Amidst tight security, a two-metre-long portion of the controversial ‘discriminatory’ compound wall on a poramboke land in Santhaiyur village, which has been a source of tension between the two Scheduled Caste communities of Arunthathiyars and Paraiyars, was demolished on Friday morning.
The demolition followed the decision announced on Thursday by Madurai Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao, at a meeting attended by representatives of both the communities, that the district administration would soon build an anganwadi for common use on the six cents of vacant land inside the compound.
Declaring that the wall was not an ‘untouchability’ wall, as had been alleged by the Arunthathiyars, the Collector added that no one could claim exclusive rights over the poramboke land in question, that housed a small temple maintained by the Paraiyar community, who erected the roughly seven-foot-tall compound wall covering 11.5 cents of land.
The Arunthathiyar community alleged that the wall epitomised a form of untouchability, meant to deny them access to the area, and their demand to demolish it intensified after mid-2017. Refuting the allegations of discrimination, the Paraiyars opposed the demolition by claiming that the wall was constructed with the consent of Arunthathiyars only to protect the temple.
Both the communities, backed by political organisations, stood their ground, leading to tension over the past three months.
In August 2017, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court ordered the district administration to act on the ‘encroachment’ as per the law.
In what is seen as a ‘middle way’ to resolve the issue peacefully, the Collector, during Thursday’s meeting said that a two-metre ‘opening’ would be made on the northern side of the wall, which is closer to the Arunthathiyar settlement, to provide easy access to the anganwadi.
Though the decision was accepted by the Arunthathiyars, the Paraiyars disapproved of it.
Immolation threat
Tension prevailed in the village on Friday as a group of people from the Paraiyar community doused themselves with kerosene and threatened to immolate themselves if the officials proceeded with the demolition of the wall.
However, a team of revenue and police officials, led by Usilampatti Revenue Divisional Officer M. Suganya, prevented them from setting themselves ablaze by spraying water on them from a fire truck that was kept on standby.
Around 70 people from the Paraiyar community, who opposed the demolition, were detained and lodged at a marriage hall, following which the demolition was carried out.
Later, the officials visited the Arunthathiyar community, comprising around 70 families, who for the past 71 days had been camping near a hill three kilometres away from the village as a mark of protest, and urged them to return to their village.
A group of Arunthathiyars went to the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai to accept the body of K. Palanimurugan, who died at the protest site due to cardiac arrest last Friday. His body was kept at the GRH as the community refused to accept it until the wall was demolished.
