COMMENTARY

december 29, 2012 vol xlviI no 52 EPW Economic & Political Weekly12

Caste Fire in Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu

s Senthalir

Atrocities on dalits continue in Tamil Nadu. On 7 November 2012, a Vanniyar mob ransacked and torched 268 dalit homes in three villages in Tamil Nadu’s Dharmapuri district. By all accounts, it was an organised attack planned by Vanniyar leaders to teach the upwardly mobile dalits a “lesson”. This article based on a visit to the area recounts the genesis and fallout of caste atrocities in Dharmapuri.

On 7 November 2012, a Vanniyar mob looted and torched dalit homes in three villages of

Naikkankottai panchayat – Natham, Anna Nagar and Kondampatti – in Dharmapuri district, north-west Tamil Nadu. “Parayars should perish. Destroy their houses for we can cultivate their land,” the members of the mob are said to have screamed. In the nearly fi ve-hour-long orgy of vio-lence and arson, 268 dalit homes were set on fi re by the rampaging mob, and the dalits in the village had lost all their possessions. Government statistics and media reports show that at least 144 houses in Natham, 34 houses in Anna Nagar, and 90 in Kondampatti were gutted and 50 two-wheelers and four vans were torched.

The dalit villages were attacked by caste Hindus ostensibly because a dalit boy from the village had married a Vanniyar girl.

A month after Ilavarasan (23), a dalit from Natham, married 21-year old Divya, a Vanniyar (a “most backward caste” in Tamil Nadu) from Chellamkottai on 14 October 2012, the Vanniyar community, which was vehemently opposed to the inter-caste marriage, convened a “court” in Naikkankottai on 4 November 2012. It was attended by nearly 1,000 Vanniyars headed by Dharmapuri Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) youth wing leader Madi-vazhagan and 25 people from dalit families. The “court” ordered the dalits to hand over the girl to her family by 7 Nov-ember 2012 or face the consequences.

When the girl’s father allegedly com-mitted suicide on 7 November, hundreds of Vanniyars armed with wooden sticks, metal rods, sickles, crowbars and petrol bombs marched to Natham carrying his body. (The dalits claim the man was murdered and there are questions over the cause of his death.) They placed the body in front of Ilavarasan’s house and ran-sacked it before burning it to the ground.

The marauding mob then ransacked every house in Natham before turning to other dalit homes in Anna Nagar and Kondampatti.

While it is claimed that the inter-caste marriage was the immediate prov-ocation for the attack, the victims main-tain it was an organised crime against dalits. Indeed, villagers wonder why they were attacked nearly a month after the marriage took place. The pillaging went on for more than four hours – from 5.30 pm to 11 pm – without any interfer-ence from the police. In fact, the police-men statio ned at Naikkankottai did not take any steps to quell the violence. Even the fi re engine despatched to douse the fi res was reportedly prevented from reach-ing the three villages. The Krishnapuram police station in district headquarters Dharmapuri is just 10 km away from Naikkankottai.

In Naikkankottai, the dalit women work in the fi elds of Vanniyar land owners while the men travel to Bangalore or Coimbatore to work as labourers. From their earnings, the dalits have construct-ed concrete houses and own vehicles and ornaments. Most of them are well-educated, having completed their gradu-ation. The villagers say the Vanniyars are jealous of the economic status they have acquired. Since the two communi-ties had not clashed earlier, there could be no reason other than Vanniyar jeal-ousy for this attack on dalit villages.

Recalling the incident, Sathya, an eighth standard student from Anna Nagar who witnessed the horror, said:

We returned home from school around 4.30 pm. We saw men demolishing a house a few yards away. Those people were known to us; their children study in our school. See-ing the familiar faces we assumed they wouldn’t hurt us but they marched towards our homes. Our parents urged us to run to a safe place. We went into the fi elds and hid in the bushes. From there we saw them loot our house, steal our cattle and burn our books.

Kodaakari of Anna Nagar said: They abused us saying we have outgrown them and don’t serve them anymore... We could hear them say that they were cele-brating Diwali after 20 years. They ran-sacked our houses till 11 pm and the police reached the place only after everything was completely destroyed.

S Senthalir (senthalir83@gmail.com) is a Bangalore-based independent journalist.

COMMENTARY

Economic & Political Weekly EPW december 29, 2012 vol xlviI no 52 13

Shockingly, the homes of other cou-ples who had married outside their caste were targeted as well. Around four houses in Kondampatti were destroyed by petrol bombs. Shankar of Kondamp-atti said:

My brother married a girl from the Nayakar community. Though nearly 20 houses were ransacked, they threw petrol bombs only on homes of men who had chosen a partner from another caste.

Indeed, during the attack, the assail-ants disparaged their caste by name and kept chanting they were being punished for the “offence” of “untouchables” acquir-ing wealth and cattle, having a tiled roof, educating their children, and acquiring gold ornaments, indicating that the grow-ing prosperity of the dalits has not gone down well with the Vanniyars.

‘Punishing’ Dalits

Till a decade ago, Naikkankottai was a Naxalite stronghold. Under the leader-ship of Appu and Balan, both of whom were not dalits, the Maoists fought against the two tumbler system (steel glasses for Vanniyars and plastic cups for the dalits) and caste atrocities. Dur-ing this period, the villagers of Natham decided to stop working as drumbeaters and removing animal carcasses for the Vanniyars. From the 1980s to 2002, the Naxalite presence in the area prevented caste atrocities and discrimination against dalits.

A fact-fi nding team comprising mem-bers of People’s Union for Civil Rights, Federation for People’s Rights and Civil Rights Monitoring Committee from Tamil Nadu, Swabhimani Dalit Shakti, People’s Democratic Forum, Karnataka Tamil Makkal Iyakkam from Karnataka and Human Rights Forum from Andhra Pradesh visited the village on 14 and 15 November. According to their report,

The decline of the Naxalite movement with the killing of 28 people over a period of 20 years and arrest of 22 people in 2002 was ensured with consolidation of caste-based organisations, especially PMK, among Van-niyars and Vidudalai Chiruthaigal among dalits. It is to be noted that the attack was led by the Vanniyar (youth wing) leader Madivaz hagan and the case of inter-caste marriage in their village was an opportuni-ty to retaliate with vengeance and re-estab-lish their dominance in this region.

The series of hate speeches by leaders of caste-based organisations condemning inter-caste marriages seems to be one of the major reasons fuelling the violence. Vanniyar Sangam leader Kaaduvetti Guru, who spoke during the Vanniyar Youth Festival in April and September 2012, called on Vanniyar youth to eliminate those who had gone into inter-caste marriages. The Kongu Vellala Gounder Peravai started a movement against inter-caste marriages on 15 April 2012. The state president of the Peravai, R Manikantan in his interview to Deccan Chronicle said he did not want his community’s caste tradition to die in inter-caste marriages. Similar views were also expressed in the magazine Brahmin Today by Brahmin Sangam president Narayanan and Pazha Karuppaiah of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam who openly spoke against inter-caste marriages.

Increasing Atrocities

Tamil Nadu, home to major anti-caste movements, is once again witnessing a rise in atrocities on dalits. In 2011, 890 women were murdered, 40% of them were murdered in caste honour killings (Nakkiran, Vol 25, No 61, 14-16 November 2012). And the arson in Dharmapuri has brought back memories of Kilvenmani where 44 dalit women, children and aged were burnt alive in 1968.

It should be noted that caste confl icts have been simmering over the years in the villages of Dharmapuri district. Tho ugh Kondampatti is a panchayat, the village panchayat offi ce, municipal offi ce, ration shops and schools are all located in the Vanniyar village of Puliyampatti. Dalits can buy provisions from these shops only after Vanniyar families have made their purchases. If anyone defi es these rules, they are abused and beaten up. Several instances where dalit women were beaten up were reported and even police complaints were lodged, but no action was taken.

In southern Tamil Nadu, caste confl ict between Pallars and Thevars continues to this day. Just a week before the Dharmapuri incident, nine people of the Thevar community were allegedly killed in retaliation for the police fi ring that killed six dalits in Paramakudi on

September 2011. Even educational institu-tions in Tamil Nadu are not free of caste atrocities. The clash between students of the dalit and Thevar communities four years ago shook the entire academic world. Even then, the police stood as mute spectators.

Evidence, a non-governmental organi-sation in Madurai has recorded 144 brutal murders, out of which 18 are said to be of women, and 336 cases of atrocities against dalits.

Job opportunities available in cities and the assertion of dalits to take up non-traditional jobs have disrupted es-tablished caste relations, taking away the privileges that caste Hindus enjoyed over centuries. On the other hand, women equipped with education and employ-ment resist patriarchal caste values and now independently exercise their choice in selecting their life partners. This has infuriated caste Hindus who are becom-ing increasingly intolerant of the upward economic mobility of dalits and empower-ment of women.

These signal the failure of the state machinery which is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of its citizens and establishing and enriching democratic values among different castes. As B R Ambedkar rightly said, “Demo cracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an atti tude of respect and reverence towards fellowmen” (B R Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches, Vol 1, p 57).

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