Poykayil Yohannan

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Poykayil Sreekumara Gurudevan
PoikayilAppachan.jpg
BornYohannan
(1879-02-17)February 17, 1879
Eraviperoor, Travancore, present dayPathanamthitta district, Kerala, India
DiedJune 29, 1939(1939-06-29) (aged 60)
OccupationDalit leader, poet
NationalityIndian
GenrePoetry, theology
SpouseJanamma

Poykayil Sreekumara Gurudevan (17 February 1879, in Eraviperoor – 1939), known as Poykayil Appachan alias Poykayil Kumara Guru Devan, was a dalit activist, poet and the founder of the socio-religious movement Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha ("God's Church of Obvious Salvation").[1] His father was Kandan and mother Lachi. His original name was Kumaran.

Religious work[]

Yohannan joined the Marthoma church, a reformist sect among the Syrian Christians, but realised the church treated Dalits as an inferior class, and so left it. He then joined a new sect called the Brethren Mission where he faced similar instances of caste based discrimination. Johannan concluded that Indian Christian communities continued to discriminate based on caste, and felt this defied the basic tenets of Christianity.[2]

In 1909, Yohannan left Christianity and started his own religious protest movement named Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha. He was known as Poikayil Appachan or Kumara Gurudevan afterwards.[citation needed] Johannan advocated spiritual liberation, and sought to empower and consolidate the Dalits, promoting a creed in which the "" would be free of discrimination.[3]

He was the first person to start an English medium school for the dalith community. [4]

Work as a legislator[]

Yohannan was also a member of the Dalit advocacy group Sadhujana Paripalana Sangham which was founded in 1907 by another dalit leader of Kerala, Ayyankali. Yohannan was also twice nominated, in 1921 and 1931, to the Sree Moolam Praja Sabha, the legislative council of the princely state of Travancore.[5]

Publications[]

  • Unknown Subjects: Songs of Poykayil Appachan. Translated from Malayalam by A.S. Sekher
  • Vadyakhoshangal Nadathunnavarum and Ente Vamshathepatti were featured in the Dalit Poem Collection named Kathal — published by DC Books

Media representations[]

  • Mannikkale Maanikkyam - Drama by V. V. Santhakumar features Yohannan

References[]

  1. ^ A. T. Philip The Mar Thoma Church and Kerala society 1991 "One of the outcome was the booklet entitled Poikayil Yohannanum Veda vaipareethyavum (Poikayil Yohannan and antitheology). Yohannan is addressed as ' Appachan' by his followers."
  2. ^ J. W. Gladstone (1984). Protestant Christianity and people's movements in Kerala: a study of Christian mass movements in relation to neo-Hindu socio-religious movements in Kerala, 1850-1936. Seminary Publications. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  3. ^ Poikayil Johannan Archived 1 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Poikayil Yohannan".
  5. ^ Dr. Alex Thomas; I.S.P.C.K. (Organization) (1 August 2007). A history of the first cross-cultural mission of the Mar Thoma Church, 1910-2000. ISPCK. ISBN 978-81-7214-969-7. Retrieved 30 March 2012.

Further reading[]

  • Mohan, P. Sanal (2013). "Religion, Social Space, and Identity: The Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha and the Making of Cultural Boundaries in Twentieth Century Kerala". In Channa, Subhadra Mitra; Mencher, Joan P. (eds.). Life as a Dalit: Views from the Bottom on Caste in India. SAGE Publications India. ISBN 978-8-13211-777-3.
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