Caste-based mobilisation and violence

Violence in Ramanathapuram district in southern Tamil Nadu on October 4, sparked by a confrontationist, caste-based mobilisation with a communal orientation, claims 11 lives.

S. VISWANATHAN
in Ramanathapuram

OCTOBER 4 was a Black Sunday for the people of the coastal Ramanathapuram district in southern Tamil Nadu. Just two days after the nation celebrated the 129th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, caste-related violence rocked the villages and towns on either side of the national highway that links this economically backward district with Madurai city. Eleven persons were killed and several were injured in the violence and the police action that followed. Six of the dead were Dalits; the five others belonged to the Thevar community, a most backward caste group. All the victims were from among the economically weaker sections. Scores of houses were torched and hundreds of people rendered homeless.

The immediate cause of the violence was provided by a district-level rally at Ramanathapuram, organised by the Thevarkula Koottamaippu (Thevar Federation). According to a senior politician from a neighbouring district, the Koottamaippu is "a conglomeration of unnorganised groups of young Thevar extremists who have joined the power struggle in the Tamil Nadu Thevar Peravai." The Thevar Peravai was said to be behind the many instances of violence involving Thevars and Dalits that racked the southern districts in the past five years. Its leadership, perceived to be close to All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary and former Chief Minister Jayalalitha, is now caught up in litigation and has been rendered inactive.

The Koottamaippu conference was convened as a confrontationist response to a State-level conference organised three weeks earlier at Ramanathapuram by Puthiya Tamilagam, a political organisation led by Dr. K. Krishnasamy. A member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, Krishnasamy has emerged in recent years as the most articulate Dalit leader in the State and a rallying point for different sections of Dalits. A rally organised by Puthiya Tamilagam at that time passed off peacefully, although Krishnasamy made an allegedly provocative speech.

K. GANESAN
Shops in Ramanathapuram main bazaar that were damaged in violence on October 4.

A WEEK-LONG mobilisation effort by Shanmugaiah Pandian, the maverick president of the Koottamaippu, preceded the district conference. Posters and wall writings inviting people to the meet came up in Madurai and all along the highway. According to a roadside lottery ticket-seller at Paramakudi, a small town on the highway, streams of lorries carrying large numbers of people from neighbouring districts were seen heading for Ramanathapuram from the afternoon of October 4.

Some vehicles stopped at roadside villages and hamlets such as Saraswati-puram, Vananganenthal, Chatrakudi and Muhammadiapuram, and armed men from lorries allegedly entered Dalit settlements (easily identifiable by the presence of Puthiya Tamilagam flags or statues of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar) and some Muslim hamlets and went on the rampage, throwing "petrol bombs", attacking the residents and ransacking houses.

Two women were killed and several others injured in these incidents. Some of the Dalits, mostly marginal farmers, agricultural workers or coolies, lost all their belongings. Even five days after the attacks they were in the grip of fear. Dalits alleged that police protection was inadequate and even the few policemen who were present did not act when the mayhem was on. Thevar youth, however, complained that the provocation came from Dalits, who, they said, blocked vehicles by placing barriers on the road.

As news of the attacks spread, Dalits retaliated. Thevar villages were targeted and houses damaged. At Lanthai, close to Ramanathapuram, two of those who came in lorries were allegedly pulled out and murdered. This led to a free-for-all for two hours.

In the police firing that followed, three persons, all of whom belonged to the Thevar community, were killed. Earlier, two Dalits, one of them a woman, were killed when police opened fire "to contain a mob that was confronting a mob of the rival caste". Dalits, however, said that they were only demanding the removal of a provocative painting put up on a panchayat building wall in connection with the Koottamaippu conference. A number of persons from both sides and a few police personnel were hospitalised.

A.K. HAKEEM/TMMK
Gutted houses of Muslims in Muhammadiapuram.

Even as a small police force controlled the violence at the entrance of Ramanathapuram town, Thevar mobs went on the rampage in the town, breaking open shops, looting valuables and making a bonfire of articles that could not be carried away. Three shops were burnt down. Muslim businessmen were the worst sufferers. At Paramakudi, several shops were looted. M.A. Dhanabalan, president of the District Chamber of Commerce, estimates the total loss suffered by business establishments in the district at Rs. 3.5 crores. In all, about 300 shops were damaged. Some State-owned buses were also damaged and over a hundred street lamps smashed.

Even after all this, the Koottamaippu was allowed to hold the rally. Among the provocative demands made at the rally was one calling for the repeal of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The police force, led by Additional Director-General of Police S. Kumarasamy, contained the violence. Reinforce-ments from neighbouring districts and personnel from the Tamil Nadu Special Police, the Central Reserve Police Force and the Swift Action Force helped prevent the violence from spreading to sensitive neighbouring districts. The district administration stepped in with prompt relief measures. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi deputed four Ministers - M. Tamizh-kudimagan, T. Krishnan, A. Rahman Khan (who is also the local MLA) and Samayanallur Selvaraj. They camped in the district for five days, visited the affected persons and supervised relief operations. Near-normalcy was restored within days. Although there were complaints about the inadequacy of relief measures, including the compensation amount, the Government's intervention was prompt, in marked contrast to its responses to earlier instances of violence.

A cross-section of people in the affected areas criticised the police and the district administration for their failure to anticipate trouble in view of the publicity blitzkrieg that preceded the conference. Had prompt steps been taken, violence could have been prevented, said an observer who made a pointed reference to the absence on leave of the Superintendent of Police and of the District Collector (who was away until October 4). The police presence was minimal and vehicles were not being checked for weapons. This was in contrast to the intensive searches carried out by the police when Puthiya Tamilagam held its rally on September 11.

There were also allegations by both groups of harassment and even torture by the police under the pretext of conducting "raids in search of criminals and weapons". In several areas, menfolk went underground fearing police violence. Even a week later, many persons were reported missing.

K.GANESAN
On a tour of the riot-affected areas on October 14, Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi consoles a woman whose shop in the Paramakudi bus stand was destroyed in the violence.

Several factors set apart the October 4 incidents in Ramanathapuram from earlier instances of caste-related violence in other centres in the southern districts of the State. First, there were no local-level disputes between Thevars and Dalits in the Ramanathapuram region. In almost all the affected places, Dalits and Thevars said that they had been living in amity for decades. Highways Minister T. Krishnan, who hails from the neighbouring Sivaganga district, recalled that even during the worst days of caste clashes in Mudukulathur in the undivided Ramnad district in 1957 the area that forms the present Ramanathapuram district was relatively calm. In his view the disturbances were caused by "outsiders". "It was a fire sparked by somebody somewhere," said the DMK Minister.

And, unusually in such caste-related violence, there was evidence of the involvement of some political parties. Karunanidhi, who saw a political motive behind the incidents, said that he knew the "forces" that were behind the attempt to destabilise his Government. He said that the clashes were preceded "by the arrival of some persons from Ramanathapuram in Chennai and their return." (The reference is to a reported meeting between Shanmugaiah Pandian and Jayalalitha some time ago; in an interview to a Tamil periodical, the Thevar leader confirmed that the meeting did take place.) At several places flag posts of the DMK had been felled.

Another disturbing factor is that caste mobilisation has now acquired a communal orientation. During the violence, business establishments and houses owned by Muslims were targeted for attack. This and the use of "Om" and lotus symbols (lotus being the Bharatiya Janata Party's election symbol) in the Koottamaippu posters have raised questions about the involvement of some constituents of the Sangh Parivar in the violence.

One outcome of the Ramanatha-puram incidents is the ban on posters inciting violence in the name of caste. Karunanidhi, who announced this decision after a Cabinet meeting on October 13, said that it had also been decided not to grant permission to processions and rallies if there was any hint that they would trigger violence.

Another related development is the launch of a political party, the Moovendar Munnetra Kazhagam, by the All India Thevar Peravai. The party's general secretary, Dr. N. Sethuraman, told Frontline that his party opposed untouchability and that he was opposed to the Koottamai-ppu's demand for the repeal of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevent-ion of Atrocities) Act, 1989. He said, however, that the Act was required "more in the northern States, not in Tamil Nadu, where untouchability is no longer practised." His party's aim, he claimed, was "to build bridges not only between Thevars and Dalits but between Thevars and other castes."

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