cover their bosoms, to punctuate their low status. However the aristocratic Nadan women, their counterparts, had the rights to cover their bosom. Uneasy with their social status, a large number of Nadar climbers embraced Christianity and became upwardly mobile. Though they improved their status with the aid of Christian missionaries, the outcome of the conversion was not according to the point of view of the missionaries. The Christian Nadar climber women, along with the Hindu Nadar climber women, wore the upper jacket in the manner of upper class women, in order to improve their social status. In turn they were discriminated and even abused by upper class men. One of the Nadan families of Agastheeswaram, instead of supporting their depressed counterparts, supported the upper class men who abused climber women. They claimed that only their women had the right to wear an uppercloth. However after a struggle (Upper cloth revolt) with the authorities of Travancore and also with the aid of the British Christian Missionaries, the depressed Nadar women won themselves the right to wear their upper cloth.[5]