The recent spike in heinous crimes perpetrated against Dalits in Tamil Nadu, especially in the southern districts and increasingly across other parts, has shown that anti-Dalit violence and discrimination continues to be the Achilles heel of the otherwise well-intentioned Dravidian movement, a champion of social justice, rationalism, and equality in Tamil Nadu for over 100 years.
Political organisations, NGOs, and activists agree that the recent trend of crimes against the Scheduled Castes is noticeable not only due to better and improved reporting of cases, but an actual significant increase in heinous crimes against them in Tamil Nadu.
Audacious attack
In December 2022, human faeces were found in an overhead water tank used by the Dalits in Vengaivayal village in Pudukkottai district. The case repulsed the majority in Tamil Nadu even while revealing the cracks that the political discourse has long papered over.
In August 2023, there was an audacious attack on a Scheduled Caste school student and his sister at Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district. It shocked the nation. Among the questions raised was: How could three boys attack their own classmate with a machete? As days went on, it became clear that Nanguneri or Vengaivayal or several such incidents in the recent past should not be dismissed as ‘black swan’ incidents, and must be seen as part of an emerging pattern of violence against the Dalits.
A. Kathir, executive director of Evidence, a Madurai-based NGO, says data gathered through the Right to Information Act show that Tirunelveli, Madurai, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, and Ramanathapuram districts have seen a marked increase in the number of cases of violence against the Dalits between November 2022 and August 2023. According to the data, Tirunelveli has registered 90 cases and Madurai 115 cases, followed by Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, and Ramanathapuram with 88, 58, and 54 cases respectively.
He adds, “In Madurai and Pudukkottai, 10-12 cases are registered every month under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Around 1,200-1,400 cases are registered every year. In the last one year, between October to November, almost 500 cases were registered across Tamil Nadu. So, the number of cases will reach 2,000 cases in the year. Leaving aside the increase in cases, what we must note is that heinous crimes, such as murders, rapes, attempts to murder, and destruction of property — for which cases are filed under Section 3(2)(V)(a) of the Act — have increased in the last one year. It is clear that violence by the Other Backward Classes [OBCs] against the Dalits is on the rise.”
Mr. Kathir says that there can be a pattern of bias and inefficiency on the part of the police while dealing with cases in which the Scheduled Castes are victims, and the State intelligence mechanism has failed to curb these crimes.
“Let’s take three cases: Vengaivayal; Melpathi, in which Dalits were prevented from entering a temple; and Nanguneri, where a Dalit student and his sister were attacked by classmates. In Vengaivayal, the police are yet to find the perpetrators. In Melpathi, the police knew the perpetrators, yet they haven’t arrested them. In Nanguneri, the perpetrators are out on bail,” he notes.
Mr. Kathir says caste organisations are operating freely in Tamil Nadu and this has emboldened caste Hindu youth. “People mobilising for the sake of getting justice is natural, but how do we understand mobilisation in support of the perpetrators of a crime? The caste organisations have grown in stature and power. In Madurai, a meeting was held in support of Yuvaraj [who was convicted in the murder of Gokulraj, a Dalit engineering student, in 2015]. Those who were accused in the murder of Udumalapettai Shankar [in 2016] took part at the meeting.”
In a recent interview to The Hindu, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi founder and Chidambaram MP Thol. Thirumavalavan, while underlining his party’s efforts to mobilise the people on this issue, argued that the law enforcement agencies were not doing enough to resolve these cases.
Caste groups blamed
In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Tamil Nadu Governor about the violence in Tamil Nadu, Puthiya Tamilagam founder K. Krishnasamy, who played an important role in mobilising the Dalits facing violence in the 1990s, said more than 50 murders were recorded in the southern districts since the DMK came to power in 2021. He accused the Kallar, Maravar, and Agamudaiyar communities (collectively known as Thevars) of perpetrating violence against the Scheduled Castes and other OBCs such as Yadavars and Nadars. “After 1920, Devendrakula Vellalar, Adi Dravidar, and other Backward Communities have experienced violence at the hands of the Kallar, Maravar, and Agamudaiyar communities, which has resulted in riots and people losing their land and houses,” he wrote, while also referring to the police “ransacking Kodiyankulam village in Thoothukudi district in 1995, resulting in riots for the next 10 years”.
Speaking to The Hindu, Dr. Krishnasamy said he had placed these demands before the Union government: a thorough investigation into the crimes by Central agencies; stationing of paramilitary forces in southern districts; transfer of police officers belonging to the Kallar, Maravar, and Agamudaiyar communities from the southern districts; and creation of a favourable situation for the Scheduled Castes to work without fear in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
“Across the world, oppression and exploitation exists in many forms, based on race, ethnicity, gender, and so on. In India, we have caste-based oppression, which is graded: the Scheduled Castes face oppression from Most Backward Castes, who in turn face oppression at the hands of Backward Castes and so on, with the Brahmins on top of the pyramid. But the Dravidian movement placed the entire burden on the Brahmins and excused everyone else. To truly abolish caste discrimination and hierarchy, we have to identify the extent and type of oppression faced and perpetrated by a community and address it. Dravidian ideologues have comfortably obfuscated who they are oppressing,” he said.
Dr. Krishnasamy said the fault line in the political discourse in Tamil Nadu gives the OBCs a free hand to commit serious crimes without facing consequences.
“The issue with the Kallars dates back to the 1930s when they imposed eight Kattalaigal [commandments] and then 11 commandments in the Kamudhi area. So, this conflict has been around much before the Mudukulathur riots in 1957,” he said.
A set of prohibitions
In the book Caste in India, J.H. Hutton writes about how the Kallars in Ramanathapuram district tried to impose a set of eight prohibitions on Adi Dravidars in December 1930. Under it, the Adi Dravidars were prohibited from wearing gold and silver ornaments; Adi Dravidar men were not allowed to wear garments below their knees or above the hips, and coats or shirts or inner wear; they were not allowed have their hair cropped; they were allowed to use only earthenware vessels at home; women were disallowed from covering the upper part of their bodies with ravikvais (blouses) or thavanies (a cloth akin to half-sari); women were not allowed to use flowers or saffron paste; and men could not use umbrellas for protection against sun and rain and wear sandals.
In June 1931, 11 prohibitions were reportedly framed, and an attempt to enforce them led to more violence. Under this diktat, women were allowed to carry water only in mud pots and only straw (agricultural waste) to carry the water pots; children were disallowed from becoming literate and made to tend to the cattle of the Mirasdars (a landed class); men and women were to work only as slaves of the Mirasdars in their ‘pannai’ (farm); should not cultivate the land either on waram (lease) from the Mirasdars; should sell their land to the Mirasdars at cheap rates; should work as coolies (from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.) under the Mirasdars for dirt cheap wages; were prohibited from using Melam (music) and riding a horse in procession during marriage; should use their house doors as a palanquin for marriage processions; and they were disallowed the use of vehicles for any purpose. Activists say attempts have been made — and are being made — to enforce parts or variations of these prohibitions, which have led to several conflicts in the past.
‘Caste pride normalised’
Writer and historian Stalin Rajangam says there has been a change in the manner in which violence has unfolded: instead of two communities in two villages being at loggerheads, dominant castes in the southern districts have formed criminal gangs which are attacking the Dalits.
“Smaller gangs are from dominant castes, while those who are being attacked are the Dalits. These crimes are horrific. This phenomenon has its roots in the mushrooming and normalisation of caste organisations in Tamil Nadu,” he says. Mr. Stalin Rajangam says that while the requirement of caste certificates to access the benefits of government schemes has formalised caste, pride in caste identity has been normalised significantly in public life.
Dwelling on the phenomenon of youth becoming a part of caste groups, he says, “The youths who are identifying themselves with caste and caste pride are participating in guru pujas, and searching for and sharing caste identifiers online. Social media also helps in organising and mobilising them based on caste and location; they exchange information, though videos, to feed their pride.” “These youths then form small independent gangs and they exhibit their caste pride by attacking those from other castes, committing heinous crimes.”
He rues the lack of social organisations that can explain to the OBC youths how the development of the Dalits with the help of jobs, education, and political awareness and their becoming a part of the mainstream media and pop culture is only a natural progression.“There are no social initiatives or organisations which proclaim that pride in caste-based identity is wrong. Today, there are no organisations, intellectuals, or writers who can speak to the caste Hindus about the need to accept the natural development and growth of Dalits.”
‘Common among all’
K. Samuel Raj is the general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front affiliated to the CPI(M). He has been demanding a law against honour killings. He expresses concern over the continuing murders and points out that caste pride has become common among all communities. “The usual action taken by the police and courts in these cases will be insufficient. The time taken between filing of cases under the SC/ST Act and judgment of a court, as well as other inefficiencies, should be addressed by the government. Since the cases have accumulated, the accused are coming out on bail and committing more crimes,” he says.
Activists are unable to put their finger on the sudden spurt in crimes: the general societal acceptance of caste organisations that promote pride in caste identity; economic and social progress of the Dalits; and the reluctance of the political establishment to pursue justice and risk losing the vote of dominant communities are mentioned as the reasons. But the onus is on the government to put an end to the violence and live up to its promise of social justice and equality.
