Separate cemeteries for Dalits

The ground under the shed is meant for cremating caste Hindus and the nearby area where a few people are seen is a cremation ground for Dalits. They do not have a shed. Photo: S. James

Dalits of Karadipatti near Tirupparankundram in Madurai have been victims of what could be seen as a very tangible form of discrimination. The village has two separate cemeteries for caste Hindus and Dalits and only the former has a water tank and motor pump facility and a proper pathway to the shed.

When M. Karuppiah (45), a Dalit who was a ‘thotti' (one who works in a graveyard and also does conservancy work), died on Thursday, caste Hindus opposed the move by the Dalits to take his body through the pathway used by them for many years.

The pathway leading to the cremation ground actually starts on a patta land, which is owned by a caste Hindu. After a recent skirmish, caste Hindus opposed its use by the Dalits. However, the Dalits claimed that they had been using the pathway for years. “It is just for a few yards we have to use their land. Then, we actually move into the poromboke land,” said Jayaneedhi of Ambedkar Colony.

For close to one hour, the Dalits were not able to take the body to the cremation ground and only after the police intervened and pacified the caste Hindus to allow them for the last time that they were able to proceed.

On May 24, the villagers had submitted a petition to the Collector alleging that they were not allowed to use the water tank in the village cemetery and, if used, they were subjected to verbal abuse and discrimination. The district administration now has made arrangements to build a separate water tank for the Dalits.

The village has close to 100 families belonging to Other Backward and Most Backward Classes and 75 Dalit families. The caste Hindus of two different castes use the same cemetery.

A social activist, who came to the village for a field report, opined that the stand taken by the district administration on the issue of common burial/cremation grounds, instead of confirming the legitimate Constitution guaranteed rights of Dalits to bury the dead in the common graveyard, gave them separate places which reinforced discrimination.

Judges of the Madras High Court in orders passed in two cases in 2008 and 2009 had stressed the need to provide common burial and cremation grounds and put an end to caste discrimination, which continues to haunt people, particularly the Dalits, even after death.