After the Madras High Court confirmed the life sentence of Yuvaraj, the prime accused in the murder of the Dalit youth Gokulraj V (21), several online ‘fan pages’ dedicated to him expressed disappointment with the verdict. Yuvaraj, who is from the dominant Gounder caste, was convicted on June 2 for abducting and murdering Gokulraj on the suspicion that he was in love with Swathi, a woman from Yuvaraj’s community. Following the conviction, several of Yuvraj’s ‘fan pages’ on social media responded that though the government may have convicted one Yuvaraj, many of his like will rise. A faction of his supporters also felt that the judiciary had ‘failed the Gounder community’.
Esakki Muthu, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) social media in-charge in Tiruchendur, was later arrested and released on conditional bail for tweeting, “If one hundred Gokulrajs are rejoicing that one Yuvaraj has been arrested, thousands of Yuvarajs are outside.” When asked if any action was taken from the BJP’s side, the party’s Tamil Nadu Vice-President Narayanan Thirupathi said that the party cannot take responsibility for an individual person’s post. He added, “These tweets and statements are from the individual’s name. The party will never encourage or accept such statements. In this social media era, it is difficult to keep track of what someone is saying. The concerned district leaders will take action on them if they have done something wrong.”
Pages valourising Yuvaraj came into existence as his party called the Dheeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai started fanning casteist trouble in the Kongu belt of Tamil Nadu. While initially these pages were to amplify his opinions, over time what became disturbing is the volume of posts, stories, and videos that encouraged others to emulate the acts of a man convicted of murder. A story posted by an Instagram page titled kongu_samugam, on June 2, hailed Yuvaraj for wanting the “social fabric to remain intact in a time when money and power were valued.” The story from the page, which has over 6,000 followers, also mentioned, “We will always follow your path.” The page has several other posts praising Yuvaraj and alleging that the courts were “biased against him because of his caste”.
Another page named gounders_of_dharapuram, with a little over 2,000 followers, also posted a story on the day of the verdict saying, “Do not be happy that you have arrested one Yuvaraj. Remember that there are many Yuvarajs on the outside.” Like kongu_samugam, the page has been consistently posting videos and pictures in open support of the convict.
Instagram stories posted by online Gounder caste pride pages on the day Madras High Court confirmed Yuvaraj's punishment.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, are home to multiple pages that profess caste pride. A large number of these pages aim to make people proud of their caste identity, appeal to them to marry within their own castes, and share short video clips of prominent caste leaders with heroic, “mass appeal” background music.
While a fraction of online caste pages express open support for a man accused of murder, most of them seem innocuous on the surface. Some of them have hagiographical portrayals of popular caste leaders like Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar, and ‘Kaduvetti’ Guru while others have laments of men who are unable to find suitable brides within their community. But they can be seen as an expression of the larger social mindset on issues like marriage, kinship, and ownership of property, among others.
Karl Marx Siddharthar, advocate and author of Uncaste: Understanding Unmarriageability, is of the opinion that caste pages online are a reflection of society’s general opposition to exogamy (marrying outside one’s caste). “These online caste pages, especially those started by members of the Gounder community, make no mention of actively committing caste crimes. They also proclaim that they follow ‘pira jaadhi natpu’ (friendship with other castes), but this does not extend to kinship or marriage. These pages are popular among the community because they appeal to the community’s sentiments of endogamy [marrying within one’s caste]. Even Yuvaraj is glorified and treated as a hero for the same reason,” he said.
A 21-year-old admin of one of the Gounder caste pages told TNM that the Gounder culture is ‘different’ from ‘other’ cultures and they would not want inter-caste marriages to take place, especially between Gounder women and men from other castes. He also believes that such marriages would “ruin the social fabric of the Gounder community”.
“We praise and glorify Yuvaraj because he protected our culture. That is why we show him as a ‘hero’ in our pages. In real life, Yuvaraj does not discriminate against people from any caste. He only tried to protect Gounder culture, he did not do anything wrong,” he said. The 21-year-old, who is a college student, is convinced that Yuvaraj is “no murderer”, but is unable to explain how exactly the murder accused is ‘protecting’ Gounder culture.
Anti-caste activists are of the opinion that with the anonymity that comes with social media, it is easier for people to express hateful opinions online because there are often little to no repercussions.
Shalin Maria Lawrence, a writer and anti-caste activist, feels that the rise of “jaadhi sangams” (caste associations) has a role to play in the growth of caste pages on social media. “There has been a significant rise in the number of these associations in the last 25 years or so. These associations travel to various districts that have a large population of their caste and teach caste pride to the young children there. Since these children have access to the internet, they share what they were taught, and that is how these caste pages are formed,” she pointed out.
Many such pages become a platform for people of a single caste to organise events offline that aim to promote caste affinity and pride among people, especially the youth. Shalin is of the opinion that the activities carried out by caste pride groups in real life are planned on Facebook groups dedicated to these castes. “Sometimes anti-caste activists are targeted online by these groups. For instance, if a caste group based out of Villupuram is targeting an anti-caste activist in the same district, they will feel threatened, even if they may not physically harm them,” she said.
Kowsalya, an anti-caste activist, concurs. She has been a vocal anti-caste activist after her husband Shankar, a Dalit man, was killed in 2016 by henchmen hired by her family members, who belonged to the dominant Thevar community. Providing the example of an event that took place in Madurai where several caste associations within the Thevar community participated, she said, “How will these caste associations organise these events? The internet facilitates this. In meetings like this, people passionately speak about how one must be proud of their caste and not allow inter-caste marriages.”
However, the 21-year-old admin of the caste page disagrees that pages like his are casteist. He says that the intention behind his page is to educate Gounder youth about the caste’s cultural practices and history. However, the bio of his Instagram page says “Kongu Vellala Goundergal mattum” (only for Kongu Vellala Gounders, which is a sub-caste among the Gounder caste). When asked about this ‘rule’, he said, “I started this page to share historical information about the Gounder community. I am not running this page to gain followers, but I want people from my caste to know their history, which is why I added that in the bio. The page is for people from the Kongu Vellalar community.”
Kowsalya is of the opinion that caste pages have the potential to harm people in real life because of the content that is circulated there. “Sometimes pictures of people who had inter-caste marriages are shared on these groups and they are subject to abuse. This can put the couple in danger because their contact details and residence might also be shared on these groups,” she said.
Kowsalya adds that even the narrative around Yuvaraj that is present in these pages is worrisome because they are trying to portray him as an innocent, naive person. “Even in our case, when Chinnasamy [Kowsalya’s father and the main accused] came out of jail, many caste associations welcomed him with garlands. There are caste associations that give public speeches about how they will be able to fight cases legally if someone commits a caste killing. I think these online caste pages are the starting point for such groups since they help gather people who attend these meetings,” she added.
However, Kathir, the founder of Evidence, an organisation that works for Dalit rights, believes that such pages cannot really mobilise people, but only share emotionally charged content impulsively. “If you look at these videos [that preach caste pride] on social media platforms, there are comments opposing such content. As far as I have seen, there is little chance for these casteist groups to mobilise their force in real life. Such emotionally charged content, like that in support of Yuvaraj, is shared by people impulsively. It rarely materialises into something real,” he said.
Presently, there are no laws that address casteism in online spaces. While people have been booked for using casteist slurs or for content that can provoke violence between two or more caste groups, subtler casteism in these pages go unnoticed.
Subash B Mohan, an advocate in the Madras High Court explained how mobilisation on the lines of caste is not a crime. “But casteism is an experience that can be manifested into a reality. Mobilising against members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes should be an offence, but the existing law is individual victim-oriented rather than community oriented. In some cases, a community is the victim of casteism but since there is no single victim, it might be more complicated to file a complaint. This applies to online caste pages also,” he elaborated.
Manoj, a lawyer who has experience engaging with such cases, says that online caste pages are able to get away with casteism because they come up with clever ways to use derogatory terms against people from marginalised communities. “Some of these online caste pages refer to Dalits as ‘blue sanghi’ (since blue is associated with BR Ambedkar), which does not look like a casteist slur. Another popular one that is specifically used for Dalit Christians is ‘paavadai’ (the word means skirt but it is a reference to the white robe worn by Catholic priests). While these terms are not derogatory in general, within the context of caste, they are offensive. However, no action can be taken against people who use such terms online since they are not conventionally recognised casteist slurs,” he said.
Both advocates agree that the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act must address casteism in online spaces, despite their subtlety. Subash says that Section 10 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (removal of a person likely to commit offence) should apply to online spaces too. “People running caste pages should be blocked and their pages should be removed if they post casteist content. Such pages create a sense of fear among members of the SC and ST community which is an offence, and must be punished for the same,” he said.
Anti-caste activists and online anti-caste pages suggest diverse measures that can be used to tackle casteist propaganda on the internet. The admin of pondy_dank_memes, an anti-caste meme page, says that one of the most effective ways to tackle online casteist content is through humour. “This might sound exaggerated but anti-caste meme pages play a major role in turning caste pride into a laughing stock. Sometimes, people are afraid of being proud of their caste in public forums mostly because of the ridicule they might face online. I think these anti-caste meme pages will be able to somewhat nullify the casteist propaganda, especially directed at youngsters, through humour and memes. It is appealing to the youngsters since it does not take a preachy tone,” he said.
On a more serious note, Kathir, feels that the government must be proactive and must monitor these online caste pages closely. He also believes that legislative measures would go a long way. “The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act must be amended to include a section that provides punishment for valourising people accused of caste crimes, especially on social media,” he said.
While Shalin also strongly advocates for the government and the cyber crime wing to keep a check on casteist content online, she said that social media’s content moderation policies must be modified. “The content moderation mechanism on social media platforms must be modified to accommodate casteist slurs in regional languages. If that is not done, there is little use in reporting the casteist content on these platforms because the AI might not pick up on these things. I believe that Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram must identify caste pages and remove them if they post harmful content. What we do to tackle casteism in real life must apply online as well,” she said.
The rise in the number of online caste pages, particularly those run by young people, is a concerning phenomenon. While activists and anti-caste pages are trying to counter these, there is an urgent need for the law to formulate ways to address such cyber violence. Content moderation policies on social media platforms must also include casteist slurs as a separate category so that online caste pages can be kept in check.