The legend of India's "breast tax" and the woman who defied it
In the 19th-century Kingdom of Travancore, in what is now Kerala, India, every lower-caste person owed a poll tax starting around age 14. The tax on men was called talakkaram, “head tax,” or meeshakkaram, “moustache tax.” The tax on women was mulakkaram — “breast tax.” Upper-caste women were exempt.
A villa…
