Dharmapuri violence: Why Dalits are unsafe in Dravidian Tamil Nadu? | Firstpost
The latest incident of anti-Dalit violence in Tamil Nadu, in
which 268 houses of three colonies in Dharmapuri district
were torched, is yet another instance of the violent
oppression practiced by certain politically influential caste-
Hindu groups in the state.
The genesis of this violence, in which there was no reported
casualty because the residents had left their homes fearing the attack, is stated to be the marriage
between a Dalit boy and a caste-Hindu girl; but activists say it is just a ruse for a pre-planned
attack.
According to media reports, the marriage incensed the girl’s family and her community. The girl’s
father wanted her to be returned by the Dalit boy’s family; but when it didn’t happen, he allegedly
committed suicide out of shame. His community subsequently unleashed violence on the streets that
finally led to the destruction of the colonies.
Reportedly, the boy’s family had sought police support, still the entire community had to bear the
brunt of caste-brutality.
The incident also throws light on the outrageous practice of honour-killing — although in this case
it is a suicide — that gets reported in the state from time to time.
Dharmapuri, where the latest
incident occurred, and South
Arcot regularly witness anti-Dalit
violence by a politically
dominant group of caste-Hindus,
while in parts of Madurai,
Ramanathapuram and southern
parts of the state, they come
under attack by another group. In
both the regions, they are easy
targets of violent caste and political dominance.
Although the state doesn’t top the list in the country for violence against scheduled castes and
scheduled tribes going by the data of the National Crime Records Bureau, repeated attacks against
Dalits in certain pockets of Tamil Nadu are certainly unbecoming of a state that has any rule of
law.
As sociologist Gail Omvedt once asked, “Why has Tamil Nadu, once so apparently progressive in
its… anti-caste movements, become today the scene of such great violence against Dalits?”
One of the reasons cited for the impunity with which these attacks are carried out is the political
influence of the caste-Hindu perpetrators and the neglect of the Dravidian parties who once fought
against Brahmin domination and wrested power from them.
It’s not without reason or evidence that Dalit activists accuse Dravidian parties of either collusion
or failure in checking attacks on them or punishing culprits. They charge that the police had a role
in the major incidents at places such as Villupram (1978), Kodiyankulam (1995), Melavalavu
(1997), Gundupatti (1998) and Thamiraparnai (1999) and the Dravidian parties were complicit.
Many of the commissions and investigations into such violence often reached nowhere.
Since the first major incident in Kilvenmani in east Thanjavur in 1968, almost at the same time
when DMK first assumed power in the state, in which 42 Dalit labourers were killed an example of
blatant caste-discrimination in a school in Krishnagiri district in September, the perpetrators have
gone largely unpunished.
Researchers point to the fact that landed non-Brahmin castes, which dominated the Dravidian
parties, have been antagonistic to Dalit interests and Brahmin rivals. “From the 1960s onward, the
Dravidian parties unabashedly courted the powerful and populous BC castes, who were at once
Dalits’ most immediate oppressors and the foundation of the Dravidian parties’ social and political
dominance in rural Tamil Nadu,” says socio-cultural anthropologist Nathaniel Roberts, who has
studied the issue in considerable detail (Nathaniel Roberts, 2010, Language, Violence and the State:
Writing Tamil Dalits , South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal. )
Interestingly, although close to 20 percent of the state’s population are Dalits, the Dalit movement
has not been able to harness the numbers for effective political leverage. Without a major Dalit
formation, Dalit votes have been divided between the two prominent Dravidian parties. The
Viruthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), perhaps the first major Dalit political party in the state, has
not been able to hold its own and had to alternate between DMK and the AIADMK in general
elections. Its leader Pol Thirumavalavan, an elegant orator, is an MP and is often seen seated with
Sonia Gandhi and UPA bigwigs, but it is always the Dravidian party leaders who peddle power.
At the local level, ever since Dalits started winning elections, they have come under intensified
attacks. In the last few years, a Dalit panchayat president was killed when he refused to agree with
a caste-Hindu vice president acting as president, while in another case, the president was killed
when he refused to let the husband of a caste-Hindu vice president control the panchayat. In yet
another case, a panchayat president was made to sit on the floor because he was Dalit. Reportedly
in Tirunelveli district alone, about 10 Panchayat presidents had complained to the governments
that their lives were under threat.
Senior journalist S Vishwanathan, who had extensively written on anti-Dalit violence in the state
noted in an article in Frontline (5 May 2007): “The ill treatment meted out to elected Dalit
panchayat presidents indicates that untouchability is still practiced in Tamil Nadu villages, 60 years
after the constitution abolished it.”
Despite the visibility, human rights, Dalit activism and legal safeguards, the archaic and violent
domination of caste-Hindus continue with absolute impunity in Tamil Nadu. The vested interests
and political domination of middle-level castes and inability of the Dalit vote bank to stick together,
perpetuate the situation when constitutional safeguards do not work.
With deep-rooted socio-economic vested interests by the dominant castes and a lack of any social
movement worth the name, the road to emancipation appears to be political. For it to work, the
Dalit vote-bank needs to devise an electoral strategy, perhaps smarter than the VCK’s ideological
position that combines Tamil nationalism and Dalit rights, to amplify its strength and tip the
balance in their favour.
...hey I was just trying to make your day man....cheer up ! 
?? when did that happen ..
