DALIT ASSERTION IN TAMIL NADU:AN EXPLORATORY NOTE

M S S Pandian

Tlte politicul biogrtrpll of Tanil Nadu elurittg the 1990s vt,as nwrkecl bt, inc.reasing cctstet'ttttflicts hetv'eett llte bucku'ard cctstes and the Dalits. In the northern districts of ttte snte, tttebackv'ard cu{c Thevars und the Devendra Kula Vellalctt's ,tiere the ket, players in siclt conflicts. Inthe nctrthern di:;tric'ts, the cotlflict was b1, cmd large, betyveen the nxtst' batckward caste Vlrtttiyarsund the Pura|urs. Tlrc changing churctcteristics of these conflicts point to the fact ,trot tli, io,rii,oracastes du tt()t 1tt| ktnger e-rercise ideological he gennnt' r.tver the batits itt Taiit Nadu turd the\, ltaveto afrirnt their uftlutritt'through cloninonce nreclicfted gl,r,iolence. Aguin.tt this backgrouria, ,n,prese,tl note is cttr e-rplorotot'\: uuentpt to rnderstand the conditiotts that nwde this chai'ge possiblein contentporttry Ttmtil Nadu.

I . Int roduct ion

The polit ical biography of Tamil Nadu duringthe 1990s was distincrly marked by escalatingcaste conflicts bctween the backward castes andthe Dalits. In rhe northern clistricts of the state,which wi tncsscd a lmost conl inuous castc con_flicts durin_tr this period, the backwarcl casteThevarsr and rhc Dcvendra Kula Vcllalars(herealicr Devenclrars): wcre the key players. Inthc northern districts, the conil ict was, by andlurgc. betwccn thc tnost hackward castc Vanni-yars and the Parayars.r While the increasing scaleof casre v io lence in Talnr l Nadu in rcccni t imeshas been wcll acknowlcdgcd, rvhat is of impor-tance ts t l re chan-uing character is t ics of th is v io_lcncc.

Fi rs t of 'a l l the t inre taken to br ing peace insituations ol'caste conflict has been progressivelyincreasing in Tanril Nadu. The caste violencebetween thc

-fhcvar.s and Dcvendrars in Rama-

nathapuram in l94ll subsided in five days. Thecaste v io lcncc betwccn the nr in \957 inMuthukulathur rook l5 days ro subsidc. The l9g9Bodi riots -once again, between these two castes- continued for 23 days. The caste violence insouthern l 'arl i l Nadu during 1985-116 continuccltbr nine ntonths. Second, in earlicr confl icts. itwas nrostly the Dalits who lost thcir l ives andproperty. For insrance during the Muthukulathurr io ts . l7 Devendrars lost thc i r l ives, whi le , on theside of thc l 'hcvars thcre were only sevcn deathsWhile 2.7-l-5 houscs of thc Devcnclrars wereciestroyed during the rrot the corresponding figure

for the Thevars was a minimal 107. But in recenrcaste riots, both the tally ofdeaths and thc loss ofpropcrty are more or less evenly distributedbetween the two castes." Finaily. losal casteconflicts do not rcmain any lon_eer as local. Thcvqurck ly sprcad to t l thcr parrs und cngul l ' a largearea. Such lar-re-scalc ter-ritorial mobil isation waspossib le only lbr the castc Hindus in the past-Now. i t t s cqua l l y poss ib l t ' l o r t l r c D . r l t s l s wc l lIPandian, 1997] . Whi lc thcse new character is t icsare particularly true ol'caste conflicts in northcrnTamil Nadu, castc conflicts in southcrn TanrilNadu too arc slowly acquiring thern.

In short. thc backward castes do nr)r any longcrexcrcisc ideological hcgcn-rony ovcr thc Dalirs inTamilNadu and they havc to al ' l ' irrn thcir authoritythrough dominancc mcdiarcc l hy v i t , lcncr- [Kan-nan, 20001. Against this backgrounil. the prcscnrnote is an exploratory attcmpt to undcrstand thccondi t ions which rnade th is changc possib lc incontemporary Tamil Nadu. This notc is dividcdinto s ix sect ions. Sect ion I I out l ines rhc changingconfiguration ol power anong the castcs whichare involved in conflicts in Tamil Nailu. Sectionil l r lctails forms of Dalit asscrtion in south anilnorth l 'anrilNadu. Scction IV providcs an accounrof the rcsponses of lhe statc to thc ncwly e mergingassertion of the Dalits, Section V analyscs tlrccon(emporary history ot' autonor.uous Dalitmobi l isat ion in the statc. Thc last scct ion br insstogether somc of the hroad issucs cnrcrging l iomthc d iscussion in thc ear l ier -scct lons.

M S s Pandian is Professor in Matlras Insrrtutc of Deveroprnent studies, chcnnar - 600 020

502

II. ASYMMETRICAL POWER ACROSS CASTES

I will begin my account of the changingconfiguration of power between the castes inTamil Nadu with the changes witnessed by theDevendrars in recent years. The most remarkableadvancement of the Devendrars during the pastthree decades, has been in the domain of formaleducation. A recent study of the Muthukulathurregion in Ramanathapuram district which wit-nessed the worst caste riots between the Thevarsand the Devendrars in I 957 bears this out. Perayurwhich is located in Kamudi Panchayat Union, isa Devendrar village with 400 households. Thevillage has I I 0 graduates including three doctors,seven engineers, five lawyers, one Indian PoliceServicc official, one Indian Revenue Serviceofficial and three doctorate-holders. Veerambal.which is located in Kadalady Panchayat Union,has 200 Devendrar households. It has 66 gradu-ates including two doctors, three engineers andone lawyer. Keelakannicheri of MuthukulathurPanchayat Union has I 20 Devendrar households.This vil lage has 27 graduates including l0 engi-neers. Kalaiyur which is located in ParamakudiPanchayat Union, has about 300 Devendrarhouseholds. It has 24 graduates including twodoctors. three engineers and two lawyers [Shan-mugabharati, 1993, Pp. 103-041. While thesevillages may not be representative of theeducational condition ofthe Devendrars in southTamil Nadu. they at least give us an idea aboutwhat has becn at the most, possible for themduring the past few decades.

Along with such educational advancementwhich has found them jobs in the governmentsector through the reservation policy and armedthem with a new cultural capital,s they have alsostrengthened their rather limited economic baseby acquiring land entering trading and migratingto West Asian and other countries: 'In the townsof Paramakudi. Muthukulathur and Ramanatha-puram the Devendrars have entered trading bysetting up commission shops for agriculturalproducts etc. Apart from agriculture, they havealso turned their attention to non-agriculturalpursuits... Migration to Gulf countries. Malaysia

JOURNAL OF INDIAN SCHOOL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY JUI,Y-DEC.2MO

and Singapore has helped them to progress fasteconomically. All these developments have takenplace during the past l5 years (1977-1992). Thishas led to a sharp decline in the Devendraragricultural labourers' [Ibid: 107]. In their newrole as landholders, small traders and employeesin non-farm sector, a section of the Devendrarshas freed themselves from the everyday oppres-sion of agricultural employment in Thevar-ownedfarms.

However, this advancement of the Devendrarsin the material domain was not matched by thesocial status accorded to them by the caste Hin-dus, in particular the Thevars in south TamilNadu.6 In many places. untouchabil ity of variedforms is practised. These range from the day-to-day practice of keeping separate glasses tbr theDevendrars in local tea shops to their exclusionfrom temple honours in local festivals (see sectionIII of this paper). As an illustration, let us rake alook at the practice of serving tca in separareglasses. In Thirunelveli district alone, a surveyhas recently found, the practice is found in I 34vil lages.T In addition, we also have cases grosssexual exploitation of Dalit women by the The-vars in south Tamil Nadu vil lages IShanta, | 984,Pp .182 -831 .

In contrast, substantial sections of the Thevarswho are a major land-owning caste in south TamilNadu continue to remain as small and marginalfarmers and as agricultural labourers. In otherwords, their economic condition is not substan-tially different from that of the bulk of theDevendrars. This is particularly so after thegradual material advancement of the latter. Sig-nificantly. Thevars have not taken to education asa means of economic and social advancement.Comparing the educational status of the Deven-drars and the Thevars in Muthukulathur region, ithas been observed. Among the Maravars there arethose who have gained higher education. Theyalso occupy high posts. [But] in the regionaffected by Muthukulathur riots, there is a highernumber of Devendrars who are educated com-pared to the Maravars [Thevars]. Devendrarshave made good use of the educational

voL. t2 No.3&4

concessions such as stipends and free hostels. Thecaste pride of the Maravars is a reason for theirindifference towards education. Lack of educa-tional concessions to Maravars in comparison tothe Devendrars is another reason for theirindifference towards education' IShanmugabha-rati, 1993, p. 1051. The economic and educationalattainments of the Thevars remain rathermarginalwhen compared to other backward castes in theregion l ike the Nadars.

Thevars treat their marginality in the materialdomain as an outcome of the state policy of specialassistance to the Dalits. Describing the Thevars'response to the caste clashes that took placebetween them and the Devendrars in Bodi in1989, Ganeshram [989, p.2,641] notes, 'They

[Thevars] say, the government is giving too maniconcessions and privileges to the Harijans in allf ields, particularly education and employment.One engineering student of the non-Harijancommunity said that the reservation policy for theHarijans deprived caste Hindus of education andemployment opportunity... They complain thatthey have been made victims of polit ics anddescribed the Harijans as the pampered commu-n i t y . . . '

Despitc their relative stagnation in the materialdomain. the Thevars carry the self-image of amartial community which was supposed to haveonce ruled the Tamil country. In this context. it isimportant to note that they never assimilatedthemselves as part of the broad non'Brahminpolit ical collectivity in Tamil Nadu but organisedthemselves separately on the basis of their distinctcaste identity. During the early years of Inde-pendence, they were mobilised as a caste groupby U Muthuramaling Thevar, a controversialnationalist and a Thevar caste leader whocombined his nationalism with Hindu spirituality.Both Under Muthuramalinga Thevar and after hisdeath, Thevars remained loyal to different fac-tions of the Forward Block which has been andsti l l is an exclusive party ofthe Thevars.

DALIT ASSERTION IN TAMIL NADU 503

The asymmetry between the condition of theThevars in the material domain and their castepride got accentuated during the 1990s with thedeliberate interventions of the All India AnnaDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) gov-ernment. J. Jayalalitha in an effort to gain theThevar votes to her party, symbolically affirmedthe so,called caste superiority of the Thevars byofficially canonising Muthuramalinga Thevar. In1993 the Tamil Nadu government announced thebirth and death anniversaries of MuthuramalingaThevar (Thevar Guru Puja) which fell on October30 as a state function. In 1994, unveiling a statueof Thevar in Madras, Jayalalitha made a series ofannouncements appealing to the Thevar castepride. She named a main road in Madras afterMuthuramalinga Thevar; appointed a specialofficer to manage the Muthuramalinga ThevarTrust: opened a centre at Madurai Kamaraj uni-versity to conduct research on Thevar; and offi-cially unified the sub-castes o1'Kallar. Maravar.Agamudaiyar under the single caste name ofThevar. In addition, Thevar's house in Pasumponvil lage was taken over by the government andconverted into a state memorial."

Following this canonisation of Muthuramal-inga Thevar by the AIADMK government,Pasumpon village has become almost apilgrimage site for leaders of all political partieson October 30 every year.o Ignoring the functionat Pasumpon gets read as a slight to the Thevars.The occasion of Thevar Guru Puja is utilised bydifferent Thevar caste associations and politicaloutfits to display their strength and caste pride inthe public. Thevar militancy on the occasion canbe gauged from the following report outlining thesecurity arrangements made by the police for theGuru Puja of 1998:

...amassive flag march, which involved nearly5000 security personnel and I 20 vehicles, wastaken out... to instil confidence among thepeople in Ramanathapuram district. The con-voy, which started from Rameswaram mean-dered through Mandapam. Uchipuli,Ramanathapuram, Chatrakudi, Paramakudi,

JOURNAL OF INDIAN SCHOOL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY .IUI,Y.DEC.2OOO

Parthibanur and culminated at Kamudhi in theevening. The 120 km flag march was led bythe DIG. Ramanathapuram Range....

The DGP. after carrying out an aerial surveyof sensitive areas of Kamudhi, Parthibanur.Sivagangai, Aruppukottai and Pasumpon froma state helicopter, met the reporters... to detailabout the massive security arrangements..." '

The AIADMK government also resurrected otherThevar caste heroes from the past. For instance,it erected in Thirupattur a memorial column inI 994 {br Marurhu brothers, who foueht the Brit ishand were hanged."

In sumrning up the changed situation of powerbetween the castes in south Tamil Nadu, we maynote that thc section of the Devendrars who havegained over the years in terms of materialentit lements, arc in the threshold of seeking socialequality. The Thevars who have relatively stag-nated in gaining and augmenting materialcntit lements, ale armed with a heightened senseof caste pridc to establish their difference andsuper ior i ty .

Lct us now turn to north Tamil Nadu. As wehave notcd earlicr, the castes that are involved incastc conll icts hcre are the Vanniyars and theParayars. A detailcd study of the economic con-dition ol' thc Vanniyars in norrhern districts of'Ianrilnadu

bascd on secondary data and Censusvil lage resurveys shows that though there issubstantial improvement in their material status.it is unevenly distributed. As the study concludes,'...there is a considerable improvement in thccondi t ions o l 'Vanniyars. However, i t seems onlya particular scction among the Vanniyars hasbencfited out of these developments whereas amajority olthem sti l l remain as marginal farmers,agricultural labourers, handloom weavers, etc.Vanniyars rvho are pushed out of rhe vil lages alsowork as head-load workcrs, rickshaw pullers, etc.,in nearby towns' [Vidyasagar, 1988, p. 509]. Thisfact is bornc out by other studics as well A rccentstudy of a Vanniyar-dominated vil lage in SouthArcot district lound that ... i t is not only that most

ofthe landowners are Vanniars in Pcruna but theyare also highly differentiated internally While allthe big farmers and most of the medium farmersare Vanniars, the largest proportion of small andmarginal farmers too are drawn from this caste'.Also the Vanniyars in this vil lage constituted theIargest segment among the landless householdslLazar, 1997, p. 1471. Similarly, a study of theVanniyar offensive on the Dalits in Vil lupuramtown in South Arcot district on 25 July 1978,which left behind at least l2 Dalits dead includinsa boy o[ 12. has clearly brought our rhar the bulIof the Vanniyars are not different lrom theparayars in their economic status.rl

Despite their poor economic status, the Van-niyar like the Thevars, take great pride in theircaste identity. If they claimed themselves tcl beKshatriyas during the early decadcs of the 20,hcentury, they organised thenrselves into caste-based parties in the 1950s [Rudolph and Rudolph.1967. Pp. 49-611. Though Commonwcal parryand Tamilnad Toilers Party did nor survrve forlong their very presence points to the fact ofVanniyars' refusal to be part of the non-Brahmrncollectivity. In the 1980s, the Vanniyars onceagain polit ically organised themselves as a castegroup. Their well known agitation, seeking 20 percent exclusive reservation in the state services and2 per cent reservation in the central services.halted thc entire road trafl lc in north Tamil Nadufor a l 'ul l week in September 1987. Subseque nrly.Vanniyar Sangam was transformed into a full-l ledged Vanniyar polit ical party. Pattali MakkalKatchi (PMK).

The Parayars of north Tamil Nadu are pri-marily landless agricultural labourers or smalland marginal farmers [Anandhi, 2000, Pp. l6-201.In this regard, they share the very same economiccondition as that of poor Vanniyars who consti-tute the bulk of the members of that caste. Despitetheir economic marginality there has beenincreased polit ical activity among the parayarsduring the 1990s. The heightened consciousnessof the Parayars was facilitated by the Ambedkarbirth centenary celebrations.

VOL. l2 t\"O. 3&1

The unprecedented scale in which BabasahebAmbedkar's birth centenary was celebrated inTamilnadu is a key moment in both height-ening and redefining Dalit consciousness inthe srare. The celebrations witnessed theinstallation of thousands of Ambedkar statuesoften organised and financed by small-scalelocal efibrts. and the circulation of hundredsof low-priced pamphlets including the trans-lations ol' Ambedkar's own writ ings. Alsotherc was a proliferation of local-leve.organisations named afier AmbedkarIAnandhi . 2000, p. 4 l ] .

This is partrcularly true in north Tamil Nadu (lbid:4 l n l . '

Thus. in north Tamil Nadu we find substantialsections of the Vanniyars and most of the Parayarsto be sharing the same poor economic condition.While the Vanniyars continue to employ theircaste identity as a way of asserting thcir power inthe overall situation of their marginality in thematerial domain, the Parayars too have in therecent t imes come to question their position asuntouchables^

III F'ORNIS OT'DALIT ASSERTION

With these changes in the configuration ofcaste relations both in north and south Tamil Naduthe Dalits' self-assertion and search for equalityhas takcn varicd lorms. In mapping out theseforms,let us first have a look at north Tamil Nadu.

The Dcvendrars, self-assertion functions bothat sacred and secular domains. During the 1990s,south Tamil Nadu witnessed an increasing num-ber oI cascs ol thern seeking honours equal to theThcvars in local temple f 'estivals. In 199 LDcvcndrars ol 'Cakkur and Anjavayal ol ' Siva-gangai taluk l if ' tcd the ceremonial rope of thetemple car duling the vil lage lestival which wasrcservcd l irr

-fhcvar headmen. This was objected

to by the high castes in the vil la,se. In response,the Dcvendrars withdrew their scrvices to the-Ihevars

such as irrigating their l ields by drstrib-uting watcr lhrm the local tank, grave digging and

DALIT ASSERTION IN TAMIL NADU 505

services during weddings and festivals. Theboycott continued for three years. In anothervillage in the same region. the Deven<lrarsascended the festival stage and sought 'si lk scarfhonours' normally reserved fbr Thevar headmen^This event too, resulted in the Devendrars wtth-drawing their services to the Thevars as warerdistributors fiom the local tank IMosse, 1997 , Pp.30-3 l l .

Seeking equal honours in tcmple f 'estivals byDevendrars has often lead to caste tension andviolence. After a gap of thirteen years. in 1979,the Thevars ofUnjanai vil lage decided to conductthe annual festival at the locai Kalani PariyaAyyanar temple . The festivai was to be conductedon the 4'r' and 5th of June that year. Devendrarsstaked their claim to conduct the festival in theirlocality on the same day. With the intervention ofthe revenue authorit ies, it was agreed that afterthc T'hevars had conclude thcir festival on 5'r 'Juncthe Devendrars could conduct their own festival.They made all arrangements to conduct thc fes-t iva l on 9 'h July . But on 28 ' r 'June, thc Thevars ina planned attack kil led Ilve Devendrars ISamugaSinthanai Seyal Ayyvu Mayyam. nd: Pp. l -5- i6 lln 1997, the Kovilpatti town witnessed ciashesbetween Devendrars on the one side an<J theKammavars on the othcr, over temple honours.All the importantcastes in the Kovilpatti rown burfbr the Devendrars were granted the honour of'conducting a day's festival during the elcvcn dayChitirai f 'estival in the Shenbagavall i Ammantemple. The Dcvendrars who had been dcmand-ing that they should be allowed to conduct thetemple festival on the ninth day which wasallotted to the Kammavars went on a protest laslin 1997. As a tcrnporary arrangement, they wercallotted two hours in thc ni-ght ol 'thc nrnth day toconduct their ceremonics. Enthusiastic Deven-drars pasted postcrs announcing the 'Dcvendra

Kula Vellala Temple Car Festival'. When theyhowever, l i i ted the ceremonial ropc at theinstruction of the district collector,. Kammavaryouth. aidcd by the policcnrcn and the Thevarsattacked the Devendrars with stones and othermrssiles. The Kammavars took over the null ins

JOURNAL OF INDIAN SCHOOL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY506

of the temple car. In retaliation, the Devendraryouths attacked the factories. of the Kammavarsin the outskirts of the town [People's Union forCivil Liberties, 1997, Pp.294-99l.In the samevein, for the past three years, car festival olSwarnamurthy Iswarar temple in Kandanthevivillage has been suspended because of conflictover temple honours.'u

As much as the refusal of honours in templefestivals, there are other means by which theThevars assert their power over the Devendrars.It was and to some degree is, even now, a practicein the Thevar-dominated villages that theDevendrars should play songs praising Muthu-ramalinga Thevar during household and com-munity tu'nctions. Devendrars are refusing nowto accept this flat of the Thevars in many parts ofsouth Tamil Nadu. For instance, playing of songsin praise of Ambedkar and John Pandian, aDevendrar leader, over the public address systemduring a marriage, was the immediate reason forthe Thevars attacking the Devendrars in KeelaAppanur vil lage. In the clashes, one was kil ledand about 700 Devcndrars were-forced to desertthe vil lage for weeks.r5

The self'-assertion of the Devendrars in thesecular domain primarily takes the form ofseeking public acknowledgement of them asequals. This is usually sought by asking the stateto mark public spaces after the"names of theirleaders. At once, this is a move to end themonopoly of recognition given to the caste Hinduleaders in the public sphere. In June 1996, Dr. KKrishnasamy, the president of the Devendra KulaVellalar Federation (DVKF), announced that onelakh post cards would be send to the ChiefMinister of Tamil Nadu asking him to name adistrict aficr a Devendrar leader such as ImmanuelSekaran or Veeran Sundaralingam.'o Whileimmanuel Sekaran an emerging leader of theDevendrars who challenged the authority ofMuthuramalingaThevar was murdered during the1957 Muthukulathur riots. Sundaralingam was alieutenant of Veerapandya Kattabomman, whoturned a human bomb and blasted the East India

JULY.DEC.2OOO

Company arsenal in an effort to save the Poligarfort at Panchalamkurich 200 years back. It maybe noted here, that though different districts inTamil Nadu carried the names of leadersbelonging to various castes such as Thevar(Muthuramalinga Thevar), Vanniyar (RamasamyPadaytchi). Nadar (K Kamaraj) and Brahmin (CRajagopalachari), none of the districts was namedafter a Dalit.

In fact, the DKVF has been asking the gov-ernment to name a district after ImmanuelSekaran for years.rT Instead in I 996, at the fag endof herperiod as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu,J Jayalalitha announced that a state-run transportcorporation would be named after Veeran Sun-daralingam.rE Afier much pressure fiom theDVKF the DMK government inaugurated theVeeran Sundaralingam Transport Corporation(VSTC) on I May 1997. As we shall see soon,this was a short-lived success for the Devendrars.

Similarly, the Devendrars seek publicacknowledgcment by means of erecting statuesof their leaders in public places. This is resentedby the Thevars and mutual statue breaking hasbecome a major source of caste conflicts in southTamil Nadu.

On 26 July 1995 a Muthuramalinga Thevarstatue was damaged in a clash between Thevarsand Devendrars at Veerasikamani, which in achain effect, led to much violence and loss of livesand properties in south Tamil Nadu. On 7November 1995, a hand-written poster abusive ofthe Thevars was found in the base of a Thevarstatue at Idaikaal near Thenkasi. ProtestingThevars obstructed traffic and attacked Deven-drarhouses. On I 8 November 1995, an Ambedkarstatue near Thenkasi was damaged. This lead toobstruction of traffic by Devendrars who alsoattacked the shops owned by the Thevars [Ma-halingam, 1996, Pp. 6-7,63,66, 89). On 2 March1996, a group of six people threw bombs at anddamaged a Muthuramalaing Thevar at Archana-puram village near Wathirayirupu. This led topicketing of buses in many places in the region

voL. t2 No.3&1

and the governrnent itself promised to reinstall anew statue. On 6 March, it was alleged, themembers o1'the DKVF, going in a procession inMadurai as part of their state conference, flung achappal at a Thevar statue. Thevars let looseviolence and public transport was completelyimmobilised in Madurai. They also washed thestatue with numerous pots of milk to cleans it of'pollution'. '" In April 1997, the damage done toa Muthuramalinga Thevar statue in Kandamanurin the Bodi region led to caste violence and thedeath of two in police firing. In September 1998the damagc done to a Thevar statue in Viruthu-nagar led to the death of two persons and thegovernment itself swiftly reinstalled a new statue.

The response ofthe Thevars to these assertionsby the Devcndrars takes several forms. First of allthey try during caste conflicts, to hit the Deven-drars economically. This flows from the aware-ness that it is their new-found materialentit lements, which has given them the space tocontest the authority of the Thevars. The noto-rious police rampage carried out in Kodiyanku-lam vil lage on 3l August 1995 at the instructionof Thevar oll icials, is a good instance of this.Kodiyankulam is a prosperous Devendrar vil lage.As a memorandum submitted to the Chairman ofthe Indian Human Rights Commission, by theDKVF notes. 'In.... Kodiyankulam village, about400 houses are there. Population will be around2300. Out of these, people from about I 00 housesare working in foreign countries, that is mostly in'Arab countries and with that income they startedconstructing small houses and purchasing somelorries, tractors and agricultural lands... '2r) Thepolice raid targeted exactly this material pros-perity of the Devendrars at Kodiyankulam. Theinventory of thc items damaged by the policemenduring the raid included televisions, videorecorders, tape recorders, sweing machines, airconditioners ctc. We may note here the policemenalso walked away with cash and jewellery worthseveral lakhs of rupees [Mahalingam, 1996, Pp.38-391. This tells us about the relative prosperity

DALIT ASSERTION IN TAMIL NADU

of the Devendrars in the village and how hittingthem economically was the motive of the policeraid.

Secondly, the Thevars resist rather violentlyany move to accord public status to the DevendraKula Vellalrs as equals. The fate of the VSTC isa case in point. As soon as the VSTC buses hit theroads on I May 1997, the Thevars began stoningthem and also refused to travel by them. Thingsgot complicated with the arrest of the Devendrarleader Krishnasamy: 'In the months following therenaming of the transport corporation and Dr.Krishnasamy's arrest, the districts of Theni,Madurai. Viruthunagar. Tirunelveli and Tuticorinwitnessed periodic eruption of violence andforced displacement of thousands of Dalits liomtheir homes. Police and district officials treatedthe situation as a law and order problgm, andunder the guise of seeking out Dalit mil itantactivists, conducted search and raid operationsexclusively on Dalit vi l lages' (Hurnan RightsWatch, 1999, p. 851. Under pressure from theThevars. Tamil Nadu cabinet decided on July1997 to drop the names of caste, community andother leaders given to transport corporations anddistricts. The cabinet decided to honour thoseleaders by creating 28 endowments, each with acorpus fund of Rs. 25 Lakhs in their names in l5universities in the state. The interest from the fundwas to be utilised to provide scholarships tomeritorious students.2' Thevars did not mind thenames of their leaders being dropped. but they didnot want a Devendrar leader's name to beinscribed in the public domain.

The response of the Thevars to the Devendrarserecting statues of their leaders in public placesis not different. As we have already seen, mutualstatue-breaking has become widespread in southTamil Nadu. In other contexts, the Thevars try topreempt the Devendrars from erecting statues.For instance, just prior to the Bodi riots in 1989a large number of statues of MuthuramalingaThevar were erected in various places in the Theniregion. This included several sites considered bythe Devendrars as potential places to erect

508 JOURNAL OF INDIAN SCHOOL OF POI'ITICAL ECONOMY JULY-DEC.2OOO

other things, came in the way of the Parayarsasserting themselves autonornously. However.their assertion has acquired certain interestingforms during the past decade. Significantly. they

are astutely combing the struggle tor land with

identity polit ics and self-assertion. During the

1990s, thc region witnessed what is popularly

known as the Panchama land strugglc. The singlepoint agcnda of the strugglg w.ts to t 'etrieve the

Depressed Classcs Conditional Lands or Pan-

chama lands granted to the Dalits by thc Brit ishat the turn of thc 20'n ccntury, and sutrsequcntiy

taken over by thc caste Hindus. Thc strug-eic

spanncd a large number ol ' vi l lages' lnvoived

thousands of Parayars and caught the national

attention.rr This was preccded by the Parayars

occupying and colonising statc-owned poranr-

boke lands in dif l 'erent parts ol 'the region facing

sti lf resistancc l iom thc caste Hindus IAnandhi'2000, Pp. 4t'43}.

What is significant about the land strugglcs of

the Parayars rn north Tamil Nadu. is ihc mannerrn rvhich they have combined it with Dalit con-

sciousness. As Anandhi [2000' Pp. b0-6 l i suttts

i t up:One ol' the rentarkablc l'caturcs ol thc prrrr-

chttni land agitation of thc 1990s". is that it

fusecl together the land question of'thc Dalits

and their identity polit ics at oncc. Thc instal-lation o1'an Anibedkar stlrtuc in thc piece ofpanchami land to be rctricved is a tell inginstance in this regard. ln fact. t lre removal ol 'the Ambedkar statues by the police had a

definite role in translating what began as alocal event in Karanai vil lage into i l statc-lcvcl

issue. If thc non-beneficiartcs olthc partcltanri

land grants throughout the stalc took part in

the movemgnt. one of the reasons is

undoubtedly the dishonour showered on the

Ambedkar statue.

Bcing starved of land and invested with a new

consciousness following the Ambedkar cente-

nary celebrations, the Parayars ol' north Tamil

Nadu have adopted this novel and rathcr cff'cctive

modc oI resistance and assertion.

Ambedkar statues [Periyar Ayyvu Mayam, 1989'p. 91. In Sivakasi town, which witnessed police

firing and death of three Thevar men in M ay 1997 .

they also demanded the removal of an Ambedkar

statue located in a Thevar-dominated locality.--

Thirdly, the Thevars using a conll ict situation,

try to reintroducc forms of untouchabil ity which

have gone out of practice locally. Let mc give

three instanccs as i l lustrations. On I Septernber

l9tl9. Panchavarnam, a 12 year old Parayar girl

whose father rvas rcsisting Thevar authority in

Alialaperi vil lage, was raped by aThevar. Against

lhe local custom. Gurusamy, the fatherof the girl,

loclged er complaint in Kaariapatti police station.'Ihe vil la-sc panchayat not only reproached

Gurusamy lirr going to the police, but also banned

the Parayars l 'rom wearing chappals and riding

bicycles.' l ' lrc Parayars, in turn' refused to carry

the dead bodies of animals and humans and to

announce deaths in Thevar households by beating

drums. The con{'l ict cost thc Parayars heavily.

Sections o1'them werc to migrate out of the vil lage

leavrng behrnd therr landed properties IDietrich'1992, Pp. 11-7t)1. Simi lar iy , dur ing the Bodir io ts

of 19t39. the -fhevars

threatcned the Devendrars

in Kalutrakkantuthu Thevanpatti, Kullappa

Kauvndarpatti and Narayana Thcvanpatti thitt

thcy should bchavc as they did in 'olden limcs' -

inc luding tak ing tca in the local tea shops in

scparate glasscs. Sinri lar threats were also issued

io thc Parayars ol Puthupatti vi l lage [PeriyarMayam. l9tt9, p. 291. During the casle clashes of

1997 rn south Tamrl Nadu, the Thevar youth o1'

Mamsapurant irnptlsed the l'iat that the Deven-drars should he scrved tea in coconut shells and

not in glasscs. Thevar-owned tea shops

promincntly displayed coconut shells IPeople'sUnir - rn lbr Civ i l L iber t ies, 1997, p.29l l .

In the nolthern districts of Tamil Nadu the

assertion ol'Parayars is recent and evolving' One

ol' the reasons l'or this delayed assertion by the

Parayars is that thc PMK in its init ial phase.

attempte d to forgc a broad front composed of the

Backward c.rstcs. the Dalits and the religious

rninorit ies. 'fhis

rhetoric of inclusivity among

v0L. J2 N0.3&1 DAI.IT ASSERTION IN TAMII, NADU 509

addressing the question of uneven distribution ol'sociai power. For instance, following the casteconll icts between the Vanniyars and the Parayarsin Karunkudy vil lage in KattumannrkoilTaluk inSouth Arcot district over drum beating. whichresulted in police fir ing in August 1985 whar thepolice administration could think of was a milkproducers co-operative. As a police report states.A nerv welfare scheme has been designed bystarting a 'Karungudy Milk Producers Co-operative Society Limited'.... with -50 members.35 from Adi-Dravidtrrs and l5 from other HindusFor the dairy fann, a big semi-permanent shed ata cost of Rs. 1.60000 is proposed along withbiogas piant, solar plant and a well with overheadtank. Land for the scheme has also been assignedto the Block Development Officer Kattuman-narkoil; i t is f 'elt that such wclfare schemes wil lbring together the opposing communities byinsti l l ing a spirit of brotherhood in workspot. Thescheme has been inaugurated on 27.3.86 by theDirector-Ceneral of Police. Madras at Cuddalo-re.to

Equally i l lustrative is the response ofthe stalcto the rnurder of six Parayars including the localpanchayat president and vice-president, arMelavalvu in 1997:'Fami l ics of the v ic t ims had been grantcd Rs 1.5lakhs each on behalf of the government aparl f 'ronrRs. 50,000 to be disbursed alier rhe case ro bedisposed of. An exclusive primary school at thecost of Rs. 2.5 lakhs for the benefit of the childrcnolthe vil lage was underconstruction. Ne w houseswere being built for the families ol 'the victimsand the vil lage provided with adequate srreerlighting. Work related ro the installatron of onedeep borewell had becn completed and work wasnearing completion for another. In response to arequest, orders had been issued for carrying outrepairs to 50 houses in the colony at the cclst of3. l l lakhs. A mi lk cooperat ive society lbr thebenefit of women in the colony had been set upand arrangements made to provide bank loans ofRs. 4,000 each to women to buy milch animals.2'

lV. RIISI'ONSES Ot'THE STATE

The response ol'the Tamil Nadu state to theself-assertion and thc ensuing conflict betweenthc Dalits and backward casl.es. is one of macrc,interventions from above. This takes the fbrm ofixpcnmcnt i . i r i i ln wr th thc rcservat ion system tosui t the changing s i tuat ion and crude cconomist icintervent ions in areas ofcaste conf l ic ts . In othcrwords, thc actual work ing out of uneven d is t r i -bution of sociai porvcr among different castcs,rcmains basically outside the donrain of stateintcrvent ion.

First. lct us lake thc case of'reservations. In197 I , the D)\' lK government increased the SOSTreservation to I 8 per ccnt against the A N Satta-nathan Committce's rccommendation of contin-u ing i t a t the prc-ex is t ing level of l6 per cent . Onthe other hand the Backward Caste reservationwas incrcasccl to 3 I per oent (from 25 per ccnt)though the Comrnittee recommendcd it to beincreased to 33 per cent . S imi lar ly in 1989 fo l -lowing the Vanniyar agi tat ion, the DMK gov-ernmenl rntroduccd compartmentalisedreservation b.v- sctting apart a substantral 20 percent ior thc most Lrackward and denotif ied com-nrunities tlut ol the overall Backward Caste res-crvatlon ol 50 pcr uent. The Vanniyars haveincrcased their adnrission to prol'essionai courscsl ' ivc- to s ix- tb ld I 'o l lowing the new system ofrcscrvation. In 1990 once again the DMK gov-ernnlent introduced the scheme of awarding fivebonus rnarks to applicants to professional courseswho had no graduatc in their family. While theschemc was struck down by the Madras HighCourt. it bcne-l ' i tcd the most the Dalits during itsonly year o i inrp lementat ion IPandian, 1994, p.222) . Whi lc these moves are sure ly meant tobenefit thc marginalized castes including theDalits thcy do not address the issue of everydayncgot iat ion o l 'powcr at local levels .

The top-down macro thinking of the state isalso evident in the nanner in which it respondsto caste conflicts. Its response has always beenonc of providing thc victims of caste conflictswith economic compensations, rather than

JOURNAI, OF INDIAN SCHOOL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY JULY-DEC. 2OOO

The other side of these top-down economisticinterventions is the refusal ofthe state to addressthe question of social power at local levels. Thiscomes out quite clearly from the dismal use of theProtection of Civil Rights Act (1955) and theScheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (pre-vention of Atrocities) Act ( 1989) in Tamil Nadu.Analysing the cases under the Protection of CivilRights Act for the year 1986, National Commis-sion for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribesfound that though Tamil Nadu had a crediblerecord of disposing of the cases registered underthe PCR Act the ner outcome did not favour theDalits. Over 90 per cent of such cases in the stateended up in acquittal.26 The situation has norrmproved over the years. As a recent report notes.'In Tamil Nadu from 1992 to 1997, some 750cases of atrocities against Dalits were registeredannually by the state police. However, the numberofconvictions secured by protection ofcivil r ightscells... was very low. From 1992 to l997only fourour of 1,500 cases led to a conviction, despite thefact that in 1997 as many as l18 vil lages wereconsidered by the government to be .atrocity

prone' [Human Rights Watch, 1999, p. l9 l ] .

Equally imporlant is the fact of the state'sreluctance, in thc face of opposition from casteHindus. to accord recognition to the Dalits byreinscribing the public realm. As we have seenearlier. the Tamil Nadu government went back onits act of naming the transport corporation afterSundaralingam. In other words, recognitionaccorded to the Dalits in the wider public sphereby acknowledging the contribution of a Dalitnotable, had been withdrawn and the recosnition.in an effort to keep the Thevars in good h-u*our,was downsized and confined to less conflictualuniversity campuses. Similarly, in April 1998. MKarunanidhi as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadurnaugurated a small township of 200 housesnamed after Veeran Sundaralingam in Gavama-giri, the vil lage from which Sundaralingamhailed. The houses in the township, which hadfacilities such as a public park school and com-munity hall were allotted to the descendants of

Sundaralingam.2t This is once again a nove toconfine the public recognition of Dalits to anexclusive Dalit domain.

The stance of the Tamil Nadu state is notdissimilar. It evolved a consensus against theerecting of new statues instead of acknowledgingit as a move by the Dalits to asserr their equality,The all-party meeting convened by rhe DMKgovernment on 26 October 1998 to find solutionsfor the caste conflicts in southern Tamil Naduresolved that 'Installation

of new statues shouldbe permitted only after obtaining the prior per-mission of the government and the responsibil i tvof theirmaintenance vested in those who installeothem. Even with regard to the existing statues.their maintenance should be the responsibil i ty of'the organisations or individuals who installedthem.28 Justice P. Gomathinayagam Commissionof Enquiry which looked inro the police tir ing inSivagiri, Singathakurichi and Kodiyankulam ancl'fully justif ied' the police action, recommendeda total ban on the erection of statues in publicplaces.2'The Justice S Mohan Committee, whichprobed the causes of caste clashes in Tamil Nadualso recommended the avoidance, in future, ol 'erecting statues whether on behalf of the sov-ernment or private persons.t"

It is of crit ical importance to remember herethat the ruling party in Tamil Nadu during thisperiod of Dalit assertion was eirher rhe AIADMKor the DMK. Their failure to affirm the cfforts bythe Dalits to reconfigure power at local levels, hasalienated them from the Dalits. While the DMKattempted to stem this new Dalit polit ics bvinvoking its old language of pan-Tamit unirywhich is no longer convincing fbr the Dalits theAIADMK has openly supported the Thevars. Theother parties such as the Congress, the Cptr andthe CPI (M) did not step into the vacuum roaddress the issue of Dalit empowerment. All thesehave opened up an uncolonised political space forthe autonomous mobil isation of the Dalits byDalits themselves.

voL. t2 No.3&4 DALIT ASSERTION IN TAMII- NADIJ

V. AU?'ONOMOUS DALIT MOBILISATION

The first wave of response to the asymmetrybetween thc material condition of the Devendrarsand their caste-based social status, as well as thefailure ol thc Dravidian and other parties toaddrcss their aspirations, was in the form ofconverslon to Islam. Between February andSeptember 198 I abour 2600 Dalits in the southerndistricts ol Tirunelveli. Ramanathapuram andMadurai converted to Islam. The vil lages where:onversion had taken place included the now_famous Mecnakshrpuram in Thirunelveli districtfrom wherc about 1000 Dalits embraced Islamand rechristened their settlement Rehmatnasar[Mathew, 1982a, p. 1,028) . ] r The case of MeJn_akshipuram il lustrates rather clearly how theasymmetry bctween material advancement andsocial degradation of the Dalits was at the heantlf their conversion to Islam. The vil laee wasrelatrvely prospcrous: 'Many of them aie edu-cated: some work in government departmentinc luding pol ice and school . Among them thereare a f 'ew cioctors and auditors too' [ lbid, p. 1,03 I l.Despite all their material advancement, thev werest i l l t reared as unrouchahles by the local ly dom-inant Thevars IMathew, 1982, p. 1,069] . In con_verting t<l Islanr, the Dalits gave up severalbenefits: frec- cducation upto post-matric stage.scholarship l 'or higher studies from state andcenrral governments. books and special hostelfacil i t ies. cluoras in educational institutions.reserved government jobs, etc. Ubid).32 In otherwords, they were wil l ing to trade of economicentit lements for social equality.

The sccond and overtly polit ical phase of theautonomous nrobil isation of the Devendrars insouth Tanril Nadu was inaugurated by the arrivalof John Pandian. A firebrand speaker with arecord and image of 'criminality',

he could strikefear into thc hearts of the Thevars: ..... From hisstudenr days he has been watched by the policefor his involvement in several criminal cases.including some murder cases,.. He started theDevendrakula Vellalar Sangam consisting ofPallars. He was unrestrained in using words incaste mcetings. He became popular among

Harijans by his provocative speeches. directedagainst the non-Harijans. Harijans called himPallor Padai Thalapathi (Commander of pallarforce). At present twenty criminal cases arepending in the court against him... ' [Ganeshram,1989, p. 240l.He became so popular among theDevendrars in south Tamil Nadu that politiciansfrom mainstream parties courted him for support.

The high point of John pandian's polit icalcareer was the incidents leading to violencebetween the Devendrars and the Thevars inBodinayaknur, Thevaram, Theni, All inasaramand Usilampatti - all located in the sourh-rv-esr ofMadurai - during October 1989. The riots whichlead to the loss of 30 l ives and property worthlakhs was a result of two events. First, Muthu_pil lai, a Devendrar women, was murdered on 9September when she had gone to the nearbyfbrests to collect f irewood. It is ciaimed by thlDevendrars that she was raped and murdered bythree or four Thevars. Bodi rural police refusebto register the complaint by the Devendrar andthey were forced to picket buses. Second, therefusal by Raju Pillai the local panchayat presi_dent belonging to Pil lai casre, ro permit theDevendrars to give a big reception to Thangaveluthe handloom minister in the DMK ministr whowas visit ing Meenakshipuram to distribut. iounr.Thangavelu a Devendrars was visiting the areafor the first t ime after becoming the mi-nrster.

Against this background, John pandian visiredthe area and in a public speech asked theDevendrars to ask for Raju pillai's daughter inmarriage and ifrefused, she should be carried off.The demand by Pillais and Thevars rhar JohnPandian be arrested, despite the Devendrars'apology and the efTorts by the DMK leaders tobring in peace, led to the riots which lasted for afull week.33

While John Pandian's mode of polit ics, evenwhile energising the Devendrars for a politics ofconfrontation, did not build up an organisationalstructure of any worth, it was Dr. K Krishnasamvwho met that need. Krishnasamy a cardiologist

5 t 2

who had h is in i t ia l pol i t ica l t ra in ing in the DMK,lbrnrcd the Dcvendra Kula Vellalar Federation in1 995. The Federation took up a whole hostoflocalinstances of atrocities against the Devendrars. In1996. fbllowing his commendable work amongthc Dalit victims of police atrocities in Kodiy-ankulzrm, his popularity soared in the region andwas elected to the Tamil Nadu State Assernblyilom the Ottapidararn (Reserved) constituency.On thc evc o l ' thc 1999 Lok Sabha e lect ion, hetranslbrmed DKVF into a polit ical party namedthe Puthiya Tamilagam (PT).

JULY-DEC,2OOO

In the 1998 Lok Sabha e lect ions. rhe PT wasa constituent ol 'the Third Front led by the TamilMani la Congress (TMC). Contest ing in n ine LokSabha cor is t i tuencies, i t po l led 10.57 pcr cent o l 'the votes pollcd in thesc constituencies. Its per-fbrmance was impressive in the constituencics tt l 'Periyakulam Thenkasi, Thirunelveli andRamanathapuram which fall within sourh'IanrrlNadu where the PT rs cxtrelnely active (scc Tablel ) . An autonomous const i tucncy of Devcndrarvotes fieed from mainstream polit ical parties isthus all too evident.

JOURNAL OI- INDIAN SCHOOL OF POLITICAL ECONOIVY

Table l. Votes Polled by Puthiya Tamilagam in the Lok Sabha Elections 1999

Lok Sabha Const i tuencl

{ t )

Total votes polled

('> \

Votes polled byPuthiya Tarni lagarn

c )

7o of votcs polled byPuthrya Tanr i lagarrr

(:l )

PenyakuianLNagapatlinarn ( Reservcd)i ' r thukot tarThenkasi ( Reserved )Thiruncl vel i

N i ig i r isP, ' l lachi ( l tcsclvcLl)l {ant lnal } r lpu l , r r ti i r r r t rccngoie

6.66.9346.96.2197.80 .8 526.77.2056.10.090

7.42.7226 . 1 3 . t 5 36.,10.69'18 .15 .3 l7

87.429.22.31629.4531.86.220L 12 .9 .1 I

7 .6 t29.28096.334I 1 .535

r 3 . l l. t l I1 7 8

27.1918.-5 I

1 .02l 5 l

I-s 03I :i6

' l ' o l t l62.73.066 6.63. I 90 I 0 5 7

Sourcc: Dal i l l l l t rusu. Novenrber 1999, p. 16.

In nr,rt ir Tamil Nadu also there is an autono-rr rou. mobi l isat ion of the Parayars. But i t is rccentanri organisationally not yet as elaboratc as in:routh Tamil Nadu. Here I would take the casc ol'Kodunkaal vil lage in Vil lupuranr districl whichrvitncssed caste classes between the Parayars anduppcr caste Udayars in 1994-1995.

There was simmering conflict bctween boththe castes tbllowing Ponnusamy Upadesiyar, aParayar, contcs(in_q for the post of panchayatp les idcnt in 1965. This la tent conf l ic t o f yearstranslbrmcd into open conlrontation followingthe Ambedkar centenary celebrations in 1990during which the local Parayar youth formed anorganisation namcd Kodunkaal AmbedkarMantram. The Mantram functioned from a oieceol 'porumbokc land i rncasur ing about l0 acrcs)that had becn used by the Parayars as a commonproperty tbr thc past several years. In an attempt

to grab the iand and to disrupt thc ArnbedkarMantrarn, Udayars began crectin-s a wall arouncithe land cnclos ing the dr ink ing wate r rank in thcvil lagc used by the Parayars. This lcd to a scricsof violent confrontations bctween both the castes.Parayars took up the issue in the Madras HighCourt and got a stay on the construction of thewall. The wall as it stood at t lte tintc ol 'thc courtstay was of 1500 meters in length and 9 f 'eet inheight IDal i t Mani tha Ur imai Kazhagain 1995] .

What is significant about thc casrc conll icr inKodunkaal vil lage is that the Parayars couldorganise a hunger fast in l 'ront of thc DisrricrCollector's office and takc up the issuc in thcMadras High Court. In addition, thcy had sentmore than 40 petit ions to statc l 'unctionaricsranging fiom the Chief Minister to thc ScheduledCaste and Scheduled Tribes Cornrnission to rhelocal Thasildar in a pcriod oi cight nronrhs. The

voL. t2 No.3&1 DALIT ASSERTION IN TAMIL NADU 5 t 3

petit ions did nor result in any concrete responseflrom the state and in fact, the local police sidedwith thc Udayars. However, these petit ions indexthe remarkable degree of knowledge the Parayarshave about the network of government depart-ments and functionaries who are responsible tointervene in the situation. Further, it also pointsto the resources available to Parayars howeverminimal they are to confront the local upper castesand to negotiate with the state.

Another leature of the Kodunkaal conflict wasihat the mobil isation of the Dalits was notmcdiated by any polit ical party. But rhey had thesupport of thc local NGOs. This is a generalisedf'eature of Dalit rnobil isation in northern TamilNadu. The Social Action Movement (SAM), anNGO founded by a Jesuit priest Rev Martin,would i l lustrate to us the role of NGOs in aidingthe autonomous Dalit nrobil isation in north TamilNadu. The SAM works among various sectionsol the marginalizcd such as lower castes, tribals,women and laboulcrs: and has given rise to anctwork of organisat ions. The srrength oISAM'spopularity i lnrong thc Dalits came to the foreduring the Pancharrra land struggle which waslaunched by the Dalits in 1994 in Chengalpattudis t r ic t .

The SAN{ organised a 'Save Panchama LandCommlttee' with reprcsentative Dalit youthsfiom affecred vil lages and members of differentDalit organislt ion. lts conlrontation with the stateied to the mobil isation of thousands of Dalits andtwo Dal i ts wcrc k i l led in pol ice f i r ing on l0Octobcr I 994 in 1l 'ont of the Sub-collector's officein Chen_ealpattu rown where Dalits had congre-gatcd to reprcsent their grievance to the Sub-collector. Most of the Dalits who constituted thatcongregation on that day were women Crawnfron Mahulit ' Sakthi hyakam. The death ol JohnThomas and Ezhumalai led to state-level mobi-l isation of the Dalits by bringing rogerher 127Dalit organisations under the umbrella of DalitJoint Action Committee: and a rally organised bythe Committee on l9 November 1994 in Madrascity had the participation of one lakh Dalits from

all over Tamil Nadu. The intensity of mobil i-satron was such that the DMK in its manifesto forthe 1996 election, promrsed to get back thePanchama lands to the Dalits. if elected to pow-er.-

Alongside such mobil isation of the Dalits bythe NGOs the Dalit Panthers of India, headed byR. Thirumavalavan has been active in this resion.Though the Dalir Panthers were exrremety miti-tant and constituted mainly by the Parayar youth,the mainstream parties were not very muchworried about them because they did not parttc-ipate in electoral polit ics. In June 1999. theydecided to participate in the 1999 Lok Sabhaelections. In justitying their decision, Thiruma-valavan clainted that the coming together of theBJP and the DMK had posed a grave danger toTamilNadu." Like the PT, the DPI were also partof the TMC-led Third Front.

Faced with the challenge of a Dalit polit icalparty confronting the mainstream parties in theelectoral domain for the first t ime the Chidam-param constituency from where Thirumavalavancontested witnessed unprecedented poll violencelet loose by the PMK and the DMK. The Dalitswere prevented from voting in several places[Aadavan, 1999b]. Despite the poll violence.Thirumavalavan polled 2.25.768 votes while thewinning PMK candidare got 3.45.33 I votes. Theimpressive performance of Thirumavalavan sig-nals the autonomous consolidation of the Parayarvotes in the nonhem district. Also this is evidentfrom the fact that, though the TMC, the pT andthe DPI were part of the third front in the election.The Dalit voters's commitment was more againstthe locally oppressing castes than for the electionpartners of the front. For instancc, in Mayiladu-thurai constituency. Dalits opted to vote for theCongress candidate Mani Shankar lyer than thcTMC candidate K Krishnamunhy. In doing so.they ensured the defeat of the PMK candidare whois a Vanniyar . Simi lar ly , in Cuddalore consr i tu-ency, they voted for the DMK candidare who isan Udayar instead of the TMC candidate who isa Vanniyar [Aadavan, 1999a, p. l5].

JOURNAL OF INDIAN SCHOOL OF'POLU|CAL ECONOMY JULY-DEC. 2OOA

Despite thc autonomous mobil isation of theDalit castes both in the south and north TamilNadu and a rcalisation of thcir polit ical strcngth.the possibil i ty of different Dalit casres comingtogether looks remote at the moment. The newly-acqurred self '-definit ion of the Pallars as Deven-dra Kula Vellalars and its sanctif ication by the pTmark out the Parayars and Arunththiyars as casteinferiors. Krishnasamy avoids the inclusive termDalit and instead refers to each Dalit castc by itsnamc.'o This is an obvious move to distinguishhimse lf as the leadcr of the Devendrars. In April1998, Krishnasamy also demanded in the StateAssembly that the Adi-Dravida and Tribal Wcl-fare Departmcnr be renamcd as Social JusticcDepartnrent.rt Adi-Dravida is a term whichnornrally rcf'ers to the Parayars. It is wiclclypcrccived that Krishnasamy's demand was toensurc Lhat thc Dcvendrars are not subsumedunder a category which rcfers to the parayars.

Imporrantly, as part of the socio-polit icalassertion of' thc Devcndrars, a section of theirin te l lectuals is construct ing a new caste h is tory.In th is new castc h is tory. Pal lar is c la imed to bca corruption of the term Mallar the Chieftain ofthe irrigated tracts of ancient Tamil country, whowas also known as Devendran or Indir.an. Guru-samy Siddan a onc-time associate of Krishna-samy who is in thc fbrefront of promoting thisncw history, is candid about the supcriority o1,theDevcndrars over other Dalit castes. As he notes,'When thc Devendra Kula Vellalars arc combinedwith other castes and ref'erred to by commonnomenclature, our struggles, history and culturcget concealcd. Thc degradation of othcr castesbecomes parr of us...Othcrs impose on us what isnot ours -- Dalit art. Dalit l i terature. Dalit culture.- las wcll asl all thosc things which arc dcgraclingsuch as bcating thc drunr, drinkin-q, scavcnging,beel'-eating... rx Signil icantly, drum-beating dur-ing deaths in upper caste households and becf-eating are associated with Parayars andscavcnging is associated with Arunththiyars.

The castc viole ncc in V Puthupatti, a vil lageclosc to the Srivil l iputhur ror.vn in south TanrilNaduduring I 999 and 2000 assunrcs significanccin this contcxt. In this vil la_ue, both Devendrarsand Parayers constitute thc Dalit populationWhilc the fonner arc membe rs of the pT, the latte rare with the DPL In Marcir 1999 llve parayarsbelon_eing to the DPI wcre kil led by rhe supporrcrsof the PT in a dispute over crcctin-r{ a flag post. Ina reprisal, eighty huts of the PT supporters wcreburnt down. Thc s i rnner ing conl ' l ic t turned intoopen violence once again in Junc 200(). This tinrcthc Parayars kil led six membcrs ol'thc p'I 'r ')

VI. IN LIEU OI 'A CONCI,USION

The above explorat ions in to thc chan!r inccontours of Dal i t po l i t ics in l 'ur r r r l Nadu t , i ing iout a set of complex issucs for considerarion whilcanalys ing castc conl l ic ts .

First ofall, i t points ro the need ro be sensitivcto specific historics of dif l 'crcnt casrcs rhar areinvolved in conf l ic ts . As we have sccn the Thc-vars and the Vanniyar-s lvho have historicallyrc tuscd to suhmersc thc i r .spccr l ic custc idcnt i r rc ,in the non-Brahmin col lcct iv i ty . arc thc r rncspr imar i ly involved in v io lence against rhe Dal i rs .In th is context , i t is per t inent to cxplurc why othercastes arc not at least overtly involved in cas{cconll icts. We havc also sccn that th<lugh the-Devendrars and the Parayars do not share a sinr i larprocess of nraterial aclvancenrcnt. both havcreached a stage o l 'soc io-pol i t ica l asser t ion. Thcreason lor this is dilfcrcnt in cach clsc. This l ircttoo elnphasiscs the nccd to takc into acc<lunt thcspecific histories ofcastes in unclers{andins casleconflicts.

Secondly, if we conccde thal wc necd to bcattentivc to the hisroric spcci{' icit ics ol dil"fcrcntcastes in undcrstandin-e conl l ic ts , how lar can wcenrploy the catcgories ol' backward cast{ls andDalits (as I myself have donc in zr l 'ew places inthis paper) as large collectives in explainin-e casteconflicts' i To reliame this qucstion, how farThevars and Vanniyars arc representative of lhebackward castes in Tamil Nadu? Similarlv. in

voL. t2 No. 3&1 DALIT ASSERTION IN TAMIL NADU 5 r 5

Anaithu Makkal Thevar Peravai appealed to the Thevar youthto tutor themselves tn methods of selfdefence so as to Drotectthemselves lKudiruvun. I I October 19981.

5. Significantly, a vibrant Dalit literary movement hasemerged in Tamil Nadu during the past decade: and it isremarkably successful in turning upside down received lit_erary canons. See Pandian [1998a, 1998b].

6. This is, however, not to say that unrouchability has norundergone changes in South Tamil Nadu. ln the 1930s. theThevars of Ramanand could issue fiats prohibiting the Dalitwomen from wearing gold and silver ornaments, flowers andsandal paste as well as covering the upper part oftheir bodres.Dalit men were prohibited from wearing clothes below rheknee and above the waist, wearing sandals and carryingumbrellas. In addition they were also prohibited frorn usingnon-earthenware for cooking [Hutton, 1977, pp.205_06j.

Such prohibitions do not exist in south Tamil Nadu any ntore.In fact, given their material advancemenr and the ability ofDevendrars to challenge the Thevars caste authority, castenames are not uttered in day-to-day conversatlons in severalplaces. lnstead, castes are referred to by anglicised acronyrns.For instance, Maravars are refened to as MR and pallars asPL [Ma rx . I 997 , p .3 l ] .

7. Mnnitha Unnrai Kunkruu, January I99g. p. 26.8. Kudiruvurt 20 October I 994.9. In order to avoid leaders of tjifferent political parties

surfacing at Pasumpon at thc sanre tinre during the g uru puju,the govemment irself has been allotting time for differentparties, See Dirut lvlulur,20 October 1994.

l0.The Hindu,28 October 1998.l l . Kudira 'un,26 October 1994.f 2 'The Villupuram Atrocity', Ecottotrtit: tuttl politicul

Weekly, l4 October 1978.13. While the Devendrars do not, by and large. consrder

Ambedkar as a leader of their caste. the parayars take greatpr ide in h im. Forrnstance, though the neo-Buddhisr movelnenrin Tamil Nadu is not numerically strong, tt rs exclusively aParayar movement.

14. Kadiroan, 28 June 1999.15. I-he Indiun Express, I 8 December I 995.16. Indian Express.2T June 1996.17. Junior Vikatun, I I May 1997.18. The choice of the name of Sundaralingam instead of

Immanuel Sekaran is important. While Sundaralingatn wasrn anti-colonial hero. Immanuel was someone who conrestedcaste-based hegemony. In this context, the choice of the namcof Sundaralingarn is a way of recognising the Devendrars andat once not acknowledging their desire for caste equality.

19. Junior Vikutun, I March 1996.20. A copy of the memorandum is in the author's pos_

session.

2 l .The H indu ,2 Ju l y 1997 .22. Junior Vikatun, 14 May 1997.

clubbing rogether the Devendrars and theParayars as Dalits would we lose out the distincrprocesses by which different Dalit castesempower thcrnselves?

Thirdly, in thc case of Tamil Nadu, we havefound that it is the less advanced sections of thebackward castes which are entering into conflictswith the Dalirs. For them, caste identity seems tocompensate fbr their marginality in otherdomains. This challenges rhe widely heldassumptlon that it is the advanced sections of thebackward casrcs who given their newly acquiredeconomic and social status, enter into conflictwi th the Dal i ts . Does th is mean that we need tobreak l l 'cc I 'ronr the academic commonsense ofour times and rhe polit ically correct position ofdemonising thc backward castes in opposition rothe Dalits' l Instcad, is there a need to evolve aliamework ol'analysis that would simultaneouslyaddress thc nrarginalit ies of both the oppressorand the oppressed in situations of such conflict?

Thesc qucstions may not be of relevanceelsewhere. But lhcy are so far as contemporaryTamil Nadu is concerned.

NOTES

L The tcrrn 'Thcvar' wils one of the caste titles of theMukkulathor cxstc const i tuted by three dist inct sub-castes -_Kaliar. Mlravar lnd Agarnudaiyars. In the popular parlanace,howcver. the tcrnt 'Thevar'

refers to the Mukkulathor casteln 199.1 the Tarnrl Nadu government headed by J Jayalalithaoffrcrally mcrged and named the three sub-castes of Mukku-lathor as Thevlrs.

2. Devendra Kula Vellalar is a recently-elnployed term ofhonorific self-rcpresentation by the pallars who are a Dalitcaste.

3. Parayars ars lhc rnost nulncrous of the castes that aretreated as untouchables in Tanril Nadu. Though they are foundthroughout Tantrl Nadu their primary concentration is in thenorthcrn districts of the state.

4. Though the Thevars pride themselves as a martialcomrnunity, they rn the face of retaliation by the Devendrarsarc now seeking protection from the state. Dr. N Sethuraman.President of AII India Thevar Peravai demanded recently,conrpcnsatton for rhc farnilies of those killed and asked thegovcrnment to protcct the Thevars in Ramanathapuram dis_trict l 'fhe Hinlu. 5 October t9981. Similarly, Malaisamy aretired ofllccrol'thc Indian Adrninistrative Service who heads

5 1 6 ,IOURNAL OF INDIAN SCHOOI, OF POI,ITICAL I..CONOIIIY JUI.Y.Dl]C.2OOO

ll For a detailed srudy of thc panchama lancl struggle.sce Anandhi (20(X)1.

24. Of l lcc o l lhe l )eputy Inspccror General of pol icc.Proteclion of Civil llights. ^t/ori,rll(:ul lttlttrnuLliott tts orL3L l2 .1985 , N {ad las . n . r i . S ta r cn ren t No .26 ,

25 . T l t e l l i t i l u . 3 Augus r 1997 .26. Ileltort ol tlt<, lYtttitntul Cornarssiotr l.rtr SL.lteduletl

('uste.; uttl Stlrctlult'l ' l ribt,s; t\tt.ocitiet on St.ttcduled C)ttste.suttd Stlrcluletl l-ribcs - 0tuses dild Renplies, Delhi. I990.p 34.

27. Jut t r t r Yikut t t t .2( t Apr i l 199g.28.Tha lT int i t . l7 Ocrober 199g.29. ' l 'he H t rn lu. l -5 November i999.l ( ) 7| rc l l in t tu.2. j Ocrobcr i99g3l i l lccn.rkshrpurar l r convcrsr{)ns not only exught thc

l rcnt lon of the nr( ional and rr r tcrnat ional tnsdla, r t a lso lcadlo dchares in lhc s latc asse!nbiy and thc pl r l iarncnt . Furrhcr.r1 shook up the Hindu urr l rotJoxy. For instancc. H.V. Seshadn,n lop-rankine l l lc l i ( )n i r r ,v of the Rashtr . iva Swavarrrset ,axSungh. Wrotc o l rhc conversions thus:

'Thc wuru of convcrs ions srvccping the soLrthern par l of

Tanr i l Nrdu. . . Was indecd alarnr ing. Fl indu organisat ions l ikethe Sangh thc Hindu l \4unnani . rhc Visrva I l inrJu par ishacl rhcArya Sarrul rhc Hindu Slrnudaya Valarchi lV{anram, lhef i rndu Te rnple Protce l ron Colnrni t tce rnt l othcr Hrnt lu soe r l land rc l tgrotrs organisat lons s!r .ung rnto act ton. The1, forrncdl l rcrr rseivcs rnto ' f l indu

i ) r t rurnar lv la iyant ' (Ccntrc fur I I lnd, ,L inr tv r . Sourr ln I i ,SS tcarrr I , rsr tc-d anr l surveyccl l l i the al . fectcur r l l lgcs rn thc l i rur d istncts of Tarni l Nadu: ant l on thc basisof thar rcpolr . rhe l . lO\1 deci t led ro leunch a widcspreadnrovcnlcnt l i r r s t0pping lunher.conYersious l tnt l to rcc la int t . .( hc H indu l b l d a l l r hose uho had bcen convc r t cd , l s cshad r ; .le8t l . p. 5 l l l

J2. Th! . conlcrs ion to Is l r rn by the l )a l i ts hes i rnprovctrt l rc socia l rc lat ions bctrrcen thc I )a i i ts and othcrs in Meen_aksht puratn and ot her r i l l ages in i ts v ic i nr ty. As a recent reportrc l t tarks. Whcthcr you spcak t ( ) convcns. non-convens orrc-convcns. I )a l r rs. Thet .ars or N, lusl ints, on one point . thcrcrs broad agrcelnent : socia l re lat ions have improt ,er i andc\ , 'eryonc has bcncl i ted. ' fo the cxrcnt i t has had a sobcr insrn{ luence on thc uppcr castes, the lv lecnlkshrpuranr inc i t lcnrseetns to havc hi t LrntoLrchabi l i ty r tsc l f , at lcast in thc v ic in i t l , ,lSa ina th , l 999 r l .

3J. For dctui ls of the Bodr r iot sce lDic l r ich, 1992. l ,p.74-71: and Pcriyar i\4ay'arn, l9ll9l. In the rnainsrrcaln pressand upper caste rcprcser)tations of the Ilorji riot. John pan_dian's speech appears as thc kc_v montent lcadrng to thc riot.ln th is context , wc necd to takc i r r to account t ) iet r ich,s [ | 992.p.761 caut ion: . . .aspirat ion tocqual i t l , is scen as ln inc i tcrnentof colnrnunal v io lence. ._ Thc prohlcrn herc is that the verbalassaul t of John pandian lwho is cenarnly patrrarchal andvlo lent rn h is cxpression ) has t rcen taken to bc a Inore gr icvouslnJury than the aelu i r l nturdcr and nlut i la t ion of the [ )ahtu 'o lnan N{uthupi l la i . At t l te saluc t i lne when the postcrs

at lacking . lohn pandian also used ahusrvc iangulgc agarnsrDal i t wonrcn. no oi l 'ence or lncrrentcnt to colnnrunal v io lcnc.was recogniscd in thrs ' .

J-1. For a dctaiied sturiy ttf thc hrstorv r.rf panchlrna lanogrants and the Panchanl t lanr l s t ruggle. scc [Anlnt lh i . l (XX)1.

: l i . f l ,e l l i tu lu. lh Jurrc I9,)936. l t has becn reccnr ly rcpot . tcd that I ) r . Kr ishnlstntv has

asked i )a l i t Perurnal , an ol ' l jcc hcar.er o l . the vouth-rv i r rg , r1.Purhiya Tanr i lagan in Thiruvanrr d isrr ic t . to drop the tcrrr r' l )a l i t '

f ronr h is narne. See l l lascndrran. | 999. p. . j6 i37. ' l l te I t i r tdu,30 Apr i l l r )9t i .38. Kttyitlrustnur, Fcbruary_lVIarch 199S. pp. rl_.5.39. Juntor Vikutun. lg Junc 20tXt .

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