Padmanabhan Palpu: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Revision as of 15:53, 10 July 2021 edit Redbutterfly0987 (talk \| contribs) 41 edits →‎Early life and Education: Languge Correction. Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit ← Previous edit		Revision as of 15:55, 10 July 2021 edit undo Redbutterfly0987 (talk \| contribs) 41 edits →‎Early life and Education: Languge Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit Next edit →
Line 8: ===Early life and Education=== Padmanabhan Palpu was born on 2 November 1863 in [[Pettah, Thiruvananthapuram\|Petta, Trivandrum]], then in the [[Kingdom of Travancore]], India.{{citation needed\|date=February 2017}} His family were wealthy and ~~relatively~~ educated members of the Ezhava caste, which at that time was considered to be a backward community among what [[Swami Vivekananda]] described as the "mad house" that was the [[caste system of Kerala]].<ref name="Donner">{{cite book \|title=Being Middle-class in India: A Way of Life \|editor-first=Henrike \|editor-last=Donner \|first=Caroline \|last=Wilson \|chapter=The social transformation of the medical profession in urban Kerala : Doctors, social mobility and the middle classes \|publisher=Routledge \|location=Abingdon, Oxon \|year=2011 \|isbn=978-0-415-67167-5 \|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1_e8FT54FjIC&pg=PT143 \|pages=143–144}}</ref><ref>{{cite book \|title=Communism in Kerala: a study in political adaptation \|first=Thomas Johnson \|last=Nossiter \|publisher=University of California Press \|year=1982 \|chapter=Kerala's identity: unity and diversity \|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8CSQUxVjjWQC \|isbn=978-0-520-04667-2 \|authorlink=Thomas Nossiter \|pages=25–27}}</ref> The Ezhavas were traditionally occupied as weavers, farmers and some of them were [[toddy tapper]]s but many had involvements in agriculture and [[ayurvedic medicine]],<ref name="Gadgil" /> and they were also occupied as shopkeepers, astrologists, businessmen and land lords.<ref name="jeffrey"/> Palpu, who had learned English from a Eurasian tutor from the age of 12, attended [[Maharaja's College, Thiruvananthapuram\|Maharaja's College]] in Trivandrum and matriculated there in 1883. Like his older brother, he seems to have been able to use his family's association with Christian missionaries to avoid the usual rule in the kingdom that Ezhavas were forbidden from school attendance. He was subsequently refused admission to Travancore Medical College due to his caste. From 1885, he attended a similar college in [[Madras Medical College\|Madras]], which was outside the kingdom, having raised money to do so through subscriptions and taking on debt. His financial situation was dire by the end of the first year, when he received an honour certificate, but he was able to complete the course with the aid of donations he solicited from various high-placed people. These donations were carefully scripted to prevent him from later taking up a position within the government, as Ezhavas were forbidden from such employment<ref name="jeffrey">{{cite journal \|first=Robin \|last=Jeffrey \|authorlink=Robin Jeffrey \|title=The Social Origins of a Caste Association, 1875–1905: The Founding of the S.N.D.P. Yogam \|journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies \|series=1 \|volume=4 \|issue=1 \|pages=39–59 \|date=1974 \|doi=10.1080/00856407408730687}}</ref> and many higher caste doctors would in any event refuse to work with lower caste colleagues.<ref name="Donner"/> He went to England to further his medical training at London and [[Cambridge]]. Back in India and having been awarded his [[Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery]] in 1889, he found that his caste status prevented him from obtaining employment in the Travancore Health Service, which meant that he had to relocate to [[Mysore]] to get work.