Tamil Nadu is a failure in its attempt to hide its zeal for casteism. As botched up an effort as an ostrich burying its head in the sand. That caste is all-pervasive and ingrained in the Tamil psyche is the common refrain. Behind the gilded façade of an advanced society, the demon is just bloating. For long, the Dravidian movement’s struggle to stamp out caste hierarchy seemed to be on the backburner; its long march towards social justice with reservation has shone on the state’s human development index, though.
When a Dalit hoists the Tricolour with sovereign authority, caste-based narcissism vaults like a hungry jallikattu bull and gores national pride. Amid deafening shrieks of protest by upper-caste men, a Dalit panchayat president writes a letter to the district police chief seeking protection to hoist the Tricolour on Independence Day. It is like a scene straight out of a Tamil flick. Freedom to hoist the national flag doesn’t come easy to the marginalised.
A distraught chief secretary in Chennai swings into action and writes to all district collectors, asking them to be alert and ensure that no elected leaders of local bodies are prevented from hoisting the flag. He reminds them of the stringent provisions under the Indian Penal Code, now undergoing a nationalist rejig. So, all panchayats that are likely to dishonour the Chennai diktat turn into police fortresses, leaving the caste sharks at bay. The timely intervention by CS may have saved the state from the opprobrium of being sullied in caste politics as the country ironically celebrated ‘freedom’ from the tyrants.
The story is barely one year old. The decree had Stalin’s stamp all over it. His recent move to set up a committee to look for ways to prevent caste and communal differences among students and create a harmonious environment in schools and colleges comes from the frustrating consciousness that it is a long trek to the idyll. The brutal attack on a student and his family members by classmates in Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district has shaken up the administration, finally. For the one-member committee under Justice K. Chandru, it is a Herculean task. But if there is someone who can suggest some path-breaking ways, it is just him.
The story of a former colleague at TNIE who married someone belonging to an upper caste goes like a Mari Selvaraj script. Missing girl, illegal detention, a habeas corpus petition, and a courtroom battle... The couple is, however, lucky to have been left to live their way. Many others are not so lucky. They end up paying a heavy price. A recent research report by Dalit Human Rights Defender Network and the National Council of Women Leaders has clubbed TN with the northern counterparts of Bihar, Gujarat, and Haryana. Over the last decade, most victims of honour killing are SC men, for crossing the caste barriers for love, says the report. Honour killing is a misnomer; it is the honour that gets the noose in such gruesome murders.
In TN, the crime pattern is not very complicated. Forward castes strive to reclaim their lost hegemony; backward castes (BCs) try to establish their authority over the most backward castes (MBCs), which, in turn, rule over dalits. What is shocking is that the majority of dominant castes in the state are classified as BC or MBC. Casteism is both carcinogenic and a catalyst, with the cancer merrily gnawing away the last vestiges of communal harmony. A super casteist Rathnavelu thrives on social media. TN needs to fix on an urgent basis the further disintegration of society along caste lines.
Anto T Joseph
Resident Editor, Tamil Nadu
anto@newindianexpress.com @AntoJoseph