Dalit murders show the cruel face of caste in Sivaganga's Kachanatham village

Dailts are reluctant to confront caste Hindu aggressors, fearing reprisal from the dominant community

June 04, 2018 12:54 am | Updated December 01, 2021 06:08 am IST - Kachanatham

A desolate street in Kachanatham village. L. Balachandar

A desolate street in Kachanatham village. L. Balachandar

It’s hard to believe that a couple of persons from a dominant community can prevail over a village of mostly Dalit households. But that is what appears to have happened at Kachanatham village in Sivaganga district. On May 28 night, the village witnessed one of the worst caste clashes in the district.

Sources say that despite provocations in the form of insults and intimidation by caste Hindus, the Devendra Kula Vellalars (listed as as Scheduled Caste-Pallars) of the village would remain quiet, partly in fear and partly to avoid trouble.

The Pallars, almost all of whom own farmland, depend on agriculture for their livelihood. They cultivate paddy, sugarcane and banana when it rains, and when water is released from the Vaigai dam. They fear the dominant community could block irrigation to their fields or destroy their crops, P. Kannusamy, 65, a farmer, told The Hindu on Saturday. “This is the cruel face of the dominance of caste Hindus in this area, which we have borne for several years,” he lamented.

How it happened

“We do not have the wherewithal to confront the caste Hindus,” says N. Muthukannu, 51, another resident of the village. “Their pangalis [clansmen] join hands to unleash terror on us when we question their dominance.”

The Karuppannasamy temple in the village is a source of pride for the community. An annual festival is planned for it in the Tamil month of Vaikasi. In 2018, for the festival held on May 25, ₹1,700 each was collected from 83 families, including 30 families who are natives of the village but live elsewhere.

After a falling-out in 2017, a couple of caste Hindu families living in the village, who would visit the temple during the festival to accept prasadam, stopped doing so. Matters took a turn for the worse this year when A. Deiventhiran, a Scheduled Caste Lance Naik serving in the Army, and his friend Prabakaran, a policeman serving in the Thallakulam Police Station, arrived at the village for the festival.

A quarrel took place when C. Suman, 24, a caste Hindu of the village, objected to the duo “staring” at him. Sources say that when Deiventhiran asked him to “mind his own business”, an enraged Suman threatened the duo with a sword. “We never confronted him but he [Suman] was bent on picking up a fight,” said Deiventhiran.

Prabhakaran and Deiventhiran reported the incident to the Thirupachethi police, who responded promptly. When Suman and his brother Arun could not be found, the police took their parents for questioning.

They were released the same evening. But this appears to have triggered the brutal attack that followed.

As directed by the Thirupachethi police for reasons of jurisdiction, the villagers lodged a complaint with the Palayanoor police station, also on May 28. Police personnel from this station visited the village the same day.  “But we saw Janakiraman and Selvam, Sub Inspectors of Police, patting Suman’s father on his back and returning back. The attack happened the same night,” says Deiventhiran.

A fateful night

Three Dalits, including Deiventhiran's father K. Arumugam, 65, were killed, and five others suffered grievous cuts and injuries when Suman and his brother Arun allegedly led a gang of attackers.

Suman and members of his gang found Deiventhiran’s father alone at home, dragged him out and hacked him to death.

They next entered the house of A. Shanmuganathan, where most of the victims were gathered, and attacked them indiscriminately.

Before leaving, they entered another house and killed S. Danasekaran and his son D. Sugumaran, a Post Graduate preparing for the Civil Services Examination. The bloodstains in the three houses bear testimony to the brutality.

Superintendent of Police T. Jayachandran said that after finding prima facie that the Palayanoor police had acted in collusion with the accused, he had placed the two sub-inspectors under suspension. The district police have also decided to bring Kachanatham under the Thirupachethi police station, as demanded by the villagers, he said.

Caste-based dominance

B. Pandiaraja, activist and member of the Madurai District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee for the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, said, “There is substance in the allegations of the villagers. There may not be atrocities or the practice of untouchability, but the domination of Scheduled Caste people by caste Hindus is widely prevalent in villages.”

He added that in some villages, people of two SC/ST communities may share cordial relations but caste Hindus never missed an opportunity to dominate over them, which often led to problems, especially in the southern districts.

“When there are problems between SC/ST communities, the police, instead of registering an FIR, work out a compromise, or the SC people themselves would not want the police to register cases,” said Mr. Pandiaraja.

“They would say it was enough if the police warned them and let them go, fearing further issues. What Kachanatam witnessed was not a caste clash but violence when the dominance of caste Hindus was questioned.”

The villagers, who returned home on Saturday after the funerals for the dead, remain shell-shocked.

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