Poykayil Johannan

Poykayil Sreekumara Gurudevan (17 February 1879, in Eraviperoor – 1939), known as Poykayil Appachan alias Poykayil Kumara Guru Devan, was a Dalit activist, poet and the founder of the socio-religious movement Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha ("God's Church of Visible Salvation").

Yohannan was born 17 February 1879, to parents Kandan and Lechi of the Paraiyar ("Pariah") community, at Eraviperoor, Pathanamthitta, India.

Yohannan joined the Marthoma church, a reformist sect among the Syrian Christians, but realised the church treated Dalits as an inferior class, and so left it. He then joined a new sect called the Brethren Mission where he faced similar instances of caste based discrimination. Johannan concluded that Indian Christian communities continued to discriminate based on caste, and felt this defied the basic tenets of Christianity.

In 1909, Yohannan left Christianity and started his own religious protest movement named Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha. He was known as Poikayil Appachan or Kumara Gurudevan afterwards. Johannan advocated spiritual liberation, and sought to empower and consolidate the Dalits, promoting a creed in which the "slave castes" would be free of discrimination.

Yohannan was also a member of the Dalit advocacy group Sadhujana Paripalana Sangham which had been founded in 1907 by another Dalit leader of Kerala, Ayyankali. Johannan was also twice nominated, in 1921 and 1931, to the Sree Moolam Praja Sabha, the legislative council of the princely state of Travancore.

• Unknown Subjects: Songs of Poykayil Appachan. Translated from Malayalam by A.S. Sekher
• Vadyakhoshangal Nadathunnavarum andEnte Vamshathepatti were featured in the Dalit Poem Collection named Kathal — published by DC Books

• Mannikkale Maanikkyam - Drama by V. V. Santhakumar features Yohannan