78 SOCIAL SCIENTIST of local Kshatriyas were Nayars; they enjoyed close relationship through their women with the small portion of the population who were their ritual superiors; they had a fairly high ritual status which gave them great advantages over the low castes and non-Hindus in a traditional Hindu kingdom., and their privileges far outweighed their disabilities. However, the Nayar taravads started experiencing a crisis from the mid-nineteenth century when the swing of the pendulum in Travan-core society was fast and steady as a result of the operation of various social, political and economic forces. The decay of the taravad set the trend towards decline of Nayar dominance. In a State of Flux In this context, the concerted moves of the Protestant evangelists for the abolition of slavery and proselytization, education and employment of the low castes did eventually bring horns the desired results. Slavery was abolished in Travancore and many low-caste men embraced Christianity. Flouting officially-imposed caste restrictions they began fighting for the removal of social disabilities such as prohibition from using roads and public buildings, employment in government offices, and above all, from approaching and entering temples. They started asserting rights on par with the savarna Hindus, imitating and adopting the latter5 s rituals and dress, or in a rather mild sense, what M N Srinivas would have liked to call Sanskritization. Secondly, as a result of the establishment of plantation industries in Travancore by the British capitalists, and the abolition of state monopoly in commodities such as pepper and tobacco, which till then hampered trade between Travancore and British India/ there developed new resources for trade. For this, there was ""free competition5 regardless of caste or religion. Increase in trade resulted in the widening of the cash economy. This was advantageous to Christians and low-caste Hindus because of their experience in-commercial and menial occupations and their association with the evangelists. Nayars could neither share the gains nor bargain, lacking as they did the experience, expertise and interest, in trade and commerce. The new trends affected the taravad as it could not counter them, and was ill-suited to a cash economy. Thirdly, the new land-reform measures of the government conferred ownership rights on the holders of government pattam land and imparted cash value to it which could now be divided, mortgaged, sold or transferred. While the law granting ownership rights was productive in the case of other castes who held land, it was counterproductive in the case of Nayars. The ^communality" of interest and spirit in the taravads till then was strengthened by the difficulty of subdividing the scattered pieces of land, and the profitability of holding property in common. When internal feuds and dissension threatened the taravads,