COIMBATORE: Nearly 100 Scheduled Caste members of Onnakarasampalayam village in Coimbatore district staged a 12-hour, night-long protest on road with the dead body of a 102-year-old woman on Saturday after they were denied access to the village’s common burial ground by some caste Hindu families.
The protest which started at 4pm on Saturday ended at 4 am on Sunday after police and revenue officials held peace talks and made arrangements to bury the body near the site earmarked for burying dead bodies of SC members.
The dispute has come just a week after a two-judge Madras HC bench of Justices R. Subramanian and K Kumaresh Babu lamented that even after 75 years of Independence, the country is still “unable to break the shackles of casteism and even the secular government is forced to provide for separate burning and burial grounds on communal lines”.
According to sources, P Rangammal died of age-related illness on Saturday morning. After final rituals, the woman’s relatives carried her body to the common burial ground as the separate crematorium allotted for Scheduled Caste members was inaccessible due to overgrowth of vegetation. There was also space constraint as a major part of the burial ground was taken over by authorities for constructing a new bridge.
P Venmani Anandakumar, a Scheduled Caste member of the village, said, “We are not allowed to bury our dead in the common burial ground. We have been forced to carry the bodies for 1.5 km and bury them in a small piece of land measuring less than 0.5 cent. This site is the common burial ground for SC members of three villages Onnakarasampalayam, S Kurumbapalayam and Salaiyur.
The path to reach that place is covered by thorny bushes. Landowners of the path leading to the burial site also object to pruning of branches of thorny shrubs on the route. It becomes extremely difficult for us to carry our dead through that dangerous route. A part of the burial site too was taken over for constructing a bridge. Because of these issues, we have been demanding a proper place for burial. We even got the grama sabha to pass a resolution on August 15 in support of our demand. But since no steps were taken to address the issue, we decided to bury the body at a place near the common burial ground. But a few caste Hindus objected to that.”
Assurance to allot land ends protest for site
P Balu Mahendran, district deputy secretary of VCK, who took part in the protest, said,
“Since the burial site allotted for Scheduled Castes comes under neer poramboke (waterbody wasteland), people cannot access the place easily during rainy seasons due to flooding. Authorities have been unresponsive to this long-standing issue.”
As the protest grew in strength, a large number of police personnel were rushed to the spot late on Saturday and revenue divisional officer K Booma held talks with the people. The talk stretched up to Sunday 3.15 am. After officials promised to allocate land for a burial ground, people called off their protest. Officials cleared a spot near the Scheduled Caste burial site and arranged a mortuary van to take Rangammal’s body. The body was finally buried around 4.30 am.
Speaking to TNIE, Booma said, “The place being used as a burial ground by caste Hindus comes under vandipathai (pathway) poramboke land and place used by Scheduled Castes for burial comes under waterbody poramboke land. As per law, no one should be discriminated based on their caste.
We have decided to allot a place for a common burial ground within a week for use by members of all communities. We have told members of the caste Hindu communities that the place currently being used as burial ground by them should not be used once we allocate the place for a common burial ground. If there are violations, strong legal action would be initiated,” she said.