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The current spike in heinous crimes perpetrated in opposition to Dalits in Tamil Nadu, particularly within the southern districts and more and more throughout different components, has proven that anti-Dalit violence and discrimination continues to be the Achilles heel of the in any other case well-intentioned Dravidian motion, a champion of social justice, rationalism, and equality in Tamil Nadu for over 100 years.
Political organisations, NGOs, and activists agree that the current pattern of crimes in opposition to the Scheduled Castes is noticeable not solely because of higher and improved reporting of instances, however an precise important enhance in heinous crimes in opposition to them in Tamil Nadu.
Audacious assault
In December 2022, human faeces had been present in an overhead water tank utilized by the Dalits in Vengaivayal village in Pudukkottai district. The case repulsed the bulk in Tamil Nadu even whereas revealing the cracks that the political discourse has lengthy papered over.
In August 2023, there was an audacious assault on a Scheduled Caste college scholar and his sister at Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district. It shocked the nation. Among the many questions raised was: How may three boys assault their very own classmate with a machete? As days went on, it grew to become clear that Nanguneri or Vengaivayal or a number of such incidents within the current previous shouldn’t be dismissed as ‘black swan’ incidents, and should be seen as a part of an rising sample of violence in opposition to the Dalits.
A. Kathir, govt director of Proof, a Madurai-based NGO, says knowledge gathered by the Proper to Info Act present that Tirunelveli, Madurai, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, and Ramanathapuram districts have seen a marked enhance within the variety of instances of violence in opposition to the Dalits between November 2022 and August 2023. Based on the information, Tirunelveli has registered 90 instances and Madurai 115 instances, adopted by Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, and Ramanathapuram with 88, 58, and 54 instances respectively.
He provides, “In Madurai and Pudukkottai, 10-12 instances are registered each month beneath the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Round 1,200-1,400 instances are registered yearly. Within the final one yr, between October to November, nearly 500 instances had been registered throughout Tamil Nadu. So, the variety of instances will attain 2,000 instances within the yr. Leaving apart the rise in instances, what we should word is that heinous crimes, corresponding to murders, rapes, makes an attempt to homicide, and destruction of property — for which instances are filed beneath Part 3(2)(V)(a) of the Act — have elevated within the final one yr. It’s clear that violence by the Different Backward Lessons [OBCs] in opposition to the Dalits is on the rise.”
Mr. Kathir says that there generally is a sample of bias and inefficiency on the a part of the police whereas coping with instances by which the Scheduled Castes are victims, and the State intelligence mechanism has didn’t curb these crimes.
“Let’s take three instances: Vengaivayal; Melpathi, by which Dalits had been prevented from coming into a temple; and Nanguneri, the place a Dalit scholar and his sister had been attacked by classmates. In Vengaivayal, the police are but to search out the perpetrators. In Melpathi, the police knew the perpetrators, but they haven’t arrested them. In Nanguneri, the perpetrators are out on bail,” he notes.
Mr. Kathir says caste organisations are working freely in Tamil Nadu and this has emboldened caste Hindu youth. “Folks mobilising for the sake of getting justice is pure, however how can we perceive mobilisation in assist of the perpetrators of a criminal offense? The caste organisations have grown in stature and energy. In Madurai, a gathering was held in assist of Yuvaraj [who was convicted in the murder of Gokulraj, a Dalit engineering student, in 2015]. Those that had been accused within the homicide of Udumalapettai Shankar [in 2016] took half on the assembly.”
In a current interview to The Hindu, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi founder and Chidambaram MP Thol. Thirumavalavan, whereas underlining his get together’s efforts to mobilise the individuals on this situation, argued that the legislation enforcement companies weren’t doing sufficient to resolve these instances.
Caste teams blamed
In a letter to Union Residence Minister Amit Shah and the Tamil Nadu Governor in regards to the violence in Tamil Nadu, Puthiya Tamilagam founder Okay. Krishnasamy, who performed an necessary function in mobilising the Dalits going through violence within the Nineties, stated greater than 50 murders had been recorded within the southern districts because the DMK got here to energy in 2021. He accused the Kallar, Maravar, and Agamudaiyar communities (collectively referred to as Thevars) of perpetrating violence in opposition to the Scheduled Castes and different OBCs corresponding to Yadavars and Nadars. “After 1920, Devendrakula Vellalar, Adi Dravidar, and different Backward Communities have skilled violence by the hands of the Kallar, Maravar, and Agamudaiyar communities, which has resulted in riots and folks dropping their land and homes,” he wrote, whereas additionally referring to the police “ransacking Kodiyankulam village in Thoothukudi district in 1995, leading to riots for the following 10 years”.
Chatting with The Hindu, Dr. Krishnasamy stated he had positioned these calls for earlier than the Union authorities: an intensive investigation into the crimes by Central companies; stationing of paramilitary forces in southern districts; switch of law enforcement officials belonging to the Kallar, Maravar, and Agamudaiyar communities from the southern districts; and creation of a beneficial state of affairs for the Scheduled Castes to work with out worry within the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
“The world over, oppression and exploitation exists in lots of kinds, primarily based on race, ethnicity, gender, and so forth. In India, now we have caste-based oppression, which is graded: the Scheduled Castes face oppression from Most Backward Castes, who in flip face oppression by the hands of Backward Castes and so forth, with the Brahmins on prime of the pyramid. However the Dravidian motion positioned your entire burden on the Brahmins and excused everybody else. To actually abolish caste discrimination and hierarchy, now we have to establish the extent and kind of oppression confronted and perpetrated by a group and handle it. Dravidian ideologues have comfortably obfuscated who they’re oppressing,” he stated.
Dr. Krishnasamy stated the fault line within the political discourse in Tamil Nadu offers the OBCs a free hand to commit critical crimes with out going through penalties.
“The difficulty with the Kallars dates again to the Thirties once they imposed eight Kattalaigal [commandments] after which 11 commandments within the Kamudhi space. So, this battle has been round a lot earlier than the Mudukulathur riots in 1957,” he stated.
A set of prohibitions
Within the e 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. Below it, the Adi Dravidars had been prohibited from carrying gold and silver ornaments; Adi Dravidar males weren’t allowed to put on clothes beneath their knees or above the hips, and coats or shirts or internal put on; they weren’t allowed have their hair cropped; they had been allowed to make use of solely earthenware vessels at dwelling; girls had been disallowed from protecting the higher a part of their our bodies with ravikvais (blouses) or thavanies (a fabric akin to half-sari); girls weren’t allowed to make use of flowers or saffron paste; and males couldn’t use umbrellas for defense in opposition to solar and rain and put on sandals.
In June 1931, 11 prohibitions had been reportedly framed, and an try to implement them led to extra violence. Below this diktat, girls had been allowed to hold water solely in mud pots and solely straw (agricultural waste) to hold the water pots; kids had been disallowed from turning into literate and made to are likely to the cattle of the Mirasdars (a landed class); women and men had been to work solely as slaves of the Mirasdars of their ‘pannai’ (farm); mustn’t domesticate the land both on waram (lease) from the Mirasdars; ought to promote their land to the Mirasdars at low cost charges; ought to work as coolies (from 7 a.m. to six p.m.) beneath the Mirasdars for filth low cost wages; had been prohibited from utilizing Melam (music) and using a horse in procession throughout marriage; ought to use their home doorways as a palanquin for marriage processions; and so they had been disallowed the usage of autos for any goal. Activists say makes an attempt have been made — and are being made — to implement components or variations of those prohibitions, which have led to a number of conflicts prior to now.
‘Caste pleasure normalised’
Author and historian Stalin Rajangam says there was a change within the method by which violence has unfolded: as a substitute of two communities in two villages being at loggerheads, dominant castes within the southern districts have fashioned prison gangs that are attacking the Dalits.
“Smaller gangs are from dominant castes, whereas those that are being attacked are the Dalits. These crimes are horrific. This phenomenon has its roots within the mushrooming and normalisation of caste organisations in Tamil Nadu,” he says. Mr. Stalin Rajangam says that whereas the requirement of caste certificates to entry the advantages of presidency schemes has formalised caste, pleasure in caste id has been normalised considerably in public life.
Dwelling on the phenomenon of youth turning into part of caste teams, he says, “The youths who’re figuring out themselves with caste and caste pleasure are taking part in guru pujas, and looking for and sharing caste identifiers on-line. Social media additionally helps in organising and mobilising them primarily based on caste and site; they change info, although movies, to feed their pleasure.” “These youths then kind small impartial gangs and so they exhibit their caste pleasure by attacking these from different castes, committing heinous crimes.”
He rues the dearth of social organisations that may clarify to the OBC youths how the event of the Dalits with the assistance of jobs, schooling, and political consciousness and their turning into part of the mainstream media and popular culture is simply a pure development.“There aren’t any social initiatives or organisations which proclaim that pleasure in caste-based id is improper. Right now, there aren’t any organisations, intellectuals, or writers who can communicate to the caste Hindus about the necessity to settle for the pure growth and development of Dalits.”
‘Frequent amongst all’
Okay. Samuel Raj is the final secretary of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Entrance affiliated to the CPI(M). He has been demanding a legislation in opposition to honour killings. He expresses concern over the persevering with murders and factors out that caste pleasure has change into widespread amongst all communities. “The same old motion taken by the police and courts in these instances shall be inadequate. The time taken between submitting of instances beneath the SC/ST Act and judgment of a courtroom, in addition to different inefficiencies, needs to be addressed by the federal government. For the reason that instances have accrued, the accused are popping out on bail and committing extra crimes,” he says.
Activists are unable to place their finger on the sudden spurt in crimes: the final societal acceptance of caste organisations that promote pleasure in caste id; financial and social progress of the Dalits; and the reluctance of the political institution to pursue justice and threat dropping the vote of dominant communities are talked about as the explanations. However the onus is on the federal government to place an finish to the violence and stay as much as its promise of social justice and equality.
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