Social ReformEast India Company rule
Channar revolt over the upper cloth
Nadar women in southern Travancore, including today's Kanyakumari district, struggled for decades for the right to cover their upper bodies.
The Channar revolt refers to the long struggle of Nadar women in the Travancore kingdom for the right to wear upper-body clothing, which caste rules reserved for higher castes. In 1813 Colonel John Munro, the British Dewan, allowed Christian converts to wear an upper cloth, but this was opposed and later restricted by proclamations in 1828 and 1829. Clashes, attacks on women and the burning of schools and churches followed in the 1820s and again in 1858. On 26 July 1859, under pressure from the Madras Governor Charles Trevelyan, the Travancore king proclaimed the right of Nadar women to cover their upper bodies. The struggle took place largely in the southern taluks that form today's Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.
