Yet Another Day, Yet Another Murder

 Two stories of violence shook Tamil Nadu in the last week. 

The first incident happened in the Thoothukudi district, where a newly married couple was hacked to death, just 3 days after their wedding, by the girl’s parents. The father of the girl hired mercenaries to kill the couple who eloped to get married.  

The second incident happened in the Tirunelveli district where 2 men from the scheduled caste community were attacked by a bunch of men from an intermediary caste after knowing that they were from a nearby Dalit hamlet. These men attacked them with weapons, stripped them, and urinated on them. 

This is the same Tirunelveli district that saw the gruesome attack on two school-going Dalit kids a few months back. 

While both the recent incidents, the murder of the newlywed and the assault of 2 Dalit men are seen as caste violence, only one of them is caste violence. The newlywed were from the same community and the only problem there was class difference. 

Both these cases make it clear yet again that oppressors, be it of caste or class, would do anything to reassert a certain social dominance. They will remain dominant only if the oppressed people exist and to make sure that happens, violence is inflicted. Gruesome, insulting, violence. 

But caste violence involves the gruesome insulting part more. Caste violence oftentimes involve assault not just by punching and hitting, but by slapping across the face a lot. A punch intends to hurt, but a slap aims to insult. The attackers switch to weapons after that. The next step would be, doesn’t matter if the victim is a man or woman, stripping them naked. It's not just about their dress, it’s their dignity that is being disrobed. The next move would be invading them, some form of sexual assault, and this happens almost all the time with women. Later they’ll be stripped of any residual emotions, such as anger or anguish, by smearing feces or urinating on them or something even worse.

The aim of the oppressor in caste violence is to make the victim feel absolutely powerless, tearing off anything that would make them feel like walking, talking, and living human beings. And it is not just about those one or two victims, it is a warning to the rest of the community. 

Though the seeds of caste, which has its roots in the varna system, were sown by Brahmins, violence to maintain it is exercised by the intermediary castes. Intermediary castes are not among the highest of castes, but they are the most powerful and influential castes, economically, socially, and politically.

This detour to touch upon this idea would make sense when we dive more into the reason behind the existence, or the thriving of caste atrocities in a state like Tamil Nadu which was founded on the strong undergirding of social reformation. 

Anyone who knows Tamil Nadu knows about Periyar and Dravidianism, and thanks to Sanatana Dharma issue, now more than ever, North India too knows quite a bit about Tamil socio-political structure. They might have their qualms about the state, but one thing we can be sure of is that this state is absolutely anti-caste. The way Tamil Nadu is projected too is as a state that is progressive, working-class oriented, and works entirely focused on the upliftment of the oppressed. 

And to an extent, that is true. The state has a history of implementing progressive policies and schemes that were first of its kind, from free lunch to government school kids to providing benefits for couples of intercaste marriages, these are just some of the many socially progressive steps. The strong anti-caste movement led to a major chunk of Tamils dropping their caste surnames. 

While there are plenty of progressive moves from the state it is hard not to see the eerie darkness that engulfes the state frequently. Caste atrocities are still a reality. While Sanatana dharma is seen as a problem even while Brahmins don’t dictate things in the state as much as they did decades ago, the fact that most of the direct violence inflicted on Dalits and Adhivasis are by the intermediate caste remains. 

So why such a progressive state has not been able to do anything about this? 

Professor Stalin Ranajangam, author and Dalit activist, distinguishes ideology and party. He differentiates the Dravidian party and Dravidian ideology. According to him, The revolutionary history of the Dravidian movement is being used to sell the current Dravidian party. (Byte)

Moreover, he also points towards a lack of long-term studies or analysis of the schemes that were implemented for the upliftment of the oppressed. Mr. Rajangam draws an example from the government’s move to create a village called Samathuvapuram, also called Equality village. 

Samathuvapuram, officially known as Periyar Ninaivu Samathuvapuram (Periyar Memorial Equality Village), is a social equality initiative by the Government of Tamil Nadu. It aims to enhance social harmony and diminish caste-based discrimination. The scheme involves the construction of villages consisting of 100 houses each, accommodating individuals from diverse castes. These villages include a community hall and a burial ground, shared by all residents. This initiative is named in honor of the renowned social reformer Periyar E. V. Ramasamy.

Though this is a wonderful initiative, the lack of proper implementation, follow-up, and research to study the changes or differences makes such schemes appear futile. Samathuvapuram residents have complained about casteism and many forms within this equality village.  Corruption and lethargy of the government officials are pointed out as reasons for this situation. (Data will be from ‘Evidence’ Kathir)

But what many activists claim to be a larger problem is the existence of a power belt that wields the authority to implement such social welfare schemes to its full extent. This power belt happens to be dominated by strong intermediary castes who are actually accused of being the perpetrators of violence against Dalits in most cases of atrocities against SCs and STs. 

The obvious follow-up question of why this hasn’t been fixed by the Dravidian government can be easily answered by looking at the vote bank politics of the state, which revolves to a great extent around caste votes. And the major player in this is the intermediary castes. 

While the Dravidian movement was seen as a movement for the oppressed community, it was also a movement led by the non-Brahmins. And the strong non-Brahmins crowd involved members of intermediary castes. This is why, despite taking Brahmins out of the picture, casteism exists in all its glory in the Dravidian state. And the Dravidian parties are very much aware of such existence. 

Dravidian parties wouldn’t do much to fix this since the intermediary castes, the powerful ones, makeup about 70% of the population. They are a major vote bank. 

Stalin Rajangam even mentions that the evolution of Dalit politics in recent times has led increase in identity politics that aims at self-preservation. And in certain cases, there seems to have been a sense of acceptance among the Dalits. There even exists a group that pushes for what one might call a Dalit Separatism. So even within the Dait community there now exists several factions, much more than what used to be the case. 

Intermediary castes love their power, and even though there is serious casteism within the intermediary castes, they all unite when it comes to acting against the interests of Dalits. 

Moreover, some experts think that Tamil Nadu’s focus on the economy, with all efforts to boost the IT, service, and now manufacturing sectors, the efforts to follow through with the social welfare schemes seem to have taken the back seat. Social welfare schemes seem to exist for the sake of existing. 

Criticising Sanatana, while such widespread casteism within the parties exists, appears to be just a gimmicky attempt at banking on the Dravidian ideology’s old reputation. 

Tamil Nadu, while it continues to cater to the pride and power of the intermediary castes, would never be able to break out of casteism chains. 

(interview Bytes will be added with context : Advocate Vanchinathan, “Evidence’ Kathir and Prof Stalin Rajangam) 

(extra answers in bytes: Why do intermediaries go to such extents to attack Dalits? Why are Dalits hated so much? What has changed after social upliftment schemes? Is there a solution? Why is there a lack term research on solutions already implemented in Tamil Nadu?)