The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has omitted a section dealing with Nadar women’s historic struggle to cover their upper body in Kerala from Class nine textbooks.
The board issued a circular to all school heads affiliated to it stating that section 4.1 titled ‘Caste conflict and dress change’ under the theme Clothing: a Social History in the text book ‘India and Contemporary World-I’ for Class IX stands omitted.
The circular also says that no questions will be asked from this section in 2017. No reason has been given for the omission.
This omitted section covered how caste system clearly defined what subordinate and the dominant caste Hindus should wear, eat and so on.
In May 1822, women of the shanar caste were attacked by Nairs in public places in the southern princely state of Travancore (now part of Kerala) for wearing a cloth across their upper-bodies. Over subsequent decades, a violent conflict over dress code ensued.
In those times only the upper-class women were allowed to cover their upper bodies. It was against this practice that the Nadar women waged their historic fight.
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