At a rally near Chennai’s Mint bus terminus on September 25, a young Dalit woman, Anusuya, steps up to the microphone. Initially, she’s slightly unnerved by the crowd but quickly grows comfortable. “Neither my education nor the good job I had in my hand mattered, it was my caste that stood against me,” she goes on to tell the crowd how her husband Subash was murdered by his own dominant caste family while she was brutally wounded and left for dead. Ten surgeries and an MSc degree later, she was speaking at the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front’s (TNUEF) protest rally, demanding special legislation from the state government against caste killings of intercaste couples, commonly referred to as ‘honour’ killings.
There is palpable anger at the rally against the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government. A point that keeps coming up in speeches is the tragic irony of how merely two days after Chief Minister MK Stalin had said on June 25, in the Assembly, that “it is better to conduct investigations correctly and bring perpetrators to justice using the existing laws,” Madurai district witnessed a brutal ‘honour’ killing. Neither Subash’s murder nor the Madurai murder can be booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. In Subhash’s case, he is not Dalit. In Madurai, the victim and perpetrators are from different Dalit communities. The motive for both crimes, however, was caste pride.
It’s because of these very gaps in existing laws that multiple anti-caste organisations, including TNUEF, have demanded special legislation against ‘honour’ killings. Such a legislation has even been drafted for the state government by the Dalit Human Rights Defender Network and submitted to the CM himself exactly a year ago. Yet, the DMK refuses to bring in a special law. Meanwhile, according to a 2023 SouthFirst report, Tamil Nadu had recorded nearly 400 ‘honour’ killings in the previous five years.
Speaking to TNM, TNUEF general secretary Samual Raj says, “When murders like these happen and one of the victims is not Dalit, the PoA Act—a special law—cannot be applied. When a special legislation cannot be applied, the victims do not have the recourse of special public prosecutors representing them in court. When caste supremacy is the motive for a murder, there should be a provision to prosecute the murder as a caste crime.”
Adding to what Samuel said, it may be recalled that presently, any caste-motivated crime against Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims cannot be investigated under the PoA Act as neither communities have SC categorisation. They are considered Backward Class (BC) instead. While demands to alter this categorisation have been ongoing for several years, Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims continue to face caste discrimination without the protection of the PoA Act.
Read: Anti-caste coalition has drafted a Bill to end ‘honour’ killings: Here’s what it says
At the rally, which takes place on a busy side road, the crowd goes deathly quiet as Anusuya continues to tell her story. “I had always thought that dowry harassment was the biggest problem women faced in our state. But it was caste that stood against me.” She recounts the terrible night when she and her husband had been attacked.
After their wedding that his family was opposed to, Subash had moved to a new town, hoping for a peaceful life with Anusuya. In April 2023, they were invited to Subash’s home under the pretext of making amends. A feast was prepared and served for them. Traditional rituals for a new bride were conducted. That night, Ansyua woke up to her husband’s harrowing cries of pain. Subash’s father went on to murder his son and his own mother who tried to stop him, accusing her of “supporting someone from a different caste”. He then attacked Ansuya with vehemence, she recalls. Abusing her by her caste name, he inflicted multiple deep cuts with an aruval (machete) on her arms, neck and head, leaving her to die.
“I was in the ICU for 45 days. When I woke up for the first time, I thought Subash had survived too,” Anusuya says. What came after was a difficult court battle like many before her have had to go through. “I can face even a hundred more surgeries because TNEUF stands behind me. I am standing here now with you, demanding special legislation against honour killings,” she adds.
Also read: TN Dalit man beheaded for relationship with woman from different SC community
Anusuya only survived because even with her many wounds, she managed to make it to a nearby house where someone called for an ambulance. She adds: “At TNEUF, I have seen at least 20 ‘honour’ killings just after my case. I do not want any other woman to go through this.”
Anusuya also says that she had even met Sharmila, the 19-year-old Chennai resident whose husband, a Dalit man, was murdered by her dominant Yadava caste family in Pallikaranai earlier this year. Sharmila died by suicide on April 23, while the prime accused, her elder brother Dinesh, is out on bail. Anusuya spoke about how Sharmila lost heart after a point. It should be noted that Sharmila’s suicide, despite being caused by a violent caste crime, cannot be investigated as one as Sharmila was not Dalit either.
Also read: Praveen-Sharmila’s Chennai intercaste love story that ended in his gory murder
It was further highlighted by other speakers at the event that despite such a hateful crime being committed in the state’s capital city, the DMK government remains unconvinced that a special legislation against ‘honour’ killings is long overdue.
“I can tell you about the extent of grief we have seen in each ‘honour’ killing case we’ve handled,” Samuel Raj says on stage. He goes on to talk about another case in which a Dalit man was similarly murdered for his relationship with a dominant caste woman. “We were waiting in court for the final verdict. [the woman’s] father, brothers and other accused relatives were sentenced to life imprisonment. As the verdict was being read out, she handed me a bag saying she had no use for it anymore. When we looked inside, there was a two-feet long aruval. She told us if the court had spared her father, she would have certainly killed him. That’s how deeply these couples are in love. There are some people going around talking about ‘naadaga kadhal’. Is this what they’re calling naadaga kadhal?” he asks.
Samuel was referring to Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S Ramadoss, who in 2013, launched the false narrative of “naadaga kaathal” (drama love) similar to the equally spurious ‘love-jihad’ narrative by the party’s ally—the BJP. Ramadoss claimed at the time that Dalit men dress in fashionable clothes in order to “lure” away upper caste women. These claims have also been repeated in a new wave of dominant caste supremacist films that are critical of social justice measures such as the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act and the PoA Act. The TNUEF general secretary criticised such films in his speech as well. “If the many people talking about ‘naadaga kadhal’ actually spoke to any of these young people who have lost their partners, they will realise how deeply they had been in love with each other,” Samuel adds.
“Regarding these murders, our state government, police and other authorities have absolutely no shame. They are not mortified at all,” he further says. Samuel went on to recall a walking protest from Salem to Chennai that TNUEF had undertaken demanding a special law against ‘honour’ killings. He remembers how many shop keepers of all castes they had met on their journey had often refused to take payment for goods saying it was their contribution towards the protest. “Our CM, who says we don’t need special legislation, doesn't even have the amount of conscience these shopkeepers showed,” Samuel adds, slamming Stalin for the state government’s decision earlier this year.
The event was also attended by well-known actor and general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers’ Association Rohini. TNUEF’s parent organisation is the CPI(M). The actor had also campaigned for the CPI(M) ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections in the state.
Also read: Rudra Thandavam: New age propaganda films promoting caste pride in Tamil cinema