The inhabitants of an Irular village gathered around the embers of a funeral pyre that had consumed the body of D. Velu, 55, on Wednesday. They were in a public graveyard on the outskirts of Krishnagiri, far away from Velu’s village of Palsunai in Periamuthur panchayat. The funeral pyre itself was alien to Irular culture, as it is to many other tribal cultures.
Velu’s body was consigned to the flames after it was denied entry into his own village. He died of cardiac complications at Jipmer in Puducherry on Tuesday. When his body was brought to Palsunai, about 3 km from Krishnagiri, the ambulance carrying it was stopped at the entrance of the village. The residents of the ‘main village’ of Pullukan Kottai, comprising members of a dominant intermediate caste, allegedly told the relatives of the deceased that the body cannot be brought to the Irular settlement, as it was ‘ominous’ for anyone to bring the dead from a hospital for burial in the village. This, the Irulars were told, was a custom that was common to all.
“Confused, the Irular inhabitants took the body to the common graveyard on the outskirts of Krishnagiri town and contacted me. I informed the Collector’s PA, the RDO, the tahsildar, the tribal director and the SC/ST Minister. Immediately, the police and the tahsildar reached the spot,” said ‘Pazhangudi’ Balu, founder-president of the South India Tribal Council.
