WOMEN WORKERS AND CLASS STRUGGLES 49 He advocated inter-castc and intcr-religious marriages. He also propagated the patrilineal system of inheritance and monogamous marriages. Education was to be work-oriented with emphasis on shift to modern occupations. Other leaders of the movement included Kumaran Asan, the first secretary of SNDP Yogam (the organisation), and a popular poet. Under the leadership of Kumaran Asan, Ezhava boys and girls gained the right to admission to public schools. In the 1920's, T K Madhavan participated in the Vaikom satyagraha directed by Gandhi demanding the use of the road near the Vaikom temple for all castes. Later, all temples were thrown open to untouchables. In the 1930's, C Kesavan, another Ezhava leader, successfully led an agitation for communal representation in the Legislative Assembly and for the reservation of jobs in the government for the Ezhavas. Another ideology at work within the SNDP movement was that of K Aiyappan (1889-1968), a graduate from a middle class Ezhava family. He developed a secular and rationalist ideology, a combination of what he considered to be the humanism of Buddhism, the achievements of science and socialism. His slogan was "No caste, no religion, no God, no class". In pursuit of these goals he initiated the following activities: (a) Inter-caste relations between Ezhavas and Pulayas and inter-caste dining movement and the formation of Brotherhood associations in different places in Kerala. (b) Criticism of the custom of pilgrimages to sacred places and of animal sacrifice. (c) A movement against the exploitation of workers by factory owners, emphasising higher wages as a worker's right. He started a triweekly paper Velakkaran (worker) to propagate the ideas of Marx and Lenin and the success of the Russian Revolution. (d) Equal property rights for men and women and the right of the individual to freedom of choice in marriage. As a minister in the Cochin Assembly, he introduced the Matriarchal Tiyar Bill, the Patriarchal Tiyar Bill, and the Gml Marriage Bill. The first two attempted to equalise property rights for men and women since the Ezhavas followed both the matrilineal and patrilineal systems of inheritance. The Bill providing for equal property rights for women was referred to a Select Committee and women received less than equal share of the property. The Civil Marriage Bill was controversial because Aiyappan stressed the right of the individual and marriage based on love. Inter-caste, inter-religious marriages were stressed as important for removing caste and religious distinctions. The Civil Marriage Bill was passed.3 These new values were linked with the emergence of new social classes from among the Ezhavas and the general political climate. They encouraged egalitarian values, civil rights, political representation. These merged with the working class movement and facilitated working