Raja M
In the socio-political structures of Tamil Nadu, caste is a pertinent issue in which all the problems are tied together. The following questions raise more skepticism about Dravidian Politics: Do Dalits access public places? Can Dalits have everyday lives/practices without caste discrimination? Can they easily avail of state-assigned civil rights without any discrimination? What is the relationship between the state and Dalit politics in Tamil Nadu? How do we understand Dalits in relation to democracy? Forms of violence and atrocities against Dalits have changed but the rigidity remains as evident in the socio-political context of Tamil Nadu. I was wondering how 25 years of Dalit demand for drinking water in Vengaivayal village led to the higher castes dumping human feces into the water tanks that supply water to the residents of the Dalit community, as reported by the media in the 3rd week of December 2022.
How do human beings think about making fellow human beings drink human feces-contaminated water? It is a much more horrible form of cruelty compared to killing or poisoning. Such cruel and horrible incidents occur throughout Tamil Nadu in one form or another. This incident is also one such practice which would have remained unknown had it not been highlighted by the media. In the history of Tamil Nadu, despite the ‘progressive social justice political parties having remained in power since 1967, violence against the Dalits is not new. Dravidian political parties had ensured that power-centric Brahmans have been replaced by some OBCs in Tamil Nadu (a combination of several intermediate castes), while the status of the Dalits (Pariah) remains as oppressed, suffering in the hands of both the Brahmins as well as intermediate castes from the pre-independence period to recent times. The statement of Pondiselvi, the mother of one of the ill health-affected children from the village of Vengaivayal, Pudukkottai, illustrates the plight of the Dalits in recent times: “Like poison, I have given human feces-contaminated water to my children. Later, I came to know. Looking at this, it surprised me. Still, we could not digest it. When I think about that I feel so bad” (BBC Tamil interview).
Whenever violence and discrimination happens against Dalits, rather than taking stringent action against the higher castes, the state always favors them in order to remain in power. This is evident historically: for instance, in the higher castes’ violence against Dalits, and killings, including the Kodiyankulam violence (1995), Melavalavu massacre (1997), Keezhavenmani Massacre (1968), and Manjolai massacre (1999), etc. Violence against Dalits has increased in Tamil Nadu as per the data published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report in 2021. One of the Dalit party leaders and the MP from Chidambaram, Thol. Thirumavalavan urged “Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to take cognizance of the lethargic attitude of the Police Department in investigating cases of atrocities against Dalits and take appropriate steps” (The Hindu, 30 August 2022).
How long will the political sphere of Tamil Nadu continue to claim to be for social justice and democracy despite atrocities and violence against the marginalised Dalits. Religion is a firm root of rigid caste and its traditional practices. One of the residents in Vengaivayal, Sinduja said that next to her street: “For the last three generations we have never been allowed to enter into the temple (Ayyanar Temple)” (BBC Tamil Interview). After the intervention of the District authorities, Dalits were allowed to enter the temple for the first time. During the Dalits’ prayer ritual, a woman belonging to the higher caste, in a trance, claimed that she was possessed by the deity and that God does not wish to allow the Dalits to enter the temple.
In Vengaivayal, both temple entries of the Dalit castes and contamination of water tanks with human feces cannot be isolated from the context of history, culture, traditions, and everyday life affairs of the people. Any sort of violence and discrimination, either physical or psychic, is never an isolated act. Spatial and physical patterning of violence have been changed dynamically while forming the higher caste’s identity. Hugo Gorringe cites Kappeler: “Violence is not a phenomenon: it is the behavior of people, human action which may be analyzed.” Afterwards, the state arrested a few youngsters from the Dalit community, beat and forced them to accept responsibility for the act, rather than trying to find the real culprit. In the name of investigation by the state, Dalits are being tortured and humiliated every day.
As we are aware that the state should play an active role in annihilating caste discrimination and in ensuring equality in society, what about the role of the self (each and everyone) in pursuing certain ethics? It is the self that should be mended through education, culture, and knowledge; which should teach us to treat others as human beings rather than to discriminate against them on the basis of caste, gender, religion, etc. Here, we try to understand the theoretical framework of democracy in relation to the living conditions of the Dalit-selves in Tamil Nadu. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar said, democracy is a success only ‘if the mental disposition of the individual is democratic.’ What is the mental disposition of the Tamil community against caste hierarchy even though ideas of EVR Periyar are entrenched in Dravidian Politics? Even though political parties claim to embody Periyar’s ideas, who bears responsibility for actually enacting his ideas into practice? Is it the intermediate castes or Dalits or an amalgamation of both? It is always unclear. The idea of Periyar is used more as tokenism in the political sphere in Tamil Nadu than for affirmative action or for the upliftment of Dalits. More than 7 months have passed since the incident occurred. Despite this case being assigned to the CB-CID, the idea of justice is a far and distant dream for Dalits, especially for those who consumed water contaminated with human feces.
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Raja M, Studies Ph.D at the Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University – Delhi.
