Hostilities between Dalits and Vanniyars erupt again in Tamil Nadu

A. ANUSUYA stood amid the charred remains of her hut at Kattayan Theru, a Dalit colony near Marakkanam town in Tamil Nadu, on May 2, grief writ large on her face. The 27-year-old woman’s wedding was to take place on May 27 at Kottakuppam near Puducherry, 32 km from her place, and invitation letters had been sent to relatives. Her mother had thoughtfully arranged a loan and bought ten sovereigns of jewellery for Anusuya when gold prices came down in April.

On April 25 afternoon, a mob of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) workers, all of them caste Hindu Vanniyars, stormed into Kattayan Theru and threw petrol bombs at Dalits’ huts. All that was left in Anusuya’s hut after the attack was blackened and twisted aluminium utensils, which lay heaped in a corner. The family members said the PMK men took away the suitcase in which the jewellery was kept.

A little further away are what were once the homes of T. Narayanasamy (62) and his sons. Nothing is left of the television sets, bicycles, clothes, ration cards and identification cards of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the three huts. “There was a loud explosion,” said Narayanasamy’s wife, Anjalai. “They threw petrol bombs at our huts. In no time, all the three huts went up in flames.”

K. Kalaivanan, who was a State government bus driver, lived in a thatched house with brick-and-cement walls. He was standing outside his house when he saw the mob torching the huts in the colony. Kalaivanan was hit on the head with sticks and was injured badly. His niece, K. Selvi, who had locked herself and her children up in the hut, ran out when she heard the mob shout, “This is a big hut. It deserves two petrol bombs.” His neighbours helped Kalaivanan put out the fire. In all, nine huts, a cowshed, a haystack and an Amman shrine were destroyed that day. “All of us sleep in the maidan at night. We cannot sleep anywhere else. Everybody is scared at night,” said Maya, a resident of Kattayan Theru.

It is not surprising that Kattayan Theru was chosen for the attack. Most of its Dalit residents belong to the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK, or the Dalit Panthers), headed by Thol. Thirumavalavan. The animosity between the VCK and the PMK goes back a long way.

                       By T.S. SUBRAMANIAN(FRONT LINE)