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Home , Iyothee Thass, Mukkulathor, Navayana, Pallar, Vanniyar

x xi

The Geography of Violence WAITING TO LOSE THEIR PATIENCE*

Ravikumar

Impotence is the natural law of the administration.

SINCE India’s independence, the violence against has witnessed an annual increase. Government-appointed commissions have confirmed this for a fact.1 Violence against the oppressed is indeed a worldwide phenomenon; but discrimination based on birth is unique to society—the subjects of such violence are born into certain . The general understanding of such specific violence has been as follows: when the oppressed dalits are enlightened by their exposure to aspects of modernity and assert their rights, those sections which have traditionally wielded power, reluctant to lose their authoritarian position, unleash violence against them. This explanation is even understood to be favourable to the dalits. On closer examination, such rationalisation appears to be only partially true. The ‘backward’ castes (erstwhile ) that inflict violence against dalits—especially physical violence—do not possess full- 2 map: not to scale fledged authority in Indian society. They continue to be largely controlled by the authority wielded by . Since the Northern districts parliamentary form of democracy introduced in post-independence Western districts India favoured the wielding of power by those who are in a majority in society, these castes have, over the years, come to control Southern districts political power. The Constitution of 1950 and the introduction of the concept of curtailed the religious authority of the

* Translated from the Tamil by S. Anand xii DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xiii brahmins and the BCs were no longer bound to be subservient to However, there is no reference to caste here. Other than in this the brahmins. It was only subsequently that economic, song, the word parayan does not figure anywhere in Purananuru. administrative and political power devolved to the BCs. Historian K.R. Hanumanthan points out that these four clans 7 If we examine the violence against dalits in this context, we will belong to the mullai region, and that the word kudi in Tamil does 8 have to come to a different conclusion altogether. Rather than not connote caste but clan. seeing it a consequence of such accumulation of power among the Hanumanthan, who argues that the pulayan and ilicinan in the BCs, the violence against dalits would be better understood as an Sangam songs merely refer to those engaged in ‘unclean’ work, attempt by BC to test their newfound authority on those shows that it cannot be claimed definitively that the pulayas were below them. This is not to say that the dalits are not asserting their treated as a separate community or that they were segregated. 3 rights. Those keen on highlighting the distinctness of the parayar caste delight in pointing to this verse in Purananuru. Nondalit The question of origins commentators understand this to mean that the discrimination and In Tamil Nadu, violence against dalits is not a new phenomenon. oppression of the parayars/dalits is not of recent origin and they However, it is not as if such violence has a history of thousands of derive solace in believing that is as old as the Sangam 9 years as is casually and popularly stated by many. The historical period. Besides, all references to ilicinan, kadayan and pulayan are origin of untouchability in other parts of India is not the same as imagined to denote ‘parayan’. Such scholarship merely betrays their that in Tamil Nadu; here, it is linked to the establishment of the caste bias. My inference is that Song 335 in Purananuru could well vedic- . Unlike in other parts of India, since be a latter-day interpolation. Not only were most of these songs and thrived for a longer time in Tamil Nadu— fragmented, ‘there’s little that’s known about those who 10 4 anthologised or compiled them’. In this anthology of four up to the fifteenth century CE —the vedic-brahmin religion and the practice of untouchability that accompanied it could only make hundred songs, those after Song 266 were found in a mutilated a belated entry. state. In most of these, the first two lines are not available, and in several songs a few lines have been admittedly ‘reconstructed’.11 According to some historians, untouchability existed even in the , but it was not based on birth.5 Another group It may be asked whether it is right to dismiss this song, used as argues that such untouchability was based on profession.6 Both proof of the ancient origins of the parayars. Here, it would be useful these schools of thought base their conclusions on classical literature to see what Ambedkar had to say with reference to mahars. When such as the Ettuttokai (Eight Anthologies) and the Pattuppaattu (The was called the ‘land of mahars’, two kinds of objections Ten Idylls), believed to have been written between the second were raised. While one section argued that maha-rashtra meant the Great Country, another section found it unacceptable that their state century CE and the third century CE. Many point to a poem in Purananuru which has a reference to parayan, a term that denotes a was once ruled by mahars, given the mahars’ low status in caste that is classified today as a Scheduled Caste. This song, whose contemporary society. Ambedkar cites two entirely different reasons 12 authorship is attributed to Mangudi Kizhaar, says: to refute these theories. If Maharashtra were indeed the land of mahars, we might have to accept that these people were a separate Tudiyan, paanan, parayan, katamban endru element in society, always known as mahar, since very early in in-naangu allaadu kudiyum illai history. The Manusmriti lists some castes as untouchables.13 (Other than the tudiyan drummers and the paanan singers However, the caste ‘mahar’ is absent. It is only in the eleventh and the parayans and the katambans, there are no clans) xiv DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xv century CE that ‘mahar’ comes into usage. Ambedkar thus refutes In the summer of 1925, I stayed in my maternal the theory that Maharashtra derives its name from mahar. He then grandfather’s house in Nallezhundur. This village is on examines the cultural traditions of marathas and mahars and the Peralam–Karaikkal route, a mile from the illustrates commonalities. Ambagarathur railway station. There was a major temple festival in Kandangudi happening at that time. Congress Former Buddhists leaders A. Rengasamy Iyengar and Rangasamy Pillai attended the festival. I went to Kandangudi hoping to see Since the term mahar was not then in usage, this community must them. There were no buses then. I went by foot. When have been known by another name, says Ambedkar. If we examine I was taking a shortcut through the fields, I came across the word parayan in the light of Ambedkar’s approach to the term a cheri [settlement] of harijans. Influenced by Gandhi’s mahar, its occurrence in Purananuru should be viewed more with propaganda in 1919, I did not practice untouchability. I suspicion than with pride. It is ’ explanation that entered the cheri. seems most satisfactory. Immediately, the inhabitants of the cheri—men and The -mlechchas influenced kings and prominent women—surrounded me and began to wail. I did not people, captured monasteries and drove away the understand why. When I pacified them and asked what by subjecting them to torture, and misinterpreted the was wrong, they replied, “Master, you are a brahmin. If dhammas. The erudite, scholarly monks, the expert a brahmin enters our cheri, the cheri will be ruined.” -valluva mathematicians and the connoisseur bards, Despite my assurance that these were baseless who were agonised, refused entry to the aryas who are superstitions and no ruin would befall them, they were mlechchas into their villages. Customarily, the monks not convinced. Then an elderly man came. He said that drove them away, splattered potfuls of cow-dung water a to ward off evil would settle the issue. They wherever the aryas had stepped, and then broke the pots. circled me with three mud pots of water and broke them before me. This was the ritual! Subsequently they not Thus the knowledgeable dravidian buddhists— only asked me to leave the cheri, but also counselled me sramanas, , valluvas and paanas—refusing to yield 18 to the pseudo-brahmins,14 always remained Others against entering other cheris. (paraayars), and continued to speak up15 against the Iyothee Thass’ contention is therefore not baseless. When certain crooked machinations of arya-mlechchas…the arya- nonbrahmin castes accepted the supremacy of brahmins and became mlechchas used to run scared of the dung-water that the caste Hindus, those who resisted the very entry of brahmins into dravidian buddhists splashed on them. When asked why their settlements and remained outside the Hindu fold became they took to their heels, the arya-mlechchas said the today’s ‘untouchables’. 16 lowly untouchable parayars were after them. Besides parayars, the (who are today predominant in the Iyothee Thass’ claim is that the defeated Buddhists were later southern districts of Tamil Nadu) could have also had a Buddhist rendered untouchables. Ambedkar, too, accepts this.17 origin. According to T. Gnanasekaran, the word is a The custom of driving away ‘arya-brahmins’ if they entered corruption of mallar, referred to in Sangam literature.19 He cites parayar settlements has continued until recent times. The ancient thesauruses Diwakara Nighandu and Pinkala Nighandu as communist leader P. Ramamurthy, a brahmin, recounts his sources for this claim. Gnanasekaran and Gurusamy Siddhar believe experience thus: that the pallars were once a ruling community who later became xvi DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xvii agricultural labourers and were further demeaned as untouchables entered the Tamil country. It is not surprising that the practices of by brahmins. the vedic-brahmin religion could not be established easily in a 27 Colonial anthropologist Edgar Thurston’s claim that pallars are region where Buddhism had been alive up to fifteenth century CE. so called because they lived in pallams (low-lying areas)20 is refuted by Hanumanthan, who argues that ‘a large number of them are Inscribed evidence 21 found in dry table lands such as Salem and Coimbatore’. Another Those who talk of the caste hierarchy being thousands of years old argument is that pallars are descendants of the Pallavas. It is notable do so only to emphasise the difficulty in uprooting the caste system; that vanniyars, also known as pallis, claim descent from the Pallavas. this theory helps create the impression that it cannot be easily Pallars, who now prefer to call themselves devendrakula , altered. The system of untouchability and the status of those set trace their to Indira. According to Iyothee Thass, the word aside as untouchables is made to appear ancient in this . Yet Indira is derived from aindiram. The emperor of Magadha, this flies in the face of evidence obtained through research. Siddhartha, is said to have controlled his five senses and acquired Speculating on when the caste system could have taken root in 22 the name Aindiran, corrupted later as Indira ( in ). Tamil Nadu, epigraphist Y. Subbarayulu says: The Buddhist monasteries were known as Indira-vyaram (), It is only in the 12th and 13th centuries that there is clear and their festival was known as Indira-vizha.23 Viewed in this manifestation of the caste formation. Of course, ‘caste’ context, the pallars’ claim that they are descendants of Indira can is met with as a rudimentary social feature of the Tamil be interpreted as an indication of their former Buddhist roots. society even in the 9th and 10th centuries. A sort of As for arundhatiyars, now found predominantly in the western stratification had taken form by the beginning of the 11th parts of Tamil Nadu, they claim they were termed sakkiliyars by century. Two Tanjavur inscriptions of Rajaraja I dated the Nayaka king Tirumalai Nayakar in the seventeenth century. 1014 supply us information relating to the separate According to K.S. Singh, ‘They migrated from Andhra Pradesh as quarters respectively for landholders (ur-irukkai), artisans a service group along with other Telugu-speaking immigrants (kammana-ceri), and the paraiya (parai-ceri). A long during the reign of Telugu kings/chiefs in some parts of Tamil inscription of Virarajendra at Gangaikondacholapuram, Nadu.’24 However, a section of the politically conscious gives almost similar description of settlements in arundhatiyars today claim a Tamil origin and prefer to be known Tanjavur and Tiruchirapalli districts in 1068. Castes lower as adi tamilars.25 Another claim is that sakkiliyar is a corruption of in hierarchy than the Brahmanas are also referred to in Sakkiyar/Sakya, thus bestowing a Buddhist past on even this some records, but in very general terms. This hierarchy community of dalits.26 became elaborated during the course of the 11th and 12th centuries.28 When we examine the history of untouchability, it becomes clear that it originated in different times in different places in India. Even Reinforcing Subbarayulu’s findings, we find that from 29 within Tamil Nadu, different communities were rendered Periyapuranam to Kapilar Akaval, various works of literature untouchable by means of different historical processes. Though supportive of the caste system emerge only after the twelfth century. there’s a commonality in all dalits being defeated Buddhists who The false stories propagated about those who were rendered were rendered untouchables, it was only several centuries after untouchable have only played a crucial role in the strengthening untouchability became institutionalised in northern India, where of untouchability. According to Iyothee Thass, the unscrupulous the vedic-brahmin religion acquired dominance, that the practice ‘pseudo-brahmins’ spread themselves all over the Tamil country and xviii DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xix killed the Buddhist kings and monks by impalement and by only in twenty—nineteen in and one in crushing them in oil-pressers. They also captured the Buddhist Gangaikondacholapuram—that a para-cheri is to be found. Within monasteries, demeaned Buddhists as ‘parayas’ and concocted several this, there’s a specific reference to uzha-parayar. Since those engaged stories about ‘paraya lowliness’.30 in agricultural labour are referred to specifically as uzha-parayar, we Iyothee Thass’ position has been strengthened by Noburu may conclude that the parayars may have engaged in other, non- Karashima’s research.31 Studies that talk of Indian villages as little agricultural labours. While only twenty villages are listed by republics and self-sufficient units have been effectively disproved. Karashima as having a para-cheri, all the five towns (nagaras) had a Karashima bases his studies on the two large stone inscriptions in para-cheri. the Thanjavur Big Temple and the inscription in the Of the forty villages, twenty-two had at least one temple; in Gangaikondacholapuram (GKC) temple. The Thanjavur inscription fourteen there was more than one temple. However, there is no lists details of forty villages while the GKC inscription mentions reference to specific communities that worshipped in the temple. seven villages. Karashima prepares a table that pertains to thirty- Ayyan temples were found in five villages and Pidari temples in ten. three villages mentioned in the Thanjavur inscription and the seven Ayyan is one of the Tamil names for the Buddha.32 Pidari refers to villages listed in the GKC inscription. Of these forty villages, five are the Buddhist Sambapathy. Manimekalai, the Tamil epic, refers considered nagaras (towns). These inscriptions reveal that people to Sambapathy and says she was worshipped throughout India as a belonging to certain castes had separate habitations. In the guardian deity.33 administrative orders of that period, there are details of three types Pidari means the one who rids (haari) a person of pain (pida). of settlements—the settlement of ooraar, called oor-nattham, the para- Since Sambapathy-amman warded off the troubles that visited good cheri and the kammaana-cheri. Besides these three, there were also people, she was also called Pidari. Similarly, Buddhist shrines the kudi-irukkai (place where the kudis live), eezha-cheri (the known as Saasta were later made Ayyanar temples, Saasta/Ayyanar settlement of toddy-tappers), theenda-cheri (the settlement of eventually becoming one among the many village , according untouchables), thalaivai-cheri (where those who control the flow of to Venkatasamy.34 Examined in this light, it appears that the Ayyan water from the main canal live), thani-cheri (the temple settlement), and Pidari temples that figure in Karashima’s table were worshipped vannara-cheri (where washerpersons live) and other settlements. by former Buddhists who in a later period came to be inferiorised Even when communities were living thus segregated from one as untouchables. another, the segregation had not become a permanent feature. It is These epigraphs/inscriptions also have details of cremation not clear which community lived in kudi-irukkai. Kudi could be grounds. Of the forty villages listed, only twenty-four had understood variously as uzhu-kudi (sharecroppers, tillers), a family cremation grounds. Of these, eight villages had a separate cremation or a community of people. Since kudi-irukkai is mentioned along ground for parayars. It is not as if all the villages which had a para- with oor-nattham and para-cheri settlements, those who did not cheri had a separate cremation ground for the parayars. Similarly, belong to the latter two categories might have lived in kudi-irukkai. other settlements such as theenda-cheri, eezha-cheri or kammana- Other than these settlements, there is an area called kanimuttroottu cheri do not seem to have had separate cremation grounds. allotted to astrologers and a settlement for doctors, called Now, we come to theenda-cheri (the settlement of maruttuvaperu. But these do not appear to have been separate, ‘untouchables’). Only two villages among the forty in Karashima’s segregated settlements. list had a theenda-cheri. Even in villages with a para-cheri, a Of the forty villages that find place in Karashima’s table, it is theenda-cheri is listed. We can therefore conclude that parayars of xx DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xxi that period were not subjected to the stigma of untouchability. Some castes found in the north, a section of the shudras and brahmins other minor community was then designated untouchable. We call joined hands to unleash this violence. them a minor community since in the forty villages listed, they are While the evidence of tension between Brahman and found only in two. From the inscriptions, it does not appear that non-Brahman savants and religious teachers becomes this community had a separate temple, tank or cremation ground. manifest in the thirteenth century and lays the They must have either had access to the temples, tanks and foundation for some of the conflict between the two in cremation grounds of other communities or they must not have the twentieth century, the tension is not that between had the right to use these. Examining the various details about the maintainers of an indigenous culture against external forty villages we realise that even when the settlements were intruders, but largely that of cultural variants and their separate, a complete segregation had not materialised with regard upholders seeking the greatest favour from those in a to temples, tanks and cremation grounds. position to support them.37 Textual and inscriptional evidence lead to the conclusion that According to Stein, the ‘Brahman–high non-Brahman’ alliance untouchability was institutionalised in Tamil Nadu only after the remained intact till 1800 and played a crucial role in the eleventh century CE. Subsequently this practice has only institutionalisation of untouchability and the caste system in Tamil strengthened and deepened. The annihilation of Buddhism and Nadu. It was the enthusiastic participation of the nonbrahmins that Jainism through violence forms a backdrop to these developments. led to the destruction of in Tamil Nadu, which resulted in temple-centric medieval taking root, Brahmin–Nonbrahmin alliance the caste system getting strengthened and untouchability becoming entrenched. Even when there are commonalities in the brahmin hegemony that During the British colonial period, the various strategies adopted came about in northern and southern India, there are several by nonbrahmin communities to counter brahmin hegemony— differences. The main difference lies in the manner in which the similar to the struggles in the thirteenth century to win the favours vedic-brahmin religion triumphed over Buddhism and Jainism, of rulers—were merely attempts to seek a share in the power according to historian Burton Stein. While the invasion of the Huns structure, the bureaucracy and other spheres of public life. from the northwest, the claiming and acceptance of Buddha as an Indoctrinated as we have been by contemporary histories of incarnation of and the intermarriage between prominent nonbrahmin antagonism towards brahmins,38 it may be a little Buddhist and Vaishnava and Saiva devotees, including among the difficult for us to accept and understand this relationship between royalty, led to the ‘peaceful displacement of Jainism and Buddhism’ brahmins and nonbrahmins, which alternates between conflict and in the north, the south witnessed ‘the violent suppression of both cooperation. But if we understand the unique nature of Hindu by devotees of the new devotional of Siva…and the proud society and how agrarian equations worked, it becomes easier to boast of the new kings of Pallava and Pandyan kingdoms that they comprehend this relationship. Ambedkar’s insight would be helpful had slaughtered Jainas. This has always embarrassed modern here: historians, but it has not moved them to offer explanations for these murderous claims.’35 Men live in a community by virtue of the things they have in common. What they must have in common in In this violent suppression of Buddhists and Jains, the alliance order to form a community are aims, beliefs, aspirations, 36 formed by brahmin and nonbrahmin Hindus played a crucial role. knowledge, a common understanding. Or to use the Since Tamil Nadu does not have the equivalent of the xxii DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xxiii

language of the Sociologists, they must be like-minded India espoused political rule by the majority, it became easy for the … . Participation in a group is the only way of being like- Hindus, who were in the majority in society, to exercise political minded with the group.39 majority. Very soon, this religious majoritarianism led to the Discussing the evils of ‘isolation’ and benefits of ‘endosmosis’ emergence of a caste majority. Political power has today come to among social groups, Ambedkar dwells upon the relationship be wielded by those caste groups that are numerically strong. between touchables and untouchables: Since brahmins have been a numerical minority in Hindu The significant fact about the Hindus is that before they society, their violence has mostly been symbolic; whereas the are Hindus they are members of some caste. The castes violence unleashed by the castes which are in a numerical majority are so exclusive and isolated that the consciousness of is physical in nature. Earlier, the authority to decide whether a king being a Hindu would be the chief guide of a Hindu’s could be bestowed with recognition and legitimacy was vested with activity towards a non-Hindu. But as against a Hindu of the brahmins. The dilemma faced by Shivaji, the maratha ruler, in different caste, his caste-consciousness would be the the face of such brahminic authority is recent in our collective chief guide of activity… . From the point of view of memory. Today, the brahmins wield no such authority. In fact, the communication the Hindus, in spite of castes, divide power to curb and neuter the symbolic authority of the brahmins themselves into two groups—the touchables and the is today wielded by the nonbrahmin castes. The authority that has untouchables. The touchables have enough been concentrated in the hands of the numerically strong castes has communication between them to enable us to say that led to their power becoming unlimited in scope. the conflict of like-mindedness so far as they are concerned is not much to be dreaded. But there is a real During the British period, the right to exercise franchise was difference and consequent conflict between the like- given only to those who had education and property. As a result, mindedness of the touchables and the untouchables. the untouchables had no share in political power. The other Untouchability is the strongest ban on the endosmosis nondalit castes, too, had only a limited share in political power. between them.40 Only after universal adult franchise was introduced did the situation Untouchables are placed outside the pale of Hinduism as change for good. Says Ambedkar: Others. In suppressing them, Hinduism consolidates itself. This is In India, the majority is not a political majority. In India what we increasingly witness as history closes in on us. Hindus have the majority is born; it is not made. That is the difference always isolated Buddhists, Jains, untouchables and other religious between a communal majority and a political majority. minorities and treated them as Others. We have also been A political majority is not a fixed or a permanent majority. witnessing an increase in this violence against the Others. Unless It is a majority which is always made, unmade and there is a qualitative change among the Hindus, there cannot be a remade. A communal majority is permanent majority fixed in its attitude. One can destroy it, but one cannot quantitative change in the violence they perpetrate. Let us now 41 identify whether, and to what extent, there has been a qualitative transform it. change. The parliamentary democracy we have today has not only paved the way for a communal majority, but has also facilitated a caste Prior to independence, above and over the touchables and majority. The checks that Ambedkar sought to introduce against the untouchables, the British occupied the position of a third party. emergence of such a situation were rejected in the constituent Once the British left this country, there was a vacuum in this third assembly.42 Other than procuring a few concessions for the dalits, space. Since the parliamentary form of democracy introduced in Ambedkar could not do much. xxiv DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xxv

Nonbrahmin ascendance in Tamil Nadu Kshatriya Mahasangam, established in 1888, presented a petition to the chief minister in 1938 on this issue. The first strong voice raised in favour of a caste majority came from Tamil Nadu. Since ‘enlightenment’ about this issue dawned here Such being the case of the ‘lower’-order nonbrahmin castes, the rather early, courtesy of the nonbrahmin movement, the realisation plight of the dalits was worse. In 1923, led by one of the foremost of a caste majority also unfolded sooner when compared to other leaders of dalits, M.C. Rajah, a delegation of dalit representatives parts of India. The intensity and scope of the violence perpetrated met the governor and submitted a petition on the injustice done against the dalits of Tamil Nadu in the last fifty years is only an to the Depressed Classes by the ministry. Demanding indicator of this ‘nonbrahmin enlightenment’. 30 percent reservation in government jobs and arguing that dalit representation in elected bodies should not be based solely on The founding of the Dravidian Association by Dr C. Natesan winning elections, the delegation demanded a separate department Mudaliar in 1912,43 and the launch of the ‘Non-brahmin Manifesto’ to attend to the welfare of dalits. in 1916 in Madras are significant moments in Tamil Nadu’s recent political history.44 With these, the imaginary, dubious category of After independence, the struggle by the BCs for reservation in the ‘nonbrahmin’ was constructed. The Justice Party, launched in the legislature and judiciary intensified. This formed one of the 1917, formed the first nonbrahmin-led ministry in the 1920 contexts for the coming to power of the Dravida Munnetra provincial legislative council election. When the British Kazhagam in 1967, the first post-independence non-Congress administration introduced dyarchy in pursuance of the Government government in Tamil Nadu. With the non-representation of Most of India Act of 1919, the brahmin-dominated Indian National Backward Classes (MBCs) in DMK-led regimes, one saw the Congress boycotted the elections in protest. The Justice Party, alignment of the thevars with the M.G. Ramchandran-led AIADMK accepting the scheme of dyarchy, contested the elections, won from 1972. That a numerically strong caste could emerge as a without facing any resistance, and formed the ministry of the political force in the electoral arena was first proven in Tamil Nadu former composite in December 1920. The politics by the vanniyars. Disgruntled with the treatment meted out Justice ministry issued the Communal GO reserving jobs for various to vanniyars by the Congress, vanniyar leaders S.S. Ramaswamy nonbrahmin communities in 1921. Padaiyatchiar and M.A. Manickavelu Nayakar broke away from the parent party and launched political outfits of their own in 1951— However, the Justice Party ministry’s idea of nonbrahmin the Tamil Nadu Toilers Party and Commonweal Party welfare did not include all nonbrahmin castes. This category respectively.48 Such was the electoral impact created by the practically excluded dalits and other religious minorities. Even vanniyars under these two leaders that the Congress in 1952, unable among nondalit nonbrahmins, only the minority ‘high’ nonbrahmin to muster a simple majority in the assembly, sought out these two castes—reddiars, naickers, mudaliars, vellalars, chettiars—benefited. leaders, who controlled twenty-five councillors. The two vanniyar The composition of the first Justice Party ministry in 1920 reflected leaders merged their parties with the Congress.49 The struggle of this social reality.45 Consequently, communities which had the vanniyars, which scaled down between 1952 and 1967, regained numerical strength and yet could not get a taste of the political pie momentum and peaked in 1987.50 As a result, the state government began to stake their claims. The political mobilisation of vanniyars was forced to create a category called the ‘Most Backward Class’ must be understood in this context.46 S. A. Nanjappan, who in 1935 (MBC) within the BC list. Some castes, such as the piranmalaikkallars spoke on the legislative council budget motion, said that despite and of the thevar cluster,51 became the unintended vanniyars constituting over a thirty-lakh population, they did not beneficiaries when they too were designated MBCs. get a proportionate share in government jobs.47 The Vanniyakula xxvi DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xxvii

The BCs, who were already in a powerful position, received a that the Kilvenmani massacre happened. shot in the arm thanks to the struggle of the vanniyars and the In Dalits in Dravidian Land, the reports of the various incidents reservation gains made by the MBCs, and to the implementation of of violence that dalits have been subjected to in Tamil Nadu in the the Mandal Commission report in 1990. The nonbrahmin, nondalit last ten years have been compiled. We see that the violence has bloc became even more powerful. This completes the picture of gradually shifted from the southern districts to the northern districts the accumulation of power by the caste majority. The dalits faced over these ten years. Of late, such violence is unfolding in the these political circumstances with the political and symbolic power western districts as well. Seen as a whole, this gives us an idea about derived from the Ambedkar centenary year celebrations (1991) that the geography of caste violence. We can also see that this violence accompanied these developments. The qualitative changes in assumes certain patterns. Even when a small development or violence against dalits after the 1990s must be understood against incident leading to the empowerment of dalits takes place, casteist this background. forces are at the forefront of efforts to quash it. The instruments The fact of political power in Tamil Nadu resting with the caste of the state cooperate with these forces. The judiciary too plays its majority facilitates the exercise of both societal violence and state part. violence against dalits. This can be seen in various incidents, starting from the Mudukulathur riots in 1957 and continuing on to the The dalits in this book Thamiraparani massacre (1999, 123–129) and the most recent Most often, dalit issues do not figure in the media. Even when they violence in Kalapatti near Coimbatore (2004, 303–306). do, such news relates only to atrocities against dalits.52 However, Parliamentary democracy has given dalits certain safeguards on the news reports of S. Viswanathan collected in this book cannot paper. These legal safeguards have been constantly disregarded and be categorised thus. He dwells upon various dimensions of the violated by civil society. The caste Hindus, who have reduced the issues that concern dalits. Besides aspects such as land, education, rule of majority to the rule of a caste majority, have consigned reservation and administration, gender is factored in as a component another aspect of democracy—equality—to the dustbin. Just as the integral to his understanding of the issue. Viswanathan’s leftist assemblies and parliament have been rendered expanded versions perspective underlines his writing. Owing to his political of the caste panchayats that we find in villages, the police and inclination, several CPI(M) and some CPI voices find a significant military too have become mercenaries of caste Hindus. In Tamil place in these reports, giving the impression that the left in Tamil Nadu, such a state of affairs became obvious after the DMK came to Nadu has contributed in a major way to dalit issues. power in 1967. Following the 1957 Mudukulathur riots, Muthuramalinga Thevar was arrested by the Kamaraj government. The mishandling of the caste question by the left parties Certain actions initiated by the police contained the riots. However, demands a study in itself. There has been a belated dawning of caste when antidalit violence was unleashed in Kilvenmani (1968, 29), consciousness on the part of marxists in India: ‘India has of course Villupuram (1978), Kodiyankulam (1995, 5–11), Melavalavu (1997, become independent, but those two other issues, of class in Britain 83–86), Gundupatti (1998, 87–94) and Thamiraparani (1999, 123– and caste in India (the hereditary division of labour as Marx puts 129), the police abetted the crimes as perpetrators. it) are yet to be resolved; and the resolution of the class question in India doubtless passes, even today, through the caste question.’53 Both the AIADMK and DMK have been united in the unleashing These words have, however, not been translated into deeds. The of violence on dalits. C.N. Annadurai was chief minister for a very left in Tamil Nadu has not taken any notable initiatives to contain short while (1967–69). Most people in Tamil Nadu may even have caste clashes. It is well known that dalits were the affected party in forgotten about his rule, but the dalits cannot, since it was in 1968 xxviii DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xxix the Mudukulathur riots (1957). The then Congress government of this book. Viswanathan’s marxist grounding yields several headed by K. Kamaraj played a relatively non-partisan role in positive dividends. He focuses attention on the basic economic containing the clashes between thevars and dalits. But what role issues concerning dalits. Be it the Karanai land struggle (42–45 ), did the Communist Party play? Party leader P. Ramamurthy54 — the Koothirambakkam conversion issue (255–260) or the Tamil who stopped short of visiting Mudukulathur and turned back from Nadu government’s wasteland development programme Paramakudi—suggested that if chief minister Kamaraj and All India ( 244–254), Viswanathan offers a historical reading of these issues Forward Bloc (AIFB) leader Muthuramalinga Thevar visited the riot- with an eye for the economic aspects involved. Unlike the affected area, normalcy would return.55 Ramamurthy was conventional left, Viswanathan takes a pro-dalit stand on the unmindful of the fact that Thevar was one of the instigators of the reservation issue, especially the questions of reservation in violence in Mudukulathur. At that point the thevars were seeking promotions and backlog clearance (152–155). to portray what happened in Mudukulathur as not a caste clash, but The year 1995, with which this book begins, marks the rather a result of police highhandedness in which the thevars were beginning of contemporary dalit upsurge in Tamil Nadu. It was the most affected. When P.N. Dattar, minister of state in the union around this time, in the southern districts of the state, that a dalit home ministry, visited the affected area twenty days after the consciousness spread. According to Human Rights Watch, between carnage, Communist Party leader K.T.K. Thangamani, who July 1995 and July 1996, there were several clashes between dalits accompanied him, said, ‘The police shot at the maravars and threw and thevars in the southern districts leading to several deaths and them into flames,’ and showed the minister a burnt bone as proof. to the arrest of several dalit youth under the National Security Act Dattar, in turn, wondered, ‘The bone seems hot even after twenty and the Tamil Nadu Goondas Act.61 According to a government 56 days!’ report, in 1996 there was a 34 percent increase in caste clashes in On 28 December 1957, a no-confidence motion was introduced the southern districts of Tamil Nadu when compared to the in the assembly against the Kamaraj government claiming that the previous year. There were clashes in 282 places, of which 238 state had oppressed the community. This was moved clashes were between dalits and BCs.62 An important aspect of these by Communist Party leader of the house, M. Kalyanasundaram, and clashes was the fact that the dalits had begun to retaliate. Even seconded by Sashivarna Thevar, MLA (AIFB) from Mudukulathur.57 during the Mudukulathur riots, the dalits had hit back.63 But today The sympathy of the Communist Party then was clearly not with the retaliation is more explicit. Viswanathan has not only recorded the dalits. When the Kilvenmani carnage happened in 1968, the most of the incidents of violence between 1995 and 2004—the communists preferred to see it merely as a class/workers’ issue, manner in which they spread from the southern to the northern though all the forty-four agricultural labourers charred to death districts—but has also chronicled the emergence of the dalit parties were dalits.58 Today, the CPI(M) has fenced the Kilvenmani memorial during this period. Reading these reports, we also witness the birth and declared it private property, rendering it out of bounds for dalit and growth of the K. Krishnasamy-led Puthiya Tamizhagam. 59 party leaders. There has not been any substantive change in the Viswanathan records the politics and the new social alliances that position or attitude of the left parties till now. When violence was the emerging dalit parties espoused and also documents how these unleashed on dalits during the 1999 parliamentary poll in the alliances were broken. The manner in which hindutva politics was Chidambaram (reserved) constituency, the CPI(M) merely issued interwoven with the caste clashes of 1998 by 60 statements condemning the violence. The left’s historical role in Shanmugaiah Pandian (of Thevarkula Koottamaippu) and the dealing with dalit issues in Tamil Nadu has to be seen in this light. manner in which this was used to break the dalit–Muslim alliance However, the faults of the left cannot be extended to the author was missed by most journalists, but not Viswanathan (101–108). xxx DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xxxi

The panchayati raj system, whose role in the spread of living outside the state. living outside Tamil Nadu democracy in India is held to be crucial, seems to have only added imagine that the dalits and the BCs here are living in harmony. This to the misery of the dalits. Ambedkar’s view that the strengthening is the image that has been created by Dravidian intellectuals of the village system will only lead to the strengthening of the caste conversant with English.65 However, the ground reality is quite the system continues to ring true. Despite reservation in the panchayat opposite. system, no real change has been brought about in the village power Through these reports, we need to understand not just the structure. Caste Hindus do not allow for even a small change in qualitative changes in the violence against dalits, but also the the power equations of a village. The Melavalavu massacre (83–86), connections between these changes and how the caste Hindus have the deadlock in Keerippatti and Paappapatti (215–218), the captured the state machinery which unleashes this violence. These auctioning of panchayat posts to prevent grassroots democracy articles, though written within the constraints and needs of a (198–202) and the forced resignations of elected panchayat leaders newsmagazine, transcend such limitations and serve as historical (181–183) only reinforce this perception despite a few individual documents. dalit successes at the panchayat level, which too Viswanathan In this book, we bear witness to the ashes of burnt houses and unfailingly documents (175–177, 203–207, 227–234). the blood of murdered people. Concluding the Communist Manifesto, Dalits who are subjected to violence by caste Hindus in civil Marx declares: ‘Workers of the world unite, for you have nothing society also have to reckon with the violence of the state, as seen to lose but your chains.’ For the oppressed dalits today, it is the in Gundupatti (87–94), Thamiraparani (123–129), Vittukkatti (270– words of a little known poet, Keorapetse Kgositsile, that ring more 273) and Sankaralingapuram (208–214). Viswanathan was again the true: only reporter to record the fact that the Venkatachalam Commission Blessed are the dehumanised (appointed by the Supreme Court to inquire into the atrocities in For they have nothing to lose Chidambaranar–Tuticorin district) had suggested that nine police But their patience.66 officials be barred from functioning in dalit-dominated areas (54– 56). The Thinniyam incident (241–243), where dalits were made 3 March 2005 to consume excreta, went unreported in the English-language Pondicherry national media, except in Frontline. I have personally known Viswanathan for fifteen years. When he came to gather news during the caste clashes in Cuddalore NOTES & REFERENCES district, I accompanied him on various occasions. He would never rely on secondhand information; he would go to the spot and 1 National Human Rights Commission, Report on Prevention of Atrocities Against interact with several people for hours to get to the bottom of any Scheduled Castes (New Delhi: National Human Rights Commission, 2004). issue. In his reportage, he has always stood by the victims. These 2 The terms ‘forward’, ‘backward’, ‘lower’ and ‘upper’ for castes have been articles reveal that he is not just a reporter but also a social analyst. largely avoided in this essay and the book. If used, they occur within quotes. Today, dalits run several publications of their own.64 News that State terminology is preferred even when ‘Backward Class’ is a euphemism for ‘Backward Caste’. Hence nonbrahmin shudras are referred to by their does not make it to the mainstream media gets recorded in these. specific caste names or as Backward Classes (BCs) and Most Backward Classes However, the political and social conditions in Tamil Nadu, (MBCs). For dalits, either their specific caste identities or Scheduled Caste is especially concerning dalits, have not been well represented to those used, depending on the context. xxxii DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xxxiii

3 See M.S.S. Pandian, “Dalit Assertion in Tamil Nadu: An Exploratory Note,” House, 1981), 3–4. This is the standard edition of Purananuru used in Tamil Journal of Indian School of Political Economy, vol. 12, no. 3–4, 2000, 501–17. today. 4 According to Mayilai Seeni. Venkatasamy Buddhism was introduced to Tamil 11 It is said that Mangudi Kizhaar composed six songs in Purananuru (24, 26, Nadu in third century BCE during the reign of emperors Asoka and Mahendra. 313, 335, 372 and 396). After U.V. Swaminatha published the first modern See Venkatasamy, Bavuthamum Thamzihum (: The Saiva edition of Purananuru in 1894, the editor of Sentamizh—a periodical of which Siddantha Works Publishing Society, 1940). Art historian Vidya Dehejia argues we have no record now—referring to Song 335 asserted that ‘these four castes that ‘the Buddhist persisted in the Tamil country with greater strength existed 1,800 years ago’. Iyothee Thass cites this claim in his weekly, Tamizhan than has hitherto been realised’. Dehejia, “The Persistence of Buddhism in (15 July 1908), and strongly refutes the possibility of ‘parayar untouchability’ India,” in A Potpourri of Indian Art, ed. P. Pal (Bombay: 1988). George Michell during the Sangam period. Not unaware of Swaminatha Iyer’s edition of says Buddhism lingered in the Tamil region upto the fifteenth and sixteenth Purananuru, Thass wonders: ‘Is there a book called Purananuru? Who is the centuries. Michell, Architecture and Art of Southern India (Cambridge: 1995). author? Which period does it belong to?’ He basically questions the Several statues of the Buddha have been found and continue to be discovered authenticity of the work in the form in which it is presented and interpreted. in different parts of Tamil Nadu. See B. Jambulingam’s Ph.D. thesis, For a detailed exegesis, see Iyothee Thass, Iyothee Thassar Sinthanaigal, ed. “Buddhism in the Chola Country,” (Thanjavur: Tamil University, 2000), Gnana Aloysius, vol. 1 (Palayamkottai: Folklore Resources and Research which lists sixty granite images of the Buddha in Perambalur, Tiruchi, Centre, 1999), 534–35. Thanjavur, and districts, adding at least sixteen to the 12 B.R. Ambedkar, “The Mahars: Who were they and how they became earlier recorded Buddhas. Also see S. Anand, “Bodhi’s Tamil Afterglow,” Untouchables?,” in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writing and Speeches, vol. 17, part 2 Outlook, 19 July 2004; and Ravikumar, “Buddhar Desam,” Kalachuvadu, July (Mumbai: Government of Maharashtra, 2003), 137–50. 2004. 13 The Manusmriti is said to have been composed in the first century CE. 5 See, for instance, N. Subramanian, Sangam Polity (Madras: Asia Publishing 14 Thass refers to parayars as the ‘yathartha brahmanar’ (the real brahmins), House, 1966). and contemptuously refers to contemporary brahmins as ‘vesha brahmanar’ 6 See K.R. Hanumanthan, Untouchability: A Historical Study upto 1500 A.D. with (false or pseudo brahmins). He wrote a book positing the historical relation Special Reference to Tamil Nadu (: Koodal Publishers, 1979); and between the two, entitled Vesha Brahmanar Vedanta Vilakkam. See Iyothee Thass, “Evolution of Untouchability in Tamil Nadu up to AD 1600,” Subordinate and Iyothee Thassar Sinthanaigal, ed. Gnana Aloysius, 3 vols (Palayamkottai: Folklore Marginal Groups in Early India, ed., Aloka Parasher-Sen, (New Delhi: Oxford Resources and Research Centre, 1999) University Press, 2004) 125–56. 15 In Tamil, parai also means ‘to speak’; a usage that persists in Malayalam. 7 The Sangam poets classified the Tamil country into the distinct tinai or eco- 16 Iyothee Thassar Sinthanaigal, vol. 1, 128. types of marutham (agricultural land), neythal (coast), mullai (forest), kurinji (hill/ mountain) and paalai (arid/desert region). 17 B.R. Ambedkar, “Untouchables: Who are they and how they become Untouchables,” in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writing and Speeches, vol. 7 8 Hanumanthan, Untouchability, 131. George Hart on the contrary translates (Mumbai: Government of Maharashtra, 2003), 311–20. kudi as caste rather than clan. See George L. Hart and Hank Heifetz, trans., Purananuru (New Delhi: Penguin, 2002), 191. In The Poems of Ancient Tamil 18 P. Ramamurthy, Viduthalai Porum Dravida Iyakkamum (Madras: Pazhaniappa (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), Hart argues that caste originated Brothers, 1983), 139–40. in ancient Tamil society contrary to the perception that it was imposed by 19 Gurusamy Siddhar and T. Gnanasekaran, eds., Tamizhar Panpaattu Varalaru ‘northern ’. He counters the Dravidianist ideologues who claim that (Coimbatore: Tamizhar Panpaattu Aayvu Manram, 1996), 17–33. Tamil civilisation was free of caste, especially in the Sangam age. 20 Edgar Thurston and K. Rangachari, Castes and Tribes of South India, vol. 4 9 Though historians do not agree upon specific dates, the Sangam period is (Madras: Government Press, 1909), 476–77. slotted between third century BCE and second century CE. In myths and the 21 Hanumanthan, Untouchability, 116. popular psyche, the Sangam era dates back to more than a ten thousand years 22 In Tamil, the human senses are called indiram. Aindu is Tamil for ‘five’. ago. Hence aindu + indiram = aindiram. 10 See publisher’s Preface, Purananuru, 2nd ed. (Madras: New Century Book 23 The celebration of Indira-vizha is recorded in the Sangam epics Manimekalai xxxiv DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xxxv and Silappadikaram. On Indira-vizha, a lexicon entry says: ‘An ancient annual 33 ‘Being the ancient deity of the Sambu peninsula (Jambu in Sanskrit), festival in honour of Indira held in the month of Chittirai by the Chola kings Sambu is her first name. Her place of dwelling is Sambapathy. Later because in their capital city of Kaveripumpattinam.’ See University of Madras, Tamil of its association with Kaveri, Sambapathy came to be known as Lexicon, vol. 1 (Madras: University of Madras, 1982), 295. Kaveripoompattinam. In the contemporary period, Sambapathy has come to 24 K.S. Singh, The Scheduled Castes (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, be known as Pidari,’ says U.V. Swaminatha Iyer in a footnote to the volume 1999), 293. of Manimekalai edited by him. See Manimekalai, 6th ed., (: Dr U.V. Swaminatha Iyer Nool Nilayam, 1981 [1898]), 456. This epic authored by 25 R. Adhiyaman, “Mozhi Adaiyalam, Ina Adaiyalam, Saathi Adaiyalam: Sittalai Sattanar is said to have been written before second century CE. Arundhatiyar Edirkollum Prachinaikkal,” in Dalit Kalai, Ilakkiyam, Arasiyal, ed., Ravikumar, (Neyveli: Dalit Kalaivizha Kuzhu, 1996) 134–38. 34 Bavuthamum Tamizhum, 178. 26 Buddhamithran (interview), in Karuppu, eds., Sugan and Shobasakthi, 35 Burton Stein, “Situating Precolonial Tamil Politics and Society,” in Plenary (Puthanatham: Adaiyalam, 2002) 163–86. Session Papers, VIII World Tamil Conference (Chennai: International Association of Tamil Research, 1995), 51. 27 The Sangam literary texts occasionally refer to andanar and these are claimed to be the equivalent of latter-day brahmins. But andanar could refer to any 36 According to Stein, ‘Religion was made to serve the Brahman- priestly class or the Jaina and Buddhist monks. The brahmins as we know alliance which constituted the underpinning of localised self-governing them today established themselves in the Tamil country only during the Pallava territories in South India from the eighth to fourteenth centuries.’ Peasant State period (seventh to tenth centuries); it is only in the subsequent Chola period and Society, 87. with the brahmadeya settlements that the brahmins came to dictate social, 37 Ibid., 52. cultural and political terms, and vedic religion found a base in Tamil society. 38 This is a result of both the nonbrahmin movement’s self-representation See Burton Stein, Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India (Delhi: and the reinforcement of this ‘common sense’ by academic works produced Oxford University Press, 1980). by a section of English-speaking Dravidian intellectuals such as M.S.S. Pandian 28 Y. Subbarayulu, Studies in Chola History (Chennai: Surabhi Pathippagam, (“Notes on the Transformation of Dravidian Ideology: Tamil Nadu c. 1900– 2001), 21. 1940,” paper presented at the Seminar on Ethnicity and Nation Building, 29 Akaval is a form of poetry. The reference here is not to the Kapilar of the Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Madras, 21–23 Sangam period (second century CE) who contributed to Purananuru, but to March 1994; idem, “Beyond Colonial Crumbs: Cambridge School, Identity the Kapilar who is placed around the thirteenth century. Politics and ,” Economic and Political Weekly, 18–25 February 1995); V. Geetha and S.V. Rajadurai, Towards a Non-Brahmin 30 See Iyothee Thassar Sinthanaigal, vol. 2, 459. Iyothee Thassar argues that the Millennium: From Iyothee Thass to Periyar (Calcutta: Samya, 1998); V. Geetha, contemptuous use of ‘paraya’ was extended to other life-forms as well; hence “Re-Writing History in the Brahmin’s Shadow,” Journal of Arts and Ideas, 25– a mongrel is called a ‘pariah’ dog and a bird like the mynah is termed 26, December 1993; and S. Anandhi, “The Women’s Question in the ‘brahmini’ mynah. Dravidian Movement c.1925–1948,” in Gender and Caste: Feminism, Dalit 31 Noburu Karashima, “Grama Samugangal: Karpanayum Unmayum,” in Women, Caste, Labour Conditions, India, ed., Anupama Rao, (New Delhi: Kali Varalatruppokkil Thennaga Samugam, vol. 1, Cholar Kalam (850–1300) for Women, 2003) 141–63. (It is notable that Geetha and Rajadurai, in the (Thanjavur: Tamizhaga Tholliyal Kazhagam, 1995), 64–80. This is a translation earlier Tamil version of Non-brahmin Millennium, completely avoided reference of the English version, “The Village Community in Chola Times: Myth or to and discussion of the work of Iyothee Thass. See Periyar: Suyamariyathai, Reality,” Journal of the Epigraphical Society of India, 8 (1981). Surprisingly few Samadharmam (Coimbatore: Vidiyal Pathippagam, 1996)). However, Oxford contemporary historians have followed up on the path-breaking research of historian David Washbrook (The Emergence of Provincial Politics: the Madras Karashima and Subbarayulu. Presidency 1870–1920, Cambridge: 1976, and South India: Political Institutions and 32 Venkatasamy, Bavuthamum Thamzihum, 174–96. He points out that the Political Change, New Delhi: 1976) and Berkeley’s Eugene Irschick (Politics and Buddha in the Tamil country was known as Saattan, Ayyan, Muneeswaran, Social Conflict in South India, the Non-Brahman Movement and Tamil Separatism, Arugan, Dharman, , Satavahanan and by several other localised 1916-1929, Berkeley: 1969, and Tamil Revivalism in the 1930s, Madras: 1986) names. engage critically with the thrust of the nonbrahmin movement. xxxvi DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND INTRODUCTION xxxvii

39 B.R. Ambedkar, “Evidence Before the Southborough Commission,” BAWS, 46 For an account of the rise of the Backward Classes in Tamil Nadu, see vol. 1, 248–49. P. Radhakrishnan, “Backward Caste Movements in Tamil Nadu,” in Caste: Its 40 Ibid., 249–50. Twentieth Century Avatar, ed. M.N. Srinivas, (New Delhi: Penguin, 1996) 110– 34. In this section of the essay, I draw substantively from the trajectory charted 41 B.R. Ambedkar, “Communal Deadlock and a Way to Solve it,” BAWS, vol. by Radhakrishnan. 1, 377. 47 Nanjappan is quoted by Radhakrishnan as saying that the vanniyars 42 Ambedkar elaborated his thesis with reference to the Central Assembly that constitute 6.3 percent of the population of the Madras Presidency. Later in was functional then. In this, he said the Hindus, who comprised 54.68 percent his essay Radhakrishnan says ‘vanniyars account for 12 percent of the state’s of the population, must have only 40 percent representation; the Muslims, population,’ (125). The incomplete 1931 Census being the only source of data who comprised 28.5 percent, should have a representation of 32 percent; the for the share of various castes in the population, empirical data on the strength Scheduled Castes, who formed 28.5 percent of the population, must have 32 of nondalit castes now is a matter of conjectured projections. The thevars, percent; Christians, who formed 1.16 percent, should have 3 percent; and the concentrated in the southern districts, claim to constitute 6 percent of the Sikhs, who formed 1.49 percent, should have a 4 percent representation. See overall state population. “Communal Deadlock,” ibid., 369. 48 Prior to that the two leaders put up vanniyar candidates as independents 43 In 1914, Natesan Mudaliar, then a medical student in Madras, founded in the 1949 elections to the district board in South Arcot district, winning the Dravidian Home, a hostel for nonbrahmin students. The home functioned twenty-two of the fifty-two seats, defeating many Congress candidates. for only two years, but it was during this time that Mudaliar founded the Dravidian Association with the purpose of advancing nonbrahmin political 49 The vanniyars demonstrated their political muscle but successive Congress power through ‘Dravidian uplift’. The Rajah of Panagal was elected president governments bypassed their demand for reservation in jobs and the legislature. of the association, Dr T.M. the vice-president and Mudaliar was the 50 The Vanniyar Sangam was constituted in 1980 and evolved into the Paattali secretary. See Robert L. Hardgrave Jr., The Dravidian Movement (Bombay: Makkal Katchi (PMK) under the leadership of S. Ramadoss, a medical doctor. Popular Prakashan, 1965), 12. Today, the PMK wields tremendous influence in the vanniyar belt—the 44 For sympathetic histories of the nonbrahmin movement, see Geetha and northern districts of the state. In 1987, they staged a weeklong roadblock to Rajadurai, Towards a Non-Brahmin Millennium; and E. Sa. Visswanathan, The demand 20 percent reservation for vanniyars. During this struggle they torched Political Career of E.V. Ramasami Naicker: A Study in the Politics of Tamil Nadu, more than a thousand dalit homes. The agitation and its success led to the 1920–1949 (Madras: Ravi and Vasanth Publishers, 1983). subsequent political consolidation of the vanniyars. 45 Though the nonbrahmin movement’s primary demand was proportional 51 Maravars are a subcaste of the thevar community. The kallar, and representation for nonbrahmins in ministries and government jobs, the agamudaiyar together constitute ‘muk-kula-thor’ meaning ‘those of the three category ‘nonbrahmin’ excluded the dalits, designated then as Depressed castes’; they are also collectively referred to as thevars. Classified as a ‘criminal Classes (adi dravidars). The tables provided in E. Sa. Visswanathan’s book are tribe’ by the British, they were denotified from this list in 1949 and were later proof of the glaring under-representation of dalits. In the three legislative listed as a Backward Class. They are today designated a Most Backward Class councils between 1920 and 1926, the nonbrahmins constituted 57 percent of in state parlance. the councils. While in the 1920 council comprising ninety-eight members, 52 For an analysis of how caste/dalit issues figure in the print media, see fifty-seven nonbrahmins and seventeen brahmins were elected, there was not S. Anand, “Covering Caste: Visible Dalit, Invisible Brahman.” (forthcoming, one elected member from the Depressed Classes. The non-election of the New Delhi: Sage). Depressed Classes continued till 1926, the little representation they had 53 Aijaz Ahmad, ed., Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: On the National and Colonial coming only through nominations and ex-officio memberships. A similar Questions, Selected Writings (New Delhi: LeftWord, 2001), 20. trend can be seen in the elections to district boards and municipal councils. 54 Ramamurthy was cited earlier recounting his experience in a para-cheri; In 1922, while 486 nonbrahmins and 132 brahmins were elected to district see p. xv and note 18. boards, only one dalit was elected; in 1927, the nonbrahmins improved their tally to 545, the number of brahmins came down to seventy-eight, but the 55 Dinakaran, Mudukulathur Kalavaram (Madurai: Dinakaran Noolagam, 1957). dalits had only two elected members. See Visswanathan, Political Career of E.V. Dinakaran, a journalist, reconstructs this incident in his book, published in Ramasami Naicker, 124–25. the year of the riots. The author, a thevar himself, published the work on his xxxviii DALITS IN DRAVIDIAN LAND own, exposing the role of the thevar community, especially Muthuramalinga Thevar, during the riots. The thevars killed Dinakaran in 1958. 56 Ibid., 56. Taken to task 57 Ibid., 61. 58 The Communist Party was then an ally of the DMK. 59 See Thirumavalavan, Talisman: Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation (Kolkata: A judicial commission finds the Special Task Force Samya, 2003), especially “Must Venmani be Fenced?,” 169–74. guilty of rape and torture of tribals Thirumavalavan is the leader of the Viduthalai Siruthaigal (also known as the of India), a party that has a significant presence among dalits in the northern districts of Tamil Nadu. For a brief account of what happened in Kilvenmani, see note 5 on p. 29 of Dalits in Dravidian Land. 11 August 1995 60 The 1999 elections saw a three-cornered fight in most of Tamil Nadu. While the ruling DMK, PMK, MDMK and BJP formed an alliance, the AIADMK, THE Jayalalitha government is at the receiving end once again. The Congress, CPI and CPI(M) formed the second opposition front. Having no latest in a series of judicial strictures the administration and its alternative, the G.K. Moopanar-led Tamil Maanila Congress allied with the police force have received has come from a commission that probed dalit parties, Puthiya Tamizhagam and Dalit Panthers of India. Until the election, the left had aligned with PT on various issues, including the Manjolai police atrocities in a tribal village. Constituted in August 1994 to tea estate workers’ struggle that led to the Thamiraparani massacre (p. 123– inquire into the alleged rape and torture of tribals by policemen at 129). The silence of the left parties following the Chidambaram violence Chinnampathi near Coimbatore on 11 and 12 June, the Banumathi (p. 144–149) owed merely to their alliance with the AIADMK at that point. In Commission has found the allegations to be true and has come the May 2004 Lok Sabha election, the left parties found it convenient to shift down heavily on the district civil and police administration and a their allegiance to the DMK-led front. The denial of ticket to dalit parties in ruling party MLA for their cover-up attempt. It has indicted the the grand alliance did not invite any rebuke from the CPI and CPI(M) (see “Political Untouchability,” p. 296–302). For a detailed account of the violence Special Task Force (STF) of the Tamil Nadu police, which has been during the Chidambaram election and the role of the left, see Ravikumar, hunting for sandalwood smuggler Veerappan in the forests on the Vanmurai Jananayagam (Pondicherry: Dalit, 2004). border with Karnataka, for the rape of two women and the torture 61 Human Rights Watch, Broken People: Caste Violence against India’s of seven tribals.1 It has recommended a compensation of Rs 2 lakh “Untouchables” (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999). each to the rape victims and Rs 10,000 each to the tortured. 62 Broken People, 82. The incident took place on 11–12 June, when STF personnel 63 In Arunkulam, five thevars were killed and eighty-three thevar houses were descended on the tribal village, 30 km from the district headquarters burnt, whereas only twenty-four pallar houses were burnt. See Dinakaran, town of Coimbatore, as part of what they described as combing Mudukulathur Kalavaram, 47. operations. They searched every house, allegedly tortured the men 64 Notable among them are Dalit Murasu, Thaimann, Pudhiya Kodangi and and subjected the villagers to all sorts of humiliation under the Makkal Kalam. pretext of looking for Veerappan. The traumatic experience was 65 See note 38. recounted by a villager thus (as reported in a Tamil weekly): “A lot 66 Keorapetse Kgositsile, “Mandela’s Sermon,” in Poems of Black Africa, Wole of wild animals frequent the village, but they do us no harm. But Soyika, ed., (London: Heinemann, 1975), 204. The poem, all of six lines, ends: False killed the poet in me. Now/ I dig graves/ With artistic precision. the uniformed men, on the pretext of hunting for Veerappan, behaved like animals; they molested our women. Wild animals are really far better... .” It was during this operation that the two women were allegedly raped.