During the colonial period of Britishers some states of india were granted the status of princely states, and travancore was one of them. Sreemolam Thirunal was the King of Travancore and the royal household imposed taxes on the community they considered as lower as compared to them. Ezhavas and Nadar communities were required to pay one hundred and ten types of taxes. They had to pay taxes just for keeping moustaches, men from this community were not allowed to cover their heads with any kind of head dress and if they did so they have to pay taxes for that as well similarly women of these communities were required to pay taxes for covering their body parts especially their upper body . They were not allowed to cover their upper body with any piece of clothing, a tax called mulakkaram also known as breast tax was levied on them . Tax would differ from women to women depending on the size of her breast and this would be checked by the tax collector. And the most disgustful thing was that if they dared to go against the rule, the tax collectors would go to their home to harass them.

Nangeli, a woman of that community decided to advocate her voice against this . She started covering her upper body and Nangeli's resistance acted as a invitation for the tax collector, they were at her door to put her back at the place where she belonged the lower part of the society. They insulted Nangeli brutally ,she remained silent but from within she was getting ready to be unleashed to fight all cruelty. The tax was paid in the form rice which was to be kept on the banana leaf . Nangeli came out of her house with banana leaf in one hand and sickle on the other hand. There was not one grain of rice on the Banana leaf but there was blood everywhere. Nangeli's whole body was covered with blood, she had cut off her breast with the sickel and placed them on the Banana leaf. As she offered this to the tax collector, he ran away. Nangeli died due to excessive bleeding. When the king came to know about this they were granted the permission of covering their upper body part but with just a jacket and that wasn't sufficient.  Nangeli's sacrifice inspired the nadar women to stand against the wrongs they were facing, so the nadar women started protesting in 1820's and they kept on fighting till 20th century. Violence against kept on increasing they were stripped naked in the public and humiliated but they kept on fighting until the announcement to cover their body properly was not made by the king.