 When Mahatma Gandhi came to Travancore for the Vaikom Satyagraha, he met the then Regent Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and asked her whether it was not atrocious that when dogs and cattle can walk the roads around temples but some men cannot due to their castes.Sethu Lakshmi Bayi replied that "it was wrong and most unfortunate" and added that "she was just a Regent" and that Gandhi should pose the question to Chithira Thirunal, the future king, who was then but a boy of 12 and the then minor King replied in the affirmative when Gandhi asked the same question to him.Mannathu Padmanabhan, in 1930, had openly criticized the Regent for this decision of not opening Hindu temples for the dalits and had accused that she was under the influence of Tamil Brahmins and that her excuse that as the Regent she had no power to decide, was a lie.