The prevalence of caste-based ages old discriminatory pre-medieval practices in Tamil Nadu, which boasts of following social justice and the Dravidian Model Government, is a worrying factor in the country when a Nation led by Prime Minister Modi is making rapid progress and all set to achieve USD 5 trillion GDP by 2024-25. Modi sarkar’s slogan ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’ has relevance in Tamil Nadu if the incidents were taken seriously.
In Tamil Nadu, caste discrimination against the Dalit community and the non-selling of goods to Dalits using separate exclusive tumblers for them have been regularly reported in media and social portals. The recent shocking one took place in Thoothukudi on February 11.
The issue flared up when Nadar community members of Naduvakurichi village allegedly prevented scheduled Caste community people from carrying the body of 73 years old Mookan, who died due to aged related ailments, through their village to the cremation ground as the road to the crematorium used by scheduled caste (SC) members passes through Naduvakurichi.
So left with no option, they were forced to wade through muddy paddy fields for a km to take their dead for cremation. To end their woes, Pallar community members have asked the administration to build a separate road through agricultural fields.
People from the village said, “Over 200 SC families live in the Keezhur area of the Manakkarai panchayat. The SC burial ground is located 3km from the village along the banks of Thamirabarani. The route passes through paddy fields and Naduvakurichi”.
The villagers say their repeated multiple requests, the caste Hindus were adamant and barred entry to the main road. They told media persons, “the discriminatory act of blocking access to the main road for funeral processions of Dalits has been going on for decades in Mannarkarai panchayat. Despite our repeated complaints to the District administration and the revenue department, there has been no action, yet we have been urging them to lay a new road for us permanently.
Meanwhile, on hearing the incident through the media, Sub collector Gaurav Kumar and Revenue officials visited the village and conducted an inquiry.
“He held inquiries about the caste issue with the panchayat president and village leaders. A peace committee meeting with all stakeholders to slated take place on February 17”, officials said.
Earlier, too, such incidents have happened. When a resident’s wife died a few years ago, he had to take her body to Sinthupoonthurai in Tirunelveli for burial through the road, as the local caste Hindus objected to holding a funeral procession through the public road despite multiple requests since she died at a young age. Our tradition is to perform last rites at the native soil on the river banks”.
An elderly man said, “SC members, because of denial of access to roads, had to wade through a canal carrying their dead before a bridge was constructed. “During rainy seasons, we had to walk through hip-deep soil on paddy fields’.
“There is no peace even after death. It is heart-wrenching that we cannot even offer a decent funeral to our beloved ones,” villagers said. The funeral procession was denied permission, even to educated, retired central State Government who had commanded a certain amount of respect in the locality.
The Nadar community have their reasons to justify its actions. They said, “we oppose the funeral processions of Pallars as the community throws flowers inside their houses during processions and makes casteist remarks”.
In the Cuddalore District, a woman attempted suicide by setting herself on fire after being discriminated against and attacked by a family from a different community. Kaviyarasan and Tamilselvi, who had an inter-caste marriage, lived in Kilcheruvai village near Thittakudi at the former’s house. Kaviyarasan had gone abroad, and Tamilselvi lived with her husband’s family. It is learned her neighbours belonging to the Vanniyar caste were allegedly discriminating against and harassing her.
They had cut down the thorny trees and put them at the entrance of Tamilselvi’s house. According to Shalin Maria Lawrence, a ‘Dalit Christian’ activist alleged that human urine was poured on her kids’ heads by a few goons. As the Tittakudi police did not take any action even after providing the video evidence, Tamilselvi and her two children tried to set herself on fire in front of the Cuddalore SP office.
The policemen on duty there stopped them and admitted them to Cuddalore Government hospital.
In another incident, Two Dalit girl children studying in class 9 consumed toilet cleaning chemicals on February 15, 2023, attempting to end their lives over alleged discrimination by their teacher from the dominant Chettiar caste. The girl is a student of Chinnalampatti in the Dindigul District.
The girl’s father, M Parthipan, made the complaint with Periyanaickenpalayam police on February 16 2023, seeking action against the headmistress under SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. He said, “On February 11, after returning from school, my daughter was seen disturbed. She refused to go to school the next day. When we enquired about the reason, she said that she was made to clean the toilet in the school by Headmistress Kumareshwari, citing her caste”.
Parthipan said Maths teacher Premalatha abused the two girls by their caste name in front of other students on multiple occasions. Unable to bear the humiliation, the girls went to the school toilet and consumed toilet cleaner two days ago.
It is relevant to note Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi criticised on13th said criticised the Stalin Government for what he called rising incidences of atrocities against Dalits, alleging that these debunk the DMK-led administration’s claim of being a protector of social justice.
He said after releasing the Tamil versions of “Modi@20” in Chennai, “we have been talking so much about social justice. But every other day in Tamil Nadu, some atrocities against Dalits. … either human faeces are thrown in the water tank of a Dalit colony, or they are publicly humiliated and assaulted and now allowed entry into the temple or Anganwadi centre will be separated.
When it comes to crimes against Dalits, the response of law enforcement and the criminal justice system is awful. It pains us to know in our State, only 7 per cent rape cases filed by Dalit women end in conviction. Out of 100 rapists,93 go scot-free, and we talk about social justice and Babasaheb.
There have been incidents of upper-caste Hindu parents objecting and saying ‘firm no’ to the food prepared by the SC/ST women in Angawadis and schools.
This is not the first and would not be the last if we go by past incidents.
In the Pudukottai District of Tamil Nadu, an overhead drinking water tank that supplies water to a Dalit colony in Vengavayil panchayath was found with human excrement in the last week of December. The police are yet to crack the case and arrest the culprits.
The prevalence of the two-tumbler system at a tea shop came to light during an inspection by Pudukottai Collector Kavitha Ramu at Vengaivayal in December last, a day after human faeces were found floating in an overhead tank supplying drinking water to Adi Dravidar families.
The ‘double tumbler’ system of discrimination against Dalits and another caste, Hindus, where they are given separate cups to drink tea, came to the fore in two villages after six tea shop owners were arrested on Saturday for indulging in this practice. It is still prevalent in down south Districts like Tirunelveli, Thoothkudi and Thanjavur.
A week after the ‘airdropping’ of a Dalit’s body from a 20-ft bridge on its way to the funeral went viral, prompting the Madras high court to take up the issue suo motu. This incident took place in August 2021. Tamil Nadu Government told the court that no one denied access to Dalit villagers of Vaniyambadi in Vellore to their cremation ground.
Within 15 days of the above, another incident of discrimination against Dalits is reported. In the incident, Dalits were denied access to sheltered burial grounds despite incessant rains in Madurai.
In September last, police arrested two men from the intermediary caste and a shop near Sankarankovil in Tenkasi District was sealed for refusing to sell eatables to Dalit children.
In December 2022, a 19-year-old Dalit Christian boy died by suicide as he was allegedly scared by the threats to him and his family from Vanniyar caste men. after they had beaten him up. The incident took place in Surapattu, Villupuram, on Puducherry-Sengam Road.
Last year in September, when listing out the achievements of the “Dravidian Model Government”, Tamil Nadu higher education Minister K Ponmudi kicked off a controversy by asking a Mugaiyur Panchayat leader,” you are from the downtrodden community, right? You are from SC, in a public meeting.
KN Nehru, Minister for Municipal Administration, Urban and Water Supply and a prominent party leader, had belittled Chennai Mayor Priya at a press conference last year. Raja Kannapan, another DMK Minister, had abused a Government employee based on his caste. A Block Development Officer (BDO) working in Ramanathapuram had accused the Minister of calling him an “SC BDO” 6 times while abusing him, saying he was unqualified and threatening to transfer him.
On September 23 2022, Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management, KKSSR Ramachandran, was also found to have abused and practised untouchability against the members of an ST community. He made the representatives of the Kuravar community and a DMK MLA from the region Thangapandian (SC) stand while he sat cross-legged on a sofa in his residence. He also reportedly made them wait for more than 3 hours, making his help say that he has left for work sleeping in the house all the while. The Chennai police arrested Rajya Sabha MP and DMK’s organising secretary RS Bharathi from his residence in Alandur.
In a party event on February 15 2020, RS Bharathi asserted that Dalits were appointed as High court judges because of the charity done by the Dravidian movement. He claimed that no Harijan had become a judge in the High court in Madhya Pradesh. He added, “after Karunanidhi became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the first Dalit judge, A Vardarajan, was appointed. Seven or eight others from the Adi Dravidar community became judges after that. It is the alms given by the Dravidian movement.”
The funeral procession of a 65-year-old Dalit woman was attacked by upper caste men (Vanniyars) on August 14, 2019, in Serugudi village of Kumbakonam taluk in Thanjavur District. The incident took place in the presence of revenue and police department officials.
A video of a DMK Panchayat Union Secretary Manickam verbally abusing a Dalit youth for allegedly entering a temple has gone viral. The incident occurred in Salem’s Thirumalaigiri, where a Dalit Youth, on January 19 2023, had entered a temple maintained by the Vanniyar community.
However, the temple comes under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department. In the video, he was seen threatening the youth, verbally abusing him in an extremely derogatory manner, and repeatedly questioned why he entered the temple. He further claimed that none from his village wanted to visit the temple.
On January 30 2023, after seven decades of being ostracised, over 200 members of the SC groups defied a ‘ban’ enforced by the dominant castes by entering the Sri Muthaalamman temple in Thenmudiyanur village, Tiruvannamalai District.
According to a Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) survey, there have been several instances of discrimination against Panchayat presidents belonging to SC communities. It said not even a chair is in place for Dalit panchayat presidents in 22 out of the 386 Panchayats surveyed.
Many dalit panchayat presidents were denied the right to hoist the National Flag on Republic day. They continue to face caste-based discrimination, including restricting access to documents. They are not allowed to sit in their chair. The survey was carried out in 24 Districts across the State”.
Samuel Raj of TNUEF said media after releasing the survey last August, “the outcome of the survey is shocking as the panchayat presidents are not permitted to hoist the National Flag when the Nation is all set to celebrate its 75th Independence. Such a problem prevails in 20 panchayats”.
Residents of Veeranayakanthattu coming under ward 51 of Tuticorin Corporation in Thoothukudi District a couple of years back, inhabited by Dalits, complained that they were cut off from society due to the absence of basic facilities.
“Dravidian parties more particularly the DMK’s claims to have brought self-respect to the lives of Tamils by abolishing the caste system and proposes to do the same for non-Tamils who are taken over by the illusion of a communal ideology aka BJP. We can cite umpteen incidents in this regard,” said Sivaram, a BJP cadre.
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