Expressing anguish at the increasing violence against Dalits in Tamil Nadu, the Dalit Intellectual Collective has criticised the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government’s lukewarm response to caste atrocities in the state. In a public statement released on November 4, the Collective has demanded that the state takes immediate, proactive action to protect the Dalits in the state from such brutal violence.
Citing recent examples of caste atrocities in Krishnagiri, Perambalur, and Tirunelveli, the statement says, “These incidents also expose the ugly truth behind the much-hyped social justice in Tamil Nadu. The lukewarm response to these inhuman acts by the DMK government is alarming. Crores of rupees have been spent on the judicial enquiry commissions but hardly any concrete actions were taken upon the commission report. We demand that the Chief Minister should make a public statement to his party functionaries to refrain from acting against or humiliating the Dalits.”
The statement elaborates how on October 30, Tamil Nadu Transport Minister SS Shivashankar and DMK Perambalur MLA M Prabhakaran allegedly prevented K Kalaiselvan, a Dalit panchayat president, from submitting a bid for the auction of stone quarries in the Perambalur district collectorate. DMK cadres belonging to the Vanniyar (Othe Backward Caste) community who participated in the bid allegedly assaulted Kalaiselvan and stripped him to sit semi-naked. Both Shivashankar and Prabhakaran also belong to the Vanniyar caste.
The statement also notes an incident at Tirunelveli where two Dalit men were stripped, thrashed, and urinated upon by the Maravar community (Other Backward Caste) men on October 31, and the Nungenri violence in the same district where two teen siblings were brutally attacked by intermediate caste teens with machetes. Similarly, on October 29, Dalits in the Chokkadi village of Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri District were assaulted by a mob Gounders —a dominant caste (OBC) community – led by the ADMK block secretary. The violence escalated because the Dalit residents in the village raised concerns about pollution from a temple construction site in the vicinity.
Calling such unabated atrocities against Dalits as “not just a law and order problem alone, but serious caste Hindu hate politics,” the Collective’s statement says that anti-Dalit violence has become normalised in the state. “This series of violent attacks and humiliation against Dalits is consistent with the observation in "Caste Pride" (2023), the recent book, that Tamil Nadu provided as a template of atrocities against Dalits for the entire country. The violence against Dalits has become normalised, forming a strong political culture in Tamil Nadu,” the statement reads.
Signed by C Lakshmanan, Convenor of the Dalit Intellectual Collective, the statement also urges national media to take cognisance of the grave situation for Dalits and “critically report on the unjust environment of caste terror in Tamil Nadu.”