The worsening state of caste-based violence in Tamil Nadu

Reports suggest that the incidences of caste-based violence in the state have increased since 2015

By Anish Pathiyil

Tamil Nadu, despite being among the top performers in most socio-economic indicators in the country, has been a hotbed of caste-based violence for many decades. Data released by the Home Ministry in July 2022 shows that among all the states in India, Tamil nadu had the most incidences of caste-based violence. More than 345 villages in 37 districts in the state have been tagged ‘atrocity prone’ due to the high prevalence of crimes against the dalit community.

An RTI filed earlier by a social-rights organisation ‘Evidence’ said that between 2015-2020 more than 300 murders had taken place and cases were registered under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015. Dalits have been the victims in majority of the cases filed. The cases filed over the last few decades have mainly been against the majority-backward classes like the Thevars and the Vanniyars.

Christodas Gandhi, a retired bureaucrat, in his Human Rights Watch report, suggested that the upliftment of the dalit castes, who were agricultural labourers under the backward classes, after the conception of the reservation caused an increase in hostility between the dalits and their erstwhile employer communities.

The first major case after independence was the 1957 riots in Mudukulathur in Ramnad district between the Thevars and the dalit group called the Pallars. A by-election, with the Forward Bloc and the Congress in the fray, triggered tensions between the two communities, whose leaders were representing the two parties in the area. A total of 42 dalit members were reportedly killed during the tussle. Another major incident was in 1978 when in Periyaparaichery, over a 100 houses in a Dalit settlement was burned down using rocket fireworks by a group of dominant caste members, resulting in 12 deaths. The distraught dalits also retaliated, setting a few majority-caste houses on fire.

The Vanniyars have also had multiple instances of skirmishes with the dalit community. During the Vanniyar agitation of 1987 demanding separate reservation, the agitators turned violent damaging public property and even burning down thousands of dalit houses in numerous villages. In 2015, in the village of Seshasamudram in Villupuram district, the dominant Vanniyars attacked a dalit hamlet over a dispute over the chariot procession of a Mariamman temple built by the dalits after they were not allowed entry into the vanniyar-dominated temples. The 2013 Marakkanam violence and the 2019 Ponnaparai violence also involved clashes between the Vanniyars, represented by the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), and the dalit communities.

Other dominant castes like the Vellalars during the Uthapuram riots in 2008 and the Gounders during the Kalapatti riots in 2004 in Coimbatore have been guilty of atrocities committed against the dalits. The dominant castes in various areas of Tamil Nadu like the Vanniyars in the north, the Thevars in and around Madurai and the Gounders in the Kongu region have a strong hold over the political and the law enforcement establishment of their respective regions making it more difficult for the dalits to get justice. Even worse is the police custodial torture and brutality dished out to members of the depressed classes by the caste conscious local police force.

The rejig of state level Vigilance Committee under the provisions of the SC\ST act by the CM MK Stalin is being considered an important step to quell the violence against the depressed classes while also monitoring them and redressing their grievances. Organisations like ‘Evidence’ have been highlighting the low conviction rate in cases under SC\ST law, which has been around a paltry 10%, showing the lack of action by the police and other investigative agencies. There has also been a demand for creation of special courts to cover these cases of caste-based violence.